OT: cost saving for a brighter future.....

gtvlusso

As some of you may be aware, times are turbulent. World ecnomies are collapsing, costs are rising and unemployment is rife....The only person with any money is Fred Goodwin and we all know what kind of banker he is....

As such, I thought that a thread on money saving top tips would be one way to lighten the mood and save some hard earned.....

I'll go first...

1, Cycle to work - save fuel bills and parking costs
2, service own car - save on monstrous servicing costs from dealers

Any others?

barry_kellett99

3. Make your own lunches
4. Grow your own veg
5. Go singlespeed

asprilla

6. Have a vasectomy

mcj78

7. Service own bike
8. Rob Fred Goodwin

rjsterry

9. Put more (another 4" on top of the existing 4") insulation in loft and generally draught-proof house - currently saving me around £15 a month in fuel bills.

rolf_f

10) Commute on an old school bike with down-tube shifters
11) Repair your inner tubes

buy_my_cookies

12) dont drink alcohol (ps doing this may cause you to sober up and its not always recommended)

jonginge

13) Turn the lights off. This may result in a darker future in the short term, mind

sketchley

14) Spend less than you earn.

The answer once given by a debt expert on the BBC when asked the question. "What is the best way to get out of debt and stay there". Pure Genius, simple and to the point.

iwearshorts

15) Keep on using your old mobile when the contract runs out, swap to a rolling monthly one.

suzyb

16) Downsize you car engine size

pastryboy

17) buy your fruit and veg from a street market rather than the supermarket

Pigtail

18. Change your electric / gas supplier.

19. Build your own motorhome.

EKE_38BPM

20) Make her pay when you go on a date.
21) Pay off the debts with the highest interest rate first
22) Use www.saynoto0870.com to stop paying more than necessary on 0845/0870 etc phone numbers.

Stone Glider

23) Avoid brands
24) Eat less

The trouble with good advice is it's easier to give than accept

jonny_trousers

Ride through red lights (thus saving money on replacement brake blocks)

cyclopsbiker

25) make your own flapjack...tastier than bought stuff, you know what's in it (and obviously cheaper)

26) use skype for phone free calls (bonus is you can see your friends/family too)

itboffin

Burn the old for fuel
Eat the old - requires slow cooker
Sleep more
Boycott the Internet it's evil and expensive

pastryboy

Learn to trackstand to save on the expense of replacing pedals/cleats

mattsaw

The government are running a scheme (fot pre-1970s houses) at the moment to insulate your loft and cavity walls. We got ours done last year by these guys - http://www.markgroup.co.uk/ total cost for both was under £300 including materials and labour.

I managed to convince my wife to turn-off 3 of the 4 (yes f-o-u-r) fridge freezers that we had running in the house. :oops: They tend to be the biggest users of electricity by far.

If you have savings then it's worth looking into offset mortages. Over the past couple of years we have been paying less than £100 while overpaying an additional £1500 per month into the ofset account wiping a huge chunk off of our mortgage.

Save - I set aside my savings at the start of eery month. If you still have money left over at the end then you tend to feel rich and spend it. Whipping it out into a separate account before you have a chance to notice it tends to means it remains unspent.

SmellTheGlove

27) own less
28) do more

justrideallday

29) Buy some hairclippers and turn your wife/partner/girlfriend into your own personal hairdresser*







*she will probably hate you for this though - mine does but it saves me money

mattsaw

justrideallday wrote:

29) Buy some hairclippers and turn your wife/partner/girlfriend into your own personal hairdresser

I do this, I haven't paid for a haircut for over 10 years I do have a grade 2 all over though so it's not exactly complicated.

I reckon I've saved around £800 in total

pastryboy

Mattsaw wrote:

The government are running a scheme (fot pre-1970s houses) at the moment to insulate your loft and cavity walls. We got ours done last year by these guys - http://www.markgroup.co.uk/ total cost for both was under £300 including materials and labour.

It's very easy to do it yourself and the insulation material costs next to nothing due to subsidies:

http://www.rockwool.co.uk/diy

mattsaw

pastryboy wrote:

Mattsaw wrote:

The government are running a scheme (fot pre-1970s houses) at the moment to insulate your loft and cavity walls. We got ours done last year by these guys - http://www.markgroup.co.uk/ total cost for both was under £300 including materials and labour.

It's very easy to do it yourself and the insulation material costs next to nothing due to subsidies:

http://www.rockwool.co.uk/diy

That price included the cavity wall insulation as well. Between the three of them doing the walls and the loft there must have been around 8 hours labour in total.

itboffin

Fill your walls with old people, living or dead your choice

mattsaw

itboffin wrote:

Fill your walls with old people, living or dead your choice

Don't the living ones make a lot of noise?

CiB

30) Save money. After not very long the small dob of cash becomes an amount that buys something worthwhile, and you become tempted to keep adding to it on the basis that whatever you plan to buy, the next model up will be a bit better. It's self perpetuating.

31) Arrange a small overdraft with your bank to allow for those months when it doesn't quite pan out. Wobble we used to call it when I was in retail banking. Very effective, esp if you've done Matsaw's suggestion and stashed a load away on payday and not quite eeked the rest out to month end.

EKE_38BPM

I kind of do it in a different way, but with the same effect.
I get paid into one bank account (pay account). From that account I transfer a value exceeding my outgoings (by about 5-10%) into another account (bills account). I spend money through the month from the pay account and whatever is left at the end of the month goes into another account (short term savings account).
In that way I always make sure my bills get paid (from the bills account), I feel like I have some disposable income, but still have finite budget (from the pay account) and any extra gets saved in the short term saving account for toys.

I include some long term savings in my outgoings (and they go into another account/ISA) and I put the bit extra in my bills account each month so that every now and then I get a 'free' month. They are good.

Lots of accounts, but after getting in a bit of financial trouble a while back, this method works for me.

essex-commuter

32) If you own a car don't drive it like you stole it. Easy on the accelerator, easy on the brakes...and relax. Save many pounds sterling.

UndercoverElephant

33) I saved a fortune by lighting my hand-rolled Cuban cigars using £10 notes, rather than my more usual, higher denomination notes. You do have to watch out, though as they're smaller and tend to burn faster.