Money-saving hints that aren't...

[TheFifthKey]

I've been looking through momey saving blogs etc and the same things come up that annoy me every time because they're either not good hints or just unhelpful.

Firstly, the "if you stop buying lunch/coffees/magazines" tip - maybe there's the odd person who hasn't noticed that £5 a day at Costa adds up but it's irritating when you never really buy these things anyway - funnily enough if I had a £100/month black hole in my budget like that I'd notice!

And the second is "use lemons for cleaning" - they don't bloody work and a bottle of Flash is £1 and lasts aaaaaages for me - I don't use loads and it's fine. A net of lemons is at least 50p and would last one cleaning session - this is not a saving in any form!

Best money saving tip for me was to switch energy supplier. My monthly DD wemt from £220 with EDF to £95 withBulb. No contract, one flat rate which is variable but still cheaper, and no
more estimated bills. Saved myself a fortune amd you get £50 for signing up. As no contract, if not for you then can switch again.
Wish I had done it years ago 🙄

bulb.co.uk/refer/laural1736

@3out I remember one that suggested instead of spending money on hanging baskets, you use kitchen colanders instead!

@NameChanger22 But what about the cost of running the oven, the hot water and detergent for washing up afterwards, the wear and tear on utensils and kitchen equipment? Not to mention the time you spend baking that you could be either working (earning more than you'd otherwise save) or relaxing/having fun. I guess if you were really into baking it would be worth the few pennies saved but if it just another chore the chunk of life it would take up would negate any benefit.

It really winds me up when I see money saving programmes on tv when a family say they are really struggling and then you see literally everything they buy is branded (all groceries) and they generally have a take away a week. Then the helpful presenters ask them consider own brands, or not having a takeaway. WOW.
And on the shop well for less programme someone was told that buying a spray and washable cleaning cloths was more economical than using about 4 packs of dettol wipes per week.

@namechangedtoday15 that's a brilliant tip, I've just trf 86p into my savings account and will do it every night

I think the save the pennies idea is good. I'm going to try that.

As my mum says there is only so much cutring back you can do.

I think my best advice is to stay out of the shops. For example this week we have eaten out of the fridge /freezer and I didn't do a £120 shop. Still got stuff to get through in the freezer so going to make a plan tomorrow and see if I can get by with a small shop this week.

I just want to know where our money goes. DH is bloody useless. After all bills we should have quite a lot left but we never do!!
I said him today that I think we need to withdraw £150 on a Friday night as our weekly spends and that's all we have for spending at weekend until next Friday And if it's gone we can't have a takeaway on Thursday night for example. He doesn't think it's enough but I think it's worth a try.

I always round up to the nearest fiver from my main bank account and transfer the extra to my savings every week. It pays for christmas pretty much.

Thing is, there are thousands of people out there who do buy their lunch out every day, and do buy takeaway coffees every day, without realising quite how much that adds up to over a year or even a month.
Same with the switching energy suppliers / insurances / etc every year, as suggested. Someone suggested it then another poster says it isn't worth it for £25 a year. Well, for a lot of families £25 is worth saving, even before you realise you can usually earn that just for switching, on top of any savings you make.
Same with switching bank accounts etc. - if you have the time, and are organised and remember to review regularly, you can earn money that way.
So much depends on your money budget vs your time budget. There have been times when I simply didn't have the choice, moneywise, and other times in my life where it was more of a choice.
People regularly start threads on MN asking how they can spend less on their weekly shop. Other posters start setting out how they spend so little, and the OP says "I can only possibly eat organic, ethically sourced produce and my dh won't consider it a meal unless there is meat everynight and I have to have 14 different types of fresh fruit everyday, etc etc. Well, that's nice if you can afford it, but everyone's ideas of saving money are different.

I was sent on a 'managing your money' course by the jobcentre

This reminded me of that time in the Simpsons when, following an unfortunate series of chance events, they were referred to Social Services (or whatever the American equivalent is) and made to go on a parenting and general sensible home management course.

