Saving money on fashion (Part 4)
November 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
When saving money on fashion, there are lots of small tricks that can make significant savings but still leave you looking a million dollars.
Use luxury fabrics to create a top dollar look
Using those luxury fabrics like chiffon, satin, silk, cashmere etc can make an outfit look as if it was expensive. Buy these items from discount stores and you will save a fortune whilst looking great.
Find those unusual items cheaply abroad
Whilst on holiday you can pick up some amazing bargains in markets that have a unique style that you won’t find anyone else wearing where you live. Use these to emphasise your individual style. Fabrics and silks, leather shoes, bags and belts etc can all provide stunning and unique outfits to wear back home and remind you of your travels.
Ebay…the home of the great fashion bargain
Ebay is a great resource for those of us who do not travel much….fashions and accessories from all around the world are up for grabs from the comfort of your own computer. There are serious bargains to be had…including designer items. If ordering from abroad, be aware that some items may need duty paying on them …so check that out with the seller first.
Supermarkets have some great fashion items too
Mix and match your wardrobe with items picked up at the supermarket whilst doing your food shopping. There are some amazing up to the minute items that will save money of fashion too.
Yard sales / Car Boot Sales / Charity Shops
If you want to pick up bargain designer items, car boot sales, yard sales and charity shops in the more affluent parts of town can be a real goldmine. Even if they are not quite the look you were after, consider whether they could be re-modelled into a new item of clothing.
Saving Money on Food Bills (Part 4)
October 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Planning ahead saves money on food bills
The old-fashioned approach to speading the cost of food over several meals is an art that has been lost or not handed down in many households. As the credit crunch and recession start to bite, however, saving money on food bills has become an essential skill in many households so that money for food can be allocated to rising fuel costs and other household bills.
A key skill in thriftiness is the planning of meals and the food bought to cater for them so that there is less wastage.
Going on the principle that food is generally cheaper if bought in bulk, buying that large joint of meat to cook for Sunday (as our parents may have done) then using the leftovers in sandwiches, and at least one other main meal can make significant savings. Boiling bones from the meat will also make a tasy stock for soup (providing the base for an additional meal). Often, when looking along the shelves in the supermarket it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that a large joint of meat is not affordable….but when you do the mental maths calculating how many meals it will contribute to, you will often find that it will save money on your food bill.
Spend on quality items when it matters … the family rejecting inferior items will not save money on your food bills
There are many items for which it is easier to substitute cheap / own brand products without compromising on quality or flavour. Items like breakfast cereals, tinned baked beans, tomato ketchup, tinned sweetcorn and tinned tomatoes etc are not proportionally better for paying twice as much for them.
In my own kitchen there are certain ingredients I prefer not to compromise on….quality olive oil, balsamic vinegar etc can add a high quality flavour to cheaper ingedients so that the family do not notice the difference. However, cheap ice cream and cheap ham are often rejected by the family leading to food wastage and no savings on food bills as a result. Try items one by one with your family and reject the items they don’t like whilst adopting the ones that they do.
Grow your own food to save money on food bills
If you are blessed with a garden or at least room for some pots in a yard or on a balcony, beans and tomatoes etc are quite easy to grow. With larger plots of land more serious fruit and vegetable growing will become much more appealing to save money on food bills.
Likewise, those luxuries like fresh herbs that cost so much in the supermarkets are cheap and easy to grow at home. Fresh herbs can add that special flavour to cheaper ingredients that leave you feeling you have not compromised taste for price whilst saving money on food bills.
Plan Ahead to Save Money on Food Bills – Part One
October 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Frugal food shopping is a rapidly returning art as we all start to feel the pinch of recession. However, whilst our parents may have been well versed in this art, there are many who are not because they have never needed to be whilst cheap and plentiful food was available alongside cheap credit if the cash was not available for that week’s needs.
Top Tips for Saving Money on Shopping
- Plan your shopping list for the week ahead. Only buy the items that you need to deliver this menu. This will save money on those impulse buys that bump up your food bill and are not really necessities.
- Get to know your local butcher and fishmonger. Seeking advice on preparation methods and recipies will build a relationship that may mean a few extras get thrown into your parcel as well.
- If you have room to freeze meat or fish this can be a great way of saving money due to discount for larger quantities.
- A slow cooker can be a great investment if you are planning to buy the cheaper cuts of meat to save money. These cuts typically need long, slow cooking to make them tender and bring out the flavours.
- If it is possible to get to your supermarket in the early evening, you will find a lot of bargains on display. The store will need space for the next day’s delivery so they will mark down the price on a lot of food so as to clear the old stock. Trial and error will be needed with your local store to see what time the best bargains are put out….but the payoff is significant savings on all sorts of produce – much of which you will be able to freeze or use up within the next couple of days.
More money saving tips on shopping will follow soon….
Saving Money on Subscriptions
October 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Ramit Sethi in his post explaining the “A la Carte method of saving money” claims that we often overspend on services that we subscribe to as, after an initial blaze of enthusiasm, usage often tapers off. At this stage it is possible to save money by paying for these services a la carte (or as we use them).
Why are subscriptions so popular?
Subscribing to a service such as cell phone, the gym, cable television, book clubs etc is often a lazy way of ensuring that, as the subscription fee whizzes out of the bank account each month, these services we enjoy using are available throughout the month so there are no worries about using them when money becomes in short supply at the end of the month. Why else would the favourite day for standing orders and direct debits be the first day of the month?
Have you thought about how subscriptions will be saving businesses money too? Think about it. They set the price of your monthly fee knowing what average use is made of the service they provide.They have reliable regular income coming in and save money on posting an invoice to you, paying clerical staff to open mail, process the payment received and chase up money owed. There is usually a 28 day cancelletion period as a minimum. It is so easy to miss that deadline …. so the business ends up entitled to extra payments from you and you are out of pocket for a service that you no longer want. Trust me…subscription systems are set up entirely to benefit the service provider whilst, on the surface, being offered as a special deal and favour to you, the customer.
How can I check the value for money that I am getting from subscriptions?
Ramit Sethi recommends cancelling all subscriptions then keeping a careful log of exactly what you have spent on each service on a pay as you go/a la carte basis.
This may be a bit extreme for some of us. You will already intuitively know which subscriptions you are not using as much as you thought you would. These are the ones to start saving money on.
A good way to start is, if your memory is good, to look back on the last month and list:
1) How many films you watched on your dvd rental scheme (by the time you posted them back and forth).
2) How many visits to the gym you made after you felt under the weather on a couple of days and the boss had you working all the hours available on some major project.
3) How many minutes of call time did you use out of that cell phone contract? If you get free calls to family would you do better on a lower contract?
If you cannot remember, make a list over the coming month. Once you have this information, find out the unit cost of each service you use if you were paying per item. Compare this with your subscription rate and, if your usage for the month being looked at was typical, you have your answer as to whether you should go a la carte or subscribe to that service.
Other ways to save money on subscriptions
1) Do you need your subscription to be at its current level or could you save money on a cheaper level? Do you, infact only watch 2 dvds per week instead of the expected 3 – 5? Could you get away with pay as you go and free family numbers instead of a contract on your cell phone?
2) A few months ago I was looking to save money on all household bills and rang around suppliers to get cheaper deals. When I contacted my suppliers and said I was considering changing, I got 20% off cable television and 33% off my cell phone contract if I stayed with my current suppliers. All businesses are eager to avoid losing custom as a result of the credit crunch and recession. Now is the time when, as a customer, you have more negotiating power. If you do your homework you can often negotiate significant savings on subscriptions and household bills….which can only help household finances.
