This post is one of my popular on the website and sees hundreds of people visit every day to read how I saved £7500 in 6 months. I hope that you enjoy it and take some tips away to help you save thousands as well.
How I saved £7,500 in 6 months
I know how to save money on all aspects of life. From bills, to shopping and to big ticket items. I will negotiate and will shop around to save a few extra pounds. These savings will then be used to splurge on things like a holiday or a really nice meal out. Life is about balance. I think it’s great to save up for something special as a treat and also to save for the future.
Switching Food Shopping from Tesco to Aldi
Back in January 2016, I was selected to join the Aldi wine club. I got to taste two wines every few weeks and tweet a review. This prompted me to explore the shopping at Aldi leading to huge amount of savings on food. I had been shopping at Tesco my entire adult life. This was a big shift for me.
Meal planning will save you even more money. Every week plan out your breakfast, lunch and dinner and buy as per that list. It will stop impulse buys at the supermarket and will hopefully mean you are less like to panic order that takeaway.
I was spending £120 per week at Tesco with a bit of top up at Co-op. I now spend £70 per week at Aldi with little top ups if needed. And using meal planning I have one less takeaway per week, saving £30 per week.
£80 saving for 26 weeks = £2,080
Get Free Food Using Apps
There are some very clever apps that give you access to free or very reduced in price food. Apps like Shopmium get you free food, or Too Good to Go is a great one for reduced food at the end of the day in popular shops. Check out this post from Jordon Cox who shares all the best food freebie apps.
£5 saving for 26 weeks = £130
Saving Money on Electricity and Gas
Do a comparison and switch your energy every year. Octopus are my energy company of choice always offering value for money and great customer service. As a comparison I pay £102 per month for a 4 bedroom semi detached house. See if you can get a great deal and save money by checking here. And also we each get a £50 credit to our bills if you sign up!
Potential £30 saving per month for 6 months = £180
Holiday Bookings
My last holiday to Las Vegas was booked through Expedia via TopCashBack. If I had booked this through a high street travel agent it would have been a lot more.
I paid £2,200 rather than the £3,200 quoted at said high street travel agent. Plus I got an additional 5.25% £115 cash back via TopCashBack.
Total Holiday Saving = £1,050
Car/Travel/House Insurance Renewal
All my annual insurances renew in March and April. The renewal quotes came in at £400 for the car insurance, £200 for the house insurance and £60 for the annual travel insurance. I compare for each type of insurance using the TopCashBack comparison engine which not only gave me the cheapest insurance but also a chunk of cash back too.
I have moved my car insurance to pay as you go insurer By Miles and have saved £100 compared to my last renewal policy. My home insurance was £50 cheaper than the renewal plus I got cash back.
Total Insurance saving = £150
Giving Budget Make-Up a go
I love finding a budget beauty buy in Poundland or Aldi and have been trying quite a few Aldi Lacura items. I love their eye liner, mascara, and age defying 3-minute mask. A snip compared the normal Bobbi Brown make up I have bought in the past. I now buy budget beauty products. I filmed 2 videos of my Aldi skin care test before and after. See what you think my skin looks like after using the budget products.
Make Up Savings = £300
Currency for Holidays
I always do a price check using the Money Saving Expert Currency Comparison Tool to save money. They offer huge savings at trust worthy Currency providers that are much cheaper than the post office or super markets.. I saved around £100 with our dollars purchase for April holiday and Euro purchase for Summer Hols.
Currency Exchange Saving = £100
Fitness and Gym Membership
I haven’t paid for a gym membership for many years. Instead I prefer to run, go on bike rides, go for long walks and do online free Youtube classes such as Joe Wicks. This saves me £50 each month.
Gym Membership Saving £50 x 6 months = £300
Life Coaching
Back in January I commenced a series of life coaching sessions with my hypnotherapy friend Heather. She had recently trained in life coaching and needed a couple of case study guinea pigs to practice on before launching it as a service. I was the guinea pig so was VERY lucky to receive a series of life coaching sessions from Jan to March worth £1000.
Life Coaching Saving = £1000
Family & Network Rail Card
I got one of these in January as we do a lot of driving to football in Cambridge with the boys. This gave us the option to get the train. Nice in the warmer months. Plus any trips with the family into London cost a lot less with the rail card and when I travel into London after 10 am I save during the week. Over the 6 months we have saved maybe £200 in rail fares. At a cost of £30, I love this savings card.
Rail Card Saving = £200
Prizes Won
I love to enter a competition, I normally enter one a day. As you never know when you will eventually win. Hopefully the big prizes…New York holiday pretty please let me win 🙂 So far this year I have won a Moonpig stationery bundle, earrings and Amazon vouchers and a cash price of £250 into my bank account!
