How to future proof your savings from your own weakest moments

Get to know your danger points when it comes to reckless spending and put bumper bars in place to slow yourself down. Frances Cook explains.

Willpower is a battery, and one that we tend to take for granted won’t run out.

Except, when we treat it that way, we’ve often run it flat by mid-afternoon.

Sure, maybe if you were stronger, more disciplined, less “bad with money” you’d never be ambushed by a 9pm takeaway or the online cart that somehow checked itself out.

But really, if your whole financial plan relies on a fully charged version of you, it will fall over the moment real life walks in.

This is why I’m not interested in turning you into a different person. I’m interested in helping you create a life in which the easy choice and the helpful choice are the same thing.

That means using friction on purpose.

Smooth the path to the behaviour you want, and add tiny speed bumps where you usually derail.

Not punishment. Not shame. Just design.

It’s the same trick supermarkets use to make you walk past chocolate on your way to milk. Except we’re flipping it to work for you, instead of against you.

Most of us let our salary land in one big “spend me” bucket, then try to be good. That’s backwards, and not helpful. A simple reroute can fix it.

On payday, the money gets split up to go straight to where it actually belongs: a bills account that takes care of rent, power, internet; a savings account with a name that means something to you; an investing account that ticks away without you doing anything, every month.

The "spend me" money is whatever is left.

If you need to remember to do the right thing, it’s sometimes going to be forgotten, or you’ll wonder if you actually want to do it this month.

If the right thing has already happened, you can still change your goals if you really want, but you have to decide if you really want to do it.

You don’t need to become virtuous, just change the default.

Evenings are where good intentions go to die.

You planned to cook, then the day ran long, then the certain food delivery app started whispering to you.

The fix is boring and extremely effective. Keep one lazy emergency dinner in the freezer and a handful of weekday meals you can make on autopilot.

I don’t care if they’d get you booed off Instagram, simple and unimpressive food keeps the world turning. Save the pretty cooking for weekends when your brain has petrol again.

This is the part everyone trips over, because "pre-planned treats” sound like the enemy. They’re not. The enemy is chaos.

Plan ahead for the fun, with an account that you pay into each week to fuel the fun stuff. It can keep life sweet without letting the whole plan slide.

When it’s empty, it’s empty. The card says "no" so that you don't have to, which is delightful because you do not have to be your own bad cop.

For the bigger wants, use a 48-hour list, as in, you have to wait at least 48 hours before you’re allowed to get it.

It’s incredible how many “must-haves” turn into “can’t remember why I wanted that” once your nervous system has slept on it.

Impulse spending is allergic to inconvenience.

So moves like deleting saved cards from your phone or laptop may not be a grand gesture, but it’s remarkably effective.

Having to stand up, fetch your wallet, and type those digits in buys your brain enough time to ask, “Do I actually want this?”

Turn off one-click checkout so you can’t slide from temptation to confirmation in under five seconds.

Unsubscribe from the daily “last chance” emails, or send them to a folder you open deliberately, not because your inbox ambushed you.

You’re not banning anything. You’re just making the split-second decision take a full minute.

This doesn’t need to become a grand life overhaul. In 15 minutes, you can make yourself a mini map.

Think about the three moments where your plan usually falls apart. Late-night scrolling? After-school chaos? Friday fatigue?

Then change one thing for each: Move the apps. Set the automatic transfer. Put the emergency dinner in the freezer. That’s it.

Next week, spend another 15 minutes doing similar damage prevention.

None of this advice is flashy or complex, and that’s the point. You’ll still have your coffee. You’ll still buy nice things.

What changes is the path your money takes when you’re tired, busy, or distracted, which, let’s be honest, is most days.

When you design your environment to do the nudging, you don’t spend your energy wrestling yourself into good behaviour.

You just get on with your life, and the money quietly stacks in the background. In a month you’ll notice your shoulders are lower, your bills are on time, and your savings are creeping up without a pep talk in sight.