5 Ways to Help you Save Money
This year seems to have got off to a tight start and I have been looking at ways to cut back on spending, to help put a penny or two back into the emergency fund should it be needed.
In my quest, I’ve come across a couple of ways to help cut back and I thought I would share them with you.
Check if you’re getting the best deal.
We all have monthly outgoings and while for some we are probably already paying the best price possible, others we may well not be. Gas, electricity, internet, mobile phone and home insurance are just a few of the services you could look into getting a better deal with.
For instance, if you have Sky TV and have been a long-term customer, log onto your account, go to your packages page and look to cancel your TV, they will sometimes offer you a discount of 10-20% straight away, without the need for lengthy phone calls.
Another critical area is your mobile phone bill, Citizens Advice found that Britain’s have been spending £500m extra on contracts by failing to change tariff when their contract ends. If you’re in a 24-month contract and it’s ended, you have two choices either take out a new contract or keep your phone and switch to a sim only deal. Or even buy a new phone outright and pair it with a sim only contract if you do want to change handset. This calculator from Tiger Mobiles shows you whether sim only or contract will be cheaperwhen you input the contract and sim only prices.
Cut back on non-essentials.
Do you treat yourself to a tea or coffee on your way to work or on a walk around town? Then how about cutting them out? While just one coffee doesn’t seem like much, if you add up the total over time it might make quite some saving.
Try own brands.
Own brands can be just as good as the well-known makes when it comes to your weekly shop. So why not try switching a few different products each week and see if you can make do with the own brand for each one. You don’t have to switch them all long term, changing just a few can make a real difference over time.
Round it up.
My bank has let me set up a feature where it moves the remaining pennies from each payment into my savings account and while it’s only a few pennies each time, they really do quickly add up. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve managed to save £10 in round up change.
Sell what you don’t need.
Have a look around your home; if you’re anything like me you would like have collected some items you aren’t ever going to use. So why not put them up for sale, just make sure you use the right platform for each item and don’t go taking valuable items to a car boot for instance.
If you do ever find your emergency pot isn’t big enough for the emergency, please do first of all make sure where you are looking to borrow from is reputable, such as Cash Lady. As well as also making sure you are getting the best deal possible. Don’t go paying extortionate interest rates when you don’t need to.
What is your top tip for saving money for an emergency or rainy day?
*This is a collaborative post.
Cutting back on non-essentials is where I have found I’ve saved the most in the past few weeks. We sometimes don’t even think and just grab and that costs a lot! Great tips!
My husband is a huge fan of minimizing the household by selling what we no longer use or need.
I also like a number of other items you mention here in your post.
I can’t wait to have a yard sale when it get warmer and declutter the house. I am always trying to save money by clipping coupons and things like that.
I love buying store brands to save us on our grocery budget. I actually think they are sometimes better than the big brand names too!
You can definitely find some ways yo cut back if you look hard enough. It does help to compare prices and find the best deals too.
I call all of my bills once or twice a year. i go over whatever my current bill or plan is and make sure there isn’t something that’s a better fit.
These are great tips. I would also say make sure you get that fiver spent before it goes out of circulation. Plus if you shop at the end of the day (esp on Sundays) you can get some really good bargains.
I’m a HUGE fan of selling what you don’t need. There’s no reason to have things sitting around that serve no purpose.
These are all great tips! Culling out non-essentials is key! I save a ton just by brewing my own coffee in the morning.
These are good ways to save money. Cutting down on non-essentials is one of the easiest ways to save some money.
These are awesome tips. I typically shop around for the best deal and even look for coupons too. Last year, I started shopping at Aldi some too. Their prices can’t be beat on quite a few things.
Aldi are great for low priced items, but they still manage to keep it as good quality as possible.
Thanks for the great tips. I am all about saving as much money as I can.
I am with you on that, every little penny helps 🙂
I used to work at MoneySavingExpert, so learned all my money-saving ways there (including these tips) – they really do work! x
Oh I bet it was an interesting journey working for them!
I go through phases of trying to save money and these tips are fab!! Especially selling what you don’t need although it can encourage me to spend more!
That is the trouble, especially at something like a car boot I always end up buying something!
Oooh wow I love the round up bank feature. I’ve never heard of that before. I wonder if my bank does it too.
It is great isn’t it and amazing how quickly all the pennies add up!
What a brilliant tips! It’s important that we know how to save our money for the future.
It really is, it can make all the difference knowing you have something to fall back on.
Saving money is not always easy but this is something helpful for me, glad to know this tips!
It is really hard that’s for sure. So easier to be tempted to buy things.
Cutting back on going out to eat helped us immensely! Sometimes we can’t help it, like tonight haha! But that was by far the biggest way we saved money.
It definitely makes a big difference doesn’t it, eating out is so expensive!
I was just talking to my daughter about selling some of her things she isn’t using. I want her to think of ways to buy the things she wants.
Ohh good luck to her with her selling, hope she gets what she would like 🙂 x
I’ve found that we save a TON of money buying house brands, whether it’s food or detergents. They generally work just as well as the name brand stuff.
It is crazy isn’t it, some of them are exactly the same as well.
These are great tips. I always sell any and everything I can that I don’t use on a regular basis. There’s no need to have it just sitting around.
I really need to do another clear out I have to say, I’ve built up bits again. x
I do try using stores own brands to save a little extra money now and again. It is surprising how good some of these actually are.
I think a lot are made by big brands and just repackaged in many cases.
Love posts like this – really helpful and great to get some ideas!
Cutting back on non-necessities has helped us a lot. Also not grabbing food out as often. We try cutting back in the small ways and it adds up! You had some helpful tips for other ways we can save as well. Thank you for that!
It is so worth while cutting back, but it can be so hard as it’s the little niggling I wants in the back of your head haha! x
Great tips for saving
Surprising how much you can save with a few tweeks
It is amazing isn’t it. AS they say look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves.