The Motherhood Penalty is a term which refers to the systemic disadvantages faced by mothers in the workplace including pay, benefits, and career advancements.

Approximately 250,000 working women with children under four years old leave their jobs due to the struggle juggle between work and childcare according to the Fawcett Society.

As a mother who has just started my second maternity leave in less than two years, I feel this is a particularly close subject to my heart.

Upon reflection of the ‘motherhood penalty’ on my personal life, I do believe that both of my pregnancies and maternity leave have negatively affected my career advancements in terms of promotions, decent raises, and even bonuses. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not!  

However, below are a few tips which I am implementing to do my very best to not let these young mothering years have a long-lasting impact on my career. 

Remember your value 

It is extremely easy to fall into the trap of believing you’re less efficient or useful than colleagues who are peddling ahead in their careers without breaks due to motherhood. However, we really do all have different strengths, and we (mothers) are not less than because we took some time out to raise the next generation.  

In fact, after my first maternity leave, I found that I had a new appreciation for work, improved efficiency, and a refreshed approach with a fresh lens. 

Instead of focussing too hard on perceived shortcomings, remember you have the job you do for a reason, and there are things you bring to the table that perhaps someone else could not. Self-doubt can prohibit your ability to advocate for yourself for career opportunities and advancements, so you must keep the value you add at the forefront of your mind! 

Shrink the pension gap! 

In the UK, the pension gap between men and women remains quite large to this day. The 2024 gender pension gap report found that on average women retire with a pension pot of £69,000 compared to £205,000 for men. The report goes on to conclude that career gaps due to the likes of childcare lead to an average ten-year career gap resulting in a £39,000 loss in pension savings. 

The amazing thing about pensions during maternity leave is despite your reduced pay and therefore reduction in pension contributions, your employer still has to contribute the same amount to your pension whilst you’re on maternity pay.  

Depending on the type of pension scheme you are enrolled in, such as salary sacrifice, your employer may still have to make pension contributions even in periods of no maternity pay.

Therefore, it is best to check with your employer how your pension contributions will be treated during your maternity leave. At the very least, do your best to not reduce your personal pension contributions during maternity leave so your pension can still continue to grow at a decent rate. 

Keeping-In-Touch (KIT) 

I think a really useful tool for mothers on maternity leave is to make use of the up to 10 keeping-in-touch (KIT) days available to us. These days allow you to reconnect with work and get paid in full on top of your maternity pay without stopping your maternity leave.  

It will be up to you and your employer to decide the use of your KIT days. One way I maximised this time was by completing a 3-day intensive training that added a great boost to my CV and provided me with additional skills I could put into practice upon my return to work.

I loved the feeling of being able to achieve something for my career whilst on maternity leave, which in turn also benefitted my employer. 

Photo credits: Pexels

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Pensions – let’s talk about it fellow millennials and Gen Z’s! It is understandable that the topic of pensions may not fill one with excitement, but it is certainly one of the most crucial considerations when planning your financial future.  

What is the pension landscape in the UK? 

The average private pension pot size across the UK sits around £20,077 according to pensions saving app Pension Bee¹.

These numbers will be skewed according to one’s region, age, and gender, but all things considered an average pension pot of around £20k would provide an income a little over £1,000 per year².  

The state pension, which is currently accessible at 66, provides a weekly income of £221.20, or £11,502 per year^3,4.  

It is impossible to predict the future or try to imagine the state of your finances in your 50s and 60s but a good place to start is to ask yourself: 

“Could I survive on X income per year?” or better still, 

“Could I live the life I would desire in my latter years on X income per year?” 

If the answer is no, then there’s no time like the present to make a solid plan, and here are a few reasons why: 

1. Allow COMPOUNDING to take effect 

The earlier you start contributing towards a pension, the less you will have to contribute in the long run.

The power of compounding means years or decades of interest earned also earn interest leading to exponential growth.

Below is a simple illustration of the compounding effect: 

Person A 

• Starts contributing to their pension at age 40 

• They contribute £500/month, with an assumed annual rate of return of 6% 

• Their total contributions = £105,000, and their total interested earned = £251,177 

• Their total pension pot by age 60 = £231,020 

Person B 

• Starts contributing to their pension at age 25 

• They contribute £250/month, with an assumed annual rate of return of 6% 

• Their total contributions = £120,000, and their total interested earned = £106,783 

• Their total pension pot by age 60 = £356,177 

2. Build good FINANCIAL HABITS earlier 

It is exceedingly tempting to lead a YOLO life when you’re young as those latter years seem so far away! But if you can start to build good financial habits when you start earning, it is much easier to maintain throughout the years.  

