Women are better budgeters but don’t realise it: how to boost your budgeting self-belief

Starling Bank has found men and women's different budgeting response to the cost of living crisis, with women sticking to their budgets and men relying more on credit and loans. 

Cash-strapped households are doing everything they can to cut back on spending, but new research by Starling Bank (opens in new tab) reveals gender differences have played a role in how individuals have responded:  

Helen Bierton, Chief Banking Officer at Starling Bank (opens in new tab) said: “With women budgeting so diligently, they shouldn’t be reporting lower levels of confidence than men when it comes to their money, but they do. 

I believe it’s because there are systemic differences in how men and women are spoken to about money, how they are taught about money, and how much money they are given, which can alter both men's and women’s attitudes towards it.”

Budgeting self belief 

Why is gender playing a role in finances?

We might not like to hear it, but gender roles conventionally link money to men as that’s what the media feed us. 

Previous research (opens in new tab) by Starling Bank found in 2018 that 70% of financial media articles aimed at men portrayed ‘money making’ as a masculine ideal. 

Starling Bank put it down to attitudes towards money management and how men like to accumulate more money whereas women work with what they have. 

As a result, the study found 21% of women are more likely to downsize their lifestyle compared to 16% of men are 22% of women are eating into their savings compared to 15% of men.

The study conducted by Starling Bank with 2,000 adults in the UK were asked about money management during the cost of living crisis. Here’s what they found.

How to budget

If you are looking to give budgeting a go and don’t know where to start, here are some ways you can try. And don’t feel you need to start with big money, saving even pennies adds up in the long run. 

• Budgeting apps. Try out the best budgeting apps like Hyperjar or Emma, or saving apps like Chip or Plum which use artificial intelligence (AI) to calculate how much you can afford to put away into savings. If you’re looking to budget your money into different pots, the Starling Bank app lets you do this, but you need to be a Starling bank customer.
• Use the 50/30/20 rule. Try to follow this rule and put 50% on needs such as rent and other household bills, 30% on wants like hobbies and socialising and 20% on financial goals such as saving or investing. Check out our in-depth guide on how to budget with the 50/30/20 rule.
• Try the 1p challenge. If as part of your budgeting, you find you go off track easily or find it difficult to save, then this 1p challenge could be for you. The idea is, every day of the year you save an extra penny, so 1p on day 1, 2p on day 2 and so on. We’ve got a breakdown of how much you would put away per month if you did the 1p challenge this year.
• Give cash stuffing a go. Another great one if you’re a fan of budgeting physical cash. Some people prefer saving actual cash as visual budgeting helps them. This method involves separating money into different categories that fit your lifestyle, and putting money away in cash ‘envolopes’. Get the full low-down on how cash stuffing works and why the trend is popular on Tik Tok.