In this post I’ll briefly glide over some quick ways to help you save some money.

1. Cut back on your mobile phone tariff – Not many people know about this, but on contract plans you’re able to lower the tariff you’re on. So, if you’re paying for a billion minutes but only use 500, call your network’s customer service team and get them to lower your tariff. You can save hundreds of pounds over your contract plan depending on how much you lower your tariff by, and at what time during your mobile phone plan.
2. Drive slower – Yes, yes, I know you’ve heard it before. But it’s true; if you hoof if down the motorway at 90mph each day you are seriously lowering your MPG and wasting money on fuel. Even by reducing your speed to 80mph and (anticipating the flow of traffic for more efficient braking) you can easily save a good amount on fuel costs.
3. Drive on correctly inflated tyres – Sticking with the “car” theme again, driving on properly inflated tyres keeps your MPG in great shape. All garages have an air pump; some are free but others are typically 20p. It takes 2 minutes to do and you’ll save much more than 20p on fuel costs this way; especially if you combine it with point #2.
4. Buy a cheap lunch – Buying your lunch from a supermarket can cut your food costs dramatically. Most supermarkets offer some kind of “lunch deal”, where you can get a sandwhich or pasta dish, a drink and a packet of crips/chocolate for £2-3. Alternatively, you can buy some ready meals which are dead cheap and taste great! So yes, they are cheap; but you can get some great tasting food so don’t think that a £6 baguette from Costa will taste better than a duck wrap from Boots simply because it costs twice as much. You can also get multipack (x4 or x6) drinks for a couple of quid too.
5. Use cashback websites when purchasing online – Being smart with my money is the #1 thing I enjoy doing, and this is one that makes me grin like a madman. Using websites like Top Cashback or Quidco, you can purchase goods online from over 2000 stores and get a percentage (or set amount) back as a reward! As an example, I booked a room at a Premier Inn and got £5 back. I also took out cover with helpucover and received a £40 bonus – the cover only costs £5.89 per month! Currently there are some BIG earnings with Sky and mobile phone contracts. Have a browse and see – both are free to join and use!
6. Haggle on your insurance – Nobody likes the time of year when your renewal pops through the letterbox. So why not give those guys a run for their money and haggle for a lower premium? If you’re not confident enough to haggle with them, even if you ‘think’ you’re paying a good sum for your insurance (whether it’s car, household, pet, etc) you can simply say you are going to leave them for a competitor who offers the same cover for a much lower price. From my point of view, a good premium to pay for anything is £0, nil, nadda, FREE. if it’s not that amount, haggle or say you’ll leave for a competitor. 99% of the time this will cause your current insurers to say “oh, actually, I can bring the price down to £xx” or they may even add some extra bits in. But remember; if the extras aren’t of any use to you, say so and get money off instead.
7. Cancel your gym membership – Thankfully I’m someone who goes to the gym very often; I want to look good and feel good. However, there are thousands of people out there who have at some point signed up for gym membership (typically for £40+ per month!) and never go! All you need to do is call them up and cancel it. Or write to them if you think you’ll get sucked into paying even more for something else you don’t take advantage of. Over the year this will sap around £480 from you simply because you haven’t picked up the phone or posted that cancellation letter yet. Remember, you’re not paying the gym to stay away from you. You’re paying to go. And if you’re not going – don’t pay!
8. Sell bits and pieces on eBay – This can also be a way to make money, but in this instance it’s a way to save it. Scout around your house and garage and see if there’s some old tinker in there that you could do without. Chances are if you’ve totally forgotten about it when you find it (and “oh, I forgot I had that!” moment); you can sell it for some money on eBay. Plus it’ll clear the place up which will remind you at how much room you’ve actually got!
9. Settle car insurance early – If you’re someone who pays their instalments monthly, you’re probably also paying a massive APR for the privalege to do so (typically 15-25%!). So a premium of £500 will cost you £600 over the year – that’s £100 for the convenience of paying monthly. If you can, pay it off in one go as it’ll save you £50 a month which could be 7-10 days worth of fuel instead, or your lunches for the month of you pay attention to tip #4.
10. Check back here regularly for more ideas to save money – I update my blog often, and am currently focusing on making a great resource for saving money, before focusing on writing up how to make money online. So check back here for the latest ideas I come across or think of and see how it can help you save a pretty penny.