What's Your Best Money Saving Tip?

oompahloompah

Hi everyone
I'm hoping to be MF in 3 years (£45K) and am currently saving every penny I can towards this (no other debts). I wondered what the best money saving tips are, and thought it would be fun if everyone could contribute in case I'm missing something :eek:

Already I shop around for everything (shopping, household bills, insurances etc) to get the best deals, clip coupons, use leftovers etc but what is your favourite way to save the cash towards the mortgage?

Jennifer_Jane

All the above and Quidco; not going shopping (or if I must, charity shops or cheap clothing stores); stoozing; being dedicated to the cause!

Oh, and working past retirement age - blast!

Jen
x

oompahloompah

What's "stoozing"?

Sorry, still a bit of a newbie

JonnyBravo

oompahloompah wrote: »

What's "stoozing"?

Sorry, still a bit of a newbie

Basically its about taking out a debt (typically on credit cards) on zero or low rates of interest and using that money in a higher paying account or on your mortgage therefore earning interest for "free"
Theres a board devoted to it in the credit cards section

angelavdavis

• Quidco,
• cash-back credit cards for any expenses (paying off in full every month),
• get into pigsback and use for additional treats such as cinema tickets or boots vouchers.
• eBay anything you don't want/need and pay the cash into your savings account
• Ensure you are on the best mortgage deal you can get.
• Invest in an ISA if you are a tax payer as a vehicle for your savings.

InMyDreams

All the above. Plus

• Try keeping a spending diary for week or too. Very time consuming if you are strict with yourself, but can be a real eye-opener.
• Learn how to make decent porridge... when we worked out how much we were spending on breakfast cereals per week for 5 people it nearly blew me away. (Doesn't help that each of my children can get through 5 or more weetabix, and don't get me started on dh.) We now buy porridge in bulk at about 50p per kilo and save the boxed stuff for the weekend. You save on the milk too (assuming they're drinking enough anyway). Much healthier too.
• Packed lunches for work. Ditto.
• Not possible for everyone but we dropped down to one (very economical) car which we thought we'd never manage for a variety of reasons. But now we're used to it and have worked through all the difficulties, the thought of going back to two seems outrageously extravagant. There are so many other things we'd prefer to spend our money on and the mortgage is only one of them!

ailuro2

:spam:

why do they do it?:rolleyes: Surely no-one here is stupid enough to fall for it.

oompahloompah

ailuro2 wrote: »

:spam:

why do they do it?:rolleyes: Surely no-one here is stupid enough to fall for it.

Sorry, I must have missed something; I don't understand this one.

Kaz2904

Someone must have been spamming (usually links to other advertising sites).
When you report it it then gets removed by the gods who control the computer.

getmore4less

If you want to cut spends the most imortant thing is to know where your sepnds are and work on reducing ALL of them.

Splitting spends into essential spending(food roof,utilities....) which you try to reduce and discretionary spends(booze,going out,holidays, fancy clothes.....) which you make choices about. ie: do I pay off more of the mortgage or go on holiday.

The sooner you know where you money goes the soone you can make a real difference, Plan the spends(budget) for a year ahead and then spend diary/track to make sure the plan is working. Keep the plan real, if you are spending more than you though in an areas adjust that up and cut back elswhere.

Spend catagoties will include saving, overpayments,long term,emergency fund. and the goal is to make these as big as possible.

setmefree2

Ditto Getmore4less.... a spending diary is a big help if you have the time. It's a real eye opener:eek: