Similar to others, I think my political view may differ from yours in the first few sentences Elliot.
 
	 
 
	That said the post / thread does open up some potential for some great discussion, I know personally growing up the biggest issue is nobody teaches you how to look after your money really. I have always been quite frivolous with money, in fact it's only been the past year or so that I have started trying to develop some better habbits, it's difficult to change how you have always been though. In fact this year's holiday was the first time I paid it up front rather than putting it on a credit card or paying it monthly installments beforehand.
 
	 
 
	The other thing is that everyone's circumstances are incredibly different and I think it would be wrong to assume everyone is wasting money, admittedly a lot of people are but then if people suddenly cut back and started being sensible what does that do to our economy ^_^ I think a big thing is at what point in your life you are, it's quite easy to see the average savings someone under 30 has to someone say over 40. Straight away if you are paying a mortgage odds are you are paying less than if you were renting (which is something you are far more likely to do when you are younger). Your salary is likely to be higher if you are getting into the second half of your liife if you like as well.
 
	 
 
	Emergency savings are something we should all strive for but that is not always possible, I mean if you are on a minimum wage job in the current climate, single parent of a couple of children I imagine it's not easy to do if at all possible.
 
	 
 
	As for general money advice to help with budgeting, different accounts are great and transferring money over to another account at the start of each month and getting into that habbit is great.
 
	 
 
	Another thing to note is that there is a sensible way to use credit, being good with your money does not mean never have credit, it's about using it sensibly. Running up debt is not great but say buying an item on interest free credit is not necassarily a bad thing if you are comfortable paying it off, you might want a mortgage one day for example and having no credit history would not help in that regard.
 
	 
 
	Something I now do is budget at the start of each month, I think knowing where your money is going is very important (like Elliot say's above) there is every possibility you might look at where your money is going and say hey I have not used netflix for a few months let's cancel it as an example.
 
	 
 
	I think the one thing I have always been a little adverse too is investing and that's mainly down to lack of knowledge and not really having the time to invest in obtaining that knowledge, I am sure there are a million books out there but life is hectic.
 
	 
 
	That said I have recently set up a stocks & shares ISA and just put £20 a month in, it's not a lot but it's something and the hope is to increase that in the future. I also now have a private pension in addition to my work one, that see's £25 added to it each month as well, these are both for the future so I have no plans to dip into these, when I reach each £100 in the stocks and shares ISA I will put it into some companies, likely to be banks & construction companies (as that's what I work in so I already have some idea of what businesses are doing well and which aren't).