Great 'ways To Cut Back' Hunt

3KIDSNOMONEY

Why Not Get The Kids To Make Relatives Birthday Cards And Wrapping Paper. Lots Cheaper, Means More And Keeps The Kids Busy For A While - You Can Only Get Away With This While The Kids Are Young, After That It Just Looks Mean! Only Saves A Few Pence But Every Little Helps. And Whilst The Kids Are Busy Doing This You Aren't Spending Money Trying To Amuse Them. Also Grab A Few Argos Catalogues And Let Them Cut Them Out And Stick - My 3 Year Old Spent Ages Today Doing This. Hope This Post Is In The Right Place, Only My Second Post So Very New To This

Luke

A few years ago I used to spend loads of money on clothes and going out. I figured that on my two days off I would spend 90% of what I had earnt over that week. My way of dealing with this was to work more, thus having less free time in which I would spend money. This had a double effect I was earning more and spending less.

oueyouey

Luke wrote:

A few years ago I used to spend loads of money on clothes and going out. I figured that on my two days off I would spend 90% of what I had earnt over that week. My way of dealing with this was to work more, thus having less free time in which I would spend money. This had a double effect I was earning more and spending less.

I back this up 100%. I used to work full time and then 2 weekends out of every month. Since stopping working weekends i find myself just popping out to the shops, buying things i don't really need - can't believe how much these purchases add up plus also not having the extra wage coming in

Mike_McGuire

Don't buy bottled water chill some tap water instead.

Move to Scotland, everything is cheaper.

Consider using a loyalty credit card like Tesco's if you must purchase things online like flights, holidays, road tax renewal or insurance.

Really minimise the use of standby mode for appliances, certainly switch things off overnight.

Consider using the "Greasypalm" website to obtain cashback from "high street" retailers.

If you have spare time do paid surveys for cash with "Yougov" or "Ciao"

Luke

Mike_McGuire wrote:

Don't buy bottled water chill some tap water instead.

I am a sucker for Volvic flavoured water. But have just started to do this. I still buy about one bottle (1.5L) a week but better than three. About a £2 saving per week.

CAFCGirl

Write letters, not only will this keep you amused, in the house and not spending much money but for the cost of a stamp, more often than not most companies will send you a little something!

I recently wrote to Tesco's just to say I wasn't overly impressed with something, wasnt a big issue but I thought I'd see what happened, and they sent me a £5 gift card just for writing to them!

I say write a letter, see what you get back

flowerofscotland

Very new to this site but have picked up some great tips already -thanks.
Some of mine:
If you have any large greetings cards post them this week before the Royal Mail's size based pricing comes into effect (or save them for people you will see).
Keep a calendar of birthdays and anniversaries and check it every week so that you can post in advance and use 2nd class post.
Costco sell packs of first class stamps at discount prices - share them with friends or colleagues at work unless you write lots of letters!
Don't be loyal to one supermarket but do use their loyalty cards - then they will send you money off coupons which will be accepted by competitors as well.
Someone suggested chilled tap water instead of bottled water - chilled filtered water tastes even better though of course there is a cost. Discount shops are the best place for filter cartridges or Boots when they have BOGOF offers.
Make sure you buy concentrated screen wash not the "ready mix" kind where you are paying for added water. It also means you can vary the strength according to the weather conditions.
Share magazine subscriptions with like minded friends - everyone subscribes to one magazine and passes on the copies (works best with hobby type mags which do not date).
Use old tights to tie plants and trees to stakes etc instead of buying the plastic ties which have to be cut off periodically and thrown away.
Use the "Pay at Pump" option so that you are not tempted by sweets, chocolates, flowers, magazines etc when waiting to pay for petrol.

rubyrooster

For travel, check out https://www.megabus.co.uk. Dirt cheap bus tickets across a lot of the country. Book early and tickets can be as little as £1 each way for a 300+ mile journey! Its ticketless too, which is always a bonus

30pbusfares

A few ideas for money saving that i learnt as a student

Books
Buy/sell course books on Ebay and faculty noticeboards. (and clothes, music etc)

Some University bookshops have 'buyback' schemes and can get you 50% refund for returning Used books after the course has finished. Provided you keep receipts. (Selected titles usually)

Another tip to get a book for free, if you know in advance that you really need a book but can't afford to buy it, is to use the local council-run libraries. If they have your book, join and borrow it. If they don't have it, join anyway and put in a request for the library to purchase it. You may have to be persuasive, but being a university student in their catchment area generally means its worthwhile for them to buy somthing relevant to other/future students using the library. They did in my case it took about 5 weeks, saving me £20.

