How To Save Money On Almost Anything

How To Save Money On Grocery Shopping

2008-12-28T14:27:00.000Z

How often do you go grocery shopping?

It's best if you can do it just once a week, because every time you go into your local store to get just one item, you're almost certain to come out with three or four items that you "just happened to see".

So keep a notepad in one place (the kitchen is a good place) and write down on it whatever you need to get through the week. As soon as you know what you need, start to look for adverts on TV or in newspapers or flyers for deals on that very thing.

This way, you will be able to build up a plan of where to go to do your grocery shopping, and when to do it. You can't go to a grocery store with no list and no plan, and then expect to come out of there with good deals. You have to know what you want to buy ahead of time so you can
keep a lookout for coupons, adverts, etc.

If it's not on the list, don't buy it. Of course, there are always those offers that you didn't know about and which are so tempting. When you see those, check the date when the offer ends and then decide whether it should be on this week's list or on next week's list.

So write out your shopping list and stick to it - that's the way to save money.

How to cut your driving costs

2008-12-22T16:12:00.001Z

When thinking about cutting driving costs, the first thought that comes into most people's minds is "Where can I fuel up cheapest?". But apart from finding the cheapest place to fuel up your car, there are other things that you can do to cut your driving costs. Here are just a few:

Remove any excess weight from the car - you'll often find stuff in the trunk that just doesn't need to be there, and you are using fuel just to drive it around.
Remove your roofrack when it isn't in use - the roofrack creates drag and uses up extra fuel.
Ensure your tyres are inflated to the correct pressure - both overinflation and under inflation can use extra fuel.
Get a more economical car
Drive smoothly with gentle acceleration and braking

How to cut the cost of large purchases

2008-12-16T13:50:00.001Z

Learn how to negotiate so that you can cut the cost of large purchases. Stores have sales targets to meet, and are currently having difficulty reaching them. That puts you, the potential customer, in a strong bargaining position, especially when the purchase is a large one.

By large purchase, I mean the sort of thing that you would not go out and buy on a regular basis - stuff like a TV, DVD recorder/player, or furniture, for example.

Perhaps you normally pay by credit card. If you do, the merchant will be charged a "processing fee" of between 2% and 4% of the cost of the purchase by the credit card company.

Just a thought, when did the cost of processing a transaction become proportionate to the value of the transaction? Why does a purchase for $1000 cost more to "process" than a purchase for £100? The reality is, it takes the exact same amount of manpower and/or computing time for both of them.

You can use this "processing fee" to your advantage. You can offer to pay cash for a discount, pointing out that the merchant will avoid the "processing fee" that he would pay otherwise.

Another negotiating/bargaining point is the cost of delivery. If you are buying a large item, it will need to be delivered. If the store has a delivery charge, you can negotiate for this to be cut out (or at least reduced).

And of course, there is the cost of the item itself. If you are buying more than one item, it is easier to negotiate a collective discount.

Happy negotiating!

How to save on your Christmas tree

2008-12-04T18:23:00.000Z

Christmas is on it's way, and lots of people are beginning to think about putting out a Christmas tree with decorations and gifts underneath it. Some people go out to the store to buy a natural Christmas tree, and are shocked at the cost. Some people get the Christmas tree that they used last year, and the year before, out of storage.

Yes, if you buy a natural tree this year, you will have to buy another tree next year. But if you buy an artificial tree this year, you won't need to buy another tree for many years to come.

Just assume, for example, that you will use an artificial tree for five years. Work out how much it will cost you to buy a natural tree each year for the next five years, and then compare that to the cost of an artificial tree. You'll find that there are big savings to be made. And assuming only five years is actually a very conservative estimate - an artificial tree can last much longer than that, meaning your savings would be even bigger.

In addition, artificial trees don't drop pine needles all over your floor, and since you're not having a tree chopped down so that you can throw it away a few weeks later, you are leaving a tree growing in the ground mopping up the pollutants that we put into the air.

