Next month has been dubbed ‘Awful April’ as the cost of pretty much everything is going up — but is your budget ready to withstand the strain? 22-year-old podcast listener Lil is worried about how she’ll cope with higher energy bills, rising rent and bigger food bills at the supermarket — not to mention National Insurance increases and changes to her student loan repayments. She’s already pretty thrifty — so can presenter Claer Barrett come up with more ways that Lil could stretch her money further?

Charlotte Jessop, founder of the website Looking After Your Pennies, explains easy ways everyone can get to grips with budgeting and saving money, as well as ideas for boosting your income. Plus, Claer visits the home of Miguel Barclay, better known on Instagram as the £1 chef, to see what budgeting tips he’s been cooking up in his latest book.

You can follow all of the podcast experts on Instagram: @Claerb, @lookingafteryourpennies, @miguelbarclay 

To make the fried rice recipe Miguel cooked up for Claer, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT2bzS-vnF4

Here’s the link to claim tax relief worth up to £125 if you’ve worked from home in the UK: https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

To listen to our previous episode How to get a payrise, click here: https://www.ft.com/content/eeb84e5e-acf2-4b92-a99a-bd3514e1837d

Charlotte’s recommended websites that offer small payments for completing consumer surveys include YouGov, Prolific and UserTesting.

Presented by Claer Barrett. Produced by Persis Love. Our executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music.

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