Great 'ways To Cut Back' Hunt

Undercovercarrot

I dunno if this has already been mentioned, but what about online DVD clubs? I have no TV signal, so I watch quite a lot of DVDs. I joined a club called Lovefilm (https://www.lovefilm.com) and I get three DVDs at a time for £15 per month. I can keep them for as long as I want before giving them back.

"Oooh...sounds a bit steep" I hear you say, but wait!

1: This is cheaper than buying ONE chart DVD per month (from a chain store. Obviously places like play.com are cheaper).

2: They usually give you the first month free. Also, if you refer a friend, you usually both get a month free (I will happily refer people if they want! )

3: Generally, a rental costs around £3.75 per month from a store. Fair enough, but if you were to rent 4 DVDs per month, this would be more cost effective. Also, late fees are a !!!!!! and really can up the cost. There are also cheaper packages available.

4: DVDs come straight to your door. No traipsing to the rental store.

5: You can find a lot of old films or films you fancied watching but not necessarily renting. As it is one flat cost, there is no guilt.

6: As you can get 3 (or up to 5 ) at once, you always have something to watch.

7: If you really like it and are bored with normal TV, disconnect the aerial and inform TV licensing!

Before:
Per month: 1 DVD (shop bought): £12.99
2 rentals (@£3.75 each) £ 7.50
£20.47
(before late fines, petrol, hassle etc...)

After: £14.99

I honestly rate it. I am really saving a lot of money from this alone, especially as I do not miss TV!

skintchick

I'm on Virgin for my mobile, and I don't pay any line rental. You do need to have a phone already, but you probably do if you're on contract. Then you just pay for your texts and calls. Good if you hardly ever use it like me. I used to pay more in line rental than in calls/texts!

If you live on your own - get a water meter. I'm in the process of doing this and reckon it's going to save me over £200 a year!

Get on a onetel deal or similar for your home phone too, and NEVER call a mobile - text them to "see if they're free and can call you" then they pay for it! (Only do this to rich friends) I regularly refuse to call people on their mobiles and everyone seems to understand.

Stick any leftover cash, not matter how little, at the end of each month into a high interest instant access savings account. You can always get it out again if you need it, but it should add up to help cover Christmas or car tax or something over a year. Even a tenner a month is £120 over a year.

sans_2

oscardog wrote:

Here are a few more:

1. Only half fill your car with fuel as it is the same as carrying another passenger if full and so uses more fuel!!.

Thanks, didn't know this. Have always liked having a full tank. Will change my ways now. Thanks

Willsnarf1983

Undercovercarrot wrote:

I dunno if this has already been mentioned, but what about online DVD clubs? I have no TV signal, so I watch quite a lot of DVDs. I joined a club called Lovefilm (https://www.lovefilm.com) and I get three DVDs at a time for £15 per month. I can keep them for as long as I want before giving them back.

"Oooh...sounds a bit steep" I hear you say, but wait!

1: This is cheaper than buying ONE chart DVD per month (from a chain store. Obviously places like play.com are cheaper).

2: They usually give you the first month free. Also, if you refer a friend, you usually both get a month free (I will happily refer people if they want! )

3: Generally, a rental costs around £3.75 per month from a store. Fair enough, but if you were to rent 4 DVDs per month, this would be more cost effective. Also, late fees are a !!!!!! and really can up the cost. There are also cheaper packages available.

4: DVDs come straight to your door. No traipsing to the rental store.

5: You can find a lot of old films or films you fancied watching but not necessarily renting. As it is one flat cost, there is no guilt.

6: As you can get 3 (or up to 5 ) at once, you always have something to watch.

7: If you really like it and are bored with normal TV, disconnect the aerial and inform TV licensing!

Before:
Per month: 1 DVD (shop bought): £12.99
2 rentals (@£3.75 each) £ 7.50
£20.47
(before late fines, petrol, hassle etc...)

After: £14.99

I honestly rate it. I am really saving a lot of money from this alone, especially as I do not miss TV!

or be a dvd tart and save urself £90 over 6 months

Will

HenryWeston

convert your car to run on LPG,(35p litre) or if its diesel run on biodiesel or straight cooking oil (52p with duty), ive converted cars to run on cooking oil and LPG, I think biodiesel is about 70p a litre, you can run on biodiesel without any engine modifications, the hard bit may be finding a supplier.

titchy

oscardog wrote:

1. Only half fill your car with fuel as it is the same as carrying another passenger if full and so uses more fuel!!

For modern cars with plastic fule tanks this is not a bad idea, but with older cars and those that still use metal tanks, this can lead to rust in the tank and clogged fule pipes and engine damage, so be carefull or it may cost you more than it saves.

purplestar1uk

from Friends of the Earth:

Keep your tyres pumped up. If you're a cyclist, keeping your tyres pumped will make your ride more comfortable, reduce puncture risk and most importantly, make your ride easier. If you drive and have fuel expenses to worry about, pumping your tyres will make your car less wasteful. It's estimated that up to 80 per cent of car tyres are underinflated, which means each car wastes approx 5 per cent of its fuel consumption.
--

tom_and_barbara_good

There are another 300 or so good tips for making savings on the Money Saving Old Style board....look in the 'stickies' (the top threads on the page) go for 'indexed collections'. Click on that and you'll see amongst all the fabulous recipes and links there are 2 excellent threads - 'Double Duty' about making things go further by devising a new use for them and 'Great Tips - one liners' this self explanitory really - 100's of snappy well thought out tips to save you money.

As you might have gathered all the threads that deserve not to be lost as newer ones push them down the page have been indexed for easy reference, this is absolutely invaluable, it's as easy as opening the index of a book, you don't have to search up and down for nuggets of advice (Board Guide Squeaky deserves a medal for gathering all this together!)

Whilst you looking at 'Old Style' take a wander around the various threads, they aren't all about cleaning your windows with vinegar there are some excellent threads like the Christmas Support and timetable one, this is about doing things now so you don't have the mad expensive panics you are bound to get if you leave things to the last minute.

Also very useful is 'selling books on Amazon, tips for more profit', this has 100's of first hand experience hints and tips. Please check it all out, it's not quite as 'mumsy' as you might think it is

ChopperPilot_2

cancel your sky movies subscription for 3 months at a time and only renew it when the new movies have come round.
(Make sure you've watched any recorded ones on Sky+ first though as you'll lose access to them on your hard disk once your subscription doesn't inclide the movie channels)

Denis_UK

skintchick wrote:

If you live on your own - get a water meter. I'm in the process of doing this and reckon it's going to save me over £200 a year!

Your right you can save bundles by having a water meter, the only downside is there is no going back so if you decide to sell up a larger family may not like the idea of a water meter. But for your own sake do it