The Netmums Podcast - S11 Ep2: Gemma Bird: Money hacks that REALLY work for mums

Episode Date: September 19, 2023

In this episode, hosts Wendy and Alison are joined by influencer and social media star Gemma Bird, aka @MoneyMumOfficial. With her expertise in all things finance, Gemma shares money-saving insights for navigating parenting during a cost-of-living crisis. Having paid off her mortgage by the time she was 38, Gemma is full of real-world advice on how to save money NOW. Don't miss her fantastic tips on saving, shopping, how to change your mindset and use the secret 3-day rule! This episode of The Netmums Podcast is brought to you by @aldiuk. Switching from big brands to Aldi Mamia products will give you big savings plus Netmums and Aldi are giving new parents the chance to get a full-size pack of newborn nappies absolutely FREE to try! Click here to sign up for your voucher. This series of the Netmums podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative

You're listening to The Netmums Podcast with me, Wendy Gollich, and me, Alison Perry. Coming up on this week's show... So it's just trying to sort of chat to everyone in the family as well and say to them, look, it's really, really expensive, you're leaving lights on, he's gonna... No, I look back at my mum now, she'd be like, we could land a plane on this bleeding house, Gemma. And when we were shopping for an hour, I'm like, I'm turning into my mother because I'm like, I never light a cell.

But before all of that... This episode of The Netmamas podcast is brought to you by Aldi. Wendy, I've got a question for you. What's your guilty parenting pleasure? Oh, I'd probably say it's gobbling up cold fish fingers from my kids' plates after they've abandoned dinner in favour of watching the telly. I do that too. I reckon my guilty pleasure is sneaking out and escaping my children to have a lovely browse of my local Aldi alone. I am so with you. What I love about Aldi is they have an excellent range of great value products. They even have an award-winning baby and toddler range, which includes weaning essentials, nappies and wipes.

It's funny you should say that because another friend told me that she switched to Aldi Mamiya and it's giving her big savings. Yes, plus with Netmums and Aldi, new parents can get a pack of newborn nappies absolutely free. So log on to our site and let your friends know about this awesome opportunity with Netmums and Aldi. Right. Don't tell my family, but I'm sneaking off to Aldi right now. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode. Now, I'm pretty sure that Alison and I are boring you all senseless by now. But here at Netmums HQ, we are face first in back to school mayhem.

And I don't know about you, Alison, but it is frying my brain. The admin, the bus passes, the emotions, the return to making sodding packed lunches. It's honestly, it's all too much. How are the twins doing? And how are you doing with the twins starting reception? Yeah, they started reception last week and it is a lot for us. It's mostly the emotions. It's just like them kind of dealing with all the emotions and the nerves and the fear and the excitement.

And it's all just a lot. And yeah, I'm not coping very well, I'll admit. I'm a bit of a mess. I'm frazzled. Well, I'm really hopeful that our guest today is going to be a calm cool influence who is just going to talk to us about money and make everything okay and we can quietly have a break down in the corner while she does it yeah I think so I think so um in fact just before we started recording I described our guest today as Cheryl Cole combined with Martin Lewis and I think I think that is a spot on description of her because our guest today is a mum of two from Essex who has become famous for

sharing her money tips. Gemma Byrd aka Money Mum is the author of Save Yourself Happy and The Money Journal. She's a regular on Lorraine and she even interviewed the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently about financial matters. Let's get down to it. Is it true that you've made a million from just saving pennies? No. I love a headline. I wish I could say to you, just save a few pennies

and you can make that. That would be amazing. What it is, is I saved, I had a very, very low income growing up. Wasn't like a doctor or anything like that, or a footballer or anything that would earn lots and lots of money. And the small amount of money I saved is a mixture of investments and saving. So yes, I have gone without all the small things to create the big things so i bought a couple of properties when i was younger with my dad no my dad doesn't have money he doesn't support me um i've read a few things like that um and we bought them and then we sold them when the properties were an all-time very small investment of around seven thousand pounds

and the money i made from those me and my dad's went half with the profit as well, paid off the mortgage on this current home that we live in now, but we bought this home for 390 and we paid the mortgage off on it and now the house has risen to 800 and we do have other investments in that. So with assets and savings, yes, I do have over a million pounds, but it's not just because it's been saving pennies and I still would, I would say I'm rich because I've got a roof over my head. I can feed my children every day. I can go out for a meal as and when I want.

I've got financial freedom. So no, I can't go and buy like a yacht or go every single solitary day and buy a Chanel handbag. But if I wanted one Chanel handbag, I can go and get that. Do you see what I mean? But not that I would because I would just be like, it's too much money. I've got a couple of designer bags it's just who i am so it's just because i've done it on i've never ever earned loads and that's what i always say but i just i'm such a believer and all the little things add up and it's over the years so i started doing this when i was 17 i'm 42

now so i've done this over the years and i would say now at 40 i am financially secure. But it's taken me all that time. I've gone for years and years and years with having nothing, scrimping and scraping to make that money because that was a choice I made that I wanted to have financial freedom in my 40s. But I had, I suppose, an old head on my shoulders at 17 to start in doing that. So it's not something you can just magically appear this money or create this sort of amount of sort of wealth, I suppose.

