Save Money during the Credit Crunch
15:55.44 - Monday 11th August 2008 (Link to This Entry)
OK, since my teabagging caper, I've been making a mental note of how to save even more cash during this period of skintiness. Not for nothing am I known as a tightarse - at some point or other I've done all of the following:
Buy Reduced
Hang around the reduced section of the supermarket for some last minute bargains. This one is difficult to do because – at least where I live – it’s a popular one. Any food on the last day of its shelf life will be marked down by at least a quarter during the day, and by as much as 80% in the last few hours. As long as you don’t mind mixing and matching some bizarre stuff, you can eat quite cheaply this way.
Buy Big, When Cheap
Taking into account the above, don't be afraid (or embarrassed) to fill your basket with packets of sliced meat, pork pies or anything else that can be bunged into the freezer when you get home. If it's cheap, fill your boots.
BOGOF, Sometimes.
Buy One, Get One Free only applies when it’s something you would normally buy anyway, otherwise you’re spending money for no reason.
Go Downmarket.
Lesser-known stores like Lidl, Aldi and (our regular haunt) Netto have some cracking bargains for branded and noname goods. £2.09 for 4 tins of Branston Beans? Not on your life, sonny! Netto have these for half that price. Similarly, there’s only so much difference between Princes Tuna Steak and SuperBlue Fish Brand Tuna as far as your tastebuds are concerned.
Go Down t’Market.
Farmer’s Markets or Farm Shops are great ways to get fresh veg direct from the farm, cutting out the middleman and helping farmers earn more than supermarkets would pay them. Make sure, however, that the prices are cheaper and the goods are from their farms – we’ve found people selling cage eggs from 40+ miles away, in a so-called farm shop. While on your travels, be sure to make a mental note of every 'Eggs for Sale' sign you see - you can get massive discounts from the guy with a few chickens at the bottom of the yard.
Eat Out Less
Cooking your own food not only ensures you know exactly what’s going into it, but you’re not paying the wages of cooking staff or the rent on the premises either. If you must eat out, pick where you shop carefully – Fish and Chips on Cleethorpes Sea Front can cost £4, whereas in the centre of Grimsby it’s less than half that.
Save 10p a Litre on Fuel
Well kind of. If you adapt your driving you can save a packet. On the flat, drive in the highest gear you can (a modern diesel can go as low as 30mph in 5th gear), use the best midrange for going uphill and accelerate downhill. If you must accelerate on the flat, do it slowly, and always coast where you can. Remove all the unecessary junk from the boot and the roof-rack from the ... roof. If you can up your mpg by 10% - from 45 to 50 for example – you’re saving 10% on fuel, and that’s over 10p a litre these days.
Car Share! Car Share! Party Time! Excellent!
Car share to go to work, car share for shopping, car share any time there’s two car owners going to the same place at the same time. Work out with your neighbour when to go shopping and take the car – it’ll most likely be quicker, cheaper and more convenient than public transport. As if that's not enough, it also helps stave off boredom on longer journeys.
Turn the Lights Off
Not only should you be switching your incandescents to energy savers, but you should be switching off unused lights as well, especially those spots that seem to be all the rage. You know the ones – we have five in the bathroom, four in my office and even a couple in the kitchen and all of them kick out a tremendous amount of heat. Heat in summer? Yeah we’ve got enough of that, thanks.
Use a Laptop
Obviously this only applies if you have the choice between a Laptop and a Desktop computer. Do you need your quad-core, Dual SLI gaming rig sucking down electricity just to check your email? Laptops are efficient by design since they occasionally have to run off batteries, plus you can carry it with you into whatever room you happen to be using, saving money on lighting, heating and so on.
Swap Credit Cards
Move any credit card debt onto a lower rate card – the difference can be huge. Some cards have rates of 19% or more for purchases, but you can transfer them onto (for example) a Barclaycard at 6.5% for the life of the transfer and with no transfer fee. And don’t bother saving more than a couple of month's 'Survival Money' – your interest rate from the bank is unlikely to be higher than the rate on your card, so pay the damned thing off.
Cut your Services
There are roughly 300 Channels in Sky TV’s lineup, and it’s a sure bet you don’t need them all. Will your life really feel incomplete without your weekly dose of ‘Fuji House of Commotion’? Cut back on those channels, or dump Sky entirely and get a Freeview box for the price of a month's subscription. And unless you’re an Internet Pirate, you can cut your broadband back a little as well.
