Money Saving Tips

I run a weekly column dedicated to saving money, on Year Zero Writers' blog. I wanted to save all the material on 'A Blogger's Books' as well, so I'll be copying them over here once they've been read and archived. This won't interfere with my usual posts here, It will just satisfy my need for 'nesting' by having my work displayed on this page. The post immediately below is the first of my contributions on that site. The links below it are the subsequent posts. Click on any one of the headings to read the full articles individually.


All the tips included here are from my book, 'How To Spend Less' now available to buy when you click on the link 'available books' at the top of this blog page.

SAVE MONEY BY SHARING A PET

My topic this week concerns pets. They can get very expensive to maintain, can’t they, especially in this current financial climate. My idea for cutting down on pet-related costs is to share a pet with your siblings/friends and their families.

How will this work?
If you’re now thinking of having a pet, you could start off by choosing one with another member of your extended family or good friend. Pet insurance, vet bills, food, toys, care etc will all be shared equally by both parties. The pet will have two homes and twice as much love. You could alternate visits weekly, and when you go away on holiday you’ll save yourself a bundle on pet care/sitters because the other family who owns the pet will have it at their place for free. Of course you’ll still have to buy food, litter etc, but whatever you purchase will last twice as long, thus be half as expensive.

If your kids have always wanted a dog (for example) and you have no objection other than you could not afford it, you could make plans to half adopt your friend/sibling’s dog (with their agreement of course). If you’re thinking that the animal may be stressed, I don’t think you have to worry about this at all. My friend’s cat lives with her and her neighbour equally. It gets fed, petted, loved and needed at both places. It thrives on its regal lifestyle. My dog, China did exactly the same thing with myself and my friend. She was equally happy at both homes. I didn’t have any kids at the time, but my friend did. China got her exercise running around with my friend’s kids. When she was tired, she came home to me and played lazy, got her back rubbed, and a nice bowlful of food to eat.

A burden shared is a burden halved. A pet shared is twice as much fun and the financial responsibilities halved.

And the subseqent posts: Click on the headings to read the entire article.

A Hole In Your Sock

Last night my daughter told me she had a hole in one of her socks.


‘Put it in the bin.’ I told her, ‘but keep the good one.’

She screwed up her face, puzzled that I would want to keep one odd sock. You see, I’ve always bought socks in large packs. A pack of ten identical socks generally gives you twenty socks. When number twenty has been worn down and thrown out, you’re left with nine pairs and an odd one out.

Why The Credit Crunch Is Not All Bad

Say what we want about the credit crunch, it’s been good for us and the way our spending was reeling past the red zone of the crazy meter. I know this sounds bizarre. How can tightening our belts and having to spend less be good for us? How can cutting back on luxury items or entertaining our kids be good for the way they live, and in their best interests? Having to reduce the amount of energy we use in order to cut our bills and spending, surely is a burden and not a blessing.



Spending Less On Home Improvements
 
In the current economic crises, it’s obviously wise to keep spending to a minimum; especially when it relates to arbitrary outgoings like home improvement. However, we shouldn’t have to give up on this altogether, because there are several simple ways of doing it well, yet cheaply.
 
1. Need a new kitchen? Reuse your old cupboards, but change the doors and door handles. It’s wasteful throwing out good cupboards. Keep your sink. Replace the taps.
 
How To Save At The Supermarket
 
Today’s money-saving tips are just a few tricks to keep firmly in mind when you go shopping at the supermarket. Of course there are so many other areas in our lives where we can claw back on the amount we’re spending, but we’ll discuss these in due course.
 
1.Instead of buying several different cleaners for multiple tasks, add soda crystals to washing powder to do a multitude of cleaning around the house. It’s cheaper, safer, better for the environment, and gets the job done.
 
Saving Money On Buying Christmas Presents
 
As far as possible, buy Christmas presents from shops that give reward cards, loyalty discount vouchers, and two-for-one offers etc. You will get a lot more for your money because this is the only time of year you’ll have the need to buy several presents all at once.


How To Save On Family Entertainment

One of the areas in which we’ve had to cut down our spending has been entertainment for the family. The current economic situation has signalled a shift in the amount we previously spent on our social lives. Many people are currently looking to find more traditional ways of spending time with their spouses and kids. The value of the ‘quality time’ (as opposed to the hefty cost of the treat) can now be stressed. This article outlines some helpful ways of cutting the entertainment costs within the family. My book ‘How to Spend Less’ addresses these points in more detail.

Winter Living Savings

At this time of year we tend to go wild with spending. I think this is because it can sometimes seem useless trying to save money on one hand, while splashing out on goodies for the family and more Christmas decorations for the tree, on the other. However, there are still some tiny ways in which we can try to minimise the outgoings in other areas of our lives. Our wallets will thank us for it in January during the wringing-of-hands season when the first bank statement of 2010 arrives in the post.


Quick Money Saving Hints and Tips



Today’s money-saving tips are just a few tricks to keep firmly in mind when you go shopping at the supermarket. Of course there are so many other areas in our lives where we can claw back on the amount we’re spending, but we’ll discuss these in due course.
1. Instead of buying several different cleaners for multiple tasks, add soda crystals to washing powder to do a multitude of cleaning around the house. It’s cheaper, safer, better for the environment, and gets the job done.
2. Before you think you’ve got a deal it’s wise to check the price per smallest unit (100ml or 100g for example). This information will be on the price tag on the shelf below the item, in almost-invisible writing which you have to bend over to read. Generally, larger items are cheaper per unit, especially with things like cereals, washing powder, toilet roll etc. 


You can purchase my book below for extreme tips on how to save money.