It's been years and years and years of doing it. And I still do it now, even though I've got financial freedom, I value a £10 note. So if we go to the pub, I do take all my snacks with me. I do take bottles of water. Yes, okay, I get the kids an ice cream

and if I want to buy a coffee, I don't have to worry like that now. But it's just in me, like I will take a flask if it's hot and go walk around the lake it's just who I am and I'll never ever change I just value a 10 pound note like and it's just who I it's just who I am I think I could have a billion in the bank and I'll still be the same you know um and you say that anyone can do it and it sounds like from what you're saying that it's it's mostly a mindset thing that even when you were 17 and leaving school,

you had this mindset. Is that something that we almost have to practice and adopt to get to where you are? Yeah, I do think it is a complete mindset. I've got friends that have earned loads more than me over the time, well in the six figures, and they'll say to me they haven't got any money. And it's like you've got to live within your means.

You could earn £4 million a year, but if you're spending £6 million, you've got no money. You could have a friend that's earning £50,000 a year, budgeting really well and saving £5,000 of that, and she could be wealthier than the other friend that earns the money because a lot of the time you see people and they've got everything. They wear it all. Do you see what I mean? I always say that, like credit cards and they have have to have everything and i don't think there's

nothing wrong with that i think it's you know everyone's each to their own i don't i'm not here to tell anyone what to do i'm just you know if you do want to do it and you do want to save it's about changing your mindset to everything even when you're going in the local supermarket looking at every single solitary price taking your time extra shopping and i mean really really really cutting back i used to do things on such a budget checking my bank statement once a week right is there any patterns there i need to change any single solitary thing like even recently we've just cut our sky down to just five pounds a month because we were like we're watching netflix all the time why we're paying 30 pounds a month and my friend was around the other day and she was like i don't understand but, but you're only paying £30, you can easily do that.

And I was like, but why are you giving £25? It's my money that I've worked for. And she was like, and that's why I'm talking about mindset. Like we've just got a different mindset. And then sort of in the next breath, she'll say, I've got no money. And I'm like, this is what I'm talking about.

Like all these little things add up. So yeah, I'm a great believer in mindset and constantly reviewing and looking at things. And I'm also a great believer in mindset and constantly reviewing and looking at things and i'm also a great believer in having treats and having goals and you know i do want to move i really really want this amazing house and staircase i've still got dreams and aspirations like like all of us it's not about not spending money it's just about making choices like if you do want a certain thing about going with other things so as i say i've done 20 years sort of really

scrimping and straining going going about pretty much most things. So now I am sort of enjoying life a little bit more. But that's my choice. It doesn't mean I'm right. I'm not right at all. There's no right or wrong. It just means that's what I want to do. But I suffer with anxiety.

So I also do think money is a control thing. So I remember this at age seven, trying to save money from the age of seven and like walking to school, picking up pennies,ies doing mushroom picking going and doing like my paper round like I remember I washed my neighbor's car which I was actually terrible at and he didn't want to pay me and then I like mushroom picking could go one of two ways as well let's be honest what sort of mushrooms are you begging it was an awful job I was full I used to get up at five o'clock in the morning and cycle my bike but it was just I think I got paid about three pounds an hour but at that time that was a lot of money because I've got no outline I'm 14 I was like putting that in my Kenco coffee jar every week and saving up and it could and I just I just always had that mindset

you know that I wanted to like eventually work for myself which thank touch wood I am doing now and it's really weird that sort of I've made a career out of talking about saving money so in some way that's kind of almost made me money do you see what I mean because that's now become my job so sometimes things take a very very long time to get to like I don't feel that I'd got anywhere really until I hit 40 and I think a lot of the time especially women we put pressure on ourselves you think at 25 you know you need to be engaged at 30 you must have your first two kids and married like it doesn't work out like that like my first especially women we put pressure on ourselves you think at 25 you know you need to be engaged at 30 you must have your first two kids and married like it doesn't work out like that like my first husband left me when I was 30 so I think you know sometimes things take a long period of time so if

you're not there yet even if you're 40 you're not there yet maybe you'll get your dream at 45 50 or even 60 some people get their dream but I do believe you can change but I think it's very very hard because behavior is the hardest thing to change. If you are a spender and you don't think about a tenner, that's very, very hard. Like I cannot stick to the gym, for example, or a diet or exercise. I'm absolutely terrible at it. I do one day and then I don't do the next day.

It's consistency with anything in life. You have to be consistent. So I'll do sit-ups, ten of them the first day, and I'll be like, right, I'll do 11 tomorrow. I never do the 11. And I know know and it's the same with spending money like my friend didn't buy that coffee today but in the next day she might because it's just who she is so it is a hard thing to change but it is a mindset and it's like if anything you can do what you want to do in life but you have to be consistent and take the good with the bad I think

so most of us are struggling. Financially, it's pretty tough at the moment. What's the thing you're asked most by parents who are struggling with the fact that everything costs more than it used to? What are you asked? A lot of guilt from parents saying that they feel like they can't take their children out, special days out and everything. And I always say this.

I say, at the end of the day, when you look back at your your childhood what do you remember you remember like there's certain things you remember oh my dad used to do this or my mom used to do this the things that used to make you laugh you don't actually ever say oh i remember that xbox they bought me do you see what i mean you do remember the days out the walks the talks um you know and i don't buy stuff like that for my children now in fact my dad said the other day to brody if he does one of these exams he'll get him an xbox and i was like and i was like okay well granddad's getting you it because i still haven't and he's nearly 11 he's like not got an xbox or a platform probably the worst mom in the world but i'm just like well i never had

it so you don't all the best yeah who knows it's really hard though isn't it because like we've just come out in the summer holidays and i don't know about you but my social media feeds have been filled with all of these amazing days out and holidays and you know I've got three kids taking them to I don't know an amusement park or it costs a fortune just for one day out and it can be really hard can't it to feel like you you're not able to really give your kids this amazing magical summer it. It is, and it is really, really difficult. And it's really, really, really tough when you can't do it. If I look back, even six years ago, I couldn't do any of those things. And you do have that mum guilt.

