Are you broke?

[Nick]

Well I am, so I thought I'd share some money saving tips with you all... feel free to chip in!

Save money on new razor heads by only shaving every two days and not shaving on your days off. On the days you do shave, shave once with the the grain and then with you face still wet, shave again against the grain. Wash your face afterwards with cool water to avoid razor burn.

If you're a smoker, switch to roll-ups. A 50g bag of tobacco costs about £8.50, throw in a five pack for papers for 80p and a box of filters for £1 and you've got enough smokes to last a 20 a day smoker about 8-10 days.

Cut you're fuel bills by taking the route with the fastest roads, avoid lots of switch backs and side roads as these mean having to brake and accelerate a lot, increasing fuel usage. Accelerate gently and get into higher gears sooner than you normally would. You can save as much as a tenner a week like this.

Buy the cheap stuff! When you're out shopping, don't let pride stop you from buying the economy or low price brands in the supermarket. The stuff is perfectly edible and it a fraction of the price of normal 'own label' stuff and drastically cheaper than brand name products.

Don't be loyal about where you shop. You can knock off a HUGE amount from your shopping bill by switching where you shop. I reduced my bill for a 3 week food shop by £130 buy going somewhere else.

Go through your bank statments and clear off old direct debits/standing orders. We had nearly £90 going out each month to things we didn't even need. You might do a bit of soul searching over cancelling a DD to charity, but you can always make up for it later when you're more flush!

Learn some basic DIY skills. A plumber might cost you as much as £400 for a fairly simple job... can you do it yourself? Do you know a plumber who might do cash in hand work, or perhaps diagnose the problem for you and then you can get on with it yourself?


Right, that will do from me for now... your go!

[yamangman]

Don't spend as much.

[Rythmic]

It's amazing how cheaply (and healthily) you can survive on orange juice, toast and baked beans...

Just don't expect to be popular!

[0iD]

If you're a smoker, stop, massive savings to be had. (financial & healthwise)

Veg & Herbs - Grow your own, doesn't take much effort & it gets you out into the fresh air.

[Zedmeister]

Energy Efficiency! Switch to energy saving bulbs, turn off that TV/Stereo/Lighting Rig and especially the PC - Don't leave it running for the sake of it! Look for the energy efficiency logo. There are savings to be made on the energy bills!

[Rythmic]

Come to think about it - check you're heater settings! Didn't notice that my estranged wife had left the immersion heater on for 16 hours a day til I got my last electric bill.

[0iD]

Kids, dont have too many, especially if you don't have a good job. Take it from me, I got four, throw in a messy divorce after the first two & you got money troubles for the next 16 odd years!

Elecricals. Don't leave lights on around the house. Switch em off.
And unplug the tv/vid/dvd/sat/stereo when you go to bed. They all use power, however little, even when switched off.

[Zedmeister]

Impulse buying is another crime. When you go out shopping, leave your wallet and the plastic at home. Avoid credit cards like the evil plague that they are and cut your current ones up!

[Rave]

www.moneysavingexpert.com . Excellent site especially the forums. If you're broke though, avoid the 'quick, grab it while you can!' section at all costs!

Save money on new razor heads by only shaving every two days and not shaving on your days off. On the days you do shave, shave once with the the grain and then with you face still wet, shave again against the grain. Wash your face afterwards with cool water to avoid razor burn.

I shave even less than that, but mainly because I'm lazy. Lidl- 10 double blade heads and a handle for £2.

If you're a smoker, switch to roll-ups. A 50g bag of tobacco costs about £8.50,

Less than £3 in Belgium. I second OiD's giving up recommendation, but if that's not going to happen, you can get a channel tunnel ticket for £29 (or £19 during the week), petrol depends on where you live but from London in our small diesel it's no more than £15, especially if you fill up while you're in Belgium where it's about 30% cheaper! Buy 20 packets and you're well ahead. Most of the places in Adinkerque (the little border town where everyone goes) will chuck in some free papers and lighters too.

Cut you're fuel bills by taking the route with the fastest roads, avoid lots of switch backs and side roads as these mean having to brake and accelerate a lot, increasing fuel usage. Accelerate gently and get into higher gears sooner than you normally would. You can save as much as a tenner a week like this.

Also ANTICIPATE! If you know the route and you can see that you've no chance of making it through the lights before they change, let off the throttle immediately and roll all the way there. Ignore anyone tailgating you. If you time it right you can roll up to the lights just as they change again and so you don't need to accelerate from rest. This not only saves fuel, its quicker too! Don't just look 50 yards down the road, looking further ahead will not only save fuel by saving pointless acceleration and braking, it's safer too.

