We are officially two weeks in to January 2018, well done everyone, we made it! I feel like Christmas never happened now I am back in the work and ‘can’t keep up with everything’ regular cycle of my normal life. Apart from that is, when it comes to my bank balance…
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December hits us all hard and despite my best efforts (I bought a LOT of gifts in November), I am still feeling the pinch this month. I think it is worse as January tends to be a five week month and I was paid early and so it feels like a long time from pay cheque to pay cheque. So I thought I would write this post about how to save money and what I’m doing to save where I can…
Get organised
Firstly you need to get yourself in the right frame of mind and get organised! I like to look at what I’m up to over the coming weeks and month so I can budget my money effectively, I use a personal planner which has changed my life, have a read of my post about it to learn more.
Budget your money
If you haven’t read my blog ‘Intro to Budgeting & Saving’ then you need to get yourself over there right now. This post explains how I budget my money and how I work out what I can realistically save each month and what is feasible. I’ve also done one about ‘How to Budget your house costs’ which is also super detailed and really useful if you’re paying for house costs either in a rental property or one you own. The essence of budgeting is forecasting likely costs and working out where you can save, this is a godsend to me at this time of year, I have budgeted all my money out and I have nothing to save this month, but that’s OK, because I knew it was coming in the budget…
Save at the supermarket
I feel like all my money goes on food and fuel, anyone else? Buying lunch every day is something I cut back on when I want to save some pennies and I also look at our grocery shopping generally in January. I had a lot of good offers in the run up to Christmas so I bought a lot of of food which I have frozen and we’ll get through this month without having to buy so much. There’s lots of detailed advice in my post ‘How to save at the supermarket’ so head over there for more detailed tips.
Voucher it up
Everyone loves a voucher! I look for a voucher before I buy anything, my favourite is vouchercodes. I also use TopCashback and I check both of these to see if there is anything I can use before making a purchase. What I tend to do is do my online shopping like usual and once I have everything in my basket, that’s when I look for the codes and log my visit with Topcashback. Also there are tons of vouchers for eating out at chain restaurants if you go in the week. Also don’t forget Meerkat Movies at the cinema!
Switch it up
In January I usually switch bank accounts if there are some good offers on like free money or free vouchers. This isn’t for everyone but I would encourage you to see if you’re on the best deal that you can be for everything, I’m talking – banking, credit cards, mortgage, car insurance, home insurance, mobile phone bill etc… There are so many people that auto renew and are missing out on saving money or getting better deals. You need to do this with extreme care but my advice would be to have a look on Martin Lewis’ website – Money Saving Expert – and sign up for his emails, he is my absolute guru for saving money!
How are you saving money this January? I’d love to hear in the comments below!
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