The Vault with Financielle - UNLOCKED: Unhinged + feral money hacks, plus an engagement and a baby!

Episode Date: May 11, 2025

Send us a textWelcome to The Vault Unlocked, by Financielle.This week's episode involves some outrageous money hacks shared by others, plus some questions focussed on big life moments!The Vault is an entertaining yet thought provoking podcast that answers our community’s dilemmas and confessions surrounding women and money.Visit https://www.financielle.com to download our app.Watch the podcast on YouTube.Follow Financielle for more:▶︎ TikTok▶︎ InstagramAbout Financielle:Financielle is a female focussed finance app helping women to take back control of their money, ditch debt, increase savings and invest in their future.Recorded and Produced by Liverpool Podcast Studios▶︎ Web ▶︎ Instagram▶︎ LinkedIn

Welcome to The Vault unlocked by Fanon Shell. I'm Laura and here with you this Monday. Hope you've had amazing weekends and wherever you are listening to this I hope that you are doing well on your money journey. It really isn't easy, but we have seen so many amazing wins in the community of these past, there's just even few days, even within a day, you just see so many go in. And I think the bigger thing for me, I definitely do feel like a proud mother hen

is just how you're all helping each other, how everyone has something to give. You know, you might think, I never thought that I'd be someone helping someone out with how to manage their money or how to feel better about money, but you are. And I think it's because you're gaining in confidence with every financial step that you're taking,

you're setting goals, you're setting plans, you're following them, you're messing them up and you're refixing them back again. You know, it really is inspirational to see and you never know how you're gonna be helping someone. So thank you to those of you in the community that are very active. And I do like having unlocked where I can share the community with the financial wider space. So people that aren't on the app and aren't reading everything. Now I'm actually not going to kick off with that Q and A, I'm going to go straight into something

that's on TikTok, which I thought, oh my God, this would be such good conversation for unlocked. And it was a TikTok that said, give me your most unhinged money saving hacks. I'm not talking about, say, 5% of your salary or don't go out to eat. Give me the most unhinged feral things you've done to save. And this is where the comments section just wins. I mean, it's like old days Twitter. I think a very good TikTok comment stream is just hilarious. And it's so funny. Like if you do go on TikTok

and you know to go the right kind of video, you go straight to the comments, the comments are gonna be better than even the original video itself. So I thought, wow, what kind of things are people gonna suggest and would the financial community, world of financial be interested in what people had to say?

So here we go. The top rated comment, because you can actually like someone else's comments, so it pushes the popular ones to the top, actually said, "'Swedish death cleaning made me realize "'how much money I wasted on things that mean nothing "'and don't serve a purpose.'"

Well, I then went down a rabbit hole. What the hell is Swedish death cleaning? I hear you say, well, it is a cleaning trend resulting from the Swedish cultural tradition of decluttering and organizing one's life before we pass away. And actually there's been a recent book by Margareta Magnussen called The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter. And her book kind of brought this trend a bit more mainstream for those of us

that aren't from Sweden. And actually it could be something very popular in other cultures as well. I've just definitely never heard of it. I've always heard Holly saying things like, everyone should just make sure you clean up your shit. Like it's not fair on families. Like if they've lost a loved one, the last thing they need is like loads of extra, they've already got loads of extra admin,

loads of extra legwork and decisions about what is and isn't important. And they have to decide what is donated to charity or what is recycled or what is and isn't important and they have to decide what is donated to charity or what is recycled or what is kept. And so she's always said that. So maybe she's Swedish deep down, who knows? And I guess with this Swedish death cleaning, what the person write in the comment obviously meant was

this concept of how that people have stuff to clear away. It makes you, yeah, they actually said, it makes you realize how much money you waste on things that mean nothing and don't serve a purpose and I massively resonated with that. I think everyone knows with the decluttering activity, you know, you can make your life easier long before you do to pass away. Like doing it even now for us will make it practically easier to find things. It's easier to keep your home cleaner because there's less stuff and so you can keep it nice and clean. It absolutely reduces stress, we all know that.

