10 Money Saving Hacks UK: How Sammie Ellard-King Saved £3,278 in a Year

This transcript is auto-generated and lightly edited for readability, it may contain errors.

[00:00] Sammie: 8.9 million UK adults have zero savings at all. 39% have £1,000 or less. And only 35% feel confident and in control of their money. So what does that mean? Well, it means that knowing the basics and saving just a little bit is going to put you ahead of large amounts of the working UK adults in this country. That’s not motivational fluff, guys. That’s just a statistical fact right there. What I want you to think about when it comes to saving is that everything is a trade-off, right? There is no wrong or right answer. You just simply have to ask yourself: what is more important? Is it the financial goal or is it the night out? Is it the financial goal or the dress? Is it the financial goal or the boots or the new football, or whatever that might well be, right?

[00:49] Sammie: Neither answer in that equation is wrong. And that’s what I think a lot of savings gurus get so twisted and mixed up. It’s not about just saving, saving, saving, saving and just not living your life. Neither answer is wrong. Just know that you’re making a compromise every single time, and that is totally fine if you are okay with it. Now, here is how I like to reframe building money habits, especially when it comes to savings. And that’s time per hour. Your time is the most valuable currency that you possibly have. On a median UK salary, your take-home is roughly around about £14.71 an hour after tax. Now, some of these habits are going to earn you £50 an hour, some will earn you £500 an hour. One of them is going to work out over £30,000 an hour over a year, which is just nuts.

[01:37] Sammie: And this is why I’m reframing this, right? Because time is the most important input. And when it comes to savings, the habits, most of us know what they are, but we don’t actually do them because we don’t think that they’re valuable to us at the end of the day. It’s not worth our time. But you will see in this podcast, that’s exactly what they are. Right. Number one: what are you saving for? Now, before any habit works, you have to have a target. Not “I want to save more” or “I need to save for something.” It’s “I need to save 15,000 pounds for a house deposit.” I need to save 5,000 pounds for my new holiday, 5 grand for the new car, whatever that might well be, then it has to be a number attached to it. Being realistic as well about how long it’s going to take you based on how much you earn.

[02:26] Sammie: Use actual maths. What can you set aside? And if the goal is £2,000 and I can save £200 a month, well, it’s going to take me 10 months to get there. You need to lay that out first so you understand exactly the length of time it’s going to take you to get there if you keep up with that £200 a month, because then it’s giving you a goal to work towards. £15K at £300 a month, for example, is 50 months. You know, that’s just over four years. Now, you need to then ask yourself, can you handle that? And if not, you’re going to need to adjust the number or the timeline in play there. Now, if you really struggle with saving and you identify that you could save that £200 a month, for example, but like clockwork, you’re always dipping back in by week three, start with £50, right? Just lower that goal slightly, lengthen that timeline, because it’s not what we need to do right now.

[03:16] Sammie: We need to focus on building the good habits at the start, even if it’s a quid going in there. And we can slowly edge that up. We want to prove to yourself that you can do the £50 untouched for at least three months, build that muscle, then you can knock it up to £100. Consistency is going to beat ambition every single time when it comes to this. That’s why there are so many ISA millionaires out there, and it averaged over 22 years. And yes, that is investing, but they didn’t sprint, they just didn’t stop, right? And that is why it’s so important to set yourself a goal and then try and remain consistent. So if you overstretch the goal and you kick yourself down because you do dip into your savings, well, you’re not going to feel good about that. So stick with something that you know you can definitely stick to. But you cannot hit a target that you haven’t set. And you can’t stay motivated running towards something that you cannot picture.

[04:05] Sammie: And this takes 30 minutes max, right? Potentially even less if the savings goals are pretty simple and you know what the actual monetary value is. But it is the foundation for absolutely everything else in this podcast. Now, number two is we need to identify what’s short-term and what’s long-term. Now, first up, short-term savings are something called sinking funds. A sinking fund is a pot where you know these things are coming, right? It’s Christmas, it’s car insurance, it’s MOTs, it’s birthdays and holidays, the dentist, all of these things. These aren’t emergencies. They are happening whether you like it or not, every single year, sometimes every few months, for example. So stop being surprised by the things that happen every single year. We need to identify them and how much do they cost, right?

