Hello Dear Reader,
I want you to shake up your finances over the next week and do at least one of these. If you manage that, then come back to the list and pick something else for the following week.
1. Check and evaluate your mobile phone contract. Are you on the same contract that you’ve always been on? Do you use the minutes you’ve paid for? Do you use the 3G you’ve paid for? Do you use the text allowance? Unless you’re fifteen, then I doubt it very much! If you don’t use what you’re paying for then seek out a better deal at a lower cost. If you know what you are paying for…………….and I bet you don’t! Then use this price comparison site and enter your minutes and text allowances and see if you can get what you are paying for cheaper from another provider.
2. Sky TV, really? How often do you watch what you are paying for? You are paying for a multitude of channels that you don’t watch. We don’t pay for our TV channels other than the TV license. You can check whether your address will receive a good terrestrial signal by checking out this Digital coverage UK. If you are not watching TV for free, then you should!
3. Get points for Petrol! We’ve all got to get to work. It costs us £40 a week to commute to work and we have no choice but to pay for fuel. If you didn’t know, you can now get Tesco reward points every time you fill up your tank if you buy your fuel in Esso. We pass several petrol stations of this brand and now buy our fuel there and collect the points.
4. Spending your supermarket rewards vouchers on food? This is madness! Look out for the Christmas deals where you can double your points to spend on clothing, gifts and glasses from their opticians. Check out Boost to see how you can make the most of your rewards vouchers.
5. Cut the cost of transport by sharing the cost with someone else. Day in, day out, I pass the same cars going the same way as me every morning. We already share our journey and have half the transport costs we used to have. However, we could further reduce our transport costs even further by lift sharing and sharing the costs with someone else. Look at the liftshare website and check who’s going your way. Liftsharers usually pay their half, third or quarter (depending how many people are in the car). Not convinced? Check out their car sharing calculator to see how much you will save by sharing the cost with some one else. We go to work at the same time and come home at the same time five days a week.
6. Clear out and get what you don’t need on ebay. You have lots of money sitting around your house. Each sale may only give you a few quid in profit but keep a tally of what you sell and it will soon add up. Photograph clothes and shoes and get them on ebay. Set yourself a target of selling an item a fortnight! You’ll have more room and more money.
7. Cut your car costs - find and use a reliable garage - don’t think you need to stick to the main dealers. However, check with local garages and then contact the main dealer and see if they will price match. If they wont, then haggle. You’ve always got your local garage to go back to if they don’t. Regularly check your oil, coolant and brake fluid. Check your tyre pressure and check your tyre tread………a new tyre is much cheaper than the fine! Use your local tyre dealer to check your tracking as this will extend the life of your suspension and tyres. Get a free MOT with your annual service - this is common in garages. Don’t get your MOT first and then service, but the other way round. Pay for your car tax annually as the savings over time will add up instead of paying every six months. Finally, put money into a savings account every month to cover car costs and to put towards a new car.
8. Check you have the best energy deal. I’ve fixed until 2014 but there are still good deals out there. I’m stunned by families who just pay the standard tariff, which is always the most expensive. Do your research and use the price comparisons sites and find the best deal. Do this every six months.
9. If you have any credit cards at all and you use them, take a spending break and pay off what you owe. Look for 0% credit cards where you can transfer some of the balance or hopefully all of it and pay as much as you humanly can to pay off the balance. Make sure you keep and eye on the terms and conditions and move the outstanding balance to another 0% credit card as the deal you have is coming to an end. We used this method to pay off our car finance in 2009 and effectively paid no interest on our car.
10. Stock take your home, pantry and all food supplies. It will soon be Stoptober when we frugallers take a month off spending! Get ready by writing menu plans that include all of the ingredients you have. Parents will have had an expensive few months with school holidays and the return to school and we all need to take stock and use up what we have. If you have ten tins of tomatoes then you don’t need to buy any more and you do need to make lots of pasta sauce and tomato soup.
Over to you Dear Reader, what have you done financially lately?
I’ll be back tomorrow………….another house viewing!