Clutter and uncleanliness are linked to two higher levels of stress and ultimately it obviously helps you focus on what matters. And so imagine every time you're tempted to buy something random, you might think, where would this go on the Swedish death cluttering pile? I think that was the most left field one. I didn't expect that one. I'll get into some more obvious money ones. So someone else said, store mailing list signups for birthday treats. It's such a good idea.

And my tip would be, open up a separate email for this. And so the big thing about, we say at Fanshawe with marketing emails is unsubscribe. Unsubscribe, left, right and center, because to be honest, discounts can just tempt you tohawe with marketing emails is unsubscribe. Unsubscribe, left, right and center, because to be honest, discounts can just tempt you to buy things with money you don't have. And they're there for a reason, like they work. And so we're definitely big fans of the unsubscribe.

However, where there are benefits to be had, one tip is create a separate email address, so it might say Laura's birthday emails or Laura's mailing offers atgmail.com. I could set that up, open it up and every time I need to give my email address for something, that's the one I can use. And so if discounts go in there, great. And if free birthday treats go in there, same again, amazing, but I'm not seeing them every day in my normal emails.

So that's a good one. Someone else said, if I want something I don't need, I have to transfer an exact equal amount to my savings. If I can't, I can't afford it. And I've definitely seen that before and I think it's just such a good pause moment before deciding to buy something. Like if you really, really want this,

are you prepared to take extra money and put it into your savings or not? Someone if you really, really want this, are you prepared to take extra money and put it into your savings or not? Someone else said, if I want something, I add it to my Amazon cart, but don't buy until payday. 75% of the items I don't want by then. And oh my God, don't we know that

when we talk about our no-spend challenges. We've shared before that the team have done no-spend challenges and quite a few people I think are doing them in May, which is amazing. And it's just a really good way to stop a impulsive spending run and create a break in the habit. And a bit like with the Amazon cart thing,

Lucy's big tip is making a list on your phone. So every time you attempted to buy something, create the list on the phone. And then at the end of the no spend challenge, revisit the list and see how much of the things you really, really want. Because so often it is an impulsive buy, it's an in the moment thing,

we're driven by our hormones or excitement, our adrenaline, and then we didn't want it later. Someone else says, I think about Caleb Hammer yelling at me, he's an amazing US podcasting YouTuber actually. If you check out his YouTube, he like roasts people's budgets in a way. He's so good. I mean, listen, he's got the friendly aggression

and will come out and say what he thinks. But I think that's the, not only is it entertaining, because it's obviously for entertainment values, it's of help. Like the people voluntarily approach him and go on their show, they apply. He's not just picking random strangers off the street because it's obviously for entertainment values, it's of help, like the people voluntarily approach him and go on their show, they apply, he's not just picking random strangers off the street

and judging them for their financial decisions. You know, people that go and sit on his show, sometimes couples will go on together, they have a problem, they have something they need fixing and he does this massive autopsy on all their budgets. So I can really recommend going to Calib, which is C-A-L-E-B, Hammer's YouTube. And you'll see how maybe some of the shorts

probably are edited quite well. He shouts at them. And so people say, I think about Calib Hammer yelling at me. That comment didn't have the most likes, but I kept seeing it repeated. So I am actually thinking that could have been the most popular answer

to what's your most unhinged financial tip, because so many people did write that and then thousands liked them. Someone else says, no spend days. I play a game with myself to see how many days I can go without spending. We are here for it. We love our no spend challenges. And again, just gamifying it and making it a mini challenge of itself can actually distract you from the thing that you'd be motivated to to buy. Someone else says, and this is really interesting, looking at price tags in hours worked. So imagine working out your hourly rate at work and understanding how long that particular item you would need to work for to be able to buy it. I think that's gold.

