One thing we’ve learned from reading through all your saver stories is that everyone has a different reason for downloading Emma. While the main goal might be to improve your financial position, there are hundreds of different motivations for being better with your money.

In today’s saver story we hear from Colin. Colin’s reason for using Emma was simple. Reduce his debt, make better spending decisions, and improve his financial future.

Read on to find out more about Colin’s financial journey.

Colin first came across Emma after browsing through the finance category on the Google play store.

“It was a complete coincidence that I found Emma. I actually went to the Google Play store to download another banking app. I then started browsing through all the apps listed under the finance section.”

“At the time Emma was advertised as an app that can help you view all your finances in one place. Being able to visualise all my different bank accounts in one app was the main reason I decided to download Emma. The budgeting features were also important to me”

Colin goes on to tell us why these features were important to him.

“I was in about £25,000 worth of historical debt and knew I needed to sort this out asap. I decided that the best way for me to reduce this debt was to keep track of all my accounts and create a strict budget that I had to stick to.”

“It took a while, but with the help of Emma I actually managed to clear this debt.”

Becoming debt-free is an incredible achievement. We wanted to find out a bit more about how Colin used Emma to budget, and what kind of things he budgets for.

“One of the things Emma helps me budget for the most is big shopping trips. Before I go shopping I’ll check how much I’ve spent in each category, and how much I have left to spend. Often I underspend in some categories.  If I’ve had a particularly thrifty few weeks I know it’s okay to treat myself to some little luxuries.”

We agree that the beauty of having a budget is identifying when there’s room to treat yourself. We’re personally big fans of creating a “treat yourself” custom category within your budget that you can use for impulse purchases.

“Emma has also helped me reconsider what I’m spending my money on and if I can truly afford it. I like being able to set specific budgeted amounts for spending categories, and actually stick to it.”

“This came in handy on my birthday. Outdoor dining had recently been permitted as the country was coming out of lockdown, and I was out celebrating. I’d spent about £24 on pints of lager already and knew I was reaching my spending limit. When I got home with a friend, we were peckish and wanted to order a takeaway from the local branch of Fat Panda.”

“I was able to quickly open Emma and check how much money I had left in my going out budget. I saw that I could use up to £15 for the food order. It doesn’t sound like much, but being able to easily check this meant I was confident in ordering the food.”

Making good spending decisions is an important part of managing your money effectively. Colin goes on to explain how Emma helps him keep track of other areas of his finances.

“Since becoming debt-free I now also budget for larger expenses, and I even have a rainy-day savings pot. I still use a credit card, but I like to pay as much as possible off my credit cards each month and I often manage to pay zero interest by clearing my balances in full.”

“Being able to see all of this information in one place, with the help of the graphs, has really helped me visualise my money situation and generally improve my financial health”

“When I first downloaded Emma I was checking it approximately once a day. My financial position has improved to the stage where Emma has given me a “feel” for my budget and what I can actually afford to spend (or splash out) on”

“After clearing my debt, and saving my rainy-day fund I’m almost at the stage where I’m wanting to invest my money. I’ll definitely be using Emma to further solidify my financial future”

We've loved hearing Colin's story and are so happy that Emma has helped on his financial journey from debt to investing. Huge thanks to Colin for sharing this story with us 👏

Have we helped you budget, save, invest and generally improve your relationship with money..? If so, we want to hear your saver stories!  

We’re looking for people with inspiring, funny, or applause-worthy stories about how Emma has helped them with their money.

If you’d like to be involved in our saver stories, please DM us on Twitter or Instagram, telling us how Emma has helped you with your money.

As a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll give £20 for any story that is published on the Emma blog ✌️