And now they have had a really nice summer. And I have had loads and loads of days at the park. We went away, but since we've been back, I think we haven't done any amusement parks since we've been back because we had a holiday, which we're very lucky to have. But you can only do what you can do. Do you see what I mean? I'd love a Ferrari on the drive.

I can't physically have one. So don't put too much pressure on yourself. In some ways, it's great. You're teaching your kids you can't have everything in life. And it doesn't matter what little Jimmy down the road is doing. If he's been to Florida and then he's gone to Houghtorton's house and he's done this he's done that because when they get older little jimmy might have eight ferraris on the drive and you might have a fiat 500 and i think that's good to be comfortable in your own skin because i've always been comfortable to say to people i can't afford

to do that i've got friends that are really welcoming i'm like well we can go to presos but i can't go to the ned if i'm saving and i and so i think it's i think it's quite a good thing because we never had loads growing up and i feel my kids have had loads more than I've had because I'm in a better financial situation and I actually don't think it's done them a favor like I said the other day like Brody even come out with like oh it's all right we can have that so I was like no so for the rest of the holiday we've gone to the park so I think in some ways it's probably a good thing because they'll probably be really resilient when they're older and really understand what the meaning of life is because it's about spending time with your with your children going out like i love walking we do lots and lots of walks and being in the

fresh air and i think just be open and honest with them like just say look mummy and daddy would love to take you to orton towers for example but we really really can't afford it so we've got cereal boxes or whatever we might be able to go in the october half term but we're going to go to the park today and we're going to have friends over because most of the time kids want to play with other kids that's the main thing my kids want to do they want to play with their friends that is free try and do things like with other mums and say right okay look it's really expensive the school holidays like in the october one why don't we all take turns and you come to mine i go to yours we go over the park together and explain it to them and do things like if they

want an ice cream mum used to do this if us we'd on the way out and we go over the park together and explain it to them and do things like, do they want an ice cream? Mum used to do this with us. On the way home, we'd walk into somewhere like Iceland, get a box of lollies, and then she'd hand them out. So you're getting four ice creams for a pound, and just little things like that. So she'd be like, right, we're going to go for a walk, then we're going to go and get an ice cream.

But I was like a little girl. I didn't notice he wasn't from the ice cream van. I was just happy I was going for a walk and getting an ice cream. And I know it is harder when they get older. I not saying it isn't up listen i've got a 10 nearly 11 year old but to be honest he actually does accept that if i go no look we're just popping to us and we do things like that all the time he's like yeah okay lovely and he doesn't drop it he doesn't go like oh it's not from the ice cream man mr whipping five pound ice cream or it's not starbucks or whatever so it's about managing their expectations as well because they're going to have

it all through their life you know it's not just the kids is it I mean you mentioned you know you'll go to Prezzo instead of the Ned um you know so many people listening will be having kind of awkward conversations with friends I've had you know recently friends want to meet up with me and they're like oh we've booked this amazing Italian restaurant in this posh bit of London and I'm like I don't want to go out and spend like I don't have 80 pounds to spend on my dinner but yeah to have that kind of awkward conversation where to say actually I can't really afford to do that can we go to Pizza Express instead it's it's typical isn't it yeah but it's just about being confident in your answer I think is what you're saying isn't it it's just owning it and saying, this is the deal.

I'd love to see you. It can't go there, so let's go here. And if they don't like it, they're not a very good friend to you, right? Exactly. It's really brutal. It's really funny because when you say that, I'm always like, no, I don't think it is awkward. If they don't like me because I couldn't have afforded it,

then I don't want to be their mate anyway. So if they can't accept it, if they want to see me, I've always been, I don't care if there's 20 women on a group chat, I'll be like, no, I don't want to be their mate anyway so if they can't accept it if they want to see me I've always been I don't care if there's 20 women on a group chat I'll be like no I don't want to do that and even now like just because I've got the money it's still my money like if I if I don't want to put in 50 quid for the school teacher and I just want to do a fiver I literally right in the group chat I'll buy my own present and I still do it now and they're all like oh my god and I'm like well I'm not being dictated to like what I'm giving and why should I like I'm my own person I've worked really hard for that money I'd rather invest that in an ISA and spend five to ten pounds like a you know other people do like I think so many people have the pressure and even when I've done things like that the amount of people that then said to me I'm so pleased you did that because I didn't want to do that either

so I'm like well it is hard because if you're not because I'm very underconfident in lots of ways but I'm not underconfident in speaking to people um that's really good for me when I talk to people so I've always been confident enough to say no I can't do it I'm really sorry um but yeah never ever feel embarrassed about it because no one's better than anyone at the end of the day like you're not better than someone because you've got more money that's just ridiculous like you not better than someone because you've got more money. That's just ridiculous. You're better than someone because you're a nice person. If you've got money and you've done well, that's amazing, right?