And a little funny one at the end. I ask myself, is this worth stimulating Donald Trump's economy? I'll leave that one there and not comment on it, but it got a lot of likes. But it's a good reminder, especially in Survive, to be brave and be bold and set yourself targets and challenge yourself. Like this stuff is meant to be hard. If this is easy, especially in survive, you are going too slow. Granted, we want you to be able to enjoy your life.

We want you to be able to have nice things, but you can't have everything at once. And we don't want you in survive for too long. We want you building that mini emergency fund, paying off your consumer debt and getting into build where you're building a lovely, nice, chunky emergency fund that is earning lots of money in interest. And so this, the survive is the fun bit because it's where you really have to get creative with how you can save money. And I always say this, like it's the pain that you go through in survive are the building blocks for building wealth because you're learning to spend less than you're making and create that excess in your budget. You're learning to go without

and to not just buy loads and loads of things and spend loads of money on stuff. You're making sure that there's a right proportionality around your budget that not all your income is going to things or to bills, but some of it's going to you because it's the same methodology all the way through. So when you are fully debt free and you've got a big emergency fund and you've bought your property,

if you want a property, you are putting money to things that grow your net worth and it's done with the same method. If you suddenly ramped up your spending and bought shit that you don't need and, you know, got carried away and raised your spending because you had loads of extra cash, you will absolutely go back to survive. You will definitely end up because there's never enough money. And there's always things that we want to spend money on. You will definitely end up back in debt back where you started. And so you have to carry on these learnings from the early stages and take it through with you later.

And that's why you see so many articles commented on wealthy people might not look wealthy. They might not be in a designer logo t-shirt or with a designer handbag. They might not drive a flash brand new car. This is because they know that playing the consumption game, the house always wins. And so being more stoic, being more reserved, apprehensive when it comes to spending, thinking things through,

is a skill that if you can start this now in this unhinged survive stage, you're going to absolutely smash it when you have loads of excess cash and you're going to be investing and you're going to be building wealth and you're going to feel amazing and you still might buy shit you don't need then, it'll just be in the budget. Okay so let's jump into our first question. Dewitt says, I have three and a half thousand pounds of debt left from 15,000 and have just got engaged. Would you prioritize paying off debt and saving for the wedding? First of all, congratulations on getting engaged

and congratulations for getting rid of what, 11 and a half, 12 and a half, I can't do my maths, maybe 11 and a half thousand pounds worth of debt. Like, do it, that is amazing. You have been on a journey. You are on the home straight. We're really interested to know what people at home do think about this one.

I'm obviously gonna answer to say what I would do. I'd like to think I'm answering what I would have done if I was you and also kind of the preachy, I've been married and I've been in debt and older me, you know, the married me. So what I would do is I would prioritize paying off debt and there's a few reasons for that. One is you have come such a long way and you are on that final straights it's the home stretch and you the end is in sight and there's a danger that you could absolutely blow up your money journey because you're gonna get bride fever you're gonna get wedding fever and bride fever and you're the main character and you're gonna get this amazing day

and nothing is out of reach and it gets so exciting. A couple things can happen. One is that you build up the debt again. And I just think there's such a risk that you could definitely overspend on the wedding and I just think there's such a risk that you could derail your progress, possibly even add more debt.

And it means you're starting married life with this like weight dragging you down. And so I like the idea that you create a wedding budget. So how much do you need for the wedding and have that in mind, create a goal in the financial app, have a really aesthetic picture of the location that you would like to get married or your dream location or you know really start to bring that wedding to life and feel free to jump into the planning of that. In fact you need to do a little bit of scoping out and planning to know what kind

of wedding budget you need but that's then the goal that's next and in the meantime you absolutely prioritize this three and a half thousand because if you can go all in on that three and a half thousand and become completely debt free you can then decide how you save for a bigger emergency fund at the same time as saving for a wedding. You obviously have a partner who will also help to save for the wedding and they will be on their money journey and it may be that if they're consumer debt free and they're in a good place financially, that they can start the process of putting money into the wedding account anyway,

