Everyday money saving Happyjaw style (Saving tips)

Member Name: Happyjaw

Product:	Saving tips
Date:	30/03/09 (162 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoying seeking bargains and paying less than some

Disadvantages: It can be a little time consuming

Making those small efforts to save money can be a grind but if you change your habits in the long term the dividends will become apparent.
Here are the methods I use to save on my outgoings, I hope it will help you too.

Daily
From the moment you get up in a morning you can begin your day frugally. Have a shower instead of a bath or use a tap hose for a stand up sluice.
Turn the tap off when you brush your teeth and save gallons of water on a meter. Use a pea sized blob of toothpaste, instead of the Aquafresh advert style of covering the whole of the bristles.
When you wash your hair don't rinse and repeat, it's more a marketing ploy than a requirement, wash once, thoroughly. Use the time before you leave the house to leave your hair to dry naturally and save further electricity and time.
Turn off anything electrical in the bedroom properly, don't leave a tv on standby.
If you have breakfast, only fill the kettle to the amount of water you need, then turn it off at the wall when you've done, same with the toaster or other electricals. Consider UHT milk which saves longer and often means less waste.
Make sandwiches for work and school, you could easily save £15 a week minimum this way. When I was at school all my sandwiches were made on a Sunday and frozen, guaranteeing safe and fresh sandwiches by lunchtime every day and less effort in the morning. I've used this technique with work too, undoubtedly saving some serious cash over the last 17 years. Take tap water from home to drink through the day, or dilute squash, saving on canned or packaged drinks which are over priced.
Set your heating to go off whilst you are out and to come back on around 30 minutes before you anticipate getting home. Turn it down a degree or two and wear an extra layer around the house. Let the temperature drop overnight and use bedding to maintain heat. Use hot water bottles. Close the curtains early to keep heat in the house and avoid covering them.
Run the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer on overnight timers if you can take advantage of cheaper night time fuel rates. A pack of timers will cost less than £10 for 3, which means you could leave one on your washing machine, one on the dishwasher and one for a security light. Switch them around the house when on holiday to make it look like someone is home.
Consider stand by breakers, an extension lead which cuts off power to electrical devices when they've been on stand by for a certain amount of time. Guaranteeing savings as a tv on stand by costs almost as much as it does to power the tv in use.
Buy energy saving bulbs for your home. Asda, Tesco and Morrisons all stock them very cheaply now and often on offers. Contact your utility supplier or look for free bulbs as part of your local councils economy efforts.

Transport
For some transport is a costly affair, for some work is close.
If you drive, check out sites like http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/cost-of-your-car-calc ulator to work out how much your car costs you daily and work out how cost effective that it to you. Check out your miles per gallon calculation here http://www.torquecars.com/tools/uk-mpg-calculator. php
Look at your local bus, train or tram services to compare costs.
Consider car shares and similar cost sharing schemes with friends, neighbours or colleagues.

Income and outgoings
Check if your income and outgoings are accurate or if you are entitled to help here http://www.entitledto.co.uk/. Enter your details, it's all anonymous, in order to calculate what you might be able to get help with. It might be single persons council tax discount, free school meals and prescriptions and a variety of other amounts.
Check http://www.uswitch.com/ for savings on utilities and then check http://www.quidco.com/ before you commit to a contract as you could get a substantial amount of money back.
The same goes for insurance renewal, telephone, internet and television subscriptions and utility expenditure.

Local facilities
Make use of what is close and free. Your local nursery and school are good starters. Free places for up to 15 hours nursery are being trialled across the UK but otherwise 12.5 hours is the norm. Some after school clubs are subsidised or free. Playschemes in the summer are sometimes free drop in sessions.
Consider a childcare share with a friend where you each work some hours and neither pays the other for childcare.
The local library is a forgotten resource. Why spend your money on books when you can order books in your town or city to be delivered to your local library. You can, for a small charge, usually hire CDs and DVDs much cheaper than the likes of Lovefilm or Blockbusters.

Cashback
When you must buy something, check cashback sites like http://www.quidco.com for savings. I bought a new mobile phone and got cashback for almost half the price and then signed up for a prepay SIM card and got half the money back. My £10 a month SIM is actually costing me £5 a month as a result of the cashback.

Coupons and vouchers
Check any newspapers and magazines for money off vouchers or coupons you can use when shopping. Look at the free supermarket magazines before you shop.
Check the likes of http://www.bview.co.uk/ and http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/ for codes and coupons to reduce your shopping bill, get free delivery or additional freebies and savings on other purchases.

