AIC 20 – B Z
Activity: Fifty tips to save money
This activity is meant for very general ‘placeholder use’. There is no
obligation for any adviser to cover all, or even most of these tips. Rather,
these are intended to serve as a quick-reference bank of tips to allow
advisers to have short – or detailed – conversations with clients about
various practical money-saving tips that are easy to take on board.
The list is organised into twelve tips per page; this way an adviser can
choose to cover only one page (or two, or three) in a session.
Many various online lists similar to this exist; advisers are encouraged to
use whichever sources of money-saving tips they feel most comfortable
discussing with clients.
No handouts are provided, but advisers are welcome to show the
remainder of the resource with clients for them to pick and choose which
topics they would like to discuss.
There are only 48 tips; this is deliberate. If the adviser gets through all of
them, ask the client to come up with one or two of their own!
If that was useful, why not try…
Energy and Water – Saving energy in the home
©2015 Citizens Advice
BDA7/Sep16/v2
Citizens Advice financial capability
1. Take advantage of cashback and reward credit cards.
Barclaycard's Freedom Rewards card is giving £30 worth of vouchers
when you spend £300 on the card in the first three months. Santander's
123 credit card offers account holders 3% cashback on fuel, 2% cashback
in department stores and 1% cashback at supermarkets.
2. Recycle old mobile phones, DVDs, CDs and clothes.
3. Use comparison sites to find the cheapest supermarket prices.
4. Use balance transfer credit cards to transfer debt from your
current credit card that charges a high rate of interest, to one that
charges 0% interest.
5. Buy own-brand goods at the supermarket.
6. Cancel your gym membership and opt for pay-as-you-go if there is
a strong likelihood that you will stop going.
7. Bulk-buy foods that don't go off, particularly if they are on offer.
An open or unopened bottle of tomato ketchup can last up to a year in
your cupboard, so if you go through a lot of it, bulk-buying would save you
money.
8. Switch energy suppliers.
Households could save up to £300 if they switch energy suppliers, but
millions don't. In fact, only 14% of homes change their gas and energy
tariff each year even though the process is simple.
9. Use discount websites to save on days out.
Sites like groupon.co.uk, vouchercodes.co.uk and wowcher.co.uk, to name
a few, offer daily deals and discounts on events, activities, travel and
restaurants.
10. Cycle/walk to work (if possible) rather than drive or take the
tube.
Factsheet
Did you know these 50 tips to save money?
11. Grow your own herbs.
Keeping pots of herbs in your kitchen can save you money on having to
repeat purchase packs of herbs. Growing from seed can be even more
cost effective.
12. Pay less for your holiday in 2015.
13. Find cheap flights for your holidays next year.
14. Rent a new dress rather than buy one.
If you have a big event coming up but don't want to fork out for a new
outfit you'll only wear once, there are a number of websites you can go to
hire a new dress, for a fraction of the cost of a brand new one.
GirlMeetsDress.com has hundreds of dresses to search through, and for
around £50 you can rent a designer dress (often retailing for hundreds of
pounds) for two nights, or pay slightly more for seven nights.
15. Share travel to cut costs.
You can join websites like liftshare.com or GoCarShare.com to meet other
people who wish to share long-distance travel in order to cut costs.
Drivers and passengers can benefit from travelling together, with the
driver getting contributions for petrol costs, and the passengers saving on
expensive train fares.
16. Open a savings account.
17. Go without a TV licence.
A TV licence costs £145.50, but do you need one? If you watch catch-up TV
you do not need a licence, so BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 on Demand and ITV
Player are all free to use if you are watching shows that have already been
broadcast. There are concessions in place for those aged over 74 and for
partially sighted people.
18. Use a slow-cooker for cooking stews.
Using a slow cooker to make a stew is both easier, you can leave it to stew
while you're at work all day, and cheaper. It costs around 10p to use a
slow cooker for around eight hours, while using an oven will cost far more
at 30p for one hour.
19. Do online surveys in your spare time and earn money.
MoneySavingExpert.com lists the 20 best survey sites on the web.
Number one is Ipsos and number two is Swagbucks. Both are free to join.
20. Check to see if your children are entitled to any benefits,
including free school meals and school uniform.
