Money saving tips for the hard times

It is always wise to have a budget and to stop any unnecessary leaks in your personal finances. Although you may take the stance that unnecessary spending is only as losing 5p here and 10p there, all of those pence added up could, by the end of a year, equate to hundreds of wasted pounds. Even a small amount of discipline and a few money saving tips could help prevent you needlessly losing money due to small financial leaks and bad habits. In fact, adopting a few good habits could save you quite a few pounds each month.

If you ever find yourself facing a financial crunch or hardship for any reason, before you think about borrowing money or some other drastic measure to solve the problem, try taking a look at your budget and asking yourself where you can begin to save money. Start out by listing all of the bills and expenses you have to pay in a single month on a piece of paper. Next, ask yourself how many of the things listed are necessary expenses and how many of them are non-essentials. You may find yourself surprised at how much money you are spending each monthly on non-essentials.

The non-essentials should be the first things that you think about ending and removing from your list of expenses. You could try to cut out every expense that you no longer consider absolutely vital. Then you could look at your daily spending and try to find other money saving tips to make your money last longer. If you take public transport or drive to work or close by shops, consider walking and saving extra money that way.

Everyday money saving tips
• List your expenses
• Eliminate non-essential spending
• Make cuts in daily spending
• Take measures to reduce utility bills

There are some bills that you have to pay no matter what. These are things like your rent and also utility bills such as electricity, water, etc. These bills are often in the same price range every month. If you find however that the amount you are paying seems unnecessarily high, you might want to take measures to reduce them. Not only shop around to see if it would be beneficial to switch utility suppliers, but cut costs yourself too. Although you cannot change the rates at which companies charge you for utilities you can change the way that you use them. Begin to adopt money saving policies in the home.

Get into the habit of turning lights off whenever you leave a room. Use a night light in the hallway when sleeping rather than leaving the larger house lights on. You can reduce your water bills by simply using a plug and filling your basin when washing dishes rather than under a constantly running tap. You can also reduce the amount that you fill the bath or reduce the length of your showers. Eating out is expensive and costs many times more than preparing a meal at home and if you do have to go out, try packing a lunch. These and other money saving tips could make your finances manageable in no time at all.

Top Money Saving Tips

There is one sure way to get ahead financially, one that has not changed over the centuries, it is: Make sure that your outgoings are less than your income. In other words, save money whenever you can! This is perhaps a little easier said than done however since most of us struggle to find places in our budgets from which we can trim a bit of fat. Yet when we stop to think about it savings are actually rather easy to achieve. The following are a few potential ‘savings areas’ that you should perhaps consider:

Clear your credit card every month: It is a golden rule of financial planning that you should get rid of your most expensive debts first. For most people this means the money that they owe on their credit cards. If you do use a credit card it would therefore be worth your while to make sure that you pay it off every month. If this is not possible right away you could consider moving your credit card debt into a loan that attracts a lower rate of interest (e.g. a standard bank loan) and then working hard to pay it off as soon as possible.

Switch your household bills to less expensive suppliers: Many people stay with energy and telecommunications suppliers for years without really considering that cheaper alternatives might be available. This despite the facts that the market for household utilities in the UK is extremely competitive and that switching suppliers could in many cases lead to substantial savings.

Always make a shopping list: Making unnecessary purchases is one of the reasons why many household budgets flounder. Protect yourself from this by always making a shopping list (even for non-grocery shopping) and then sticking to it. This will go some way towards protecting you from ‘impulse buys’.

Make smart shopping decisions: It is often the case that huge savings can be made on the weekly grocery spend by making a few smart shopping decisions. This could include buying some of your fruit and vegetables from a market stall and switching to ‘home brand’ products where available.

Get rid of your clutter: One man’s junk is another’s treasure! You may be sitting on some things that could be quite valuable to someone else. The rise of services like Ebay means that is has never been as easy as now to cash in on this fact.

Do not automatically renew your insurance cover with your current providers: It is very convenient to simply allow insurance policies to ‘run and run’. This does not mean however that it is necessarily the best thing to do from a cost saving point of few. It would be far better to get new quotes from a variety of providers every time that a policy becomes due. This applies to all kinds of insurance including vehicle insurance, home insurance and annual travel insurance.

Think before taking out ‘value added’ products: You will often be offered ‘value added’ products like ‘Payment Protection Insurance’ and extended warranties. It could be that they will indeed ‘add value’ to your purchase/transaction under certain circumstances. It would however be a good idea to ‘crunch the numbers’ to determine whether this is indeed the case before taking it up. In far too many cases the ‘added value’ applies to the vendor and not to you!

Summary:

• The fastest way to financial stability is to make sure that your income always outstrips your outgoings.
• Clearing credit card debts can result in significant savings
• Smart shoppers always make lists and shop around
• Your financial decisions should be determined by thorough research and not merely by ‘business as usual’