TIPS for Money Management Boot Camp

[Twiglett]

Please put any tips / things that have worked for you on here

For those of you who spend money on lunches, coffees and what not at work: get a tummy bug and take a day off sick. I did yesterday and saved a fortune!

try claiming back any charges the bank have charged to your account. if you need to cry do! it works!

also ebay all stuff that has been unused for at least 3 months!

make lunches etc. much cheaper than buying out.

do shopping online, much less temtation and great to be able to take things out if you go over your budget! dont look quite as stupid as you do walking round the supermarket with a calculator

meal plan (as well as take own advice )

Ooooo there's a 'tips' thread

NEVER take your kids shopping with you. They'll always persuade you to put an extra packet of special biscuits or some pointless bubble bath or a DVD or something in your trolley.

Join YouGov and do their surveys.

Make sure your profile is filled in throughly so that you offered the most surveys and refer as many people as you can to earn more.

I have earnt £100 since march.

Work out how much money you have for the month and divide it by 4. Then each week take out your weekly amount in cash and stick to it, lock your cards away. You'll need to make a couple of weeks last 8 days instead of 7 to make it last for the month, depending on which month it is. If you run out, tough, you need to start hunting down the back of the sofa or change up any coppers that you might have been saving.

Also, if you are in the habit of buying something like a coffee daily or a few magazines a week, work out how much this would cost if you add it up over a 2 year period. If you think it's worth that amount keep going, if not do alternatives (eg. take a flask of coffee to work) and look forward to doing something else with the money you save.

Make sure that if at all possible you put some money aside for Christmas over the next few months so you don't end up trying to pay for it all from one salary cheque - it just isn't going to happen.

If you have one near you, check out your local market for fruit and veg. Ours has a good selection of locally grown produce at a much lower price than in the shops (and I should take my own advice here !)

ChocolateT - I saw the same tip ages ago about taking out money for the month and dividing by 4....but if you divide by 5, you will have enough money for the number of weeks in the month PLUS you won't always need 5 weeks worth of money each month so can save the extra week for Christmas spending! Two birds, one stone.....

if you get the chance join www.shopandscan.com.
Get paid £1 per week to upload shopping barcodes which you can trade in for vouchers..I usually get Argos ones out just before Xmas as of course it works out to be £50 plus they do bonus sometimes for surveys etc.

Ooo, thank you MLO, hadn't thought of that, will do that in October !

Hi,

Quidco.com give you cashback if you buy stuff througt their link. I used a comparison website for my car insurance to find the best price then went through quidco and got cheapest price and £70 cashback.

I found out about it on moneysavingexpert.com which is also very very useful.

Have joined YouGov.

Any tips for cutting down foodbills/meun planning - links to threads. Sorry I know this has been done before but on a quick look can't see them. We spend SO much money on food (and some of it gets chucked which irks me).

I also end up chucking stuff out, NG. It's disgraceful, really. I'm going to try to go through my fridge/cupboards/freezer properly this weekend, list what's in them, then plan meals around that for a while. They all need a good clear out anyway so two birds and all that.

Buy a slow cooker. All sorts of things can be thrown in and used. You'll never throw veges away again that you haven't managed to use
Plus, if you get a big one (depending on the size of your family) it should make enough for a couple of days
We have potatoes with it one night and garlic bread the next

oh have to agree on slowcooker..we got ours 3wks ago and its fab to either chuck in a weird concoction or to use veg just about to go off!!

Nemo, I wouldn't be without mine now. I've persuaded so many people to get one. I wish I was on commission!

Heres a great website.

Cooking by numbers

Baically all you do is click on what ingreadiants you have in your house and it comes up with lists of meal ideas.

I've just done it as we're a bit bear atm and as a result I'm making a chicken and rice bake!

nemo that shop scan thing says you need an invitation number?!

ohh dont know how i got it then

another good one is www.pinconeresearch.com or co.uk cant remember..sign up with them and when they ask you to do a survey you get £4 of luncheon vouchers but you can also use them off shopping at asda etc.