Saving Money

[TeePee]

A few years ago I took a huge cut in income, which has only recently started to improve. I'm still a long way from buying a new BMW, but I'm working on it.

I've learned a few tricks for reducing my living expenses in order to save money for the important things, and I thought I'd share a couple.

While I don't believe in government assistance, and don't qualify for any in the US, I have no problem using a local food bank. It's run based on donations, local supermarkets have bins to allow customers to donate food, and so no-one is forced to contribute. I visit the distribution center every month for a box of assorted goodies. Anything I don't like I redonate.

'Freeganism'. The art of visiting the back of a local supermarket to collect unspoiled, sealed food, that would otherwise be carted to a landfill. Again a little time invested can bring some great results, especially in a culture as wasteful as this one, where every slightly dented can is thrown out.

Aside from eating out, which I admit I do quite a lot when with company, my food bill is essentially zero. Combine that with cheap rent here, no debts and 40-50 mpg from my civic and my necessary expenses are less than 200GBP a month. The saving account for that BMW likes this.

In these harsh economic times, do you have any tips for saving money? Am I crazy for going to such extremes?

[Whalefish]

You do what you can to survive and people are going to have to be a lot more frugal over the next few years. You've had a head start.

[CaseyV9]

One link here. Give away any possessions you do not want and get stuff people no longer want at Freecycle UK

Get envolved with med testing or become a mystery shopper or a TV extra at Biotrax

I got these tips from Live on one £1 a day Book

Sod knows what I did with that book or where it is now. But apparently this woman did it

[Steve]

My advice: don't be wasteful.

I'll buy the cheapest food sometimes, but other times as won't. But I tell you what, I'll do my best to make sure it all gets eaten.

[finlay666]

My advice: don't be wasteful.

I'll buy the cheapest food sometimes, but other times as won't. But I tell you what, I'll do my best to make sure it all gets eaten.

I generally buy bulk food (not atm as I'm moving out soon) but buying a 3kg frozen bag of mince costs less than 1kg fresh, defrost as needed and it's just as nice (for cheap food)

Tart up an own brand cook in sauce (for chinese food) with some teryaki sauce and chili, for indian use some extra pepper

Making your own onion bhajis is cheap AND fun and taste good

After rent, bills and car expenses (If I didn't have hot food at work) I could keep my weekly food budget under £20 easily, I could eliminate my travel expense for work if they made the transport a little more regular as it would be a 30 minute walk for a bus then a 30 minute wait at peak times..... or a 15 minute drive

[PeteSmith]

As soon as you no longer have use for somthing, sell it. No point in keeping it to gather dust and de-value. Once you have had your use from it flog it, even if you don't get much it all helps. Amazon, eBay, Carboots etc.. Books, Music, Games, Electronics, Collectables all sell well providing they have been looked after.

[Andeh13]

Go over your bills to make sure you couldn't cut back, mobile bills, Sky/Virgin TV, internet etc. Do you really need to be paying virgin/sky £30 a month for their 'basic package' when a mobile(if your on a contract already), freeview & the likes of talktalk/o2 can help cut £5+ off a month, or £60 a year AND get you faster internet (o2 broadband).

I get quite a bit back from t-mobile compared to the average joe by calling them up everytime there is a discrepancy in my bill. When i go abroad/on holiday from university i give them a ring and ask if they could drop my contract to the lowest level (used to go from flex 35 -> flex 15 a £20 saving) for that month, do that a few times over a 18month contract and suddenly im saving £60 a year (usefull for visiting family abroad over the summer and at Christmas etc when im not at uni & my usage drops hugely).

I like to give Virgin a ring everytime we loose internet or TV, each time the service goes down for a day or two i get them to knock £10-15 off the bill. They offer something like £1-2 a day compensation as standard but i _really_ don't like virgin so hammer them for more, esp when the internet goes down!

Use cashback websites when you are placing big orders online, dell offer 6-8% back (£60+ off a £600 computer/laptop) or when you go to re-insure your car/van/house. I got £75 cash back from More Than (they were already the cheapest) just by going through the www.quidco.com website! Another offer is £50 for signing up to O2 broadband (see above) and similar for the likes of new contracts with Sky, Virgin, mobile phones etc and £50 for opening a HSBC current account, may take an hour in total filling in forms but...£50 for an hours work?

edit; when shopping make a shopping list & buy what you need, don't waste money on crisps, chocolates or fizzy drinks. Two birds one stone!

[Jay]

isn't going to the food bank so you can save for a BMW a little immoral?

[AledJ]

isn't going to the food bank so you can save for a BMW a little immoral?

I thought food bank's were for those who could not afford much in the way of food anyway?

[IBM]

Buy in bulk - especially shower gel, shampoos, & cleaning products. If you don't have access to a Makro, pick up every bottle you can find when you see a BOGOF offer. Don't get attached to a particular brand, just go with whatever is decent and on offer. I've saved a fortune in baby products over the years with that one.

[TeePee]

isn't going to the food bank so you can save for a BMW a little immoral?

Not my morality.

Claiming government benefits from people forced to contribute (by paying taxes) would be. Accepting gifts from people who choose to donate (regardless of their reasoning) doesn't bother me in the slightest. For anyone else who needs the food, its survival of the fittest. Me.

I have enough hotel shower gel to last me a lifetime!

[TheAnimus]

isn't going to the food bank so you can save for a BMW a little immoral?

I thought food bank's were for those who could not afford much in the way of food anyway?

And there in lies the problem, who are food banks for, 'the poor'? Who are the poor those who are below a certain median income, this is the system used at present, and at what percentile? Also on what kind of sample, its much more expensive to rent in london than it is in say wales because of demand, as such you probably need another £5k per year net, and you will be living in a smaller premise etc. Is someone who is on £8k in Wales on the poverty line? In London you might well say yes.

Poverty is always relative, I think it is up to the moral compass of each person as to when they take charity, be it government, or private, to ensure they genuinely do need it, rather than just been greedy.

I don't know how many of customers of food banks are similar to the OP in as much as they could easily be able to afford food, if they had different priorities. Myself, I think its completely deplorable behavior that someone would want to claim charity, whilst saving for a BMW, if it wasn't for the post count, i would say this was a viral add campaign by Jag to make all BMW owners look like completely greedy, trust abusing cun.......

[emzallan]

Well you might as well head to the nearest soup kitchen and stand in line as well then... More free food.

[Funkstar]

I assumed the TeePee's comments about the BMW were tongue-in-cheek, but it appears they weren't.

I'm a bit disappointed by it.

[thavala]

yes .. remainds me of rich dad poor dad

[glutamate]

Personally I would never spend lots on having a car.

But then, I like in the UK, and I've heard that it's damn near impossible to get around with out a car in the US. Here we're all clumped together, but since the USA has had cars for much more of its development, the cities have evolved with cars in mind.