Ultimate Money Saving Tips
It’s that time of the year when resolutions have been set. If you are here I am guessing that one of them is to improve your finances. Maybe you want to pay off some debt, add more into your savings, get to grips with investing or understand your pension situation. Here are my ultimate money saving tips. There are only five of them. Have a read, follow my guidance and save yourself £000’s.
Budget
The very first place to start to understand your finances is to work out your financial situation. Work out your debts versus your savings and go through your bank and credit card statements to work out what you are spending your money on. From this you can:
1) Create a budget
2) Cancel any non-essential payments
3) Reduce costs of regular expenses through switching.
Facing the truth is the first step to getting in control.
I recommend starting a spending diary to understand what you are spending on a day to day, week to week basis. Grab a notebook, use notes on your phone or a spreadsheet to record your daily spending. All those taps of the card, automated bills, grocery shops and subscriptions. Record them all to understand where your money is going.
After a few weeks you can use this information to create your budget. Read this post to explain more about setting a realistic budget.
When you have all your financial information in front of you you will more easily see what bills need to be cancelled (yes its time to get rid of Amazon prime). And also what bills you can get a better deal on.
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More on Switching
I switch all my insurances, broadband, phone contracts, TV subscriptions once a year. Companies very rarely give you a better deal for staying loyal. It is always worth switching to save on your renewal price, or maybe even save more than you were paying. It’s dull. I know I get it, but just think if you switched all of these bills and saved £50 a month, that’s £600 per year. £50 a month saving is totally achievable!
How do you know if you are paying too much for your bills? Here are my essential bill costs as a comparison for you, can you switch and save?
Energy £165
Broadband £26
Mobile £30
Car Insurance £20
Home insurance £10
Re-Mortgaging
This was on my 2022 switching hit list. Unfortunately with interest rate rises re-mortgaging in 2023 will cost you more money. However you can often get a much better mortgage deal by checking with an independent mortgage broker to see what is available from all mortgage providers. I recommend Trussle as a brilliant company who helped me to get a mortgage, if you use this link and your mortgage is accepted we BOTH get £200 in high street vouchers.
My broadband will need to switched (I switch every year), Car Insurance (Not sure that Pay As You Go Insurance is saving me money anymore, it def worth it if you do LESS than 8000 miles per year), Income Protection Insurance (I need to change my deferment period from 3 months to 6 months to save money).
I use the Topcashback comparison tools to give me information on the best deals on insurance, phone and broadband. Plus I get rewarded with a chunk of cashback. It pays to do some research here. And it’s always worth switching. Last year alone I saved £1000 reducing my costs for house, car & travel insurance. Plus, switching my landline, broadband and TV services.
Energy is a bill that we are unable to switch currently. I am an Octopus customer who are a company who does reward their existing and new customers with great deals. I am currently being paid to use less energy at certain times on their savings sessions program!
Octopus provide me with a renewable energy tariff and great customer service.
Cashback
Cashback is one of my favourite ways to get free money on the purchases that I make on a regular basis. Top Cashback has been my cash back site of choice who I have used for ten years now and my total savings are £6,500! I use if for all my annual renewals as mentioned already. Everything and anything I buy online I always check Top Cashback to see if there is cashback available and most of the time there is.
Recently I saved an extra 5% on a sofa purchase from Habitat, an extra 5% off Christmas trainers from Nike for my eldest and £50 back for a SIM deal for my youngest mobile phone.
If you sign up this month you get £10 FOR FREE credited to your account.
Getting rid of clutter
We all have that cupboard under the stairs full of clutter, or that spare room filled with stuff that isn’t being used. How about toys that the children no longer play with or clothes that no longer fit. This list goes on and on and we can all afford to have a huge de-clutter.
Use this time now of new year and new momentum to get rid of the clutter and sell it. Sell it on Facebook groups (if you can bare it!) or sell it on eBay, Vinted or Gumtree. Spend some time to work out which items will sell the best, get them listed and make some money. If its not worth much then consider donating to charity, worst case head to the tip.
Money making schemes
These are mostly too good to be true but there are a few that work and make you some quick cash. They take time, organisation and thought but can make you some extra cash. I have tried many. Mystery shopping is a great one here is a link to my favourite company ProInsight. I make around £250 income a year from mystery shopping BUT get at least £1000 a year in free gym membership, spa days, bowling trips, coffee, sushi, plus much more. Its a great company to work with.
I am sure there will be something in this list that you can give a try to save some money. If you could manage a few of them there are huge savings to be had or money to be made.
Happy New Year!!
Please do tell me if you have other money saving top tips.
This post includes affiliate links which will result in a small amount of commission.
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8 Responses
Have you ever taken advantage of Referral Schemes? For instance sharing your uber/deliveroo referral codes to your friends and family and saving money on transport and food. I feel that has been pretty effective for me as a student. I know somewhere called Referral Codes which is quite useful for you. Check it out.
nice
Some great tips here – thanks for sharing. One more to add to ‘switching’ should be your mortgage – if you’re reaching the end of a fixed term rate, it’s probably worth reviewing before you go on to the SVR. I’m amazed at how many people leave it until the last minute!
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I love to read your blog. This is a list of my own top tips for saving lots of money in general.
When at the beach, eat a free picnic lunch. You can even make one in order to take with you on the day. Consider things like sausage rolls, biscuits and sandwiches that are wrapped up in foil or in a container. Or you could always take leftover slices of cake and leftover pie.
You can even take two bottles of water. Also bring a pen and a working camera to take lots of photos and notes as well. Books and games are recommended particularly here. Make the most of the rare and special day out on the beach in addition.
Get a ice cream from a beachside shop. Play a game of rounders and so on. Go for fun nature walks or splash around in the sea. Make more new friends. Look for crabs or try to take a nice swim.
You can save money by not spending too much. Consider a quieter or a dog friendly beach.