It’s time for How I Save – our weekly personal finance series.

Each week, we ask someone to share how they are saving and spending to tackle some of the awkwardness around talking about money.

It’s easy to feel a little lost when it looking at your bank statements and wondering how you’re ever going to cut back to save more.

But these (anonymous) accounts help to show what others do so hopefully you can feel a little more confident about managing your own finances.

This week, we’re chatting to Heather*, 46, an administrator living in Bristol, who has switched from full-time to part-time hours.

How Heather Saves:
I earn £19,003 a year, working part time, four days a week. I am also an artist in my spare time. I live alone in a shared ownership studio flat (60% owned, 40% rented).

I have £1800 in an ISA and £1000 in National Savings and Investments. I also have about £125 in a credit union which I pop £20 into every month via direct debit and this is the first pot I dip into if I need cash. 

I’ve saved this much money from when I was in full-time work. Now, I struggle with saving because I simply don’t have the excess income to do so.  

You and your partner could earn £30
an hour as lingerie testers
I decided to work part-time for a number of reasons, not least because I have a disability and I was finding my life just revolved around my job as my weekends would be for recovering from work, and often volunteer activities.

I budgeted carefully and decided I could survive on four days a week which has allowed me to not only to recover, but I also need less recovery time.

I can also spend time focusing on my artwork and I can now see if I can make money from it – just as a hobby at first but I’ll see if there is scope for this to grow. 

I do still try to save now I’m working part-time but these days I am dipping into my savings more frequently rather than putting money in. I’d say the amount stays relatively stable. I put any Christmas/birthday money into savings and tend not to spend lavishly. I take small UK based holidays occasionally but not every year and usually in winter.

I’m saving for emergencies in case I need repairs to my flat and also to ensure I’ve always got some money put aside if I needed to survive for a bit if I were made redundant. I don’t think I’m in a position to save larger amounts at the moment as my income is reduced. 

The main way I save is automatically transferring money into the savings accounts when I get paid. That way I have to physically transfer the money to my current account if I wish to access it.