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Money Moves: How to Start Saving Without the Overwhelm

Jack McAllister

23 Mar 2025 • 7 min read

Moving back to the UK has been a great experience. Having lived in Dublin for 6 years, and in England for 4 years prior to that, it has been nigh on 10 years since I lived in Scotland.

Moving back, being closer to friends and family has been wonderful.

It hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows, though. One area that has caused me quite a lot of stress is finances. Moving money from one country to another has required a lot of time and effort on my part to learn how to do it, and the most effective ways to do it.

Since I moved back I have been using the time to learn more about the best ways to get the most out my money, asking questions such as:

How do I save money?
What investing should I be doing, if any?
What accounts I should open?
Should I have a pension, and if so, what kind?

There are many facets to personal finance, many of which I am still learning about. This article will focus on how to get started saving money by first understanding where your money is going and reallocating that money to where it needs to be to align with your goals.

Why should I save money?

Putting money away for the future is something that everyone talks about, but what is it actually for?

Simply put, the act of saving money is deliberately setting aside a portion of the money that you make to be spent on something in the future. This can be anything, from smaller items like a treat for yourself, a birthday present for someone close to you, or some new clothes. It can also be for larger expenses, like a holiday, a car, or your first house.

If you are on a monthly salary, it is unlikely that salary will be large enough to cover all of your daily expenses (such as rent/mortgage, groceries, car insurance, fuel/public transport, etc.) plus these larger expenses that can cost thousands if not hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Regularly setting money aside will allow you to build up the amount of money you have in reserve to pay for those larger costs.

How do I save money?

Saving money is both simple and complicated. There are so many different ways to save money that it can be overwhelming when trying to get started.

For starters, in the UK there are many different types of accounts that you can use to save money:

Normal checking accounts (typical debit card bank account)
Individual Savings Accounts (ISA)
High interest savings accounts

The list goes on. And what's more, these are only the types of accounts that are available, which doesn't even account for the many different providers, various different fees involved, different pros and cons to each type.

We could be here all day if we were to take a deep dive into the ins and outs of each type of account and who the best providers are for each one, not to mention which accounts are best for your personal circumstances.

For this article, I won't dive into those details, but rather give you an idea of how to know how much money you should be setting aside each month.

You're in Debt, What Should You Do?

Firstly, I will caveat this section by saying I am no expert on debt, or getting out of debt.

My experience with debt has been a privileged one - where my parents were able to cover the entirety of my student debts and now I am in a position where I am debt free. I am incredibly fortunate that they were able to do this for me, and I will be forever grateful to them.

I tell you this because I think it is important to take advice from people who have achieved something that you want to achieve, it helps give their advice weight and credibility. So my personal views on debt will always be somewhat skewed, having never experienced the full weight of being in debt.

However, all of the advice I will give a couple of bits of advice about debt based on what I have learned from reading Ramit Sethi's I Will Teach You To Be Rich, as well as listening to several podcast interviews with financial experts such as Ramit Sethi and Jaspreet Singh.

All of the advice I have seen has been simple and aligned - get out of debt as fast as you can.

Debt weighs down on you, and is an ongoing drain on your finances for as long as it persists. Removing debt will allow you to put money to better use elsewhere - in things that will either make you happier, or make you more money.

There are two methods for getting out of debt:

The Debt Avalanche Method
The Snowball Method

The Debt Avalanche Method prioritises paying off the highest interest debts first - with the goal of saving you the most money overall by minimising the total interest that you pay.

The Snowball method prioritises paying off the debts with the smallest balance first. Whilst in this method will not save you as much money as the Debt Avalanche Method (in theory), since you may be paying off debts with lower interest first, the feeling of completely paying off a debt will help you build momentum and continue to pay off your debts relentlessly.

So, whilst the Debt Avalanche Method will mathematically save you money, the Snowball method may have psychological benefits that are difficult to quantify.

It's not overly important which method you choose - the most important thing is to pick one and get out of debt as fast as you can so that your money can be put to better use.

Now back to savings.

How Much Should You Be Saving?

There are no strict rules for how much you should be saving, but there is some standard advice that people such as Ramit Sethi give for how much of your money goes where.

We can break down our take-home income into four categories, based on where the money goes:

Fixed expenses - costs of essentials. Things like rent/mortgage, utility bills, car insurance, fuel, groceries, etc.
Investments - places that you put your money with the expectation of growing over the long-term. Things like your pension, real estate, stocks and shares, etc.
Savings - money that you are saving for expenses within the next 5 years or so. This can be for holidays & trips, gifts, eating out, special occasions, large expenses (such as buying a house or a car). Another key part of your savings money is an emergency fund - a sum of money that should be kept easily accessible in case of emergencies, or unexpected large expenses like medical bills. Ramit Sethi recommends keeping an emergency fund of 3-6 months of your total expenses. So if you spend £2,000 per month, then you should have at £6,000-£12,000 in your emergency fund. It is important to have this money easily accessible, and not locked away in an inaccessible savings account.
Guilt-Free Spending - the final category is for spending on things that you love without feeling guilt or remorse. This can be things like clothes, eating out, drinks with friends, hobbies, and so on. The main point with this category is to be intentional with what you spend money on. Cut out things that you don't care about or love, and spend more on the things you do.

Think about how your current spending, and what proportion of your own spending falls into which of these four categories. Better yet, go away and quickly calculate this! It doesn't need to be thorough, but get a rough idea of where your money is going.

According to Ramit, a good allocation of your expenses may look something like this:

Fixed expenses - 50-60%
Savings - 5-10%
Investments - 10-15%
Guilt-free expending - 20-35%

This isn't a mandatory target you must achieve, but a rough recommendation of something to aim for. This should be tailored to your individual goals and needs, so take it away and play around with it.

If you don't know how much you are spending in each category, go away and find that out.

Once you have an idea of what you are currently spending. Start re-allocating where your money goes to align with your goals. Then you can start making a plan to allocate more or less to any given area.

Not investing enough? Learn more about investing and open and investing account.
Too much going to guilt-free spending? Assess exactly where your money is going, and cut back on the things you don't absolutely love. This could be Netflix subscriptions, a membership you never use, etc. It doesn't matter what it is, all that matters is that you are spending consciously.

I plan to talk more about the practicalities of how to save money, and what the best accounts are for saving money (ISAs, savings accounts) and investing, how to create a conscious spending plan, and more.

Thanks for reading friends. If you enjoyed this, forward it to a friend who’d love it too.

Jack

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