and start paying that off, and start saving that up and getting that ready. And so you may find that, you know, if your partner and your fiance can do that in the background and start on the wedding fund, you just go all in and intent, and on this money journey, and the thing is, this debt is the thing standing in the way

of setting the date for this wedding. You're gonna be an animal, like you're gonna absolutely do everything possible to clear that three and a half, and so I just feel like you'll be in such an amazing place when you are debt free, you're saving up for the wedding, and some people that you don't have to sometimes save the full amount and then start planning it

and start booking things. If you can get a really good schedule in order and a good payment schedule and understand where things will be coming up and when money will be needed, you may be able to start booking things and you may be able to start the ball rolling. And again, this also helps with budget because this, you know, depending on the size of budget,

that will dictate how long it takes for you to save up and therefore how long it is before you get married. And honestly, I've seen some people, and this is no judgment, whatever, everyone do their own thing, but some people wait years, you know, for their dream wedding, for it just to years, you know, for their dream wedding, for it just to be for one day,

for really when they get older, they just go, why did we wait? And did I really need that? It was that so important to me, or could we have done it a bit differently, done it cheaper, spent money in a different way? Lots of people have loads of regrets about weddings, and so no one's perfect.

But getting that right balance of, you know, getting the day and the event that you want with the rest of your life is really important. And I just think the vibes that that sends to start a relationship off completely debt free, everything that you do then is gonna be for you both rather than, oh, hi, I've got this debt over here that I've got to sort out.

So that's what I would do. We've got another question in the DMs where someone says, my life insurance is linked to our mortgage. It decreases in value over time. I heard you say that you reviewed yours and topped it up. What do you mean and why did you do it? It's a good question and honestly, up until four or five years ago,

it was something that I really didn't understand either. And what I learned was that there are two main types of life insurance that we talk about. There's decreasing term life insurance. This is insurance where the death benefit, which is the payout that you would, you beneficiary would get. It decreases over time.

Typically every year it decreases, but the premium you pay usually stays the same. It lasts for a particular set period, like 10, 20, 30 years, which is why it often links to a mortgage. You know, you may have, you may buy a home with 150,000 pounds mortgage, and so you might buy 150,000 pounds decreasing term life insurance.

And so as you pay that mortgage down, kind of at a similar rate really, the total comes down and so this is not the right numbers, but just humor me, the next year it might be, you know, 148,000 and the year after that it might be 145,000, but your mortgage balance is going at the same time. And lots of people use this cover to, particularly cover mortgages, I think that's the most popular linked pricing tool,

especially when it comes to the amount of cover that you get. But even if they're not necessarily linked to a mortgage value, over time, people would hope that their assets will have gone up, their children get older, dependents aren't necessarily relying on the family for money. And so it keeps the price of the life insurance consistent, it doesn't go up but it also ultimately means that the benefit is going down. So when you get decreasing rather than level term you are benefiting from a lower premium, it's a lower cost product but you still get cover you know in proportion to for example with the mortgage you risk you

know your big debt that is being paid off slowly over lots of years. Now honestly, when deciding what type to get, I feel like I benefited from talking it through with an expert because there are so many different variables in place. I mean, when it comes to level term, which is where the death benefit stays the same throughout the term, that also is a fixed premium, but it's typically priced higher than a decreasing term. So, you know, when you got in, you got your price, you were getting your house, sometimes you wanna go for the cheaper one, fine.