Buy the cheap stuff! When you're out shopping, don't let pride stop you from buying the economy or low price brands in the supermarket. The stuff is perfectly edible and it a fraction of the price of normal 'own label' stuff and drastically cheaper than brand name products.

Don't be loyal about where you shop. You can knock off a HUGE amount from your shopping bill by switching where you shop. I reduced my bill for a 3 week food shop by £130 buy going somewhere else.

Lidl/Aldi = win, in my experience. If you're in dire straits (or even if you're not, TBH I'm not rich but I don't do it out of necessity), then consider bin raiding. It sounds to the uninitiated like you'll be rooting through filth for a few scraps of stale bread, but most people would be amazed how much stuff gets chucked just because the packaging is a bit damaged, or because it's a few days past its 'use by date'- the use by date is basically a nonsense for stuff like jam/preserves/sweets/booze etc. anyway. Perfectly good eggs get thrown just because one smashed and gunked the box- I once retrieved more than 50 eggs in one visit, all clean and long dated! One supermarket does a bag of bananas, some green and some ripe, so you can eat some now and some later. When the ripe ones went brown they chucked the whole bag, so I got a bunch of bananas that were still a little green! Lunacy TBH, but it helps me so hey ho.

Go through your bank statments and clear off old direct debits/standing orders. We had nearly £90 going out each month to things we didn't even need. You might do a bit of soul searching over cancelling a DD to charity, but you can always make up for it later when you're more flush!

Don't be lazy about stuff like phone (be it home/mobile), electricity, gas either. If someone is doing it cheaper, then switch- or just phone your current provider and threaten to leave, most will offer to match the deal rather than lose you as a customer.

Rich :¬)

[0iD]

If you're in dire straits (or even if you're not, TBH I'm not rich but I don't do it out of necessity), then consider bin raiding. It sounds to the uninitiated like you'll be rooting through filth for a few scraps of stale bread, but most people would be amazed how much stuff gets chucked just because the packaging is a bit damaged, or because it's a few days past its 'use by date'- the use by date is basically a nonsense for stuff like jam/preserves/sweets/booze etc. anyway. Perfectly good eggs get thrown just because one smashed and gunked the box- I once retrieved more than 50 eggs in one visit, all clean and long dated! One supermarket does a bag of bananas, some green and some ripe, so you can eat some now and some later. When the ripe ones went brown they chucked the whole bag, so I got a bunch of bananas that were still a little green! Lunacy TBH, but it helps me so hey ho.

I lived like that for 9+ months when I was homeless. It never ceased to amaze me the stuff that gets thrown out. Dubious legality issues tho.

[Rave]

I was drunk once and decided to go ahead and have a look through my favourite charity shop bin even though there was a police van nearby dealing with something else. Predictably enough once they'd finished that they came and put the spotlight from the van on me and asked for my name and address while they ran a PNC check. When I came up clean they told me to carry on. When I asked if I was actually doing anything wrong, they said that it could technically be construed as 'theft by finding' but that they'd certainly not be interested unless the shop made a complaint. Since I make a point of leaving the bins as tidy as I found them, that's not going to happen, although unfortunately some other people dive there now and sometimes make a real mess.

Rich :¬)

[0iD]

unfortunately some other people dive there now and sometimes make a real mess.

Rich :¬)

Scoundrels!

[shiato storm]

get a highly paid job too...that helps i'm told.

[TiG]

I'm certainly lucky enough to have never been broke, even when i was a student i made careful use of my funds, and only came out with a few thousand in debt. But avoiding debt in the first place is the best thing to do.

I can appreciate that some times in 0iD's case that might not be a possibility, but not having money means getting out of debt is a problem. Its a horrible vicious circle as more debt leads to more interest on the debt etc.

Deckard is doing the right things in being aware of his finances and i'd say from all the money saving tips. Knowing what you've got coming in and out every week is more important than that.

TiG

[Skii]

1. Packed lunches. Save a fortune by making your own lunch.
2. Seconded what Rave says about electricity / Gas suppliers, compare prices and tell the expensive supplier to FO.
3. DO NOT BUY CDS / GAMES / DVDs from retail outlets - save a packet online from the likes of Play.com etc
4. Don't go to Boots for all your basic toiletries - go to your local Wilkinsons and get the same stuff considerably cheaper.

[0iD]

Want to play the latest game? Save by either pre-ordering or wait a couple of weeks after release. It's amazing how fast game prices drop.