I spent my days talking to financial experts, but one of the best money tips I ever got was from a friend who I went to university with who doesn’t work in finance. Hey, I’m Francis Cook. I’m a financial journalist and I have to figure out your money. So I was just having a money chat with my friend and she said she stays on budget by rotating what she cuts back on each month so that she never feels deprived overall. So one month she might have no social life, the next month she can go back to the pub, but she’s eating simpler food at home or whatever. And I thought that was such a smart idea. So I put it in my book as a budgeting tip. It is the No. 1 thing that people message me about to say that was a tip that they appreciated and that worked for them. And this is the value of talking money with your friends, because the tactics that work for real people in real life might not be something the experts have thought of.