Buy an artificial tree this year, and you will save yourself money, and save yourself hassle, and help the environment.

Beat the train fare increases

2008-11-25T18:52:00.002Z

An inflation-busting increase in UK train fares has been announced. At a time when the government says inflation is 2.5% and money is getting tighter all round, train companies are going to increase their fares by 6% or more from January.

This is becoming a regular spectacle. Prices are regularly increased by more than the rate of inflation, and the reasons given are usually to provide funds for investment in improving rail services or even that rail services have improved and therefore a higher price is justified.

This time is no exception, with the Association of Train Operating Companies announcing that fare increases are needed to fund investments to improve the railways.

In Brighton City Hall, there is a poster from the early 1900s for The Brighton Express, a train service that ran from London Victoria to Brighton and took only an hour to complete the journey. Today, the journey time from London to Brighton takes how long? An hour, that's how long. So in over 100 years, the journey time has not improved.

I know this sounds like a bit of a rant, but I am sick and tired of hard working men and women being treated like a cash cow. So here are some ways to cut your train fares.

If you are a commuter, don't buy daily tickets. If you get a weekly ticket, it will cost about as much as three daily tickets. That will allow you to travel for seven days. You're only going to use it for five days, but it's still cheaper than getting five daily tickets. If you get a monthly ticket, it will be even cheaper, although the saving over the weekly ticket is not as dramatic. And if you get an annual ticket, it works out at even better value. If you're concerned that you might not have your job for the rest of the year, then you can simply hand in your ticket when you have finished with it and it's cost will be recalculated for how long you did use it for. You will get a refund for the balance.

If you aren't a commuter, but you travel by train occasionally, then look at a railcard.

You can get railcards for £24 if you are aged between 16 and 25 or if you are over 60. Railcards can give you a third off of the price of a ticket, and quickly pay for themselves.

If you fall outside those age groups, but you live in the south East of England, you can get a Network Railcard for £20, which will give you a third off of the ticket price. In addition, up to three other adults who are travelling with you can get the same discount, and you can also take up to four children with you who will get 80% off of the normal adult fare.

Buying your ticket as far in advance as you can will also give you discounts.

Remember, the train companies are out to get as much money from you as they can. You should take a similar attitude towards them. Give them as little money for the service they provide as you can get away with.

January Sales in November!

2008-11-21T18:42:00.000Z

The January Sales have kicked off already here in the UK, and it's only November!

Many of the big high street names have started their sales already. So if you need to do some Christmas shopping, now could be the right time.

But if you don't need to get something in time for Christmas, you could hang on just a bit longer. Prices typically get reduced from the 26th December, and could go down even further starting in the beginning of January if the last few years are anything to go by.

Many shops are really feeling the pinch at the moment. The financial crisis is drying up sales, meaning that stores run a very real risk of not meeting their sales quotas. That means that you are in a fantastic position to bargain. So even though prices have been marked down already, there's no reason that you can't ask for them to be reduced even further, or ask for a special deal if you buy more than one of a product. Normally, you wouldn't be able to get special deals by talking to one of the cashiers, though. You'll need to speak to a manager or someone who has the authority to make a decision.

It's worth a try, and as the old saying goes "nothing ventured, nothing gained".

How to get the benefit of special offers for longer

2008-11-20T10:54:00.001Z

I don't think that there is anyone who doesn't take advantage of the many offers that are thrown at them when they are doing their weekly shopping - Buy One Get One Free, Get Three For The Price of Two, Half Price, 50% Extra Free, etc, etc. You can't fail to miss these offers whenever you go shopping, but most people do it wrong.

Most people say "I get two for the price of one - that's a good offer." and they put those items into their shopping. When they get to the checkout, they pay for one, and the other one is free.

So what's wrong with that, you're asking. Simply this, most people take whatever is on offer this week, and they take advantage of it this week. Next week, they will take advantage of whatever is on offer then, and they'll do the same the week after. What is wrong is that they are allowing their spending to be influenced by what is on offer, rather than getting what they want at the best price.