Prize value = £500
Mystery Shopping
Again more of money made rather than money saved but so far this year I have earned around £100 plus a few free products from a few Asda, Tesco, Co-op, bank mystery shopping gigs. And free days out at the spa!!
If you are interested in this great money making idea I recommend Pro Insight as a great company to sign up to.
Mystery Shopping Income + Products = £500
Top Cash Back
I use TopCashBack for all online purchases and have received various bits of cash back for things like a flower delivery, Nike, Dominos pizza, insurance, and switching. Get an account and start saving, again if you use this link I will get a referral fee. Plus share you Refer a Friend Link with your friends and make extra income.
Cashback Received = £500
Mobile Phone and Broadband
I have a SIM only contract on my mobile phone, saving me around £25 per month. My broadband was recently switched from Virgin to EE, saving me £30 per month. And I recently had to make around 10 customer service complaints about BT, for which I have received refunds/credit of £150.
Mobile/BB/Sky savings = £500
Total Saving of £7,490
This post contains affiliate links where I receive a small fee is you sign up as a customer. If you do this, thank you!
62 Responses
That’s a great amount of savings over 6 months 🙂 very inspirational!
I am sure you could write a similar post hon;-) Thanks for the comment:-)
Love your blog, need to check out Aldi those savings are phenomenal!
Thanks Natalie. I love Aldi for saving money. Im still chuffed everytime I get to the till and the ring up the shopping when I hear the total. There are generally small shops too, so as long as you go when its quiet you can wizz in and out. 30 mins is normally my shop. Actually quicker than online shopping for me;-)
Love your posts. Very down to earth and for normal peeps!!
Thanks you Nicky. Thats my aim so its lovely to get that feedback. I tend to write like I talk..just with a bit more structure hopefully:-)
Wow! What an eye opener this article was to me. Shall follow your blogs in future now that I’ve found you. Thank you for all the info.
Thank you so much jennie. Its amazing isnt it with a bit of motivation and focus where you can save money:-)
Brilliant so glad you have found me. 11k is a fair chunk to pay off in 6 months, I would love to hear how you plan to do that. Switching to Aldi will make a huge dent. If you search through the personal finance section/money saving sections of my website you will find lots of posts about money saving. Good luck and keep me updated:-)
Some brilliant tips thank you. Greats ways to earn money.
Thanks for the giveaway.
Your an inspiration I follow your posts and try to do most of what you have said I really am grateful for your posts
Thank you so much. I hope you save thousands too. Thats really the best compliment I can be paid xxx
It just goes to show you how much you can put away if you make the smallest of changes. I’m hoping for a bumper Top Cashback month as I’ve moved house and need all new suppliers! Wishing you an even better 2017!
So true. I am a huge fan of Top Cash Back…Im up to nearly £2000 in cash back earned since I set up the account nearly 4 years ago:-) I know we’ll achieve a ton more in 2017, you and me both.
Yep need to change bank account as I have STILL not done that yet. Plus find cashback credit card to replace Tesco card with its not so great voucher scheme changes. Gas & Leccy sorted that in Aug, but there is still work to be done on taking my meter readings and working on reducing usage, not just swopping providers. Every little certainly helps Faith. LOVED your Times post.
I’m chuffed to say I do all of those, albeit the ones that apply. I don’t wear make up any more so even bigger savings there. We got ourselves a Twotogether railcard (no young kids now) and saved a 1/3 on all rail fares for a year. We saved over £100 on the overnight sleeper to Scotland as we were able to use it then – bargain!
Amazing we are peas from the same pod;-). I must get a Network rail card, (not got it yet) as that will save me on my weekly trips into London provided I travel after 10am.
That’s a great amount of money to save over 6 months. I’m terrible at forgetting to use cashback sites – I’ll often remember after I’ve made the purchase! #MondayMoney
Ive got cash back ingrained into my online behaviour, so I always check them first! Or will clear my cookies and then use at last minute;-)
Wow, some great savings here. Budget make-up is fab!
That’s a good amount you saved in just 6 months. Your an inspiration mam
I read the article from start to end and it was worth reading. $7500 is no joke and I’m glad your able to save that amount of money. I will make this saving challenge and hopefully, I can save.
Great Article. This is pretty inspiring for me. Pretty impressive about how much you saved via cashback, I also recommend taking advantage of your refer a friend scheme. I’ve found them useful in the past and if I may there is a site called Referral Codes at https://referralcodes.com/ which is my favourite. If you have time check it out.
This is fab!
Wish i could save like that!
Place bets to make £2000, **** off! The only winner there is the bookies.
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OMG! Great saving in just 6 month. Impressive
Thanks Stella!
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Informative Article!
Love your posts. Wish I could save like that!
Keep it up!
Amazing!
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