Hang around the reduced section of the supermarket for some last minute bargains. This one is difficult to do because – at least where I live – it’s a popular one. Any food on the last day of its shelf life will be marked down by at least a quarter during the day, and by as much as 80% in the last few hours. As long as you don’t mind mixing and matching some bizarre stuff, you can eat quite cheaply this way.
Buy Big, When Cheap
Taking into account the above, don't be afraid (or embarrassed) to fill your basket with packets of sliced meat, pork pies or anything else that can be bunged into the freezer when you get home. If it's cheap, fill your boots.
BOGOF, Sometimes.
Buy One, Get One Free only applies when it’s something you would normally buy anyway, otherwise you’re spending money for no reason.
Go Downmarket.
Lesser-known stores like Lidl, Aldi and (our regular haunt) Netto have some cracking bargains for branded and noname goods. £2.09 for 4 tins of Branston Beans? Not on your life, sonny! Netto have these for half that price. Similarly, there’s only so much difference between Princes Tuna Steak and SuperBlue Fish Brand Tuna as far as your tastebuds are concerned.
Go Down t’Market.
Farmer’s Markets or Farm Shops are great ways to get fresh veg direct from the farm, cutting out the middleman and helping farmers earn more than supermarkets would pay them. Make sure, however, that the prices are cheaper and the goods are from their farms – we’ve found people selling cage eggs from 40+ miles away, in a so-called farm shop. While on your travels, be sure to make a mental note of every 'Eggs for Sale' sign you see - you can get massive discounts from the guy with a few chickens at the bottom of the yard.
Eat Out Less
Cooking your own food not only ensures you know exactly what’s going into it, but you’re not paying the wages of cooking staff or the rent on the premises either. If you must eat out, pick where you shop carefully – Fish and Chips on Cleethorpes Sea Front can cost £4, whereas in the centre of Grimsby it’s less than half that.
Save 10p a Litre on Fuel
Well kind of. If you adapt your driving you can save a packet. On the flat, drive in the highest gear you can (a modern diesel can go as low as 30mph in 5th gear), use the best midrange for going uphill and accelerate downhill. If you must accelerate on the flat, do it slowly, and always coast where you can. Remove all the unecessary junk from the boot and the roof-rack from the ... roof. If you can up your mpg by 10% - from 45 to 50 for example – you’re saving 10% on fuel, and that’s over 10p a litre these days.
Car Share! Car Share! Party Time! Excellent!
Car share to go to work, car share for shopping, car share any time there’s two car owners going to the same place at the same time. Work out with your neighbour when to go shopping and take the car – it’ll most likely be quicker, cheaper and more convenient than public transport. As if that's not enough, it also helps stave off boredom on longer journeys.
Turn the Lights Off
Not only should you be switching your incandescents to energy savers, but you should be switching off unused lights as well, especially those spots that seem to be all the rage. You know the ones – we have five in the bathroom, four in my office and even a couple in the kitchen and all of them kick out a tremendous amount of heat. Heat in summer? Yeah we’ve got enough of that, thanks.
Use a Laptop
Obviously this only applies if you have the choice between a Laptop and a Desktop computer. Do you need your quad-core, Dual SLI gaming rig sucking down electricity just to check your email? Laptops are efficient by design since they occasionally have to run off batteries, plus you can carry it with you into whatever room you happen to be using, saving money on lighting, heating and so on.
Swap Credit Cards
Move any credit card debt onto a lower rate card – the difference can be huge. Some cards have rates of 19% or more for purchases, but you can transfer them onto (for example) a Barclaycard at 6.5% for the life of the transfer and with no transfer fee. And don’t bother saving more than a couple of month's 'Survival Money' – your interest rate from the bank is unlikely to be higher than the rate on your card, so pay the damned thing off.
Cut your Services
There are roughly 300 Channels in Sky TV’s lineup, and it’s a sure bet you don’t need them all. Will your life really feel incomplete without your weekly dose of ‘Fuji House of Commotion’? Cut back on those channels, or dump Sky entirely and get a Freeview box for the price of a month's subscription. And unless you’re an Internet Pirate, you can cut your broadband back a little as well.
I'm sure there are many more areas where you can save a few quid - why not let us know via the comments form, below?
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