3 top tips to help you save MORE money
Some people save money with specific goal in mind, aiming towards an event or purchase e.g. a deposit on a house or to travel for 6 months. And some people save money with no goal in mind at all (which is what I have previously done more often than not).
Whatever the goal (or non-goal) is, it is easy to plateau on your financial journey and feel like you need a little extra push to stay motivated in savings and reach a higher goal.
Here are my top 3 tips on how to maximise on your savings:
1. Get a money pot
It is a small investment of £5 or if you love a DIY challenge, you could use an old food jar to make your own pot instead. Every time you have coins, ALWAYS put the pennies and pounds in there. Whether it is a 1p coin or £2 coin, pop it in the pot (and if you are feeling fruity, you can put notes in there too).
Realistically, all you would do with that pocket change is spend it on things you do not even need, so why not save it instead?
After a while, the money in the pot adds up without you even noticing… you honestly do not miss the odd penny or pound here and there, and you feel like a kid at Christmas counting it all up.
I managed to save £410.02 in 13 months with this method
If you don’t trust yourself to not steal from your own money pot (seriously, if you have this little will power, there is a bigger issue at hand), then buy a ceramic pot that you can only get the money out by smashing it.
Top money-saving tip – Do not use the coin-counting machines in the supermarkets because they take a % of the money at the end, (so stop being lazy) and count it yourself. I know some people like spending money on convenience but this really defeats the object of what we are trying to achieve here.
2. Make money on your money by using Cashback Deals and Rewards
There are always clever little ways to make money from your money, and I am not talking investing in stocks and shares, I am just talking the little wins e.g. online cashback deals and rewards.
Online cashback deals – Sign up to cashback websites who give money back for purchasing products from companies they partner with. Over time, the cashback money builds up in your account and you can deposit it when it reaches a certain amount.
However , this only counts as ‘saving your money’ if you were planning on making that specific purchase to start with! Buying hair curlers for £50, even though you only got new hair curlers 6 months ago that still work perfectly fine, purely for the sake of getting that £5 cashback, means you are actually out of pocket by £45. (If you don’t trust yourself, maybe just don’t sign up!)
You can sign up here to Top Cashback – this is the site I use for all my cashback rewards.
Barclays Blue rewards – If you bank with Barclays, they have a scheme called Blue Rewards. Every month £4 is taken automatically from your account as a direct debit and deposited into a separate account within the Barclays app. Every time you add £4, they add an extra £3 of free money. You can also browse through their cashback retailers too.
You defo won’t notice that £4 leave your account every month. After 12 months, you would have a total of £84 from a £48 investment (it is not a life changing amount but who doesn’t love free money?!)
3. Find where you can cut back on expenses
Sometimes you need to rain check your finances and do a money review on your current situation. Take a look at what your outgoings are in a bit more detail and find out where can you save money.
I did a review of my outgoings recently and realised that I was spending £24.27 on gadget insurance when I only needed to be spending £14.50.
Everytime I buy an item like a camera or headphone, I take out the insurance to be safe.Most retailers lets you split the cost into monthly direct debits. I
Every time I buy an item e.g. a camera, a laptop, headphones etc. where the cost of the item is over approx £200, I will always take out the insurance to cover myself. At most retailers, you can split the cost of the insurance down into monthly direct debits like Argos and Currys. I forgot I was also paying £14.50 for the Tech Pack with Barclays. I signed up initially as it offered worldwide protection on my Mobile Phone but later learnt that is also offers worldwide cover on expensive gadgets too for up to £1,500.
So I cancelled the individual insurances with the individual retailers and registered all my gadgets with Barclays.
All gadgets are now covered and I am saving £9.77 a month = saving of £117.24 per year
The little savings are just as important when working towards a bigger goal.
Happy Saving!
Laura x