By setting up automatic pension contributions as soon as you start working, you’ll be surprised how you work with the remaining pay after your pension contributions have been made.

Just remember, everything healthy in life is about striking the right balance! Fun doesn’t have to be sacrificed completely for the sake of your future finances, nor does your financial future need to be sacrificed for the fun of today.  

More from Finance Dee on Mouthy Money

3. There are no STATE PENSION guarantees 

As much as we can hope that the state pension will still be in existence by the time we reach our late 60s, we need to be mindful that there is no guarantee.

Bearing that in mind, your retirement finances could potentially be based upon what you accumulate in your private pension pot alone. T

herefore, make a retirement plan and run the numbers with and without the state pension in your calculations so you have a best and worst case scenario to consider. 

¹ https://www.pensionbee.com/uk/pension-landscape 

² https://www.legalandgeneral.com/retirement/pension-drawdown/ 

³ https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension 

⁴ The state pension is based on one’s eligibility including national insurance contributions and age. 

Photo credits: Pexels

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What is the first thing you think of when you hear the words “maternity leave”?  

Bonding time with baby? Exhaustion? Perks?  

Thankfully, aside from the inevitable bonding and tiredness, there are indeed a few perks that all mothers can make use of during their maternity leave.

Let’s take a look at the top perks for maternity leave.

Keeping in touch (KIT) days 

During maternity leave, an employee is entitled to work up to 10 KIT days as a way to “keep in touch” with work and related activities. These days are entirely optional and need to be agreed upon by both the employer and the employee ahead of time. Making use of KIT days neither interrupts maternity leave nor stops maternity entitlements such as statutory maternity pay (SMP).  

KIT days can be used to work as you would normally as per your contract, such as getting updated on the status of your work, partaking in meetings, attending trainings or conferences, or whatever is relevant and normal in your line of work.

KIT days are generally expected to be paid as a regular working day, so are particularly useful when maternity pay is pretty much non-existent (typically after month 9 of maternity leave). However, a discussion should be had with the employer ahead of time about how KIT days are to be structured and paid¹.  

Sure Start maternity grant / health insurance baby bonus 

For those who are first time parents, or first time parents to multiples (e.g. twins), a £500 grant may be available to those who are already in receipt of certain benefits².

The claim needs to be made within 11 weeks following the birth. As this is a grant, the funds do not need to be pay back. 

If you have private health insurance, you may quality for a ‘baby bonus’ which is a payment made following the birth of a child. This will be policy-specific so will need to be confirmed with the insurance provider. 

Annual leave accrual 

Maternity leave isn’t legally considered a break in employment, therefore benefits such as pension contributions and annual leave entitlements do not stop.

For instance, if a year’s worth of maternity leave is taken, a year’s worth of annual leave should be accrued as per your usual contract. It is important to know that an employer is able to disallow the carry-over of any unused annual leave into the new holiday year.

Similarly to KIT days, these arrangements and entitlements should be discussed with the employer and clearly understood before the start of maternity leave³. 

It is also important to note that annual leave cannot be used during maternity leave, but must be used either before or after the maternity leave period. Alternatively, an arrangement can be made (at the employers discretion) to stagger the return to work process in conjunction with annual leave.  

Free prescriptions and dental care 

A mother is entitled to free prescriptions and dental care during pregnancy and for 12 months following the birth of their baby.

This can be achieved via a maternity exemption certificate which will need to be obtained through a midwife, practice nurse, GP or health visitor.

A maternity exemption certificate is back-dated by a month from when the application is received, so if the certificate is requested during the first midwife appointment (generally before the 10^th week of pregnancy) the certificate should cover the vast majority of the pregnancy⁴. 

Sources 

1. https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/keeping-in-touch-days/ 

2. https://www.gov.uk/sure-start-maternity-grant/eligibility 

3. https://www.acas.org.uk/your-maternity-leave-pay-and-other-rights/holiday-and-maternity-leave#:~:text=You%20still%20accrue%20

4. https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/free-nhs-prescriptions-and-nhs-dental-care-for-pregnant-women-and-new-mothers/#:~:text=You%20are%20entitled%20to%20free,at%20least%2016%20years%20old. 

