A woman named Alison, known online as ‘alisontalkmoney’, has revealed how she managed to save close to £75,000 in nine years despite living on a low income as she urged others to follow her tips
A woman who has been budgeting her finances for almost a decade as urged people to follow her three simple rules to help save you money, even if you’re on a lower income.
When hearing the word budget, many people will imagine having to live frugal since you spend all your energy on splashing the smallest amount of money possible. While this can be good if you’re looking to boost your savings in a short amount of time, if often not an easy habit to stick to for many. However, there is an easier way of budgeting that you can start today.
To help people start to save more money, even if they’re already on a tighter budget, a woman named Alison has shared her easy tips on how she managed to spend over $100,000 (£74,483) in her nine years of budgeting, despite relying on a lower income.
She has since taken to TikTok, where she boasts over 70,100 followers from sharing her budgeting and savings tips, to share her top three tips for people who are just wanting to start their own savings journey.
“Here’s 60 seconds of budgeting advice I’d give my best friend if she wanted to get her finances together in 2026 and was starting from zero,” Alison said at the start of one of her videos.
She then went on to share the first three things she’d advise someone to do if they wanted to start saving more money but not knowing where to start.
Track your spending
“First, you need to know you money before you grow your money,” Alison said.
Because of this, she urged people to start tracking their money and where it’s going and coming from. This includes tracking every single purchase you make on a daily basis, no matter how big or small it might be.
“I know, it sucks,” she said. “But I promise, once you get in the habit, it will take a maximum of five minutes a day. So just do it, even though it sucks.”
She went on to say this should only be to track your money, and not to start restricting your spending yet, as the goal of this task is to just learn where your money is going. This could also lead to you struggling even more with budgeting in the long run and not sticking with it.
Notice where you ‘leak’ money
After tracking your money for a few weeks, Alison went on to say you will realise where you’re ‘leaking’ money, meaning where you are spending money in a way that isn’t helpful or intentional.
She explained these leaks could be ‘hidden’ in your grocery run by getting some cheap impulse buys, or ordering Uber Eats when you can’t be bothered to cook instead of getting a frozen pizza from the supermarket to keep at home for days you’re feeling exhausted. Or maybe you have a habit of taking taxis or Ubers instead of public transport for its convenience.
Whatever it is, make sure to take notice of any ‘unnecessary’ spending you might be doing on a regular basis without thinking twice about it.
Use tracker to make spending changes
When you’ve made a note of all of the ways you’re ‘leaking’ money, its time to start to think about the changes you can make to lower the amount of money you spend of things.
“Whatever it is, now that you’re aware, you can start making those lifestyle changes to get your spending under control and start working toward your financial goals,” Alison said, saying you can use your spending tracker to help accelerate your financial goals.
This include creating a budget where you plan on how much you’re going to spend in different categories, like rent and mortgage, bills, and grocery shopping, but also including ‘paying’ yourself and giving yourself a sum to spend on whatever you like that also fits into your budget. By doing this, you will be able to save more money every month, and soon start to grow your savings account.