But level term does also give you that absolute surety of this is what I'm gonna be paying for, you know, the rest of the term. The reason I guess I prefer level term, and this is again, very personal, is it provides a more general income replacement or it's just general financial protection, whereas the more common use of a decreasing

term life insurance is to cover a debt, so a mortgage or there might be a really big business loan or a regular loan, and it's focused on the debt rather than when you look at level term, it's to provide that income replacement. I think where I got to on this was we were using level term life insurance to cover the mortgage. And it's a bit of a contradiction because really

level term is meant to help replace an income of someone if someone goes, you get a lump sum that can help be that income in the place of the person that you've lost. Why is it only limited to the mortgage? Because when you look at our bills and our outgoings and cost of living, so much of it is not dictated by the mortgage, but it's things like childcare and nursery bills

and wraparound fees and energy bills, we've seen that more recently, cost of goods is up and so all these people have life insurance that's kind of linked to one debt and not life insurance that's kind of linked to one debt and not life insurance that is linked to replacing the money that the life brought, if that makes sense. And so that's why we did a reassessment and realized that we felt we were massively underinsured from a peace of mind point of view.

We were just covering the mortgage balance. And if either of my health, self and my husband were, you know, left managing the family on our own, then there's a big gap that would put an awful lot of stress. And while we're still relatively young and we're fit and healthy, it's the best time to do it. And so that's why we went for level term and not decreasing, but there's no right or wrong sometimes, you know, budget dictates what you can afford. And I would every day rather someone have cover than not.

And so decreasing term is not a problem at all. It is cover, but it doesn't hurt to have a little think about it and question, oh, actually let me check my policy. How much do I have? What am I paying? What am I entitled to? As we talk about this,

we're getting more and more questions. And so we are building lots of content on financial.com forward slash protection. So head there. And I think we've said this before, but we have got a really good partner in life search that have advisors at the end of the phone that like I sat and like chatted for a long time with and walked through all different scenarios and came to a position that was right for us. And so we did go above the

mortgage value and we added some extra, I call them peace of mind policies in there as well, but it was helpful to have someone explain it so that's why we did it and I hope that helped and you can get it sorted. The next question we had, in fact this wasn't a question but this was a comment from Georgia, she shared a win, she said, I have just saved a thousand pounds for MatLeave that starts in June after not really being able to save all my life. She talks about having worked three jobs since the age of 13 and just never been able to save and I just had to share that with you all because firstly Georgia we are so incredibly proud of you. So many of us have gone years without being able to save,

whether that be because we quite frankly have not had the money to save, we've not been taught how to save, the environment that we're in means that we have to spend a lot, we could have impulsive spending issues, there could be a million reasons as to why we've not been able to,

but it is so common is kind of the point I wanna get across that you are not alone. And so when that switches to where you can and you've hit a goal like that, it is absolutely magical because it's life changing. For some people, they might listen to that and go, oh, well done, she saved some money from 10 to leave. This girl has learned to save

after years of not being able to. She has finally mastered the art of spending less than comes in and diverting the excess cash to something that grows her net worth, which in this case is saving for mat leave. She has mastered the art of spending less than she makes so that she has excess cash. And in this case, she's putting her excess cash

to prepare for this big event coming, which is a new baby. And it's already quite a stressful time. Listen, the fertility process is stressful, pregnancy is stressful, and then you become a new parent. And so the last thing you need is money worries. And so the more prepared you can be for that time, the better. But like I said, the bigger win is not just a financial win, it's the mental win that you have been able to do that

and prepare for becoming a parent, help prepare the family, and you've done it. And you just have to rinse and repeat now, Georgia. You have to rinse and repeat. You have to do the same thing over and over again. And honestly, the winners in this are not necessarily the biggest savers, but it's the people that are the most consistent

over a long period of time. And it's true of anything. It's all about consistency. It's not usually about something extraordinary or extra special, but you needed to be able to nail the skill before you could rinse and repeat. And you've done it. So now you rinse and repeat. So best wishes for the new arrival. And I hope you have a wonderful summer being a new mum. Definitely share pictures because we feel like we've got collective interest in our financial

baby so make sure you drop pictures into the community and well done from all of us. And that's it for today thank you so much for listening to The Vault as ever if you've any dilemmas or questions drop them in to the community or DM on Insta or email the vault at varnshaw.com. Just a quick disclaimer, the vault unlocked is a lighthearted chat room, life and money, we're not giving you financial advice. Bye bye.