Amazing. I'm proud of anybody, you know. But it doesn't make you. It doesn't define you. I know millionaires that some of them are lovely and some aren't. And I know people that have got no money and some are horrible and some are nice. It's who you are as a person, I think. And if you want to see your friend, you'll see them regardless'll go around their house you'll make time for them it won't be

just about the ned you know yeah now we're heading into i don't like to say it on a gloriously sunny september day but we're heading into the cold weather it's a coming and last winter we heard lots of advice about cutting your energy bills give us us some of your advice. How do you personally save on rocketing gas bills and electric bills and keeping the heating on and all that stuff? So what we tend to do in the winter, we set our thermostat at sort of a ticking over in the house and we never let the house get freezing.

So that boosting up, higher, lower, higher, lower, higher, lower. That's not particularly good. You know how people turn their heating off and crack it if you're going on holiday then yeah but we sort of keep it at a level um and it's just sort of it's not hot it's just sort of tepid and in the evening we do use blankets and thick jumpers in the lounge because we're just sitting it's when you're in bed you turn the heating off i always think that so we sort of set it a thing that's comfortable to walk around like in a jumper and jeans not a t-shirt because i've been around a lot of friends houses and they've got a t-shirt on and they wear

heatings and it's really warm but i'm like turn it down a couple of degrees that'll save you money and so we always do that and we i've bought things like some sort of places like b&m you know like drive proofers like my hallway and i've had a new front door fit it still gets cold so i push that up keeping all the doors shut and things like that really does keep the heating and doing things like my mum always does this because she lives on her own she turns radiators off in the room she's not using and then she'll just keep them on a really really like low number and when it gets the really cold weather just so they don't get sort of damp in them or anything like that so she'll turn them off sort of when it's not freezing cold like your january is so

that's a good one um also it's really important you know like i'm looking at now i've got it off because i was about if i'm gonna say this and i've not got it off i'm gonna tell myself off switches you're not using people leave them on all the times which is that you're not using just because you've not gotten plugged in unplugged in and then it's on that's still losing electricity so make sure everything is switched off so even if you've got no plug in it and it's on that will still cost you some electrics and make sure you turn that off. And even if this is like really extreme, if you are really, really, really hard up, like your fridge is costing you a fortune to run. When it is freezing, turn it off.

And if you've got like an outdoor building, store everything in there. Because if it's freezing cold weather, you know, you can do that. Like your milk, your diet cokes and things like that. So we put a lot of things like that in the garden like all the drinks we'll put those in the garden for example and we haven't got to have our fridge under such a high temperature we've done all things like this to like cut back on money i mean in the past so things you know don't over overfill it and things just looking at everything if you've got a smart meter smart meter look at that and work out you know when you're running certain appliances just trying to be more mindful of it like turning the lights off i mean kids are

murdered for that mine actually i've programmed that into them so brody's really good at that but bronte's four she's not she turned the light and turn the light on and then she walk out the room so it's just trying to sort of chat to everyone in the family as well and say to them look it's really really expensive you leaving lights on he's gonna no i'll look back at my mum now she'd be like we could land a plane on this bleeding house jemma and when we were shopping i'm like i'm turning into my mother because i'm like i never like so it always happened my best one was were you brought up in a barn because i'd never shut the doors you brought up in a barn there's there's things you can do and obviously still look at your um energy providers and things

like that and look and go on to like the um government website and see if you are entitled to any grants or anything like that i mean just be careful with grants because a lot of time you do have to pan back but if you are really really struggling go to the citizens advice bureau have those conversations is there any benefits you can help um that can help you out towards the payment in the winter you know and and try not to get so so stressed as well even though it does rock it up conversations is there any benefits you can help um that can help you out towards the payment in the winter you know and and try not to get so so stressed as well even though it does rock it up because it does average out over the year so you might have a higher winter bill but in the summer and in months you're not using it so you can spread it through the summer months so try and

think of it as like oh god don't think of it over one month sort of plan it that you're spreading it over the year because i think it's quite horrible when you see that one bill for that when all the rest of the months have been low so that's sort of how we do it in this house we always just sort of spread it out yeah so you've mentioned that um you you're really big on making small changes and that you think that your financial security right now is largely down to that what kind of really practical small changes can we make what things can we go without what what did you find yourself doing throughout the last 20 years so I would drive and I wouldn't drink I'm not a big drinker so that might be really difficult for certain people because they might like a drink and I would have a soda and lime the cheapest in the the restaurant

I'd be the driver that's a huge so I'd go out for the night for a pound and I would have a soda and lime the cheapest in the the restaurant I'd be the driver that's a huge so I'd go out for the night for a pound and we had that person who was saying let's not split the bill six ways let's just pay for what we've had absolutely I would always be like that I'd be like right we can go out on a voucher code quite a few of my friends are like me anyway like my best mate Lambert she's exactly like me she's like oh we'll go here oh we we call each other snoops oh I'm not paying for that snoops we'll go down the local weatherspoons we're like two old women we're like that anyway we're like oh we can get a pizza there for so yeah all those sort of things eating out looking at where you're eating i'd go out all the

time with my friends i felt like i had a great social life but i wouldn't go to fancy places i would just go i'd go to the bar i would go to beautiful bars but i would just have a soda and lime and it wouldn't worry me so that's obviously a huge thing i saved money on i'd walk anywhere i could and not use my car and i still do that now like i walk down to where i live all the time and try not to drive unless i need to get like food shops and things i try and walk everywhere save money on petrol um all things like i would look at when you go out trying to limit on coffees because that is something now that i do enjoy for myself but i've gone years without that so i you'll always see me with a coffee now but

