5 savvy saver tips to build your money

Use the know-how in our savvy saver tips to step up your finances and find out how you could be ISA wiser.

1. Regularly review your finances

Once you’ve reviewed your finances you’ll be able to set realistic savings goals.

It could be useful to take a look at your finances on a monthly basis, you’ll be able to keep your spending on track and be aware of any inaccuracies or even fraud occurring.

Don’t forget to check in when your finances alter too, such as an income change from getting a promotion, as you may wish to adjust your savings plan.

2. Divide your spending

After reviewing your money, you could divide it up into ‘essentials’ such as car payments, groceries, household bills and ‘non-essentials’, perhaps, takeaways or entertainment.

See if there’s an opportunity to reduce your ‘essential’ payments, or any groceries you could start buying in bulk. And identify whether you need to fund all your ’non-essential’ costs. You could try selling your old clothes before you buy new ones or cut down on multiple streaming subscriptions.

You now know how much money you’ve got going into your account, and you’ve calculated your ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ payments, so the money you have left is your savings.

3. Save for surprises

It could be a good idea to assess how much of your savings you want to use to set up an emergency fund. What does a financial surprise look like to you? This could be broken tech, an unexpected vet bill, household repairs or vehicle maintenance. Work out the rough figure of being able to cover potential short-term costs and save this amount.

4. Set up a safety net

Once you’ve arranged a short-term emergency fund, you might feel more secure knowing you have at least three months of your ‘essential’ costs covered should you experience job loss, illness or any temporary situation that could benefit from the breathing space a safety net provides.

You can use your savings to build up your safety net, and there are options that could grow your savings even further compared to keeping those funds in your current account. After you’ve finished saving your safety net, you can continue to build your savings towards another goal such as a holiday or a more comfortable retirement.

5. Could you save in an ISA?

You could be making more of your savings by opening an ISA. For the current 2025/26 tax year allowance, you can save up to £20,000 tax-free^[1]. With an Easy Access Cash ISA you can save little and often if this suits your needs. Whatever you can afford to regularly invest will help you to reach your savings goals.

The sooner you start, the greater the rewards. This is due to compound interest, which is where the interest you earn over time is added to the principal sum of your account. If you don’t make any withdrawals, each interest payment will be bigger than the last and it applies whether it’s compounded monthly or annually. The compound interest will be higher the more you top up.

6. Our Cash ISAs

You can take advantage of tax-free savings with our award-winning range of ISAs.

We’re a reliable choice for savvy savers as our customers have benefitted from Cash ISA rates paying 1.05% higher than the market average rates*^[2].^[3]

With a selection of Fixed Rate or Easy Access Cash ISAs, you can opt to split your £20,000 allowance across both types of ISAs to see what best suits your needs. It’s worth noting that our ISAs are limited edition accounts and can be withdrawn at any time, so you might want to snap one up if it looks like the right ISA for you.

Explore our current range of ISAs or read more in our ISA hub.

¹ Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs): Overview - GOV.UK

² *Based on financial institutions who are members of CACI’s CSDB.

³ Source: CACI’s CSDB, Stock, Jan 2024 to Jan 2025.