Photo credits: Pexels

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You may have heard musings that 2024 isn’t expected to be a good year economically for the UK.

There are talks of a potential recession due to the bank of England’s persistently high base rate and its knock-on effect on mortgages.

Although only time will tell what will really happen, better safe than sorry rings very true in regards to personal finances for the coming year. 

P.S. All of these tips would be beneficial even if a recession doesn’t happen! 

1. Get aggressive with repaying debt – If you’ve got debt such as personal loans or credit cards, there is no time like the present to set a plan on how you can get rid of it as quickly as possible. And if you’re considering taking on new debt / additional debt, maybe it’s worth reconsidering. 

During a recession, money can be harder to come by. Therefore, keeping your essential bills as low as possible without the added stress of debt repayments is the best thing you can do to try weather a potential storm.  

2. Build that emergency fund – Those unexpected costs that arise due to unforeseen circumstances are annoying at the best of times, but can be catastrophic at the worst of times. It is recommended to have 3-6 months of your fixed costs saved in an easy to access bank account.  

However, saving isn’t easy especially if things are already quite tight financially. Now may be the time to consider what sacrifices can be made to free up a few extra pounds each month to stash away for a rainy day. If you need a little help, there are great money-saving apps such as Plum which use clever algorithms to assess how much you can actually afford to save week-by-week.   

3. Plan your monthly finances – Create a clear plan of your monthly incomings and outgoings to make sure everything is covered. A zero-based budget is my personal favourite as it is helpful to make sure every pound is accounted for to avoid wondering where chunks of money went.  

If everything cannot be covered, i.e. your outgoings are higher than what you have coming in, there may need to be some tough decisions on what will need to be reduced or cut out of the budget entirely. As mentioned earlier, debt can be catastrophic so it is best to avoid at all costs. 

4. Take time to think ahead – There are certain bills you can get a discount on if you pay annually, such as home or car insurance. If you’re able to, aim to save a little each month towards the annual bill so you can afford to make a one-off cheaper payment when it is time to renew. 

Thinking ahead also means not getting caught out on expenses that you knew were coming later down the line, such as birthdays or weddings. Plan into your budget ahead of time how much you need to save per month to achieve that goal.

For instance, if you have a wedding that is going to cost you around £200, square away £20 per month if the wedding is 10 months away, or £40 per month if the wedding is five months away.  

Key takeaways: 

1. Aim to become debt-free (excluding mortgages and student loans) 

2. Have sufficient savings to cover rainy days 

3. Know your finances well enough to know how much money is coming and where it’s going 

4. Plan your finances in bitesize pieces to make it easier to manage  

Photo credits: Pexels

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A few months ago I felt a strong urge to tighten up my finances. I was in the middle of maternity leave, adjusting to motherhood, and my finances felt a bit more sloppy than usual.

Whether it was due to a lack of time, lack of energy, or lack of discipline remains unknown. But I wanted to move away from the feeling of tapping my card and not actually feeling like I was spending real money.

So I decided to try the cash envelope system. This consists of having a separate envelope for each budget category you have (e.g. groceries, transport, takeaways, miscellaneous spending, etc), allocating a specified amount of cash for each category, and then only spending the cash within each envelope.

I went online, bought myself a little cash envelope planner that was small enough to fit in my handbag, and started labelling them according to my needs.

What were my findings with switching to cash – and would I recommend it?

The Pros:

• Cash feels incredibly more real than seeing numbers on your phone screen. It made me almost feel rich in a way I never had felt before, even though I was dealing with the exact same money I usually do in my bank account. It felt like abundance, and that’s a feeling that I think is important for a positive money mindset.

• My spending was absolutely more controlled. I imagine that handing over physical cash sends a completely different signal in your brain than just tapping a card. It just hurts a little more, which makes you think a little longer on what you’re actually purchasing.

• The envelopes felt very final. I felt challenged to only stick to what was in the envelope. And when it was done, it was done. And that was what I really needed at the time.

The Cons:

• I am sure it is no surprise that not everywhere takes cash. From a vendor perspective, I actually understand why not transacting in cash can be a lot easier. But annoyingly, it meant having to pay with my card, and then depositing money back into my account from the relevant envelope.

