Money Saving Tips - Part III (Money)

Member Name: Orenthal

Product:	Money
Date:	09/02/09 (258 review reads)
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Advantages: Helps you save money!

Disadvantages: None! =D

Money Saving Tips - Part III

Hello DooYoo members and welcome to my money saving tips guide. This is the third edition from me so please check out the previous two if you like it!

I'm here to basically help you save money and help those pennies stretch further. Here are my next five tips, I hope you enjoy and they help you somewhat!

1. The magical reduced yellow sticker. Big supermarkets, by law have to throw away any food that has passed its sell by date, but up until that date, they're desperate for a sale. So the closer it gets to the time for throwing the food away, the cheaper they will sell it at. Once the food starts to get near its expiry, a yellow reduced sticker will be placed onto it, in hope of getting a quick sale.

The reduced food works in a tiered system, the closer the supermarket are to throwing the item away, the cheaper it will be. The reductions start at 25% and at the last reductions it will be a whopping 75% off the original price. This would mean your usual Tesco sandwich that costs you £1 would only cost you 25 pence because they are getting desperate for a sale.

The common items that are frequently reduced significantly are sandwiches, pre-made salads, fresh salad, bakery items and cakes, juices, smoothies and bread. Also it is often found that goods with damaged packaging will also end up on reduced as the contents inside will be totally fine to eat, just the packaging might have something wrong with it. Just make sure you inspect the item and its sell by date. The best time to grab reduced items is in the evening, a few hours before the store will close.

2. Check the details on your car insurance. This might apply to only a select few but it's worth it if you're in the situation. If you have taken out car insurance or renewed recently and have had to declare unemployment due to all of the recent job cuts your premium may well have gone up. As soon as you find yourself back at work, even if you're in a small part time job, call your insurance company ASAP.

Your insurance company will lower your premium and refund you the difference. I did this last week when returning to work and was reimbursed £18.90. If your in the same situation or might be in the next little while, grab your money back.

3. Make the most of cheap-rate electricity. Most electricity providers now have an off-peak rate where you are charged significantly less per unit if used within a certain time period. This is usually around 1am - 8am. You can use this to your advantage, for example;

Your washing machine uses a hefty amount of electricity while you run it during peak time. Peak time costs roughly 18p-20p per kW used so it can add up very quickly if your washing machine is anything but super energy efficient, which is rare. So why not do your washing off peak? And hold your insults, I don't expect you to get up every night at 5am just to get up and put the washing on, there is a trick to it!

Invest in a mains timer. These can be found in any good hardware/DIY shop (Focus, Homebase, B&Q etc) and cost about £5-£7 depending where you shop. They plug into the mains like any other plug and then the appliance (washing machine for this example) plugs into the timer. You can then set the timer to come on at 5am, pre pack your washing machine with the clothes to be washed and then leave it. At 5am the next morning, the timer will turn on the mains for you and your washing will get done for a fraction of the price. In comparison, off-peak costs around 4-6p per KW and peak time is 18-20p per KW. It's a massive saving and can be used on other electricals too, such as charging mobile phones, games consoles (PSP, Nintendo DS etc) and many more.

4. Try dropping a brand. This one is quite experimental but it does work for some. When you do your food shopping, pick a few items per week and drop them a brand to see if you can save money and still be happy with your purchases.

For example, if you normally buy Tesco Finest Bread, drop a brand and try the Tesco Own brand bread and see what its like. You'll be amazed at the price difference and the food won't be much different. If you're already on own brand products, try dropping some items to the value range to save even more money. Some of the value items are extremely underestimated and are very good, especially when they cost just pennies. I have personally reviewed my recommendations for the Tesco Value range here on DooYoo so check those out.

5. HotDealsUK. HotDealsUK is a great website that comes well recommended by me for money saving and finding great purchasing deals. It's completely free, and you don't even have to register to browse and find deals.

HotDealsUK are all user generated and found by normal people just like you and me. People that like to share a bargain and help you get items for cheap are fire here and it's extremely popular.

The website is updated very often and has Amazon deals, smaller online company sales and special offers, discount codes and various loop holes/misprices to help you get a great deal. If you're looking for something specific or even if you're not, check out HotDealsUK first and I bet you'll find a better deal and save money. Use their search function on the top right of the website and see what you can find.

I hope these tips help you to save money, throw me a message or comment if you liked them and I hope to see you for the fourth edition!

Summary: Hope you liked them, drop me a message/comment if you did!