The Spending Ban Tag with TSB

When TSB recently contacted me about a spending ban challenge, I was more than up for it as I'm one of those people who spends money completely unnecessarily. Whether its eating lunch out instead of bringing a homemade meal, buying a morning coffee or 'treating' myself more than I should whilst browsing online, over the course of a few weeks, it soon adds up. I'm also one of those people who thinks I'm rich on pay day, gets all spendy and then spends the latter half of the month complaining that I'm skint. Not good!

With this being said, I was excited to take on TSB's challenge and cut one thing out of my life that I normally spend a lot of money on to see what a difference it could make to my bank balance. I thought long and hard about what this could be and in the end I decided on taxis. Yep, taxis, of all things. As someone who doesn't drive (I really need to pull my finger out and pass my test) the temptation to have some extra time in bed and get a taxi to work instead of using public transport is very strong. However, a taxi from my flat to my work isn't cheap - it costs between £8 and £10 a time and I've been known to get up to 4 taxis a week sometimes. I know, shocking. That works out at £40 a week and £160 a month. I don't even want to know what that adds up to over a year but you get the point.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've gone tee total on taxis and have given myself the rule that I'm only allowed to get one if I have a good reason to. For example, if I'm going home to the lakes for the weekend and need to take a suitcase to work, I'll allow myself to get a tax instead of trying to cart a heavy suitcase on and off public transport. However, sleeping in, being lazy and wanting an extra 30 minutes in bed definitely don't fall into the 'good reason' category. 

I've already saved so much money just by cutting taxis out these past couple of weeks and I certainly intend to keep it up. My boyfriend and I are wanting to get our own house as soon as we can so all of our extra money needs to go into savings for a mortgage, not on taxis to work. We were recently discussing setting up an account we can put money into whilst saving and a Cash ISA from TSB is a great option as you don't pay any tax on the interest you earn which is a big plus. You can find out more on the TSB Isa page.

Myself and TSB now challenge you to go on a week-long spending ban and see how much you save! What do you spend money on that you don't really need to? 

I'd love to hear about your unnecessary spending in the comments below!

collaboration with TSB*