Making My World Go Round (Saving tips)

Member Name: t4mof

Product:	Saving tips
Date:	05/10/04 (454 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More money to spend on things you enjoy

Disadvantages: Are there any??

We all like to save money here and there and at times getting that bargain is even more important if money is tight. These are some of my ways of saving a penny or a pound.

~ ~ ~ Check utilities for best deal ~ ~ ~

If you still get your gas from British Gas and your electricity from your local provider then your money will be going down the drain. Because of deregulation laws when the industry was made competitive, it is cheaper to get your gas from an old electricity company (NPower, Powergen etc) and your electricity from an old gas company (British Gas). Of course, to compensate for this many companies offer a discount if you take both products with them so it’s always worth checking out the best deal for you. Websites such as USwitch take out the hassle of ringing the companies up direct and when you’ve found the cheapest option, the switching can often be done online. We have both products from one company and we get a further discount for paying the bills by direct debit. Take all discounts that are offered.

If you don’t use a lot of gas or electric, for example, if you live on your own or are away on business a lot, see if you can save money by going on a no standing charge tariff. You will pay slightly more for each unit you use but the cost of the standing charge is removed so can sometimes work out cheaper for low users.

See if changing to an economy 7 meter for your electricity can save you money. I run my washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher through the night and in a 3 month period I usually spend less than £7 running all 3 appliances on the cheap rate. I’ve also got energy saving light bulbs in every room in the house.

Telephone charges can also be very low these days, especially if you and your friends and family are all with the same provider. Very cheap or even free calls are often an option and worth taking advantage of.

~ ~ ~ Mobile tariffs ~ ~ ~

Have you looked at your mobile tariff recently? I like being on contract because I can upgrade my phone annually for free but I know that the last tariff I was on wassn’t the best one for the way I use my phone. I used to get 600 minutes free off-peak talk time and 50 texts a month. But whereas my talk time rolled over monthly because I rarely use it for talking, my texts had usually run out after a couple of weeks. When I upgraded this time, my tariff got a big overhaul. Most companies want to hang on to their customers and so are willing to offer the best deal they can. After some bartering I'm now on 500 texts and 200 anytime minutes per month - much better for the way I use my phone and should save in the region of £40 a month.

~ ~ ~ Get a good deal & shop through portals ~ ~ ~

When buying our digital camera we wanted to get the best we could at a price we could afford. Using Dooyoo for reviews, we then went to pricerunner.co.uk and typed in the models we were interested in. We got an excellent price on the camera we finally chose.

Whenever the car insurance is up for renewal we have another scout around on the internet and see what companies can offer. This year I got the cheapest quote from LloydsTSB and then purchased the insurance through GreasyPalm which gave me another £30 cashback.

Shopping through portals such as GreasyPalm or ipoints means that you can save up your points to buy something else or get hard cash for buying something you would be buying anyway and the odd cheque landing on your doorstep is always a welcome piece of mail.

~ ~ ~ Make your own cards ~ ~ ~

This is my new money saving venture. I buy quite a few cards every month for birthdays, wedding anniversaries and the like and over time the cost builds up so I’ve started making my own. I have recently purchased 250 cards and envelopes for £24 and have started cross-stitching motifs to decorate them. Of course, I have the option to personalise them too and they are all completely original. I’ve worked out that with the cost of thread and fabric, each card is probably costing me around the 30p mark – a price that cannot be matched by any shop. But even if you don’t think cross-stitch is for you, there are other card making techniques and any craft shop will have plenty of inspiration.

~ ~ ~ Going on a water meter ~ ~ ~

I never thought I would be singing the praises of the humble water meter. An elderly man lived in our house before we bought it and as he lived on his own he had a water meter installed. When we realised we wouldn’t be able to remove it we were less than pleased. But it has saved us a packet.

In our old house there was just me and Paul, out at work most of the time and we paid a set amount of £25 a month for water.