21. Make sure your child isn't paying tax on their savings account.
22. Don't buy bottled water, fill up a re-usable bottle with tap water.
23. Make your own drinks.
Making your own juices and smoothies with a blender or juicer will save
you the expense of buying these drinks in the shops.
24. Find the cheapest way to spend abroad.
If you go on holiday in 2015 make sure you are careful with your overseas
spending. Pick a credit card that doesn't charge an ATM fee for
withdrawing cash abroad.
25. Stock up on Christmas decorations now.
Christmas themed wrapping paper and decorations went on sale around
Christmas Eve/Boxing Day, so stock up now and save on the cost next
year.
26. Have a dry January.
If, according to recent figures from the Office for National Statistics, you
are an average UK household that spends £15.20 a week on alcohol, by
not drinking for the entire month of January, you could save over £60.
27. Use supermarket loyalty cards.
People are using their loyalty cards less, according to research conducted
in August, but using a supermarket loyalty scheme could save you money
on your weekly shop.
28. Patch up worn clothes instead of throwing them out
29. Use a spreadsheet to budget your household finances.
Make a spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel adding up every household
expense you will have to pay, including mortgage/rent, groceries,
transport, utility bills, insurance, phone bills and everything else to ensure
you don't overspend. Google "house budget template" for more help.
30. Turn electrical appliances off when not in use.
31. Use energy-saving gadgets to cut costs.
32. Swap books rather than buy new ones.
Once you've read a book, you can swap it with someone else for a book of
theirs that you haven't read yet, rather than paying for a new one.
33. Pay your children to do jobs around the house.
Get your children to earn their pocket money by doing their bit around
the house. Cleaning the house/car, taking the bins out, ironing some
clothes or walking the dog will save you money on professional help, and
will teach your children the value of money.
34. Make your own meals rather than buy takeaways.
Save money on buying takeaways, which you can make yourself or buy
from the supermarket much cheaper.
35. Avoid the January sales.
Even though you might feel like you're getting a bargain, it is likely you are
buying something you never really needed, and would never have bought
in the first place had it not been on sale.
36. Check out websites for freebies.
Go to websites like Gumtree.co.uk or Freecycle.org for free bits of
furniture, old electronics, books, clothes and other unwanted items.
37. Shop at discount supermarkets rather than higher-end ones.
38. Use coupons.
A teenager from Essex found fame for "Extreme Couponing" which saw
him pay 4p for a £600 shop at Tesco.
39. Rent out a spare room.
40. Cut down on the cost of car insurance.
Comparing premiums is easy on online comparison sites.
41. Try and rope your neighbours into a "sharing economy".
Families can save hundreds of pounds a year by being part of the “sharing
economy” which embraces everything from recycling second-hand goods
through to hiring them out to other families on your street or hosting
parties where guests bring a range of items to swap.
42. Sell old comics, postcards and other investment pieces.
If you have annuals hidden away in your attic, old toys stashed under your
bed or music memorabilia tucked away in your garage, you could be
sitting on a lot of money. Old Beano and Dandy annuals have recently
sold for up to £20,000 at auction, retro postcards could be worth up to
£400 if you're lucky.
43. Buy a 'passive' fund over an 'active' one.
If you are an investor, buying a "passive" or "tracker" fund is typically
much cheaper than buying traditional funds, as there is no need to pay a
professional to manage your money.
44. Collect loose change and pennies in a jar and cash them in at the
end of the year.
Without even realising you could have saved £40 or £50.
45. Get cashback for shopping online.
Cashback sites like Quidco.com or Topcashback.co.uk give you cashback
on your purchases once you have created an account with the respective
site. You can browse high street and online retailers using the websites
and once you buy an item, you will receive a percentage of the value of
your shopping as cashback which will be paid into your account.
46. Follow retailers on social networking sites like Twitter.
Amazon, ASOS, eBay and Debenhams are some of the retailers who tweet
about their latest deals or sales on their website and in store.
47. Pay attention to your smart meter.
48. Don't waste food.
The average UK household wastes £470 worth of food each year, or £700
for a family with children. This is equivalent to around £60 each month.
49.
50.