So here's the best way to do it. Supposing that while you're doing your weekly shopping, you find that toothpaste, for example, is on a Buy One Get One Free offer. Most people would do just that - they would buy one and get one free. But supposing that you said "I use one tube of toothpaste every month, so if I buy six tubes, I'll get another six tubes for free" That way, you've made this offer last for a year rather than just this week.

Over the year, the saving adds up to only about £12, but once you start to extend this principle to other items as well, the savings can really add up. Just recently, I have seen these sort of offers on toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, anti-perspirant, kitchen cleaner, oven cleaner, and of course, frozen foods, to name just a few. Supermarkets have new special offers all the time, and if you think in terms of multiplying the savings over a year (or more), you can start to make big savings overall. One day, you'll suddenly find that you have a very small shopping bill because there are so many things that you don't need to get at the normal full price.

So next time you go shopping, look for the special offers and think in terms of getting a years worth of savings from your shopping rather than just saving money on this week's shopping bill.

Saving Money On Your Grocery Shopping

2008-11-18T18:00:00.002Z

Where do you do your grocery shopping?

If you live in the UK, you probably go to Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco or one of the big name supermarkets.

If you're outside the UK, I don't know. In France, maybe your local Carrefour. In Canada, you probably go to Dominion or Loblaws (that's where I went when I lived in Canada) - Toronto, if you must know :-), actually, East York if you know the area and you really want to know :-).

It was in Canada that I was first introduced to the concept of the no-frills supermarket, when I paid my first trip to Knob Hill Farms.

Forget the soft lighting, the muzak, the corporate branding on the shelves. Knob Hill Farms had a very simple approach - sell it cheap. And they were packed!

Here in the UK, we now have stores such as Aldi, Lidl, and Netto - all of them are no-frills supermarkets, and I reckon they're going to give the big names a really tough time over the next couple of years. Their basic strategy is to sell food really cheap and to sell it in large baskets or on wooden pallets rather than on shelves. For the most part, you don't see big brand names in these shops, so you're not paying for the name and the advertising that goes with it. Lidl also seems to have a pretty standard sort of layout in it's shops - which means they don't pay consultants or managers to design a layout so that you have to wander around the store to find what you want. It's just straightforward food at reasonable prices.

In the U.S. there's a new name that's opening up a store somewhere every few days - Fresh and Easy. They reckon you can cut your grocery bill by 20% by shopping with them. Not bad - instead of paying $100 for your shopping, you can do it for $80. Prices are generally cheaper than in other stores, the layout is different from what people are used to, the checkouts are all manual (cuts down on labor costs a lot) . Reaction so far seems to be an either you love it or you hate it sort of thing. But the ones who love it are saving money hand over fist.

So, depending on where you live, why don't you find out who are your local no-frills supermarkets? Whether it's Knob Hill Farms, Aldi, Lidl, Netto, or a Fresh and Easy, give it a try. See how much you can save on a normal week's shopping, and then decide whether you prefer to keep the sdavings to yourself or "donate" it to your normal store.

How to slash your credit card debt

2008-11-17T11:54:00.003Z

When I was doing my military training, we had a group of around 20 recruits all sleeping in the same dormitory. We each had a bed and a locker to keep our clothes and personal effects in. The rule about the lockers was simple - if you are away from your locker, you must lock it. People did lock up their lockers - not because they didn't trust their friends, but because that was what the rules said.

If anything ever did go missing from a locker, then the dormitory would be locked down and everybody's beds and lockers would be searched until the missing item was found. The person who had taken the item was then given a disciplinary punishment. Here's the catch though - the person from whom the item had been taken was also given a disciplinary punishment.

Why? It's easy to understand that if someone stole your stuff, they should be punished. But why should you be punished as well?

The reasoning is very simple. Yes, the one who took your stuff did something wrong - he shouldn't have taken your stuff - and now he gets punished for it. But you did wrong as well - you left your locker open and left the temptation for him to take your stuff - you made it easy for him to take your stuff. So because you broke the rules and made it easy for him to be tempted, now you get punished as well.