all the years when i was trying to mount it up i would not buy the coffees out because they do really really really add up um things like looking at i'd always sell the old um to replace it with new so if i wanted a new sofa i'd have to sell that sofa first before i replaced it with the new and the same with clothes i wanted like new tops i would sell my old top to put money towards my new top i'd only ever buy in sales i'd buy out of season so for example when my children needed something if they needed jumpers I would go at the end of winter when there was a sale on and I'd buy them the next year up and put them away for the following year so I'd always do that um selling absolutely everything I could to then replace for the new I've never bought like new toys for the kids i've used to go to like nct mini new

sales car boot sales and toy swap and i do toy rotation and i still do that now like bronte even thinks poundland is the toy store that is what she says to me she said it to my friend the other day she was like oh my god she really does i was like no i literally am like that i'm like because she's four years old she gets bored with it i could buy her a toy for 50 quid but she'd still be bored after. The next day, can I have something else? You know, the attention span at four is. So she'll go there and she'll buy something for a pound.

So all those little things I just feel really do add up. And things like going to the gym, I stopped, like, my gym membership when I was younger. I was into the gym. I wish I was now. When we moved in here, cut down my TV, tv literally and i'd say to people as much as you know cut absolutely everything back and just their free view if you're if it is that much of a you need to eat something have all your free view and we do always look for deals and then cancel them after a month so if netflix is free for a month i'd have it watch that cancel it then

i'd move on to apple tv then i'd move on to disney plus honest to god and i would live like that every single solitary time something was coming up for no three weeks before it's due for no it's a really good time to look at insurance that's when you get your cheapest quotes so then i would go on and i would do that i use things like honey it's installed into my computer so as i'm checking out i get my discount code every single solid time i check out it searches the web for me to get this generate discount codes um and then it automatically puts them in my basket i also do things like um have a three-day rule so i'll put things in my amazon basket i wait three days a lot of time you get sent discounts as well if you wait and then after three days i look at down that

basket and think is it anything i need night at the time i delete the whole basket i'm like i don't know why i put that in don't know why i put that in don't know why I put that in don't want that that's really the that three-day rule that's what I'm taking because I'm like Instagram ad oh in the bag bought and then it arrives and I'm like oh I didn't know I'd bought that like three-day rule in the Instagram in the Amazon basket that's a good one and look at it as well like if you're like into something like if you hate your job which unfortunately lots of people payroll in the instagram in the amazon basket that's a good one and look at it as well like if you're like into something like if you hate your job which unfortunately lots of people do work out your hourly rate right and if your hourly rate say after tax and national insurance you take

home a tenner i swear to god you will feel so differently about spending that 10 pound buying that four pound coffee because then you'll think hold on a, I'm in Starbucks, it's a fiver for coffee. I have to work at that job I hate for half an hour to buy that coffee. Oh, my God, I'm not doing it. I say it's like going to the gym. Whenever I've been to the gym, I never want to eat a chocolate bar because I'm like, that is 300 calories. That takes me two hours on that treadmill to burn that. But when I don't go to the gym, I just shove it in my mouth

because I'm not thinking about it. So look at it like that. Because if you do see that as an hourly rate, I swear to you, it will change your mindset so much. And you'll be surprised what you can say just doing all these little things. Like, trust me, I've done it all my life. And no spend days. How many days you can go about spending things? Like, I see it as a bit of a buzz.

I get a buzz out of it. We're popping on again to remind you that this episode of the Netmums podcast is brought to you by Aldi. Switching to Aldi Mammy and Nappies can save parents more than £200 during the first 12 months alone. Don't forget to visit Netmums to claim your free pack of newborn nappies. And let all your friends know too. Tell us about the no spend days is that something you've done all your life a no spend day so tell us how it works so basically you spend zero money and i mean zero not even buying herbs if you need them for your casserole that night i'm talking about nothing so you go around your kitchen you use up everything you need for your food wires

in your house if you want to go and meet a friends you take a flask of coffee with you or a drink you go to the park you spend no money no buying the ice creams you take absolutely everything with you so you try not to use your car you go for walks you literally spend no money no shopping online no doing this because when i've done it before people have gone i just need to like get petrol and i'm like no it's no spend day so you can't go there then you've got to walk people laughing at me going oh my god like okay because it's almost like a challenge so yeah I used to do it on Instagram all the time Gemma's no spend days and like it was really funny when people would inbox me saying I just need tomato puree and I'm like well you can't buy it it's a no spend

day they're like oh and I'm like well what else have you got make a different dinner and they're like oh yeah actually I've used up this and that so it's a bit of fun as well but it's getting you in the mindset of like how you can live and enjoy your life like look covid i think taught people some good things like we don't need all these designer handbags like what did we crave in lockdown you weren't thinking about wearing the boot on shoes you were craving going to see people going out for a coffee sitting out maybe going for a meal but they are the things you've got to stop talking about coffee I really want the coffee I'm leaving here and going straight to Starbucks it's empty help no Gemma when someone says to you I am terrible with money what's your response do you think it's just an excuse do we all have the

ability to be good with money when someone says it to me I don't think it's an excuse do we all have the ability to be good with money when someone says it to me i don't think it's an excuse no because i think it's who you are and we're all built and made differently so i don't think i could ever say to anyone you you know that that's true but you can get better with money if you want to you have to have a want and a desire for anything so i'll just say like if it's making you feel ill every night like going to bed and you've done everything you can you you must speak to somebody like there's lots of like step change out there's mind for mental health there's places like that it starts by talking to somebody and if you are really bad with your money and you're earning a good wage and you're thinking to sell blood on a minute i've got we have five