• Walking around with cash can be a bit unnerving, especially when you’re not used to it. When you just use cards, if someone steals your bag and succeeds at using them, it’s quite easy to get that money back through your bank. But with cash –there’s no getting it back!

• Walking around with cash can get weight pretty quickly, especially when you’re getting your change in coins.

Final thoughts

Overall, I think the cash envelope system is a fantastic tool to be more controlled with your spending. It without-a-doubt helped me get a firmer grip on my finances during a transitional period in my life.

There is something about dealing with cash that brings you back in touch with money and makes you remember it’s real! But on the flip side, there are undoubtedly some cons that make cards much more practical and cash much less convenient. And you have to decide whether you’re comfortable dealing with the inconveniences.

Ultimately, personal finance is truly personal and you have to find what works for you. But if what you’re currently doing is not working and you are looking for something to try help you along, it certainly may be worth a try.

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There isn’t much in life that competes with the feeling of waking up on payday, checking your account, and seeing it replenished.

But that feeling doesn’t really last long when the bills start coming out. And you remember that person you owe money to. Oh, and that random emergency you weren’t accounting for.

But what if there was a way to keep that glorious feeling a little longer? Or at the very least, to avoid the dread of the bank balance going down without a clue where it all went?

Below are a few of the steps I take every single payday to avoid the feeling of dread when looking at my bank balance. Even more importantly, these steps are all part of helping me get closer to my long-term money goals!

We all have to start somewhere

In order to move forward effectively, I strongly believe you do need to look back first to assess the situation.

How did things go with your finances the last month? And if you’re just starting this, look back at the last couple of months. Did you go into your overdraft? Was there a particular area where you spent way too much money? Was there a charge for a subscription you forgot to cancel?

Question your spending habits, and make it a judgement-free task. This is simply to assess what’s working and what’s not.

I find this is good practice to keep me well aware of my spending habits and to give me the freedom to change things in my budget as and when needed. Life isn’t static, it’s always moving. And your finances should also reflect that.

Cover the ESSENTIALS first

Ok, so before we budget in the good stuff, we need to make sure all the essentials are covered. Housing bills, transportation costs, food shopping, childcare fees if applicable, and let’s not forget those debt repayments if you have any. Anything that’s needed to keep your life going is what you need to include in here.

I am a big fan of the 50-30-20 budget which recommends to keep your essentials to 50% of your total budget.

With life becoming increasingly more expensive this is more difficult to achieve, but it still remains a good signpost to figure out if you’re in good shape with your finances.

Secure your FUTURE

Now that you’ve paid all the essentials, pay yourself next! The key here is about building a consistent habit of putting something away every single month for the future.

Honestly, even £10 will do to start. But the more you can stretch that sum up as time goes on, the better.

It’s this habit that keeps me feeling satiated from payday to payday, because I know I’ve kept back something to enjoy at a later stage in life.

For me, this looks like putting 15% of my salary into my pension, making sure my emergency fund has 3 months of expenses, and investing in my S&S ISA. Furthermore, the more money I have stacked away, the more at peace I feel knowing that an emergency or an unexpected situation won’t send me spiralling into debt. That feeling is GOLD!

Fun, fun, fun

We all work hard, and so we must play hard. If you don’t allow yourself to spend on things that bring you joy or make your life a bit more convenient, you’ll quickly experience budgeting burnout and wonder what’s the point.

The 50-30-20 budget I mentioned earlier recommends 30% of your budget goes towards wants. This needs to be guilt-free money that you can do whatever you please with. It’s the things that make life worth living!

Photo by Breakingpic

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If you are one of the 57 million Britons who have a social media account, I don’t doubt that you are inundated with ads promoting endless offers that you simply should not and cannot miss out on!

Many of us have become excessive consumers, always feeling that what we already have is not quite good enough. Unless you’re willing to completely disconnect from social media, it gets increasingly more difficult to not get sucked into the trap of wanting more, more, and oh yeah – MORE!

I am on a journey to battle against my excessive consumer ways. It’s not easy, but I know it’s necessary.

As aptly stated by Joshua Becker “Excessive consumption leads to bigger houses, more expensive cars, trendier clothes, fancier technology, and overfilled drawers. It promises happiness… but never delivers.”¹

Powerful, right?

