Today I thought I'd tell you a few tips that I have been using to cut the cost of living!
When shopping, beware of the BOGOF!
You go shopping, and you will see many 'BOGOF', or 'Buy One, Get One Free' offers. At a first glance, may seem like a great deal, right!? But before you toss it into your basket, stop and think! What you need to ask yourself is "Will I actually use these?"
Also, look at the shelf-life of the product. If it is something that is quickly perishable, or that you will not use up before the use-by date, then put it back. If it is something that has a long shelf-life, then it is a better deal. For example, store cupboard items, bathroom essentials, etc. are all good BOGOF's in my experience.Another thing to be aware of, is the buy x amount of something for a certain price. As an example, a tin of beans costs 49p, but today the 'deal' is that you can buy 3 cans for £1.80! Again, at a first glance (especially if you are in a rush or just want to get your shopping done and get out of a busy supermarket ASAP), you see the words 'special offer' and think "okay, those are on offer, I'll get that brand this time".
I have noticed this a few times when out shopping, especially for groceries. So now I always think twice and work out the cost myself before I put it into my basket. In fact, I came across one the other week. In a supermarket (who shall remain nameless), they had the large share-size bags of crisps. They were £1 a bag, or two bags for £2.50! So, because I wanted to purchase these crisps in particular and I wanted three bags, I ended up having to put them through on three separate transactions, to ensure I only got charged £1 each, as the till will automatically charge the £2.50 if you put more than one through on the same transaction. I could have got a price check done, but it was just quicker that particular day to get them through the self-service till separately.
Take advantage of shopping reward cards!
Many, many shops have a rewards scheme in place nowadays, and it is definitely worth signing up for them. They usually cost nothing to join and you get rewarded for shopping!
I find these extremely useful when it comes to buying birthday and Christmas presents, and for days out.
I personally have the following reward cards:
- Tesco Clubcard
- Nectar Card
- Holland & Barrett Rewards for Life card
- The Works reward card
- Boots Advantage card
- John Lewis
- Costa Coffee
- Game
- RewardMe (The Mall)
Last year, I had saved up £15 worth of Tesco clubcard points. They have a thing called the Clubcard Boost. Clubcard Boost is when you can double, triple or even quadruple your points! I used my points toward a day out to Cadbury World, as the miniature one is chocolate-mad and it was one of his dreams to visit. Well, being on a really really tight budget at the time, there was no way that we could have afforded to take him and pay full price! Luckily, Cadbury World was included in the days out section! And the points quadrupled on the boost, so I actually got £60 worth of vouchers!
We ended up paying £5.85 for three adults and one child to get in, after the £60 vouchers being handed over to pay for the rest, not bad at all!
As for Nectar card, I try to save these up for buying things for Christmas or the miniature one's birthday. Sometimes I will use some of the points if I need to save money one week and need to buy groceries.
With Boots Advantage card, again I save up the points. These come in very useful at Christmas time, as they have a great selection of gifts for all ages.
The Mr gets more stuff from Holland & Barrett than I do, but we always use the card on purchases to get as many points as we can. Once we have built up a good few, it can go toward buying whey protein for Mr, which isn't so cheap. We tend to stock up when it is in the buy one get one free or half price, or in the penny sale, to maximise on savings.
The John Lewis card is good because you can get a free hot drink and cake each month with it! You don't get points on your purchases unfortunately, although they say they will soon be offering freebies to loyalty card holders.
The Works loyalty card is a points scheme also. You can use the points toward money off of further purchases.
Costa Coffee - build up points on all purchases and then use them to get free coffee, cake, etc.
Game - I haven't used this one in quite a while, as our local Game shut down and then re-opened in a much smaller store, with not many products. But if you buy a lot of gaming-related items, this is a good one to go for. Use the points accumulated toward future purchases.
RewardMe Card by The Mall - This card can be used only in shopping centres owned by The Mall group as far as I know. Each month, they release a leaflet (pick up from any information point in the Mall), which has a list of participating retailers and the offers available. If you go into any of those stores, you then just show your Mall card, and get your discount or deal. Sometimes you can get free tea or coffee too. On Sundays they sometimes do a promotion where if you spend £50 or more in the shopping centre, you can take proof of purchase to the customer services desk and you will get a freebie! They also run exclusive competitions and events for Mall card holders, which is quite good!
Purchasing goods at a certain time of the year
- Kitchen appliances - items such as kettles, toasters, etc. tend to be cheaper around September, as this is the time when stores are competing with each other to sell to students who are buying up such items for university!
- Gardening and DIY - This tends to be cheaper around April, as stores are getting in their new stock ready for summer, so are clearing out what is left of old stock and selling it off cheap!
- DVD players, TVs and Home Entertainment - Hit the January sales for these.
- Large kitchen appliances - washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers, fridge-freezers, etc. - February is the best time to purchase these as it is the end of the season for many models/lines, so stores will drop prices on these to make way for the newer models!
- Cameras - May is the best month for these, as newer models are being released in preparation for the summer for all of those holiday snaps people will be taking, so stores will sell of end of line ones!
- Laptops, computers, computer peripherals and printer paper - August is the best time, with the new academic year coming up, stores are in an all-out price war to get the most sales from students!
- Garden furniture - October, as the bad weather will soon be coming and stores are getting rid of what stock they have left over from the summer.
Grow your own!
Growing your own fruit, veg and herbs is a great way of saving money and being healthy at the same time! You don't even need a garden to grow some items!
I normally have my herbs in my windowsill of my kitchen as it works like a little greenhouse - it catches the sun just right and it gets really really warm! I also use my windowsill as a place to start seeds off - tomato plants and runner beans grown from seed and later transferred outside have done particularly well this way. You can keep tomato plants inside if you don't have a garden!
If you have a small garden, or no space for planting, make use of containers. The ones from the £1 shops are good enough! Or make use of old storage boxes, plastic or wooden crates, etc. and fill with soil!
Old plastic trays that veg comes in from the supermarket, or even egg cartons are great for starting seeds off.
You can also make great little bio-degradable seed pots by wrapping and folding newspaper around a toilet paper tube!
Look out for more posts about growing your own food, tips and how-to's (I will show you how to make the seed pots too!) in the next few weeks!
I hope that this has been an interesting read for you all - I'll be posting more tips next week, so please pop back and have a read if you want to save even more!