[04:52] Sammie: Because saving towards them is going to make a big, big difference. And long-term is different. It’s just simply different. It’s going to take a lot longer, right? If it’s the house deposit in that 15K goal that we mentioned at the start, but it’s going to take you longer to get there. That’s just a fact, right? It doesn’t stop the fact that there are short-term things happening along the way as well. So that’s house deposits, weddings, dream holiday trips. It’s a separate pot entirely. And mixing them is where most people get mistaken, right? It’s why they feel like they’re never actually getting anywhere, because they’re mixing it all into one single savings pot. You save £800 for your holiday, and then Christmas comes around, and then you raid it, right? Now you’re starting again in January with that deflated feeling. And that can really set back your overall savings goals.

[05:40] Sammie: So we have to think about them completely differently. Now, what I like to do is I have pots inside my Monzo account, although there are other bank accounts that do it. There’s the likes of Starling, there’s the likes of Chase. All let you do this in about two minutes. So work backwards with this. So Christmas costs me £500. Well, that’s £42 a month if I start in January. Car insurance is £600. Well, that’s £50 a month. And suddenly these big expenses are small monthly amounts that you are contributing to. Now, the great thing about things like car insurance and lots of other bills and subscriptions, if you pay them yearly, you get them a lot cheaper. So it actually puts more money back into your pocket at the end of it. So it is actually a big, big hack if you can set this up, especially for things like Christmas, because it’s so, so stressful.

[06:27] Sammie: You can also top this up in a multitude of different ways that we’ll discuss later on in this podcast. But when that bill comes and the money’s already sitting there, that feeling is completely unmatched. It’s going to take you literally five or 10 minutes to set up, and it will stop you raiding your savings for certain things that you know you need to have in place, right? Number three is awareness. Now, this one saves more money than anything out of the lot, right? A study found that of 350 million transactions, people who tracked their spending spent 22% less over a year. Not because they cut anything out, not because they denied themselves of the things that they want, just because they could see what they were spending. That’s from the Empower study of 350 million transactions.

[07:13] Sammie: Now, the CFPB found that over 90% of consumers wanted a tool that gave them real-time spending feedback across all of their bank accounts. But most never actually use one. The desire is there, the action just isn’t, right? Now, you don’t need to cut anything out of your spending, not yet. Just look at what you’ve done. Honestly, it’s the most eye-opening experience of your life. Connect all your banks into one place, see it all in one place, and see it all categorised out. Most people have no idea what they’re actually spending on. They’re eating out, or on subscriptions, or on random Amazon or ASOS orders that you’re doing late at night on a Sunday when you’re feeling a bit low about yourself. Once you see that you’re spending £280 quid a month on takeaways, staring right back at you, something really does shift.

[08:02] Sammie: And that could be a multitude of different things, right? I’m just using it as an example. Don’t come for me in the comments. I know people get very particular about their own spending. It’s an example, okay? You don’t need a rule, guys. You just need your brain to look at it and go, okay, maybe I’m being a little bit silly over here. And I guarantee you you’ve got at least a few quid. It could be £10, because £10 might mean something completely different to you, and £100 might mean something completely different to somebody else. Personal finance is personal. Now, your brain is going to look at that and you are just going to go, maybe next time when I go and do that, I’m going to go, oh no, hang on, I’m just going to ask myself whether or not that’s worth it, right? And that is going to save you so much money over the long term. Now, on the median take-home of £2,391 a month, even if just your discretionary spend is, say, £600 a month, a 22% reduction is £132 a month.

[08:58] Sammie: That’s £1,584 a year saved just from looking, looking. And this is where something like Gains App comes into play. You know, I said connect all your banks into one single place. It’s going to do all of that for you. And it’s going to show you all your spending, pre-categorised, super visually, so you can see exactly what’s going on. It’s not going to judge you. It’s going to show you and help you, and you can also talk to your money and find ways to potentially cut back in certain areas if you want to, or find efficiencies within your budget. So where am I perhaps spending a little bit higher and where am I spending a little bit lower, so I can bring money into the things that I actually value? That’s what’s super important, and that’s why I’ve built Gains as well. It’s that real 360 view across all of your bank accounts, your credit cards, and your savings in one place.

