I can make you rich! (Saving tips)

Member Name: Virtuoso

Product:	Saving tips
Date:	23/02/09 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More money means people will like you more, especially women

Disadvantages: Be careful 'bout them gold diggers.

This is a random selection of tips that I have found the most useful recently:

1: Eat before you go out! If you are going anywhere, stuff yourself with a big fat juicy meal just before you go, then you will not be tempted to pick up a choccy bar, or pop in to KFC.

2: Think 'value for money' as opposed to outright cost. For example I began buying Tesco Value deodorant, sure it's cheap but the problem is it lasts about two weeks. I moved over to Mitchum at around 4 times the price, but it works out cheaper because it last about 5 times longer!

3: Start a collection of spare change. The important thing here is to imagine that you are giving to a charity, so give generously! Of course if you are feeling nice you could actually give this to a real charity, but if I told you that it would be a pretty poor saving tip. Oh and if you have a COINSTAR machine in your local Tesco as we do, don't use it. It takes 7.5p out of every £1 which I think is a joke. I have over £100 in my coin collection and they sure as hell aren't getting hold of
£7.50 of my hard earned dosh. So what if you have to spend an afternoon counting it out and bagging it up, and so what if your local bank despises you.

4: Swap, borrow, beg, steal.. Well don't steal unless it's in a dashing Robin Hood kinda way. But the other three work quite well. If you don't have something find out if your friends or relatives have a spare one, or an old one that will do the job that they might be thinking of throwing out. I have gained oven gloves and tooth brushes this way so far this year, and my girlfriend has gained a car! Books are a particularly good one to swap.

5: Buy a bike. I bet that the majority of people are within easy biking distance of there place of work, and I bet those same people have never once thought of cycling, sure it has it's drawbacks as you will get wet tired and miserable in the winter, but in the summer it is a joy to be out there rather than stuck on a stinking stuffy train. Of course the initial outlay on a bike will be relatively high, but you will soon claw that back if you work out how much you spend on public transport/petrol/parking. I've worked out that I save £90 a month by cycling, and the bike cost me £225 so you can see how long it takes to get it back, not very. People should also be aware that some employers run a salary-sacrifice scheme where you can buy a bike through them and save normally around 30-40% of the price of the bike.

6: Continuously look out for good deals on those essentials such as energy/phones/TV/insurance as a little bit of effort here can save substantial amounts of money. Recently I have changed broadband, TV, phone, and bank, in order to get better deals. Yes it's hassle but nothing good ever came easy, except maybe Mozart when he played the piano.

7: If you want to eat out there are normally 2for1 vouchers to be had on moneysavingexpert.com for a wide range of restaurants and pubs. I don't think money saving means that you have to cut out all luxuries such as eating out, but it does feel good to know that you are playing the system to it's best advantage. I have only used one of these deals at Gourmet Burger Kitchen and they accepted the printed off voucher no questions asked.

I have only included 7 tips in my review rather than the customary 10 because 7 is a lucky number and everyone who reads this review will win the lottery. guaranteed.

(no guarantee provided).

Summary: Money makes the world go round, or is that gravity.