So let’s get to it. Here are a few things that you could consider implementing if you also have the desire to consume less:

Curate your social media feed intentionally

Social media is a big part of my life and the vast majority of millennials and Gen Z’s I know of. I spend at least (ashamedly) an hour or two on it a day. So if there is so much of our time spent digesting what social media is literally ‘feeding’ to us, it is imperative to be very intentional with what we’re watching and listening to on a daily basis.

One of the ways I am intentional is no longer following accounts that make me feel bad about myself or the life I live. I have also unfollowed accounts that are constantly focusing on the negatives of the world around us – it was so mentally draining.

I have personally found that when I am feeling happy and content in my daily life, I am a lot less likely to spend impulsively. I don’t need to buy things to make me feel happy.

The ‘everyday’ isn’t social media worthy

It always seems that everyone but you is out there living their best lives 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Despite us knowing deep down that is far from reality, our brain sometimes tricks us into thinking it should be our reality. But seriously, who can actually afford to live like that except the much loved one-percenters?

If you are someone who posts to social media, have a look at your own account. Isn’t it just showcasing the best or most memorable moments of your life? Probably! And that’s the case for everyone else as well.

All of us live in the ordinary and mundane the vast majority of time, but it just doesn’t tend to make the feed. The ‘everyday’ is not a bad thing, it’s actually something I have learned to fully embrace. The regularities of life make the extraordinary times that much more special!

Living within your means sets you up for the future

As I clearly like talking about money, I couldn’t forget this one. If the primary focus is on buying more than we need for today, it’s our future that sadly takes a hit!

The amount of money we have coming is finite, and so with the limited amount of resources we have, we must be wise enough to one – handle our responsibilities, two – have a bit of fun now, and three – put some away for future you.

References

1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuabecker/2020/04/30/escape-excess-consumerism/?sh=6d323f612fbb

Phot Credits: Unsplash

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Ramit Sethi, the author of bestseller I Will Teach You to Be Rich is a little different from the finance gurus of the past.

Although he believes in the age old principles of budgeting, or as he likes to call it “a conscious spending plan”, getting out of debt, and putting away for the future, he really focuses on this idea of building your “rich life”.

And he actually puts his money where his mouth is.

When it comes to how you should divvy up your money to live this rich life he talks about, he recommends staying somewhere close to the following guidelines¹:

1. 50-60% of one’s income to go on fixed costs. These are all the essentials to live, such as your rent/mortgage, household bills, groceries, transport, or any debts you may have that need tackling.
2. 10% of one’s income to go towards investments. This could be in the form of putting into a pension or an investment account such as a stocks and shares ISA in the UK.
3. 5-10% of one’s income to go towards savings. Saving for that emergency fund. Towards the house deposit. The car you need. Those sorts of things.
4. And last but certainly not least, a whooping 20-35% of one’s income to go on guilt-free spending. Essentially, spend it on whatever your little heart desires.

Although these guidelines aren’t too dissimilar from the well-known 50-30-20 rule (50% needs, 30% wants, 20% debts/savings) I think it may be how he has phrased the fourth budget category, and how he talks about it in his podcast and Netflix show, that feels a little scandalous for the likes of me who spends less than 15% of my income “guilt-free”. But that’s a topic for another article.

After the initial shock and some time to really digest, I can’t help but think maybe this is the kind of guideline that will actually work for the vast majority of millennials and Gen Z’s who both desire and are accustomed to a certain type of lifestyle. Often a much more expensive one than our parents and grandparents.

With any budgeting guidelines, they are just that, guidelines! Everyone’s circumstances are unique and it’ll be almost impossible to have a one size fits all approach to budgeting.

But budgeting guidelines are a useful way to help you categorise your spending to see where your money priorities lie and if they align with where you want to be.

With Ramit’s guidelines, it puts into place some securities for the future by squaring away 15% into savings and investments (maybe a bit low for those who want to be more aggressive savers), but crucially it allows for up to 30% of your budget to be guilt-free. No strings attached. No questions asked.

So what do you think of the idea of 30% guilt-free spending? Does it make you a little uncomfortable – if so, why? Or do you think it’s the right amount to give you the feeling of that infamous “rich life”?

References

1. https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/conscious-spending-basics/

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At long last, we’ve got a bit of good news to look forward to amidst this cost of living crisis!

Although, don’t set your expectations too high just yet as there won’t exactly be a huge reduction in energy bills.

But, at the very least we can expect to keep a little extra cash in our pockets come October!

