BOSS: The Payday Splurge
Lesson 12 of 12 in our free Food & Everyday Spending guide: a 5-minute money game with the key points below.
This lesson is in the full version.
Free with a code from your uni, college, council, landlord or employer (worth £600/year). Lesson 1 of Food & Everyday Spending is free for everyone.
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Questions you'll answer
After £520 of fixed costs and £60 into savings, Mo has the rest of the £900 for 4 weeks of food, travel and fun. What's the weekly amount?
Week 3. Mo has £40 left for 10 days and the fridge is empty. Best plan?
Quick facts
- Rent share → Pay/set aside on payday. Fixed cost. Out first, every time.
- Phone bill → Pay/set aside on payday. Fixed cost — set aside or let the direct debit go.
- Weekly food shop → Weekly spending money. Split the food budget by week so week 4 isn't beans-only.
- 'Payday deal' on a new phone case → Wait or skip. The phone case can wait 48 hours. It will still exist.
- Gift-fund top-up → Pay/set aside on payday. Planned saving goes out on payday, before it gets spent.
- Bus fares → Weekly spending money. A regular spend — budget it weekly.
- Red flag: “PAYDAY FLASH SALE: Your loyalty account has £150 of unclaimed rewards!” — Free money you didn't know about is the bait.
- Red flag: “Claim within 1 HOUR or they expire” — Fake urgency — real loyalty points don't vanish in an hour by text.
- Red flag: “Log in here: rewardz-claim-now.co” — Odd link, not the shop's real website. Never log in via a text link.
- Red flag: “Enter your card number + 3 digits on the back to verify” — Rewards never need your card security code. That's card-detail fishing.
- Fact: “Your rent should come out of your pay before your fun money.” — Fixed and priority costs first, every payday.
- Myth: “Real retailers may send you texts asking for your card's security code to claim rewards.” — They won't. Report scam texts by forwarding them to 7726 (free).
- Fact: “If food money runs out, asking for help is a normal thing to do.” — Uni hardship funds, local food support and free money guidance exist for exactly this. Asking early is a smart move.