Share your money-saving tips!

From another thread but still relevant

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I always have a 0% purchase card on the go, for exactly these kinds of things - phone, car insurance, annual parking permit. Why pay for finance when there is always a bank out there willing to give you it for free?

Obviously you need to be disciplined with credit cards to take advantage this…

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Seems really obvious, but the value ranges of supermarkets are definitely your friend!

Also, do a review of your subscriptions every month or two to see if there’s anything you’re wasting money on you’re still paying for. (I discovered I had a subscription to an online learning portal for ages I was just paying money for but not using on my non-Monzo account :cry:)

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  • automatic payments to a saving account
  • buy raw food like vegetables, fruits, nuts and make your own boxes with food mix
  • avoid cascading spendings: I want this, and this, and this
  • Monzo card for automatic subscriptions but not enough fund for the subscriptions
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I can’t recommend Top Cash back enough, I’ve gained around £250 in the last year an half by making sure I click through on this site before purchasing things online. For example I got £20 because I signed up to my house insurance with Aviva but I used this website first. It does take a while to come through, but it’s a nice background pot of earning money :slight_smile:

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Further on this; if you have Amazon Prime, buy a Dash button for the product you want (or find the closest equivalent that has a Dash button).

I got a three-pack of 120 Ariel capsules (that’s 360 capsules) for £13 because they effectively refunded the cost of the Dash button on my first order.

I could feed an entire classroom of Tide Pod challengers for a month with this amount of washing capsules.

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Can you expand on this please :slight_smile:

Overpay on your mortgage, the interest savings are amazing!

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Instead of just switching electric at the end of the first year offer, ring them and ask what’s the best offer they can give you. Mine extended the rate for a year and gave me a free £20 electric top up

More of a general savings tip than specific offer etc but I always wait 2/3 months before deciding whether to buy something.

For example, you see a new tech gadget you like and want to buy. If you wait 2/3 months you generally see whether its a “need” or a “want” and if its a “want” you can make a better value judgement after waiting a few months. Often you decide I don’t need to spend £1000 on a new phone etc and don’t make that purchase but if you do decide to purchase that item, its more than likely dropped in price than when you originally wanted it, therefore you save some amount money both ways and often don’t end up buying things you really never needed

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Talking about cashback:

Get a cashback credit card, and funnel ALL spending through there (if you are flying a lot get a card that gives you air miles instead). I get about £200 p.a. Throw in a savings account to park the spending money for the month until the credit card is paid off, and I get another £100 p.a… Adding a cashback current account to pay your direct debits from (or more, if you have loads of direct debits), can get you another £5-£10 per month and account.

Not sure why you’d want Monzo, then, though :wink:

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Not sure why you’d want Monzo, then, though

User experience. Some people actually care about that. :wink:

Also I’m not sure if the 10£/month cash back is worth it, considering Monzo (or equivalent non-crap bank) allows you to better manage your finances and so you’re less likely to miss a payment, so less potential fees.

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But if you funnel all spending through credit card, and all direct debits through cashback accounts, there isn’t gonna be much left to experience on your monzo account - even the pretty pulse graph isn’t gonna pulse much. :wink:

This is a point I don’t get. Only missed one payment in my life, which was because I was confused. I really can’t see why Monzo would lead to me not missing a payment, or how bank A would cause me to miss a payment.

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But if you funnel all spending through credit card, and all direct debits through cashback accounts, there isn’t gonna be much left to experience on your monzo account

Well yeah that was my point - spending everything on legacy credit cards means giving up the Monzo experience and going back to the dark ages.

Only missed one payment in my life, which was because I was confused. I really can’t see why Monzo would lead to me not missing a payment, or how bank A would cause me to miss a payment.

Good job on keeping up with your finances, but a lot of people aren’t as good as you in that regard, especially when their legacy bank “balance” is showing them money they no longer have. When my Monzo is showing I have 1000£ left, I can go out and spend 1000£ without any issues. When a legacy bank is showing 1000£, I can spend them but end up in unauthorised overdraft (with fees) 3 days later because that 1k figure was out of date (how convenient for them).

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Stay out of the pub and leave your contactless at home for a night out…:eyes::beers::beers::beers::beers:

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My tip is when you get a permanent increase in wages, not the annual pay rise, increase savings by a third of the additional amount. Unless the money is needed to avoid overspending then taking a proportion of the increase won’t be noticed. eg monthly wage increased by £60 then 40 extra to spend but the savings pot will also grow quickly at £20pm extra. A build up of cash means higher ticket items can be purchased without costly finance plans.

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Use quidco.com, I have been using it for around 10 years and my total cashback over that period is around £3600, just for buying stuff I would have bought anyway… :slight_smile:

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Buy a £12 NUS Card if you’re a student: get 10% off at the Coop & a 1/3 off Megabus travel (among other things).

Also, maybe find a partner in crime: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43372694

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also, you can hack yourself an NUS card by signing up to one of the eligible online courses.

I ‘did’ a course that was discounted to £4, so my NUS card cost me £16. I’ve already saved that on cinema tickets especially as Meercat movies works to double it up if your partner is a student too.

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That not only gets you an NUS card but NUS Extra card or ISIC card, plus things like cheap or free Microsoft Office, etc. It is well worth doing an online course but look for ones thru companies like Vision2Learn as they use real accredited bricks and mortar colleges, as that needed to get an NUS or ISIC card.