Another way of accessing course books without forking out ££s is to join other university's/colleges libraries. As a student of one university you can get temporary membership in others.

Housesharing and housekeeping
Cooking with housemates saves money on ingredients, and the gas/electric by not having all hobs on at once. Its also more fun!

Do grocery shopping online. The cost of delivery is often cheaper than minimum taxi fare once its split a few ways. The further away you live from the local supermarket, or the more people in your house the better the saving is.

Use old/ ruined T-shirts for cleaning; soda crystals for cleaning sinks and vinegar for windows and taps instead of buying expensive products.

Flat, left-over coke is good for cleaning loos (someone else mentioned this). Pouring it down drains also works well to de-clog stuff.

Re-use old carrier bags for shopping and as bin bags. Re-using them shopping in Aldi, saves 3p and the environment.

If more than one person is having tea use a teapot, or use one tea bag per two cups!!

Make the most of Student/Graduate bank accounts and loans to get 0% interest on your debts for as long as possible. Transfer debts like credit cards onto interest-free overdrafts for as long as you can negotiate.

Tell your friends about good offers you see, or give them coupons etc you don't need but they could use, because what goes around comes around.

Treats
If you get a Boots voucher (ones you can get sometimes when you spend £10), spend it. If you stay within the voucher limit you've got something you can give as a gift for Mum's day, birthdays, xmas etc completely free.

Accept free stuff from promotions people, and be cheeky and ask for more. For instance the sugar free Coke promotions people, ask for a box full, they might oblige.

Mobile phones
Don't accept the first offer of a free upgrade when your contract comes up for renewal. Some of the best deals will be with other networks which your network may match a tariff/phone to keep your business. It doesn't hurt to ask or switch.

Mobile phone upgrade companies which cold-call can be very cheap as they are effectively brokers, but always ask to be called back at a convenient time you decide so you have time to look into what tariff/phone you want and aren't tempted into an on the spot purchase/upgrade.

Ebay for everything
If you need something- ebay! That's my motto. And a great new invention is sorting by Nearest First, so you don't spend too much on collecting things that are expensive to post.

To save money on expensive household things, like a new fridge or a piece of furniture, enter the series no. or product code into an Ebay search to see if someone is selling exactly what you want 2nd hand/cheaper.

Its been great to read every one elses posts on a topic dear to me!!

And good to see that saving money is no longer considered "scrimping", because making ends meet is the reality for most people, that i know at least. As this website preaches- you CAN and should play the system, otherwise it will probably be playing you!

cupid_s

mossstar wrote:

I know this is a really old quote, and i'm sorry - but I used to think like this too... then we emigrated! :rotfl: OK, we're in NZ, not Australia, but honestly, trust me, the uk is CHEAP!!

I'd give anything to be able to have somewhere like Lidls to do my shopping! (well, maybe not anything, i won't be moving back! ha ha). Just thought it might make you all feel a little better!

Still loving this site though, and finding it useful :T

I completely agree! My sister is in NZ too. My mom is always gonig on about how we should move there. My sister and her boyf have just bought a nice 4 bed detached house in Auckland with loads of land for £180000. Great. And all my mom says is you couldn't get anything like that here for such a little amount of money.

She seems to forget that they are paying over 8% interest and that's on a cheap fixed deal. Also my sister earns just about the average wage there and her boyf earns almost twice the average wage, they rent out two rooms in their house (to three people in total) and can still only just afford the mortgage!

And any time she needs anything and tells me how much it costs I am amazed. When we went out to visit you couldn't even buy a loaf of bread for less than about £2!