We’re all feeling the pinch right now. Money is tight, everything seems expensive and we’re heading toward winter so the heating will have to come on soon. Let’s have a look at some smart saving tips to make life that little bit better.
Your Food Shop
So many of us spend a big chunk of our weekly budget on food. A few tips to help you out here start with meal planning. Actually write down what you’re going to have every day so you know what you need to be. We did this smart saving tip and found that we saved more on buying food as we were only buying what we needed which in turn also saved money on food waste. There are loads of meal prep for beginners tips. Come up with some meals that you all like, get the kids involved and get them to choose what to have on what days and everyone will know what is coming up that tea time! Check out this awesome meal planner which you can download and use. Did you know you can get rid of things you no longer need too? If you have any leftover formula, you can Sell Formula and make cash.
Your Banking Habits
Where is your money right now? Do you have savings sat in an account that isn’t earning you anything? With interest rates so low, we have to make sure every penny is earning us something. If you have £2200 in an account where you’re getting 1% on the first £2000, move the extra £200 into another account. You might as well as currently you’re not getting anything for it. Move it into another account with a bank offering 1% and you’ll get £2. It might not be much, but it’s better than nothing!
If you’re not earning that much because of the pandemic and a change in your working situation, see if you are eligible to set up a Help To Save account. You’ll earn 50% extra on everything you save up to £50 a month. There’s nothing like it on the market and it’s a smart saving tip like no other!
Your Home Life
With winter coming as I mentioned, do you need to heat the whole house? If like me, you work from home, there’s little point in cranking up the heating and all the radiators just for me in a little box room. Instead, I put a fan hater on in the office which warms up the whole room nice and toasty. Simple things like turning of the lights when you’re not using them saves on your electricity bill. Using good weather days or a clothes maiden to dry clothes outside rather than tumble drying.
Look at the subscription payments coming out of your bank account every month. Do you need to be signed up to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+? Do you need to be signed up to any of them when you could just watch one of the tens of channels on normal TV? Utilise free trials to get the most out of your TV and music streaming without having to pay a penny. Be sure to make note of when you need to cancel by or you’ll be charged for that first month.
Maybe you, like I, have a campervan on the drive? I won’t be using it over winter so I’ve SORN it and will get a refund for the months I’ve paid for but won’t be using it. I’ll still be able to start it up and drive it down and reverse it back up the drive to keep it in a-ok condition because its on my private drive, but as I won’t be driving it on the road, there’s little point in paying the road tax! Find a smart saving here and a subscription to slay there.
Your Money Mindset
One of the top smart saving tips to think about is your own mindset. We might have always bought a takeaway on Fridays. Have you figured out how much you’re spending on takeaway food every month and every year because of that habit? If you spend £25 every Friday, that’s £1300 a year!
In order to make a smart saving now and then we need to decide what we actually want to do. If you want to save £5000 a year for mortgage over-payments your priorities have to shift. You can look at clothes by all means and buy what you need, but consider those wants. Do you want that new jacket or do you want to be out of debt quicker? It’s a smart saving shift in our mindset which is perhaps the most helpful thing when we want to change our monetary habits.
Did you know that some people actually throw away their spare change? Utterly ridiculous. We have to respect money and also teach those lessons to the next generation. That could be 3p that goes to charity and makes a real difference. Now is the time for change and we need to use smart saving tips in order to make that change.