Needless to say, not many people left their lockers open, and when they did, stuff didn't go missing very often, and when it did go missing, it was not normally reported.

What does this have to do with saving money? Well I hear a similar argument more and more often just recently. There are a lot of people who have got into a lot of debt with their credit cards. And for year after year, the banks have been raising credit limits by a few hundred pounds a year. And people have been tempted by the easy money that the banks made available to them.

Now, people are suddenly finding themselves in a serious situation. And the argument I'm hearing is "It is my fault, because it was me that borrowed and spent the money. But I think that the bank is partially responsible for my situation because they made it so easy for me to get the money." When pushed to apportion the blame, some people will attribute 50% of the blame to the bank, some less, and a few will say more than that.

So if you owe, say £10,000 on credit cards, and you reckon that the bank is 50% to blame, do you think that it would be reasonable for the bank to write off half of what you owe? Do you think it would be reasonable of the bank to say you owe us £5000 instead of £10,000?

A lot of people do think it would be reasonable, but they don't think that the bank would do it. But that's where they are wrong. Under certain circumstances, the banks are prepared to accept 50% or even less of what you owe them. To find out more about how you can get your bank to agree to slash what you owe them, go here. Maria managed to get over $50,000 of a $75,000 debt written off, and the same principles apply wherever you live - so you can do it too.

Put this strategy into action and you can save yourself thousands.

How to save money on books

2008-11-16T11:24:00.002Z

Do you like books? I used to collect books.

I'd buy hardbacks and paperbacks in bookshops, I'd subscribe to mail-order book collections, I was a member of book clubs - I had bookshelves that were bulging, I had boxes of books in the loft, I had more boxes of books in the garage. It seemed as if I was a customer of anyone who sold books.

I had so many books that I never even got around to reading some of them. Others I would read once and put away, and others merited reading more than once.

To save money on buying books, the first thing to do is to not buy them. We get very caught up in the "must have it now" mentality, which is what makes us buy "now". This applies to books, music, DVDs, fashion, you name it. So the first step is self-control.

When a book first comes out, it is normally issued in hardback with a price of around £18 or so. Then a few months later, the same book will come out in paperback form at a price of around £6. So if you buy it then, you automatically save £12.

But if you wait a few months, you will see the same book for sale in local charity or second-hand book shops for around £2. By not buying it when the paperback came out, you can save yourself another £4. What would have cost you £18 only a short time previously will now cost you just £2 - a saving of £16, or 89% off.

But my favourite way of saving money on books is to simply go to the library and borrow them.Libraries are everywhere. If you're not a member of your local library, you should be. It's free to join up, and then you can borrow books to your heart's content. The only time it will ever cost you is if you return a book after it is due, and even then the fee is minimal.

So get along to your library, join it, and make use of what is available to you.

I'm Not The Grinch!

2008-11-14T11:49:00.002Z

I don't want to come across like the Grinch who stole Christmas, but seriously, have you ever stopped to wonder why Christmas is such an expensive time? Most people get through Christmas by putting stuff on their credit card to deal with next month, but by the time next month comes around there are more expenses that need to be covered, whether that is sorting out the car because something went wrong with it, or maybe you get a huge gas or electricity bill, or whatever. There are these expenses that just pop up, so that Christmas debt can wait till next month (that's February now).

Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier, and cheaper, if you didn't have a Christmas debt to deal with?

So really, where does the money go? Well, there are all those gifts that you just have to buy for the kids - the things that they see advertised and that they just have to have for Christmas. And then there are the gifts you just have to buy for your aunt and uncle, your cousins, your neighbours, your friends, etc, etc. And then there are the Christmas parties that you just have to go to - whether it's the office party, or just going out with your friends.

That's three main areas, and they all have "have to" in them.

This is the Grinchy bit. Do you really "have to"?