Now there are 4 of us in a bigger house, Paul or myself are always in and we have a dishwasher. Once on the meter our monthly bill went down to £22 and then during the last year we built up such a credit that the payment has now been reduced to £6 a month. And because I know I’m paying every time the water is turned on, I’m much more careful about how I use the water too.

~ ~ ~ Don’t be a brand snob ~ ~ ~

I very rarely buy branded food anymore as I find the supermarket own brands are just as good and in a weekly shop it saves a lot of money. I think my only exception is beans. I haven’t found an own brand to match up to Heinz yet, but I’ll keep looking.

Heinz soup has just been repackaged and they’ve put the price up by about 15p a can. On a few cans a month this adds up so I’ve started buying Tesco own which tastes just as nice and is about 20p a can cheaper than Heinz. Of course, sometimes I make my own which works out even cheaper.

The same goes for washing tablets, washing up liquid, soap and shampoo. I also buy Tesco nappies, wipes and nappy sacks which save me a lot over the course of a month and I’m more than happy with their performance. I think it’s always worth giving the supermarket own brands a go before paying more for the same product.

~ ~ ~ Earn extra cash ~ ~ ~

There’s nothing better than earning a bit of extra cash. Of course, writing on here brings in the odd penny as it does “across the other side” on Ciao. I use my earnings on both sites to pay for my big Christmas shop and maybe a couple of presents.

I’ve just made £100 in 6 weeks by mystery shopping and in July I made the most of eBay and car booting. By selling what we considered our junk which was cluttering up our attic space, we managed to make about £80 in the month. A bit of extra money for our holiday.

And I’m building up points on other survey sites and every now and then qualify for a voucher of some kind. It’s always nice spending them.

~ ~ ~ Collect loose change ~ ~ ~

It really is amazing how loose change can build up into a good amount of cash. We opened a savings account a few years back and have a tin where we put all loose change which we either find lying about the house or is making my purse bulge.

Our first deposit was made up of £90 of loose change and when the tin is full we empty it and put it all into the bank bags. Every few months we put in between £30 - £50. Because it is going into an account, it is not frittered away on lots of little things and we can save up to buy something that we actually need.

~ ~ ~ Use reward cards ~ ~ ~

I hold 3 reward cards – Boots Advantage, Nectar and the Tesco Clubcard - and use them all to help out at Christmas (that time of year again!). I don’t shop in Boots much but last year I still managed to accumulate over £25 worth of points. I used this against their 3 for 2 Christmas present offer so effectively 3 presents cost me nothing.

My Tesco Clubcard paid for a day out at Woburn Safari Park for Jacob’s birthday and we’re now saving up for a day trip to Legoland next year.

I see reward cards as earning money for doing something I would be doing anyway, so why not get something back if you can?

~ ~ ~ Buy books cheaply ~ ~ ~

Books are my weakness (and reading reviews on here certainly doesn’t help!) but I only tend to read them once so paying full price for them often seems a bit extravagant so since I discovered Amazon Marketplace and eBay, I no longer pay full price for any book I buy. I’ve just purchased one off Amazon for 5p. Yes, I’ve got p&p costs on top but it still works out as a good bargain. And when I’ve finished with them I either lend them out to friends or sell them on myself and make some of my money back.

I also use libraries as much as I can because they’ve got the best price of all – FREE!

~ ~ ~ Freebie Sites ~ ~ ~

I take advantage of the freebie sites to be found on the internet and have had free tea and coffee, free chocolate, free cat food, bottles of Head & Shoulders and Original Source among other things.

~ ~ ~ Book holidays independently ~ ~ ~

Why pay commission to a travel agent when you can do the job yourself? For our holiday in Jersey I booked the whole thing myself and saved at least £300 on the brochure price. It meant that we could afford a 14 day holiday rather than a 10 day holiday we might have to have had if we had gone through a travel agent.

With the ease of booking on the internet these days, arranging a holiday and saving money at the same time is easy and something worth doing.

So there’s a few of my ways for saving money and making life a little easier on the old bank balance.

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