 | Visit moneysavingexpert.com for ideas on saving money in every aspect of your life. The forums are particularly good but slightly addictive - you have been warned. |
| Review your mortgage - could you save money with a re-mortgage or ask your lender for a better deal? Try the Motley Fool for price comparisons. If you are renting, could you move to a cheaper place? While you are at it, see if you could save money on credit card and other debt. |
| Use sites like uswitch and see if you can save on your energy and services. |
| Check out shops like Lidl and Aldi. Forget the snobbery, some of their products are as good or better than the big supermarkets and the prices are much better. Be prepared to experiment a bit - you soon get to know what to buy there and it can seriously cut your shopping bill. |
| Check the reduced shelf at the supermarket for freezeables and stock up. I also find it's good to go about 10pm at night without the kids, you seem to spend less time and money there. |
| Cooking meals from scratch is really much cheaper than buying processed ready meals. |
| Write down all of your household expenditure for a couple of months and you will see a pattern emerge. My downfall are the "quick trips to Sainsburys" when I go for 2 things and come back with a trolley full. Once you know where your money is going, set a budget slightly less than you have been spending and try to stick to it. We did this for a few months and got our bill down substantially. |
| Unions and LEAs often offer discount schemes to staff, see where you could make some savings using them. |
| Review your car, home and other insurances annually, get a few quotes but don't compromise on cover. |
| Take your own lunches to school, you could save about £3 a day (or more) |
| Check you are claiming all of your tax allowances. Lots of teachers don't claim for professional subscriptions for example, see the Inland Revenue for more info. The GTCE has information on reclaiming tax on your GTCE registration too. Also see entitled to for details of other benefits you may be able to claim. If you are paying for childcare, your employer probably runs a voucher scheme which will save you money as they are deducted from your salary before national insurance. Several companies offer these, workSMART has some information on them. This used to save me quite a lot in nursery fees (approx 10%)! |
| Use cashback sites such as pigsback, cashbag or greasypalm for on-line purchases. |
| Use comparison sites such as kelkoo or dealtime to compare prices. |
| Use eBay to shop for bargains and offload your unwanted stuff. |
| Use ciao or dooyoo to compare goods when making a big purchase. You can also write reviews for them and do surveys for ciao, which can earn you a little bit of extra cash (I mean a little bit!) |