The leader enthusiastically says "And, people - I can't stress this enough - DO NOT THROW YOUR GARBAGE OUT OF THE WINDOW!!! Simply dispose of it in the trash can."

Homer (frantically scribbling, taking notes): "This is gold dust, Marge!"
Marge: "This is soooo humiliating!"

My TSB account has a Save The Pennies account.
www.tsb.co.uk/savings/save-the-pennies

It automatically rounds up the change and transfers it in every day.

I managed over £100 last year

I remember seeing one of these programmes where a supposedly hard-up family had invested in a caravan to save money on family holidays. Good idea, except they'd bought a huge shiny, posh brand new one for £20K+ - a twin-axle, I think - rather than a sensibly-priced, well looked-after used one.

Only then did they apparently realise that their medium family hatchback wouldn't easily tow it, so they went straight out and bought a BRAND NEW 4x4 for another £20K+.

I would love to be 'struggling' in the same way they obviously were.

On another one, there was a young woman - not particularly wealthy but I think used to being shielded by her (hard-working but not rich) parents and bailed out to the extent that she didn't really appreciate the value of money.

She'd bought herself a BRAND NEW Mercedes (at least middle of the range) the previous year and was now heartbroken to discover that the model had been replaced by a new slightly restyled shape. She was almost in tears and it took the money adviser quite some effort to get it through to her that she didn't now have to buy a new one and that her existing one-year-old car wasn't now a useless heap of junk and would still function just fine for quite some years yet.

Chip is good for making small savings. It transfers an amount weekly, based on an algorithm which reads your bank account. I've got £500 in mine now.

Pays interest too.
The idea is that it's small amounts, similar to what you might pay for a coffee, which you barely notice.
It gives you the choice to stop it if you need to and you can set the level at low, medium or high and withdraw any time. It's an app and easy to use.

I've found it really helpful, here's the code to get 1% interest: 4RUZAS

I'm the same as most people here, these tips are just normal stuff to me. I do buy way too many clothes though, that's my downfall.

A now completely unpublicised way of gaining over £200 a year if you're a married SAHP (or work part time) is the Marriage Allowance.

If you earn less than about £12K, and are thus a non-taxpayer, and your spouse (or civil partner) earns even a small amount over £13K, you can transfer 10% of your unused tax-free allowance to them, meaning that they pay less tax.

Obviously, you have to have shared finances and/or be in a healthy, non-controlling marriage to actually see the saving yourself, but it can be backdated to 2015, so could add up to a nice tax rebate of several hundreds and a bit more take-home pay ongoing.

It was one of Cameron's gimmicks and a lot of people scoffed at the time as it 'only' amounts to about £4 a week. I'm no fan of Cameron at all, but to households like ours, an extra £4 a week is very helpful and well worth a one-off five minutes filling in a really straightforward online form.

It's still going, but so many people haven't heard of it.

If you qualify but don't want a bit of extra cash (which more than pays your annual TV licence or similar bill), nobody's forcing you to apply - but we most certainly did!

www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance

I hate the constant suggestion to “grow your own”. Costs a fortune to set up, and loads of time to nurture...which you haven’t got if working two minimum wage jobs to make ends meet!

There was a somebody who started a post a little while ago asking why 'poor' people waste money buying veg etc from shops when they could grow it themselves free.

She was seemingly well-intentioned, but hadn't reckoned on the fact that many people don't have a garden or the time or the money for the initial outlay for it to be in any way realistic.

She was also suggesting a lot of 'free' meals which home-growing could enable you to make with nothing more than the addition of several store-cupboard basics (olive oil and the like). Yep, those staples that magically appear, free of charge, in small enough quantities so you have room to store them, just before you need them....

Save hundreds by moving to NI!!

We don’t pay water rates or for prescriptions.

Lol justone!

The transferring change tip is genius, especially now it's so difficult to cash in actual change.

I'm also going to investigate topcashback and other suggestions on that long pp's post back there which all sounded sensible.

I already Google for vouchers etc if I'm going anywhere which can save quite substantial amounts.