[09:45] Sammie: Plus, you can set up goals like we mentioned before and track how you’re doing against them as you move through. Now, this is literally 10 minutes to set up through Gains App, less than that. You’re through the app in under five minutes, and it’s so simple and easy. Once you’ve done your budgets and things like that, around about 10 minutes’ effort, that’s literally £1,584 a year. That’s £9,504 an hour if we work it out for time spent. That is nuts, right? Just think about that. A little bit of effort upfront, massive payoff over time if we’re basing it on the averages. Now, number four is stop budgeting. I said it. Now, budgeting is reactive.

[11:13] Sammie: You’re looking backwards at something that you’ve already spent and perhaps feeling a little bit guilty about it, right? Especially when you don’t stick to it the next month. Because most of us don’t stick to a budget and we get upset when we haven’t stuck to it by the letter, by the pound, because life happens to us. Now, this is an unbelievable system. It’s called the three-bank system because it’s proactively budgeting ahead while we’ve got the money in our hands, right? We split our bank accounts up. So it essentially means that we give every single pound a job when it comes in, not before, and not looking back. That’s what’s really important. And this system just runs, and it works for everyone, from those in debt right up to those with multi-millions of pounds in net worth. It’s proactive budgeting ahead.

[11:59] Sammie: Now, account number one is where you get paid into, right? This becomes your spending money at the end. Account number two is for your bills. This is for your rent, your mortgage, your council tax, your utilities, phone subscriptions, everything that’s fixed, even your variable bills. And if you have variable bills, you put a little bit extra in as a contingency. So if it does go up one month and down the next month, it should balance itself out over time. What I like to do is work out the last six months of my variable bills, work out the average, and then add a little 10% on top, just so it should cover it over time, right? Now, account number three, this is where your savings are. And this could be your savings pots that we mentioned earlier. It could be a combination of your savings pots and then an easy-access savings account with the same provider.

[12:46] Sammie: That’s for your longer-term savings, right? Remember, short-term, long-term. And this is untouchable, right? We don’t want to be touching this until we need to go and get it. It’s future you, it’s future goals, it’s your money that you’re moving towards these things, right? Now, on payday, money splits out automatically. Bills go into account number two, savings goes into account number three. Ideally, do your savings first if that is just what you can do, even if you do your bills a little bit later in the day or the next day, if that’s what helps you with your budgeting. It’s called paying yourself first. Just make sure you’re more important than your bills. Your bills are still being paid and they’re still important, but your savings are a little bit more important. It’s just a mental switch. You hear a lot of accounts talking about this, and it does work, right?

[13:34] Sammie: You need to make sure that you’re moving the money that’s coming in into something which is important to you. Now, whatever is left in account number one is yours, right, to live on throughout the month. That’s where you’re going to spend out of. So let’s say you have £600 left or £800 left. I say £800 because I can’t do the mental maths right now while we’re live on this podcast. But if it’s £800 and it’s four weeks in the month, well, you know you’ve got £200 a week to spend, right? And that’s how you can then budget from that point on, on that £800, because everything else is taken care of: your savings, your bills. And it’s much easier to do it on a smaller amount, and you can control things a lot more. Whereas if it’s all sitting in one account, it’s way harder to work out what’s going on, because you have that bill coming out on the 16th, you forget about it, it comes out and it throws the whole month out.

[14:24] Sammie: Or you have one little night out in the second week of the month, you overspend by a little touch here, and you’re looking at your bank going, oh my god, have I got enough for this, this, this, and that? Well, you know what’s left if you’ve got it accounted for in the three-bank system. Once this system is running, you can add a fourth account in for investing. Maybe you’ve already got yourself a stocks and shares ISA already. Now, what I like to do is treat accounts three and four. I want to pay myself first into both of these. And that could be £100 going into my savings accounts and £50 going into my stocks and shares ISA, or vice versa, whatever’s more important to you. You have to look at your future goals, right? Building wealth for the future, my shorter-term savings, my mid-term, mid-to-long-term savings goals as well. All three are important, right? Now, the NBER found that automated savers save 1.5 to 3.5 times more than people who try to do this manually.