Love Froogs xxxxxxx
Another driver will be added to our family soon but not another car. The new driver will be sharing my car and associated expenses. Last year I traded the large sedan for a smaller and cheaper to run vehicle. The saving were immediate at the bowser. Over the years I have fine tuned my patience at the wheel and have moderated the way I drive. Oddly, I seem to get to where I want within seconds of other more erratic drivers around me. I save on fuel, tyre and brake wear and retain my sanity in traffic resulting in reduce stress related illness and no need for medications to fix them. Lately I have been getting up earlier to get an early start. The beauty of this is that I get to work quicker and can leave earlier when there is less traffic on the roads. Again, less idling in traffic means less fuel used and of course less stress for me. Unfortunately for me, there is no direct or easy public transport system between where I work and where I live. But still I am going to explore bus routes and which will be the quickest. Taking the train or the bus is the best way to share a lift! Now I have to add that my husband has much to learn to reduce his transport costs. He is a lead foot and has since 2011 accrued 4 speeding tickets that have cost us about $800 and has lost 7 demerit points. I am very peed off with him. I think for him 'no spend October' will be 'no speed October' challenge.
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I live in the US and regularly do the equivalent of most of the things you suggest. (A few do not apply to us, since we are retired).
The one I'm focusing on right now is decluttering and selling the things we do not want or need. Friends of mine own a consignment shop and I sold $75 worth last month with no effort on my part.
Also, I live in a part of the world where the summers are hot. I am lucky enough to have air conditioning in my home. By turning up the temperature from 75 to 77, and using a fan for comfort, my average daily use of electricity for the past two months has been 44 kilowatt-hours, vs. 70 kwh last year. It has been warmer this year than last, too. Most Americans are tied to their clothes dryers, but I've been hanging laundry all summer and have only used my dryer 3 times. It makes a difference, people!
Finally, don't know if this applies to the UK, but in the US, prepaid mobile service is much cheaper. Using straighttalk.com, I get 1,000 minutes plus 1,000 texts for $30 month, which I pay each month by auto withdrawal. If I could buy less, I would…but this is by far the cheapest cell phone I have found. Unlimited service is $45 month.
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We updated our budget and our two, five and ten year plans.
On a completely different note, I finally managed to make a decent pastry crust. I probably shouldn't be, but I am quite pleased with myself.
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The thing that I have been doing for the past 2 months and that is to put all my money for groceries , gifts etc into envelopes and that has really stop the spending, eg I don't have any money in the bank other than what is for direct debits or auto payments so I have no money to go shopping on line if I did I would have to go to the bank to deposit the money. It has really made me stop spending.
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Such good advice here! We are a family of 10 living on one income, so our frugal ways are well-honed. It *is* possible to live a joyous, frugal life - yes! 🙂
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Thanks for the nudge - I've sorted out some things to put on eBay…just have to figure out the nuts and bolts, as it's changed quite a lot since the last time I posted anything for sale there.
Good luck with the viewing!
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I know I need to cut back my foxtel (Like your sky I think)
Good luck wit the viewing.
Best wishes x
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Let's see..
We have no car, no tv and no internet except on our phones, wich have very low costs thanks to my sister Who works for the state and can get very cheap deals for two family members. My boyfriend has a laptop for his work and has to drive the bus for 40 min to the free wifi cafe.
This sucks. We are moving soon and then we will be able to have inernet at home. On the downside..we are looking for Good deals and it is SO EXPENSIVE it takes my breath.
I'd really like to Sell stuff on the net. Maybe once we'll have internet at home.
About the electricity..I don't know if we will have much of a choice at our New apartement, we'll see.
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Oh and we have no credit cards, or pantry stock. I'm planning to cook and eat all up before moving. End of month.
Good luck on the house viewing!
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Doing Ebay tommorow. Have just started the pad (payment a day) challenge on mse. This means that everyday I round down what's in the bank accounts or find a coin somewhere, it's usually only pennies, and I put this in our debt account. Then we pay it off the loan. I have only done 3 days and have “found” £10 so far. It just makes you focus everyday on the debt. Some people give the debt a name! Mine is called The Big Fat Debt and the online account is named that too. It's fun but those pennies I shave off the accounts soon add up.
Thanks for the ongoing inspiration
X
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Also have a look at your land-line phone costs, there's some good monthly packages, our BT deal includes unlimited 24/7 phone calls to land lines and broadband (not unlimited but we get 40 something units per month and with 2 of us using it never exceed it)
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Hi - have come over from Cro's site - attracted to your site by the fact that you live in Cumbria and I live in the Yorkshire Dales.