Do you really "have to" buy the kids every toy that they say they want? You remember the toys that you got for them last Christmas - the ones that they'd forgotten about by afternoon on Christmas Day. That's going to happen again with most of the stuff that you're putting yourself into debt to buy for them this year. So slow down and consider what you should really get for them. It's not everything that they have expressed a fleeting "Can I have" for.

And then there are the gifts for all those relatives. These are the gifts where you really don't know what to get for Aunt Dilys or your cousin Bob. You really don't know - so you end up getting perfume (because you can't think of anything else) or a tie or some socks (really unimaginitive). Guess what? Dilys and Bob don't know what to get for you either! So all of you are just buying for the sake of buying - you're buying because it's expected of you. So why not make an agreement with your relatives to not buy for each other? It'll save you, and them, a lot of money and debt. It might seem a bit difficult the first year you do it, but that's only because you're acting differently from how you've been conditioned. Next year, and the year after, it will be easier.

And those Christmas parties? Do you really "have to" go to all of them? Do you "have to" consume so much alcohol that you don't even know what you're doing or where you are? Do you "have to" destroy your health as well as your finances? No, you don't "have to". When you say that you're going to give a party a miss, you might get some funny looks, but the next day when everyone else has a massive hangover and no money, you'll feel glad that you didn't go to the party, and you'll still have money in your wallet.

I don't want to be "Grinchy", but you really don't "have to" do all the things that you normally do over Christmas. You really can enjoy yourself without going mad buying gifts and getting drunk. You can enjoy yourself within your budget.

So do you want to try it out this year? Just cut back a bit, consider what you are buying and for who, and don't say "Yes" to every single party.

More ways to cut your printing costs

2008-11-13T11:39:00.000Z

After talking about how you can halve your printing paper costs yeaterday, I got to thinking about another way that you can save money on your printer.

Have you ever noticed that the cost of new printers is really cheap? Really, printers are dirt cheap - but when you check out the prices for the new ink cartridges, they can easily cost more than half the price of the printer itself! And you'll generally find a "warning" that you must replace empty ink cartridges with "genuine" new ink cartridges. The "warning" usually goes along the lines of "failure to replace ink cartridges with genuine new ink cartridges may invalidate your warranty". This is language that is meant to scare you into buying only "genuine" replacement ink cartridges. And who provides the "genuine" replacement ink cartridges? The printer company of course! And the implication is that if you don't buy your new replacement ink cartridges from them, your printer might go wrong, and you would have invalidated your warranty.

The reality, of course, is that there are lots of compatible cartridges which are not made by the printer company, and they are cheaper.Take my printer as an example - a "genuine" new black ink cartridge will cost me £9, and a "genuine" new colour ink cartridge will cost me £18. That makes £27 together if I buy two new cartridges at the same time.

If I shop around though, I can buy a pair of cartridges (black and colour) for £22 - a saving of £5.

With a bit more searching, I can buy black ink cartridges for as little as £5 each or a pack of 3 for £10, meaning I can save between £5 and £7.66 per cartridge.

I can also buy colour cartridges for prices between £5 each and £10 each, saving me between £8 and £13 on the price of the "genuine" article.

You have to bear in mind though, that these are internet prices, so there is a delay of a day or two between ordering and receiving.

My favourite option is not to buy a new cartridge at all. I prefer to take my empty ink cartridge to a local cartridge refiller. I use Cartridge World, and if you live in the UK, there is probably one near you - you can find the one closest to you by checking www.cartridgeworld.org. But even if you don't live in the UK, there is probably an ink cartridge refiller near you. I pay £4 to get a black cartridge refilled, and £6 for a colour cartridge. It takes a matter of a few minutes to do the refill, and then I can put it in my printer straightaway. That comes to £10 for the pair, which means I'm paying only about a third of the cost of buying the "genuine" article.

Despite the dire "warning" of invalidating my warranty, I have never had any problems with these ink cartridges, either refilled ones or the unofficial ones.