[15:15] Sammie: Because it’s not willpower anymore, it’s a system. If it requires willpower every month, the system is broken, right? Because you’ll convince yourself you need the new X, Y, and Z, and willpower will run out, but systems will not. Now, setting this up is a touch longer, maybe an hour, right? Maybe two hours, right? If you’re looking at saving £2,400 a year, £200 a month, for example, that is £1,200 an hour right there for using that system in place. So that is the best savings habit you can build. Automating 95% of your money away will just give you everything that you need. Number five is turn on roundups. You remember when we used to walk back into the house growing up, right? Back in the day when we used to carry cash and we’d have a pocket full of coins, right?

[16:05] Sammie: I don’t know about you, but I used to have a jar in the kitchen. I used to take my hand out, I used to plop the pound coins off into their own little stack and I put them on my desk. And everything else used to get chucked into the jar, right? And that jar would build up over time, and then you’d run it down to Tesco’s and pour it out, and you’d have like, you know, 50 quid or something, and you’d be like, ooh, get in there. Now, roundups is the digital version of this. Monzo, Starling, Chase all have it built in, and it’s just one little toggle on the app. That’s it. And you can set up the pot that it goes into. So, for example, you spend £25.39 at the shop and that rounds up to £26. That’s 61 pence saved in that example. You spend £3.40 on a coffee and it rounds up to £4. 60 pence saved just like that. It sounds like absolutely nothing, right?

[16:52] Sammie: But the average person makes 20 to 30 transactions every single week. Now at 50p average roundup, that’s £10 to £15 a week, which doesn’t sound like much again, but when you say it over a year, that’s £500 to £750 a year, give or take, somewhere in between that amount. Now you never feel it leaving the account, but you do see it building. And that is the magic of roundups. It’s the habit that teaches your brain that saving can be painless. There’s no willpower, it’s just a little toggle. Now I like to name this, I call mine the FU Money Fund. And since January, I think I have like £68 in there already, which isn’t bad, but I’m actually not even using that account for most of my spending, because most of my spending is actually on my joint account, and we have that going into a holiday pot.

[17:39] Sammie: So I have it on my personal account pot, so when I’m spending money day to day, and I also have it turned on for my joint account, and that goes into our holiday pot, so it tops up our holiday pot over time. And this is just a nice and easy, simple way of doing it. Setup is literally 10 seconds of your time, right? 10 seconds, toggle, on. That’s it. And it could save you between £300 and £500 a year, for example, if you’re earning that average UK median salary and spending those amounts, right? That is literally, right there, £36,000 an hour, if we take that little 10-second amount, right? Which is absolutely no excuse not to do this. I just like reframing it. It’s fun, right? Think about this. Time input in, what do I get out?

[18:25] Sammie: If I was basically working per hour, I would have to do the same thing. That’s what we’re doing here, right? It’s that mental reframe on this to make you think about how easy and simple it can be to save money. And it doesn’t take a lot of time. Okay, number six is spending to look rich, because the Kia gets you to the same destination every single time. Now ask yourself, when you’re buying something, am I actually buying this for me? Is it going to provide value to me, or am I buying it for somebody else? Or perhaps for how it will make me look in front of somebody else? Because I guarantee you they do not care. Only your bank balance does. And equally, convenience spending is a very silent killer to your bank balance and your savings goals.

[19:12] Sammie: I’ll just pay for that again, I can’t be bothered to return it. I’ll just get the Uber because I can’t be bothered to walk. These are small decisions over time that are going to add up to thousands of pounds. I am no stranger to this, right? I was the guy out in all the nice clothes, buying the rounds, peacocking essentially to show off to other people. And really, it wasn’t actually filling my cup up. It was making me a lot worse with money. And in fact, it was building my debt every single month, just because I was being a peacock. So you have to ask yourself, are you okay with wearing the same jacket every winter? If the answer is yes, because you don’t need to buy into the trends, that is totally fine. Every £50 you spend impressing somebody who doesn’t care is £50 that could have gone into your savings, right?

