Money Saving Week – Part 3 – Day To Day

All of this week we’re sharing our Money Saving tips with you after all, the more we can save the more we can spend on home improvements! You can find Monday’s tip on negotiating here and Tuesday’s tip on saving though DIY here. Today we’re sharing 20 tips on how to make savings on a day to day basis.

If we’re all honest, this is probably one of the areas that we can all save most. Whether it’s your regular morning coffee shop latte or Friday night takeaway -it’s the little things that have a tendency to add up.

These are our 20 money saving tips that we do on a regular basis:

1. Transfer money that you want to save to your savings account at the beginning of the month. That way you won’t be tempted to spend it as it’s not showing in your day to day balance.
2. Only put on your dishwasher or washing machine if it’s full.
3. Hang up the washing on the line instead of using the dryer (we don’t even own one!)
4. Have a soft drink instead of an alcoholic beverage – you’d be surprised how much cheaper they are! (although this is more personal preference)
5. If you’re tempted by an impulse buy, try to resist and take a night to sleep on it. You may not even want it the next day. Do you really need those new shoes? (okay, bad example as the answer is always yes!)
6. Make your own lunch and take it into work with you instead of buying expensive sandwiches.
7. Have a night in with friends instead of going out.
8. Take the bus, train or walk instead of getting a taxi.
9. Choose your holiday destinations wisely – some countries are much cheaper than others and whilst your flight can be slightly more expensive, your day to day living expenses can be significantly reduced making a holiday further afield more affordable.
10. Turn down your heating – even 1°C can significantly reduce your heating bill.
11. Have a shower instead of taking a bath.
12. Cook instead of purchasing ready meals.
13. Install a water meter – we have one and with only two of us in our home, we save around £40 a month! Calculate if it works for you though.
14. Shop at the market – we buy all meat that we eat from the local market. It’s only slightly cheaper than in the supermarkets, but the quality is so much better. Fruit and veg is cheaper and eggs and dairy products are about half the price of supermarkets.
15. Pay of your credit card each month so that you don’t pay interest. (Easier said than done, I know, but always worth a try)
16. Shop wisely, keep your eye out for offers and sales.
17. Grow your own. We always have herbs in the garden, things like rosemary and bay leaves take care of themselves and require pretty much no work. We also have a few raspberry, blackcurrant and blackberry bushes that give us a huge and free £supply of fresh fruit.
18. Insulate your home. We’ve insulated the loft and under our ground floor floors and it’s made a huge difference to the temperature in our home.
19. Use voucher code websites. There are so many offers available and even if you’re only getting free delivery it’s already worth taking a few seconds to check.
20. Be careful when booking holidays through travel agents. We recently had a quote for a holiday that came in at £4027, which was way out of budget for a two-week break. When I checked for the exact same hotels, flights and travel dates at home the same holiday would have cost under £2000! I know that travel agents offer more service and sometimes more protection if something goes wrong, but over double, the price did seem kind of excessive.

Don’t forget to treat yourself to things every now and then though. Life would be very boring otherwise!

How do you save money on a day to day basis? Do you have any money-saving tips for us? We’d love to hear them!