grand a month coming in here our bills are two and a half where's this two and a half grand going then you're not good with money management and you need to sit down and work it out and and if you're no good at it speak to a friend or a colleague or the citizen by someone that's good with money even your local bank and builders society go in and get some financial help and advice listen to podcasts go on money people's pages you know there's there are people out there that talk about it and it doesn't need to be like overly complicated. Like I say, look, I see a lot of money pages and I don't even get what they're talking about. Like I'd say mine is very just simple terms

about making switches and sitting down. The most important thing is doing something that you're comfortable with. So if you're brilliant on spreadsheets, like Adam's amazing on a spreadsheet, I'm terrible, but you might be good at like writing things down or you might be good at putting things on your phone. what works for you there's no right or wrong and there's no one should tell you what to do in life you should but if you want to do it and you want to get

better you can honestly do it but it's consistency it's not doing it for a day a week even a month it's doing it over the year and that's when you'll really start to notice the financial impact because it does it's not it's not a magic as i said it's not a magic wand i've been doing this for over 20 years it's it's a slow burning process and then when you've got a pot of money and you've got your savings and you've got say a steady thing that where you can pay off each month you're paying your bills and i'm not talking about somebody in debt because that's a different situation if you're in debt i always say pay your debt first not don't save because you've got interest on your debt so if you have no debt i'm talking about and you and you're and you're level pegging every single month once you've built up a saving spot then look at maybe investing and again that is

another thing i always say is like with investments people say where should i save what's best that's case by case you could have you want to be saving for the next 20 years because you want something. Then you can do a long-term risk that's more volatile, like stocks and shares and things like that, because you've got time to get it back. It could be that you want to save for a year, so make sure you're locking it away for a year in a high interest. It could be you want instant access to it. So again, it's about what's right for you, and it's about what you need it for, when you need the money for, and how long do you want to lock it away or do you need access to it? So you have to, it's something that, finance is an individual-based thing.

But for people in debt, I always say, get on top of that first. And if you can't, speak to companies because it's only money and you're worth more than money, 100% all day long. So you talk about this and kind of like teaching yourself to be good to with money but you're a big advocate of teaching kids to be financially literate aren't you and you had a chat with our friend rishi recently tell us about that and why you think these life skills

should be on the curriculum right i think they should be on the curriculum because we go to school every single day and we're taught all these different subjects which i'm not saying are not important things like religious education and things i do think it's important that we learn about other religions and things but i just think we need to be cutting some of these things out and like maybe once a month we're talking to the kids about money and i'm not talking about teachers and i said this to rishi i said you know because that there's too much pressure on them already but there's loads of banks builders societies lots of companies out there that would willingly maybe even give up their free time or get in government to invest in somebody pay for educational people to go into the schools and have the conversations

with the kids and i'm talking he, we teach the maths to their 18. Again, fantastic. That is not financial education. I'm talking about going in the schools, sitting down with the kids and saying, right, do you realise how rich you're going to be on your first pay packet when you take on £1,500 a month? You might have to pay mum and dad £400 a month. You've got £1,100 a month to spend.

Bear in mind they've had zero money. You should then be telling them, right, we'll put £ pounds in a savings account and spend 600. If they put 600 pounds away from 16 to 21, 22, they've pretty much got their deposits for their house, especially if they meet up with a friend or a partner. We're going to sort of change the mindset

of so many young children and making them learn and grow. And also like what happens when you get into debt where do you go with that because we're told so much don't talk about money it's a terrible thing to talk about don't say how much you're earning don't ask people about their money i think they still need to be changed we talk about absolutely everything now you see on the internet all the time which is great but we need to talk about money because it's something that affects all of us and saying to kids you know if you're in debt don't worry about it but make sure you speak to someone straight away the minute

you get in debt so they don't then get another credit card to pay that debt off talk to them about APRs interest rates when they get a mortgage if they borrow 200,000 they're going to pay about 300,000 and this is how interest works if they overpaid by their mortgage by 20 30 pounds a month straight away they might knock a year off showing the mortgage calculators teaching them what to do with their first wage packets all these things are life skills and i cannot believe we're sending our children out and we are not going over this yes it's great if you've got parents at home that are doing this but there'll be loads of parents that aren't good with money themselves or don't understand it themselves so this is basic financial education i'm not talking about maths i can't say it more than i've said it

to him i'm talking about teaching them these life skills and letting them have open forums where they can ask about money what's a good wage whatever they want to ask whatever they want to ask now there's no silly or wrong or right question then how do they learn if they're told by everyone they're not allowed to talk about money or debt or say anything about it or you've got to keep up or you're seeing it on social media that all your friends have got this bag but you've not got it it makes them feel makes them feel crappy it makes them feel like they're not worth worth something whereas if we started teaching them that do you know what you can have a gucci and bag girls honestly you can have it but if you have that

when you're 17 18 19 that might cost you two thousand pounds but if you put that two thousand pounds over that you maybe why don't you could have it when you're 25 once you're on the property what's important to you asking them they might say well actually i just want to enjoy 16 17 18 i want to go raving ibiza fine that's what you want to do just be careful you've got the budget to make sure you're not in debt once you've done all that so blow your money on going on ibiza and having an amazing time but let's do it that they're not getting in debt once they come out of that or no do you know what i do want to say if i'm not interested in design of things these talks are so important like i can't fathom why we're not having them like it actually ups me like i'm so