The best thing really is not to spend money unless you have to. I mean, don't do shopping as a leisure activity. There's plenty of other stuff you can do instead.

What I've done the last few years is overpay my council tax so that in November i don't need to pay any. That's a hundred extra quid for Xmas that I don't even notice going.

I do save regularly for Xmas as well anyway but it's nice to have that boost.

I absolutely love this thread. I am pretty skint, having had the luxury of a fair bit of money in the past.
I happened across a TV show last Sunday morning; Martin Lewis money saving expert, about 10am ITV 1. My blood was boiling at how frivolous I still am
House insurance, car insurance, utilities and mobile phone including WiFi etc. The things you promise yourself you'll get around to but never do. It's shocking how much we pay out of sheer laziness?
I agree with home made breàd and growing your own veg is expensive and time consuming.

TopCashback I have earned >£400 over 2 year period

NatWest rewards (gives you bit of cash on every purchase) I have almost £450, over two year period.

So best part of £1000 over 2 year period doing absolutely nothing.

Hmrc do fantastic savings vehicle
Max £50 a month
Called help to save

What you’ll get

You can earn 2 tax-free bonuses over 4 years. You’ll get any bonuses you’ve earned even if you withdraw money.

After your first 2 years, you’ll get a first bonus if you’ve been using your account to save. This bonus will be 50% of the highest balance you’ve saved.

After 4 years, you’ll get a final bonus if you continue to save. This bonus will be 50% of savings you pay into your account above the highest balance you saved in the first 2 years. If your highest balance does not increase, you will not earn a final bonus.

The most you can pay into your account each calendar month is £50, which is £2,400 over 4 years. The most you can earn from your savings in 4 years is £1,200 in bonus money.

Your bonus is paid into your bank account, not your Help to Save account

I have a help to save account, and DH has one too. We save the max £100 per month between us. It is only available if you claim working tax credits or a working entitlement to UC, but this is including childcare fees element, so the income cut of to qualify is very high.

Credit cards are a good way to make money, but only if you are disciplined.

I have an Amex gold card. Now after a year it will cost you £140 so you need to cancel it before then.
But this is how it makes you money; open one and use it for all your spending. Provided you spend £3000 in the first 3 months you get reward point to the value of £100 you can spend these in Amazon or get them gift cards for other places. You also get travel insurance and airport lounge membership. You can also use your point to pay for flights, hotels and holiday activities.

So if you time it right it will be your holiday insurance too.
You also get points for referring a friend, so before your year is up you refer your spouse and get another £50 to spend.
You then cancel your card and your spouse uses theirs and gets all the points, has the insurance etc.

I also did the sums last holiday and it works out better value to spend abroad on the Amex gold card than on the 0% commission cards because Amex give you a better exchange rate.

@PoisonButTasty 🤣😂 Hope it wasn’t the super-slim STs, they’d not be very comfy!

@littlemisscomper yes! Colanders are more expensive than hanging baskets, and you’d need to widen the holes to poke the flower plugs through. So not helpful! 😂

Getting rid of our freezer after a power cut as there were £000’s worth in it.

Not storing stuff we will probably never use means we actually eat what we buy. I appreciate it’s easy for us to do this as we have a butcher in the village.

We have an ice box in the fridge that I use to make ice lollies in the summer.

I find it easier to batch cook some curries, stews or soups at the weekend and then just use them to make lazy dinners or lunches during the week. When my freezer broke, I missed it so much.

I've grown some veg as a hobby, but it's so time consuming and the veg doesn't always grow well. We have a fruit and veg shop near us that does huge bags of cheap, seasonal fruit and veg, so I never found growing my own saves money.

I use Amazon subscriptions for cat food. I use Costco for things like toilet roll and washing powder. There's a shop near my work that does value packs of beef which I buy and freeze or make into the aforementioned stews and curries. I think just shopping around to find good deals for your family are the best ways to save money.

My coworker always buys a bottle of water at the vending machine at work. They cost a pound, so I guess she spends around 250 pounds a year on it. It does add up.

I definitely can't afford Starbucks!