You are right about checking finances. Our contract with Northern Electric came to an end and they sent us a new contract for considerably increased costs. I rang and said - sorry but we/ll change supplier and within an hour they had rung to offer us the same rate as before. BT too lowered our rate considerably when we complained. It never does to take things at face value money wise. When I look at bank interest I get furious - particularly at charges on business accounts - but don't get me started on that. Can't stop - am off to evaluate my store cupboard and see what I can make to use up some of the stuff in it. (shall probably find spice jars when the sell by date is back in
the last century). Do pop over and see me sometime.
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I love this idea as I imagine if you have a debt to snowball it really does make you focus your attention on it and work to wards reducing it. I might try this myself for a month or something similar to motivate me to clear my credit card quicker.
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We have been doing EBAY for years. Since moving to Cornwall 7 years ago we have been constantly selling to clear everything we no longer use. My children are now 24 and 16 so there has been many toys clothes over the years.
Still have a large Star Wars collection to sort out. Also have done a few car boots which can be hit and miss some weeks I can make £100 and others maybe £30 but at least things are gone. I have a pay as you go phone and hardly use it. I put £10 on maybe every two months. I try to use my land line much cheaper. I have a large blackboard in my kitchen where I write all the money I have spent Food Shopping, Petrol and Others. I like to compare it each month. And when its in front of you you stop and think how much you are spending. The last couple of months its been terrible because I've had vets bills and expense for daughter going to Uni next week. Hopefully things will settle down now.
Rosezeeta.
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We took the kids on a treat day out to Alton Towers in the summer holidays. It cost £8.50 of Tesco clubcard vouchers each.
My husband is at this moment changing over the battery in my car. (While I'm on the internet. Hmm, perhaps I'd better go and do something useful!)
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I phoned my electricity and gas supplier this week and told them I wanted to reduce my payments. We got a gadget to check our electric consumption and have halved it in a year!!!!!! They reduced my monthly payments by £20 and paid £300 into our bank account !!!
I have an ancient mobile that sends texts and makes calls and that's it, it's pay as you go, cost £20 ages ago and I top it up with a fiver every couple of months.
I walk to work, have freeview not sky.I'm not a gym member, I walk and dig my allotment for exercise.
So many things people think of as modern day must haves,aren't.
Step away from the herd and you can save money.
Twiggy
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Fantastic blog, very useful! thankfully did the eBay stuff 2 weeks ago and raised enough money so my christmas gift shopping is sorted, phew! Beware though, eBay have now changed their policy - they take 10% of the profit price AND now they also take 10% of your Postal charges! Big stink on eBay about it. Technically a dodgy thing to do. Thankfully paid my credit card off in full on Monday (yippee!) so will def. look around and consider changing. Thank you 🙂
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If you complete a taxation self assessment form check HMRC's calculation of tax to be paid when it is sent to you. HMRC once added a zero to the end of my salary and then asked for a large tax payment.
Check your tax code when it arrives.
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Froogs…phenomenal…this is all the info we have all been waiting for with bated breath, the food list is going on cupboards in the kitchen as I speak, the rest is just amazing and I wonder for how many other folks timely. I'm just wondering wouldn't this series be ideal under a separate tab on your blog…something like frugal for beginners….I feel a book coming on, can I pre order a signed copy…keep up the good work.
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Already selling stuff on Ebay; mobile contract is just basic minutes and texts at only £8.68 a month; we do have cable TV but are tied into the contract for a few more months (it would cost £150 to end it before time)but we are thinking of Freeview after that; Will need to check my energy deal soon as my price is fixed until Nov this year; car costs have already been reviewed and insurance was negotiated down by £150 after price comparison and we've cut right back on using it for pleasure journeys;I don't get much in the way of supermarket benefits anyway as Tesco is so expensive I hardly ever use it and I don't tend to do big enough shops to qualify for offers at the other supermarkets where you need to spend so much before using their voucher etc. So, most of the things on the list are already covered or thought about or don't apply to us. But thank you for posting them as its given me more food for thought about where I might cut a few corners.
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Forgot to say I have one credit card that I use mostly for buying birthday and Xmas gifts online (saving money on high street prices for things like dvds and games) but I always pay the balance in full each month. Its literally years since I was silly enough to put more than I could afford on my card and had to pay any interest charges.
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