Buy in bulk
There are some items we get through in vast quantities. Whilst our twins were tiny nappies and wipes were financial killers. We joined Makro and began buying Pampers wipes at the equivalent of 70p per pack when buying 12 at a time in a big box. Then nappies bought on offers of buy one box of 156, get one free.
We now buy cheese in catering sized blocks and cut them down into usual sized chunks and freeze them, it works out on average around £1 cheaper per block.
We also buy the enormous bulk packs of washing powder and fabric conditioner and we use it according to wash load instead of instructions. We pay around £6 for a box for 100 washes though I can usually make it spin out more.
Washing tablets are usually just fine in singles instead of the prescribed doubles and around half the recommended scoop of powder works fine.
You could apply the same logic to anything you use lots of, dilute squash, bread mix, cold meats etc.


Buy second hand
If you need something, think about if it has to be new. Using eBay, car boot sales, advertisement magazines, NCT sales, flea markets, the local press and other second hand sales venues. I saved over £800 in purchasing for the birth of my twins and their list of necessities.

Get it free
Look at local swaps and Freecycle to find ways to get things free of charge. Again, I've saved lots of money by getting other peoples cast offs, totally free of charge. We had two baby walkers, a blender, lots of books, a stereo and many more items which must have saved us hundreds of pounds.
You can do the same with clothing swaps which tend to be advertised in the local press, you turn up with 3 or more garments in good condition and receive 3 or more tickets which you can then exchange for 3 or more garments brought by others.

Clear your clutter
You could try and make some money back on clothing and other purchases by reselling them, using sites like eBay and Gumtree to advertise. We sold a 2nd generation pram for more than we bought it for on Netmums.com.

Buy in sales
I often buy items in sales, either to save money on gifts or to buy clothing for my twins. I have a second wardrobe which is purely to keep clothes in bought in sales. I buy 6-12 months ahead and pay around 25% - 50% of the original price whilst still keeping my girls in Boots Mini Mode, Monsoon, BHS, Next, TU, Cherokee and George clothing and shoes.
You can do the same for your own clothes. Save all your money for the January sales or end of season sales and buy whatever tickles you at the time then put it aside for the right weather.
I usually hit the Boots January sale at 70% off for a huge stock of gifts through the year. Even now in March, my sale bargains have saved me around £60 on the full priced items. I even plan my sale shopping in advance by checking out availability on the website.

Buy a lower range
You'll have noticed that each supermarket does a range of products with varying prices. It could be baked beans varying from 17p value to £1.15 best quality with posh packaging and often the content differs little.
If you buy mid range now, consider dropping a level to save up to 10%. The difference is much bigger when you drop from mid level to value goods and you'll really notice a difference in your bill. Using a stores own brand is often cheaper than a branded label.
Check who the product is made by. I have it on good authority that certain brands of washing powder are exactly the same product between the heist and lowest ranges, merely marketed to attract the broadest scope of shoppers.
Check out the food reductions for last minute saves for your evening meal or to fill your freezer. Whilst you fill your freezer, stick a load of balled up bags or those giant air filled pillows used in packaging to fill up freezer space. It's more efficient to freeze smaller remaining spaces.

Invest in practical items
If you have regular haircuts buy hairdressing scissors or clippers to reduce that cost.
Make sure your car or bike is appropriate to your needs, don't buy a cheap banger which you'll then spend on maintaining. Invest wisely first time round. Make sure each and every item you buy is suited to need, check for user reviews online before you buy and calculate how much you could save.

Barter
Bartering is a difficult task for some but having spent time in Egypt I'm good at it. Don't be afraid to ask for money off an item which is shop soiled or slightly imperfect. Ask what discounts are available for cash, some places are still happy to trade that way. Ask what else comes with the package or what deals they can put together if you are buying more than one item.
I set a limit at car boots even, if I can't get it for what I'm willing to pay for it, I'll walk away, someone will have one at the price you like.

I have millions more ideas but this is already incredibly long, so I shall keep it to the ideas I use most of all, those listed above.
Let me know how you get on with them all.
I've also written about buying al the basics for babies on a budget and how to use your Boots advantage card to best advantage, both of which are rammed with a number of other ideas you might find useful.

My writing may appear on Helium and other sites in the same or similar format.

Summary: How to save moey everyday without missing out on luxuries