So next time you need a new ink cartridge, why not try a compatible copy rather than a "genuine", or even have your "genuine" cartridge refilled for a fraction of the cost of a new one.

Printing with Less Paper

2008-11-12T11:44:00.000Z

A very quick and simple way to save money is to change the setting on your printer to duplex printing. Duplex means double-sided - I don't know why they don't just call it double-sided printing. To set it, you go to your printer's settings panel and select Duplex printing.

Some printers will print first on one side and then will automatically feed the sheet back in to print on the second side. Most printers though, will print all the odd numbered pages of a document first. You simply let them drop into your print tray. When all the odd-numbered sides have been printed, your computer will tell you to put the paper back in to finish off the print job. You pick up the pile of paper, turn it over and put it back into your print feeder. The printer will then print all the even-numbered pages of your document.

This will halve the amount of paper you use, and will therefore cost you half as much in paper.

Of course, you could simply read your documents on-screen, and that way you would use no paper. But I have generally found that people prefer to read on paper than on-screen.

A Budget That Works

2008-11-11T11:54:00.000Z

Anyone will tell you that when you want to get your money under control, you have to start with a budget. Just the idea of having a personal budget is enough to make you groan, and I didn't like it either. No matter how I tried, I couldn't get my money under control with a budget.

At the time I was a department manager, and I had a budget for my department. The really odd thing is that I had no difficulties at all with running my work budget, but when it came to my personal budget, it just wasn't working for me.

I thought that if I could run one properly, I should easily be able to run them both properly, so I looked into why I was getting such different results with the two budgets. Well it turned out thjat the word 'budget' was about the only thing that the two of them had in common.

My work budget consisted of my department's income and my department's expenses. The expenses covered stuff like employee salaries, marketing and promotion, printing, and the usual office expenses.All the expenses were dealt with by the Accounts Department.I just needed to concern myself with the income. The budget income figures weren't fixed, they were targets for the amount of income my department should produce.

My personal budget consisted of my personal income and expenses. The expenses covered stuff like accommodation, food, electricity, gas, petrol and the usual sort of personal expenses. These expenses were not fixed, and were dealt with by me rather than the Accounts Department. The income was fixed, and was dealt with by the Accounts Department.

So on the one hand, I had a budget with fixed expenses dealt with by Accounts, while on the other hand I had a budget with a fixed income, again dealt with by Accounts. The variable parts of my two budgets were dealt with by me - for my work that meant generating sufficient revenue to meet or beat the budget figure, and for my personal budget that meant spending variable amounts.

So I could see that I was good at making money for the company, and I was also good at spending my own money.

Since I was good at aiming for a target revenue figure, I decided to apply the same principle to my personal expenses.

Instead of trying to increase my income though, I decided to aim at having a predetermined surplus left over each month after my expenses. And this turned out to be the crucial point in getting my spending under control. I didn't call it a budget anymore - now my budget was the surplus that I was aiming to have at the end of the month. Everything else was a Spending Plan. Every time I went outside my Spending Plan, I was reducing my surplus, and could then fail to achieve my budget surplus figure.

If you are amongst the many people who can't manage a standard personal budget, you might well find this change in emphasis useful to you as well.

Try it, and see.

Hello.

2008-11-10T12:33:00.000Z

My name is John Reynolds.

I live in the beautiful city of Brighton, on the south coast of England.

I'm starting this blog because so many people are getting into financial difficulties these days.

I used to be in debt myself, because I was spending more money than I had - that's how you get into debt by the way. I got out of debt by doing the exact opposite - I started spending less money than I had, and I put the difference towards paying off my debt.

Since I finally paid off my debts, I've been debt-free. Along the way, I've learnt a lot of money-saving tips, and even today, I'm constantly finding ways to cut costs. Once that money-saving radar is switched on, it carries on finding stuff.

So in this blog, I'd like to share with you some of the things I have learnt over the years (and stuff that I am still finding as well).

I hope you will find it useful.