passionate about it sorry but no just great no but it's so true they get taught so much and even just on a small scale my eldest daughter has just started secondary and she's having to learn that she's got X amount of money. I think it's four quid a day for her lunch. And so if at break time, as she did yesterday, she buys a piece of lemon cake and a smoothie, then at lunchtime, she's hungry because she hasn't got enough money left to buy anything decent at lunchtime. And she was like, oh, can you give me some more? I was like, no. no brilliant don't buy lemon cake and a smoothie love simple so so important I did that with my dad and he gave me an he used to give me allowance when I hit 17 it was like right I'm gonna give you I think it was 10 pound a week but that was like for my bus

fare to college um getting my lunch whatever I wanted buying my deodorant, everything. My parents were like, right, we're not buying all this for you now. You have to get a part-time job. And I remember literally, I spent it and I went up to my dad and went, right, I want to go to the cinema with Jennifer tonight. I've spent the money. Can I have some more? He was like, no, you've got to wait till next week. And I was like, but why? And he's like, you can't go to your boss at the end of the month, middle of the month and be like, oh, sorry, sorry trev i've spent all that can you just give us another couple of grand it don't work like that life so teaching them no and again this doesn't matter how wealthy you are as a parent it's just good life lessons for them because you want them to do well do you know what i mean so now i'm in a good situation financial situation

don't mean that i'm going to be giving brody more like he went to me the other day everybody else in my class gets 10 pound a week on their go henery you only give me two pounds i was like you're 10 years old two pound is plenty on your go emery you're not getting any more i said i might make it a pound and i'm really like that with him but i've noticed even that and he's nearly 11 now and he goes in and when he buys this little thing when he'd go emery he said to me oh i can't have anything now because i've got nothing on my go emery and that's 10 pounds so how many weeks you gotta wait oh he goes i've gotta wait five weeks now before i've got to save up again and he's now like oh i'm gonna make sure i save up so i can buy this next thing but i just think it's so good so good i totally agree um now jemma tell us about your

rounding up technique um how much have you saved from doing that over the years I couldn't tell you an amount because I've done it for so many years like I did this from about the age of 17 this is well before NatWest or anyone brought it out it was just like years ago so whatever I had in my bank account at the end of the day I think I used to do when I was 17 I used to do it weekly so you can do this again there's no right or wrong you should do it weekly daily or monthly if i had like 11 pounds in my bank account obviously i was young so it wasn't a huge amount i'd put one pound into this other savings account so i'd still do my savings the minute i got paid so i got paid when i was younger 400 pounds a month i'd straight away i'd put probably 300 in my savings account because i was hardcore not what i'm saying you have to do that i'd put 300 in and then I'd say, right, I've got £25 a week,

for example, for four weeks. And then at the end of every week on that £25, if I had like £24.50 I'd put that 50p into a saving so I'd just make sure I round it up all the time to that whole number. So I've always done that. And it does really, really add up again it's those little things that add up but over the months the years it all makes huge changes i do lots of things on sort of rounding out money even like switching from brand new to non-brand new or doing your shop

cutting out meats and buying more pulses and actually still getting your protein like just doing switches i do it like on four items and i show things like this is only a four pound saving but then i always show over the week and over the year and over the month people was like oh my god like you're right just that small amount what that is adding up to so yeah just whatever you've got in your bank account if you if you're just wanting to save and start saving you could do it like every day you could go and if you've got 31 pounds in there you put the last one in there a one and if it's a zero you've got £31 in there, you put the last one in there, a one. And if it's a zero you've got in there, so it's £40, you'd put in £4. So that's just how I used to do it. And you just put it into another bank account yourself. There's lots of apps that are out there that do it for you

automatically. But they're more based on AI. So they'll calculate what they think you're going to spend. So they might put more or less in, which are good as well. But if you want to do it that you sort of have more control, then you can do it that way. So we've touched on this a little bit. And obviously, money problems can really affect your mental health. And you've spoken really openly about your experiences with anxiety and depression. What advice would you have to someone who's struggling mentally to cope with money problems or not even money problems just anxiety around money what would you advise how would you speak to them so being a sufferer myself i wish i could give you the best advice but i still struggle with myself so the plain thing i

would say is go and get help like i'll take medication for mine because without it i probably wouldn't be like i'm that up and down low so there's amazing organizations I went in and met them this year mind and they are honestly fantastic like they are the women in there just and the men are just incredible um so if you don't feel like you've got a family member to speak to go and speak to someone like that and also go to your doctor um because i say you know your part of your mind is broken you just process things and think things in a different way like loads of people have always said to me in my life that jem i think you've got adhd and things maybe i have but it's just who i am so i would say your your mind might be different to other people's minds so it's not your fault do

you see what i mean if you feel this way so you've got to go and get help like don't leave it because honestly if you're like me you'll get the voices in your head and you'll keep overthinking it and you'll make a situation a million times worse whereas if you sit down with somebody whoever you're comfortable with if you're not comfortable with anyone and you're really on your own then honestly mind i could not recommend them enough for talking about your mental health. They are a really good organisation. And reach out to other people. Like, listen to, like, I don't do this and I probably should.