[20:04] Sammie: Over 12 months of those types of decisions, that is hundreds gone. It doesn’t take anything to set this up. It’s just a mindset shift and asking yourself that value question: is this buying me value, or is it me showing off because society or a marketing campaign is telling me that I need it? That is the biggest, biggest savings hack you can possibly have, because it’s going to fuel your bank balance back up. And it’s going to actually fill up your cup, because everything you hopefully buy, and look, don’t get me wrong, you’re going to make mistakes, and that’s totally cool too. Don’t beat yourself up if you do. I still make them all the time, but I’m okay with them because I’ve probably built myself up a little bit of a buffer so I can guilt-free spend, right? I also call that the anti-budget. I have a little bit of guilt-free spending, and I make sure I do.

[20:51] Sammie: And even if it’s a tenner, definitely set that aside, because you won’t feel bad about buying the Mars bar out of the question. It’s not going to blow your budget, right? Because you’ve got a little bit of guilt-free spending. I would definitely do that as a little bonus hack on that one. Now, number seven is the 24-hour rule. I love this one because it’s saved me more money than anything else on the planet. And it’s because we find it so easy in this day and age, right? We have Apple Pay on our phones, we’re tap, tap, tapping away, and we don’t really feel it. It doesn’t have that same meaning to us as if we had a £20 note and we had to pass it over. It’s a very different feeling. And a lot of it also comes down to impulse purchasing in those environments as well, because it’s so easy. Studies show that 64% of impulse purchases are regretted within 24 hours of purchasing them.

[21:44] Sammie: Now, the average UK adult makes 42 impulse buys a year. So more than one a month, spending £943 on average on things that they didn’t plan to buy. Now, that’s come from a Censuswide study for FanQuiz that surveyed 2,000 adults and their spending in 2025. But this is the interesting part, that it wasn’t even about the actual item itself. It was the anticipation of getting the thing. The dopamine hit of clicking add to basket and imagining yourself with the thing, not when the actual thing arrived, because a lot of people who do this end up returning them. I talk about my Nike Air Max 97 moment, my Air Max 97 moment, when I kept it for 29 days because I felt so ashamed and guilty about it.

[22:33] Sammie: And there was something making me keep it, and eventually I sent it back. And this is when I put that 24-hour rule in place. Because a lot of people will end up keeping it, feeling guilty, and never using it. I know for a fact I’ve got two jumpers upstairs that I bought in a sale and I have never, ever worn them. And they are now right at the bottom of my drawers because I can’t bring myself to look at them. I actually even kept them after clearing out a bunch of stuff because they’re new and I was like, oh, I’ll wear them. I know I’m never going to wear them. And that’s right there in place: if I hadn’t bought them, then with the 24-hour rule, it would have saved me a lot of money. Now, what I do is I add it to the basket and I put my phone down and I come back in 24 hours, and your brain will probably tell you not to do it.

[23:24] Sammie: And look, if you still want the thing, please go ahead and buy it, especially if you can actually afford it. Another little hack I like to add on top of this to stop me again is: can I afford it two times over in cash? And if the answer is no, well then, wow, guess what? I definitely am not buying it. So it’s just kind of a little double blocker which I put into place. But look, if you do have the money, buy it. Buy it. Because the little basket hack is very good. After 24 hours, a lot of brands send you a 10%, 20% off discount code. So if you do actually want it, you end up getting it cheaper as well. So that’s a little money trick hack for you as well. Now, if you don’t, then guess what, you’ve just saved the money and the guilt. That is just nuts, right? You’ve saved yourself the money and the guilt just by waiting.

[24:09] Sammie: You’re not saying no to it forever. You’re just saying no to it right now, because I am more important. My goals are more important than me buying the new boots. So even cutting impulse spending by a third puts £300 a year back into your pocket. No setup, £300 a year just by waiting 24 hours. Now, you can do this for things over £100. I used to do it for £100, I’ve now lowered it to £50 because I found myself buying things that were £75 quid that I didn’t actually want. Plenty of things at £75 quid that you didn’t actually want. So I do it with anything that’s above £50. I’m not talking about, you know, a two-for-three on cakes in Sainsbury’s here, guys, like, enjoy your bloody cakes, right? I’m talking about the things which will make a dent in your bank balance at the end of the month. And if that amount is £20 for you, not a problem.

