How are you saving money this year?

stressedaah30

hope u dont mind me gate crashing
my ways of saving / making money this year
1) fill in all surveys i get
2) try n use quidco more
3) car boot sale when they start
4) need to start meal planning better

i have my little note book so i,m all set

skintas_2

i bought car insurance out right saving myself over £150 as went with another firm, have changed utitlity suppliers, changed mobile from pay as u go to monthly as get more free minutes per month, put housephone on incoming only, make more meals from scratch, one son has packed lunch, other has school dinner, make sure when i get petrol go to mr t to get double points...trying to get oh to give up fags hopefully a small fortune saved...

erikuhrig

Credit card been seeing less daylight lately? According to a new study on how Americans are handling their money in the current economic downturn, 37 percent of people surveyed said they're cutting down on how often they use their credit cards. They're either going to a cash or debit card basis or are just plain spending less.

lilac_lady

The saving I plan to do this year is putting all the 1p and 2ps into a piggy bank for my grandchildren. When it's full I take it (and them) to a supermarket, let them pour the money into a coinsorter machine then they get to choose something to the value of the money (although I sometimes top it up a little.)

Not very frugal but it brings them a lot of pleasure.

As for serious saving this year, I may as well buy premium bonds as interest rates are so low.

Mikeyorks

erikuhrig wrote: »

Credit card been seeing less daylight lately?

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ThinkingOfLinking

• No TV = Saving the price of a TV License
• Reducing the amount of meat I eat
• Buying reduced items in person in supermarkets at the end of the day and using MOCs.
• Buying in bulk online when heavy/useful items are on offer and using discount codes to further push down prices eg washing powder, cola, shower gel, tinned goods, etc.
• Selling unwanted CDs and DVDs at CEX or through Musicmagpie.
• Filling out online surveys and writing reviews.
• Entering competitions.
• Selling books on Greenmetropolis.com thus saving money on listing fees as charged by other websites.
• Stopped buying magazines; I read them for free at Borders or in the library.
• Each week, I check how much I am going to be going out and about; I only buy a weekly bus pass if I am going out enough, whereas before I'd buy it all the time without thinking.
• Reduced my mobile top-up and switched to the Stretch deal on 3.
• Drinking less alcohol when out and about as mark-ups in bars are mad eg I saw Bulmers double in price between Tesco and the pub!!

I am sure there are others but these are at least some of the things I do.

narayanufg

when you get paid take and put away the 60 dollars or what ever is above the700. like if you got paid 550 put away 50 so forth it works for us.And we help both our children and still have alittle money to go to mexico every year.And that is how we do it. good luck

MrsBartolozzi

narayanufg wrote: »

when you get paid take and put away the 60 dollars or what ever is above the700. like if you got paid 550 put away 50 so forth it works for us.And we help both our children and still have alittle money to go to mexico every year.And that is how we do it. good luck

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humphriess

I do similar things to those mentioned above. Sorry for the repeat but little bit chuffed that i'm finally getting my bank accounts and savings in order.
We do a monthly shop online and now spend around £70 (between 2) instead of aprox £50 a week. We then allow £15 a week for fresh meat/veg milk and bread locally. I generally stay completely away from the supermarket as i always spend money when i'm there.
thanks to MSE i am on top of my credit card bill this year transferring to 0% interest, when necessary.
We also have an account for all bills, petrol, food and a bit extra for fun. We take £100 cash out of this account monthly for every day bits and bobs or the occasional pint. I have a standing order into this acount on pay day.
If i run out of allowance or i want any extras it comes out of my personal account. But i find myself increasingly reluctant to use this account and am very aware if i do. this seems to have stopped loads of impluse buys and spending money on nothing.
My overdraft on my personal account has gone from £1800 in debt to only £400 in debt since october.
Hopefully will be debt free in the next month or so and can then start saving properly for a house deposit.

fozmcfc

The main thing I have done, since the beginning of the year, is to stop throwing away my money gambling on fruit machines both on and offline.

It's early days, but I have already saved about £2000 this year.

In addition I have just moved my credit card debt to a virgin card, so that should save me about £500 in interest for the rest of the year.

Finally in general just looking at where else I am spending needlessly and cutting back. I reckon I could well save up about £5000 all in all this year.