So, how exactly did we come to have an energy crisis in the UK and where are analysts assuming we are going next?

What happened in the first place?

The prices of almost everything started getting out of hand during the pandemic due to supply chain issues, energy prices being one of the biggest culprits of all.

In 2020, as the UK was a net importer of energy, we didn’t produce enough energy resources at home to keep the country running. Therefore, we had to get some of our energy from elsewhere which left us at the disposal of price fluctuations due to circumstances in other countries (e.g. the Ukrainian war).

Ofgem, the UK energy’s regulator, sets energy price “caps” which determine the maximum amount energy providers can charge their customers for each unit of gas and electric. The word cap can be deceiving as it doesn’t mean there is a maximum amount your bill can go to.

If you use more energy than what is considered the “average” (what is average, anyway?) households energy use, you would have to pay more money. Same vice versa, if you use less energy than the average, you would pay less than the energy cap.

At the start of 2023, even though Ofgem set the energy price cap to £2,500 per year for the average energy-using household, the average energy bills were actually an eye-watering £4,279 per year!

Thankfully the government assisted households and businesses with these bills by putting in place the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) and the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS).

Where are our energy bills now?

Currently (as of September 2023), Ofgem have set the energy price cap at £2,074 per year, or roughly £173 per month.

Come October 2023, this will be changing for the better whereby the energy price cap will reduce to £1,923 per year, or approximately £160 per month. This is equivalent to an average reduction of 7% in energy bills per year¹.

What are analysts saying about the future?

The positive news is the latest reduction of the energy price cap is the third one in a row³.

This is certainly a sign that generally wholesale energy prices are going in the right direction. However, analysts do expect that these prices may creep up a bit in the months to follow, before settling again. According to Uswitch, the energy price cap may take the following trend:

• From a £1,923 price cap in October 2023
• An increase to £2,033 in January 2024
• A decrease to £1,964 in April 2024
• A further decrease to £1,917 in July 2024

Photo Credits: Pexels

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We Brits are true holiday lovers, with over 45 million holidays taken by UK residents in 2022 alone. Personally, travel has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember and I have been fortunate enough to visit close to 40 countries so far.  

So here are a few of the tips and tricks I have learned along the way to help keep the costs down when booking my holidays.  

1. Make use of a flight price alert system – If you’re not booking a last minute holiday, set yourself up with a flight price alert system.

These systems use algorithms to track flight price changes to your chosen destination on your specified dates, and you will be notified when there is a drop in price. It is a pretty genius system and amazingly it is FREE!  

There are a few different flight tracker systems you can use, including Google Flights, Skyscanner, Kayak and Momondo. 

2. Book flights and accommodation directly – Comparison websites are fantastic tools to give holiday-goers ideas of what is available, but always double-check whether it is cheaper to book directly with the airline (almost always) and/or hotel.  

Hotels are often grateful for customers who book directly with them as they do not lose a portion of their profits to a third-party. A simple query to the hotel via email or a phone call to compare their direct prices with the likes of Booking.com or Hotels.com, for instance, could potentially save you some pounds. 

3. Cashback on everything possible – It is an absolute no-brainer to make sure everything you book in advance for your holiday gets some kind of cashback where possible. For me, this includes getting cashback on my flights, accommodation, car rentals, and trip experiences.  

Most recently, I received £45 cashback for an EasyJet holiday booked which felt great to put back into my bank account following my holiday.

I have found Topcashback to be the best overall cashback website for my holiday bookings, but there are plenty of different cashback websites for you to choose from. 

4. Use fee-free debit/credit cards – Nowadays, people are less likely to take a wad of cash with them on holiday for practicality and safety reasons.

Thankfully, there are multiple debit and credit cards available which not only allow you to use your card in foreign countries without a transactional fee, but they also provide a much better exchange rate than you would get at a currency exchange bureau. 

Here is a great article listing some options of these types of cards. 

5. Don’t be afraid to use public transport – Of course this tip depends on the type of holiday you’re going on and who you are going with, but if you are open to using public transport to get to your accommodation, this can be a real money saver! I have personally done this plenty of times and saved hundreds of pounds by avoiding personal taxis. 

Note: I would definitely recommend doing a bit of research before getting to the country to see if it’s even feasible to take public transport to your accommodation, as it may not always be the case. 

Photo Credits: Pexels

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