[24:57] Sammie: Set it at whatever level you want. It really, really does make a massive difference. Okay, number eight is cashback. This is going to actively put money back and work towards your goals a lot faster. Now, with Gains App, we’ve released a calculator, and someone earning the median average salary, if they did all of their spending through cashback, basically through about 200 UK retailers across the country, you would save between £1,000 and £1,091 a year just by using cashback. How mad is that? What would you do with an extra grand, right? This isn’t buying extra stuff. This is just getting money back on the things that you were going to buy anyway. You can go to gainsapp.com and check that out. Plug in your spending, and it’s going to tell you what you could save over a single year.

[25:45] Sammie: It is eye-opening. Most people are very shocked at the number when they run it through that calculator. That grand is a holiday, right? That’s a month’s rent for some people. That’s your whole year’s ISA contribution sorted. It’s you moving your house move a lot faster. It’s so many things. Think about what that grand, if I put that in your pocket, what would you do with that right now? Now, here is the exact reframe that I like to look at this as well. Let’s say we have one item over here that is £100, and the exact same item over here, which is £95. You’d pick £95 every single time, right? Wouldn’t you? But most people buy the £100 one because they don’t shop with cashback. That’s what shopping without cashback is literally doing for you. You’re choosing to pay more for the same things.

[26:32] Sammie: And this is everything you can think of, from groceries to insurance to travel to everyday clothes to experiences. It is across anything that is from a big major retailer in this UK that we do live in, right? So this is not about being tight. It’s about not leaving free money on the table, which could be going towards future you. Now we’ve layered cashback into Gains App. You can go and check that out if you want to as well. I know you’re going to be on the website looking at that calculator. You can download the app or get on that waitlist if we haven’t managed to launch it yet. But we are very, very close. I think by the time this comes out, it’s going to be a few days. But if you’re watching this past the 12th of May, well, it may well be live. So this is literally 30 seconds per purchase.

[27:19] Sammie: And over a year, that’s going to add up. Maybe 30 to 40 minutes of your time in total for £1,091 back. That’s roughly £1,600 to £2,000 an hour for your time. How mad is that? Think about that. It’s just a 30-second little trick. And how it works is, on Gains App, you jump on there, you search Tesco, for example, you see four or five percent back, you purchase the gift card on Gains App, and then you go into the store, just like you will, tap in with your Apple Pay as you scan your gift card. Or if you’re buying online, for example, it’s an online retailer, JD Sports or Gymshark or whatever that might well be, you just add the code in. Simple, like a promo code. We’ve all done that before when we’re getting our 10% off or whatever that might be. And you can also stack these things with other offers if the retailer allows you to do so, which can then get you further money off as well.

[28:10] Sammie: So definitely do not pass up on cashback. Now, number nine is a little current account switch. First Direct are currently paying £175 just to switch your bank account to them. And you know we’ve got to set up that three-bank system we mentioned earlier. The requirements are you’re paying in £1,000, and that can be your salary, and it has to be done within the first 45 days, and you make five debit card payments with your new First Direct card and at least two direct debits to switch over to that as well. So you could set it up as your bills account and you’d be well away. Now, the Current Account Switch Service handles absolutely everything for you. It moves all your direct debits over, all your standing orders over, your salary redirect, absolutely everything, though I would double-check with HR that they definitely have those new bank details as well. Now, over 10 million people have switched since 2013.

[28:58] Sammie: You literally are sitting on the sofa right now, open it up, get that bank account open, fill in the form, money lands in your account, follow the steps, and that is it. It is the most simple amount of money. And if I put an extra £175 in your account, it’s going to help you move towards your savings goals, or potentially cover some of your shorter-term savings goals that you’ve got this year. And you can do this multiple times over a year, right, across different banks. I had a lady come to a talk that I did for Calm Charity a couple of months ago, and she’d done five in a year, earning over £800 in the process. Now, that is absolutely mental. It’s the most easiest free money that you can make, and it’s going to save you more money into your savings goals, right? If we think about this for time spent, 20 minutes to set up earns you £175.