And, again, this is something that I'm not consistent with. My husband always says to me, you know, listen to things that make you feel good. Listen to people that make you feel good. And I go, oh, I i'm not gonna do that because i think because again it's me shutting down i feel like i know it all and i don't know it all because i suffer with mental health he's like i'm just trying to help you so it is it is difficult when you suffer with mental health sometimes you don't want to get help because i'll openly admit

that i'll be like i don't want to listen to him whittling on he doesn't know anything and adam will be like well he's not whittling on he's trying to give you advice and help like you wouldn't say that if someone was talking to you about money you might not want to hear it but it's fact jem and he's right he is right if he's listening to this he'd be like told you um but he is right so you do need to speak to people and i do do that and i'm lucky because i've got adam who's completely level-headed and he's like my rock so i speak to him about everything and i've got a fantastic agent as well in my workforce like they're like my rocks as well so if I'm getting

anxiety with social media and and I think as well it's important if you're struggling with money having friends in your sector so for me obviously my job is on is on social media so it's having people in that sector that you can talk to about so it's the same with your job if you work in banking if you work in a pub whatever you do maybe even maybe even like speak to your work colleagues and say like, I'm really struggling, can I have extra hours? Like what are you doing? Like how are you making ends meet? And having those conversations because whatever job you're in,

you have highs and lows in. So if you're struggling financially, if you're not in work and you're worrying and struggling, then like go to places like the Citizens Advice Bureau, speak to mine, speak to StepChange if you're in debt because they'll put you on a plan like the amount of people i've sent over there and they're like jem it's like an absolute way it's been lifted off you're like a different person i can at least sleep at night because i know now i can do it i've got a plan in place see a lot of people and they've got mental health they they they like being on their own like we've got the mtas tonight

and i've got huge anxiety over that because everyone's drinking i don't like that so i want to go and put my dress on and see like some of my friends like i'm going with the label lady funny enough jemma and my agent so i'm really like they're my really good oh she's been on the pod we've had her on the pod yeah she's lovely so like jem's gonna pick me up and i feel already better again because i felt really anxious and angie's coming with me so it's about maybe being honest and saying i feel really worried i feel anxious and then you it's amazing, if they're good people in your life, they'll rally around you and be like, come on, we're all going to go together and we're going to have a great time.

And if you want to go and you feel like it's getting too busy and stuff, we can leave. Because I don't do well with massive things like that. Like, it's not really me. Like, I'd rather come around your house and have a pizza and a coffee. Coffee again. Stop it. I've been gifted a beautiful caramellon dress tonight and i'm like oh my god the fabric on this because i'm just don't wear things like that it's

unbelievable yes it's lovely to sometimes have some nice things but yeah it's it's about yeah yeah you have you have to you have to try and be honest not you don't have to be honest with the world like i've just been with you lot but you just be honest with like someone you're close to and if you're not close to anyone just even the samaritans it's just sometimes you just need to get things off your chest didn't you yeah yeah that's great i think it should be so helpful people listening um finally jemma do you have any handy apps or websites you mentioned you've mentioned a couple already like honey was one that you mentioned but do you have any kind of handy apps or websites that you religiously use to help you with money yeah so um i don't use this one anymore because i've got like my virgin credit card i think that i get points in that but top cash back's really

good one um so every time you spend money you do get cash back um zip zero where you can literally take photographs of your receipts you upload them and you just get money back from your receipts. As time rewards, if you go on my Instagram, I've got... Hold on, hold on. Backtrack, you get money from your receipts? Yeah, so you just take a photograph of your receipts. It's not a scan, it's called Zip Zero. And then what happens is you link, like, I've linked to my council tax

and then every time you get to a certain amount, they just pay, it comes with your council tax bill, but you can choose which bill you want it to come off. So you i mean it ain't like uh you ain't gonna like do loads in it but you might get like 10 15 quid a year but again i think i was 10 15 quid a year it takes me a second um airtime rewards as i'll say if you go on my instagram i've got a code for that where i get 50p and you get 50p being money mum obviously i'm trying to earn a few quid i know the code off the top of my head i'll give you it that's what i mean i'm always thinking hold on how can i earn a few pounds and that's what i'm like and so you've got airtime rewards where you can put um you link your phone bill and money

basically comes off your phone bill so you literally download the app you put your phone bill in you put your card as in the eu so like if you use a credit card a debit card and then every time you spend money in certain shops money comes off your phone bill there is no con in it it's completely free and i've done it for years and i've had loads of money off my phone bill just gonna write that down what's other ones oh god i know so many i'm just trying to think so they're really really good for like your day-to-day for making money i've got vinted um brilliant app and where i'm really busy uh my friend does a lot of my vinted for me and i pay her 20 you're a mum and you want to make money say to your friend you got anything you want to

sell maybe they'll do 50 50 with you or 30 or 25 whatever it is then you've got no startup fee for a business you've got all the stock because your mates are giving you it and the app's free and you can sell it as a business as well so it's like a two-in-one so flipping either side of those what else do i use i use those we use honey ghost is another one camel camel camel that's for amazon and that's an amazon tracker that's a good one thank you so much jen you're absolutely brilliant you've just like i think we need to bottle you if possible i think i'm annoying i'll probably annoy most people because i don't shut up not bot not not bottle you in a violent way we don't want to no no no just bottle you in a keep you kind of way don't worry you'd want to put me in the bottle and put a box over me

oh it's been so good to chat to you Gemma thank you thank you for joining us Gemma having me on I appreciate it