Sammie Ellard-King was £24,000 in debt before he discovered some cash-saving hacks to clear his backlog. Now he shares his wisdom with his fans online
Budgeting didn’t always come easy to Sammie Ellard-King. He never received a financial education, and when he first left home and graduated from university, he found himself £24,000 in debt.
“I had a student loan, a credit card and an overdraft and I ended up peacocking. I was always out, always with nice stuff, showing off but racking up expensive debt,” Sammie, from Ramsgate, says.
“I was basically layering debt on top of debt and by the time I was 25, a third of my wages was going on interest payments and not even clearing the balances.”
Despite having a well-paid job in marketing at the time, Sammie took a ‘long hard look at himself’ and decided to deploy some side hustles and belt-tightening to clear the debt.
“I didn’t want to live like a pauper eating baked beans for seven years, so I did trainer reselling, online surveys, freelancing, focus groups online, literally any side hustle going. And it massively paid off,” he says.
Sammie, now 36, was debt free in 18 months, and he decided to share what he had learned about personal finance. Now, as financial educator with more than 500k followers online, he considers himself a savvy saver.
He launching money-saving website Up the Gains in 2021, has generated one billion content views and was named Best Money Content Creator at the 2024 British Bank Awards.
And at the beginning of the year he deployed ten hacks that have already helped him save £3,278 – which he wants to share with you.
1) The 24-hour rule can stop impulse spending “If I want to buy anything that costs over £50 online, I add my details to the basket with the item and then wait a day. Generally, most retailers will come back and chuck a discount at you, sometimes up to 25%. But most of the time, you will find that if you wait, you later realise you don’t actually want the thing. Studies show that you get a dopamine hit from that purchase flow and by the times it arrives, you often have buyer’s remorse.” 2) Bill switching can save you hundreds “By changing my own energy provider I’ve saved £61 a month, but most people don’t switch because they think its easier. By shopping around with your mobile, broadband, insurance etc you can save a lot of money. Providers incentivise people heavily to move and I saved £150 by changing car insurance this year. Checking these things can really save you money and it only takes an hour or two’s work.” 3) Deploying cash back schemes can get you free food “Cash back is a great way to save money. We’ve just launched our own app which has cash back in place. But there are other providers, like Top Cashback and Quidco, which are brilliant. If you get meticulous with your spending, you can get two to three full food full weekly food shops a year, which for an average family of four, is a massive amount in your pocket. But you can also use it on travel, fashion, entertainment and going out. Once you get the knack of it and switch that mindset, it only takes 30 seconds and it really starts to build up. A family of four can earn anywhere between £700 and £1,091 a year, which really makes a tangible difference.” 4) Make that cash back work harder “I systematically withdraw the money I make from cash back once a month, and then it goes into a Monzo pot, which I then earn interest on top. So I’m earning money back from my cash back which helps me pay for Christmas and holidays.” 5) Switching your bank account can help you save cash “If you do this systematically it can really help. I spoke to a lady recently who had made five switches in a year and she saved £800. I’m not that meticulous. I might do two or there a year. But it is so simple, no more than filling in a form online. People are apprehensive about it, but the current account switching service will take care of everything for you and it takes around seven days for all your direct debits and pay to move over. It’s really not difficult to do.” 6) Carry out a subscriptions audit “The average UK household wastes £39 a month on subscriptions, which is £468 a year. They stack up quietly. We’ve all done it, especially with TV. Gains have a built-in tracking service so you can clearly see everything going out of your account and keep an eye on what you are paying for but not using. We’ve also built in an AI chat service that can help you cancel things in the fastest and simplest way possible, so no stone is left unturned.”
7) Meal planning can be a huge money saver “My partner and I have gone really heavy on our meal planning and have found we can save about £700 a year. The amount we waste in food in this country is enormous. It’s heartbreaking to fill the fridge with stuff that ends up in the bin and being more careful about it saves so much money.” 8) Sell your unwanted stuff “We systematically do a Vinted so that every three months we get rid of stuff we don’t need and that really adds up. It might just be £50 here or £20 there, but it all contributes towards the cost of living.” 9) Track your spending for one month “We live in a digital age, and that can mask how much money you are spending. Making a note of what you have spent over 30 days can really help you plug the leaks. A lot of people will get to the end of the month and they’re not sure of sure where their money’s gone. We often buy things in the moment, and forget shortly afterwards. By writing it down and looking at it, you realise that if you take the bus instead of an Uber, take a packed lunch twice a week or make the coffee at home, it really stacks up and makes a huge difference.” 10) Deploy the three bank system “I call this proactive budgeting and involves three different accounts. You get paid into account number one, which becomes your everyday spending money. Your second account, is for bills and subscriptions and you immediately send out the money to cover this on payday. And then your third bank account is your savings account, and for example, it could be Monzo, which I like because it has saving pots. This really helps me to save and budget.”
How Sammie saved £3,278 since January 1st
Cashback – £676 – including from a new mattress and some household furniture Vinted + Ebay (selling old furniture and clothes) – £600 Bill Switching – £300 Subscription Audit (for two) – £280 Meal Planning – £180 24-Hour Rule – £200 (I was about to buy a new barbecue – stopped and then got one from Facebook marketplace for £30) Spending Tracking – £190 Roundups – £152 (This is the digital version of throwing change in a jar. I use them on my Monzo. You spend £3.40 and the bank rounds up the change into a savings pot. If you spend £3.40, 60p goes into savings.) Bank Switches x 2 (each with my partner) – £700