[29:47] Sammie: Well, guess what, that’s £525 an hour. You will never earn £525 an hour at your day job. 20 minutes max, get it done today. All right, the last one is bill switching. Now, I’m all about putting some extra money back into your pockets as well, not just the standard savings hacks that we want to do. And bill switching is absolutely mental. UK consumers overpay £4 billion a year by staying loyal to their providers. Now let that sink in for a second. £4 billion is pure laziness tax. The breakdown is that £800 million is overpaid on mortgages when people don’t get them refixed or get a better deal, going onto a variable rate instead. £451 million is on broadband and £83 million on overpaying mobile phone contracts.

[30:35] Sammie: Now, 18% of people say switching is too hard or too time-consuming, and 3% didn’t even know they could. So maybe you’re one of those 3% right now. Switching your broadband provider is a great place to start. It’s easy and you’re going to get a better deal. You’ve got car, home insurance. Now, the FCA has banned what’s called price walking. So new and existing customers should get the same deals now on certain things. But there is still definitely a better chance that you could get, say, a kickback from the provider, some offer gift vouchers. I’ve had, you know, six months of Disney Plus or something along those lines. So comparing can pay off, and that is something you need to look into. And it’s not just on car insurance and home insurance, there are other things that it crosses over into. And you can still find some fantastic deals out there.

[31:22] Sammie: Now, broadband is just such an easy one. When you’re out of contract, move to a different provider. Call them and say that you’re leaving as well. And guess what, they will magically find you a better deal. Switching broadband takes less than literally 10 minutes online. Now, you’ve got mobile phone providers, you could go to a SIM-only if you’re happy staying around. Remember the iPhone: do you actually need a new 16 or 17 or 27, or whatever they’re on now? I upgraded from the 14 to the 16 Pro Max recently, and there is no difference. I can’t tell the difference. It’s the same phone. And I’m now paying a ridiculous amount for it. But I had to, because basically the back and the motherboard was showing on my phone. It was so battered that I had to get a new phone. So, you know, I get it, but I can tell you that I couldn’t tell the difference between the two bloody phones.

[32:12] Sammie: Now, on Gains App, we are building in bill switching. It’s not there yet. Next couple of months, you’ll be able to switch your bills on Gains App, and we’ll also have a bill switching concierge which will look at and monitor all your bills and make sure that you’re not getting overcharged or done over in any way, shape, or form. It’s a very cool feature that we’re building in now, but there are some fantastic providers out there. Or you can do this manually through price comparison sites as well. Now, two to three hours total over the year, you’re saving around about £200 to £400. That’s £100 to £133 an hour right there. Still seven times your day job if you are earning a median UK rate. Now, let’s add all of this up, right? Because your day job pays you that £14.71 an hour if you’re earning that median UK salary. Roundups is £36,000 an hour.

[32:59] Sammie: Awareness is £9,504 an hour. Cashback, £1,600 to £2,000 an hour. Three-bank account system, £1,200 an hour. Current account switch, £525 an hour. The 24-hour rule is infinite, it’s going to save you money forever. Bill switching, £100 to £133. Now, a conservative total across the year is that it’s definitely putting a grand, or at least a couple of grand, back in your pocket, even if you do some of these, right? You are never going to earn that much per hour just by doing some of this stuff in the background. And as I hopefully explained it well enough, it shouldn’t be that difficult either. The people winning with their savings are not doing anything complicated. They’ve automated large parts of it.

[33:44] Sammie: They’re just being proactive, they’re building good habits, and they’re making sure they understand exactly what’s going on with their money. Now, Gains App is going to literally make that so easy for you, and it’s not going to judge you. I’ve also left the First Direct link to switch your bank account below as well. Everything is in the show notes below if you want to go and check that out. And I hope you’ve enjoyed this one-off Money Gains Podcast episode that we do. Every now and then I like doing a solo one because I can talk you through some really cool things and ideas that I have coming up. And it’s been a real pleasure, and I’ll catch you guys on the next one.