Tips to Save Money

Many people are struggling financially right now. The credit crunch has hit hard and left millions of people desperate for money. Jobs have been cut, companies closed. Debts are being called in and every day hundreds of people are losing their homes and being declared bankrupt.

This may sound like scaremongering but the statistics back this up. It is facts, not some people trying to scare you in the name of making news. It is why you need to take control of your finances – and why you need to make savings and cut back anywhere that you can.

Tips to Save Money

As ever we like to be helpful. So, since we live to serve, we have collected this wonderful list of tips to help you save money.

· Assess your finances. It is amazing the amount of people that are paying out money that they don’t need to – and aren’t even aware of it. Old mobile phones they forgot to cancel, gym memberships they don’t use any more, book memberships that just go in the bin – anything you are paying monthly for but forgot about. You can save a lot of money on this.

· Look at your bills. Are you paying too much? Shopping around on everything from mobile phone contracts to your car insurance can end up saving you hundreds a month. And don’t be afraid to negotiate – it is amazing the deals some companies will give you if you suggest that you are going to move to a competitor.

· Trade down. Do you really need that expensive car, for example? If you have an expensive high ticket item like that (or even your home) you might be able to save considerable amounts of money by trading to a smaller one.

· Sell your junk. Ebay, car boot sales and the like are becoming more and more popular – and have a market of buyers who could well be interested in buying what you consider to be junk.

· Buy 2nd hand. Just as you can make good money at 2nd hand sales and websites so too can you buy bargains… so look around there and see if there isn’t something that you were going to pay full price for.

· Trade in on a skill. Right now people are trying to save money – they don’t want to pay massive garage fees when they could pay someone who can fix it for a lot less. They don’t want to pay full prices when they can bring in skilled amateur labour. Anything form tutoring to writing can be utilised by someone.

· Get freebies. Online there are a huge number of freebie sites – and it is amazing what you can get for free. But even if you don’t get lucky with these you can still look at using your local library to get free books, DVDs etc. Also look to the Internet to get you free music through legal applications such as Spotify.

Obviously you will be able to save a lot of money by other methods too – but this should get your brain thinking at the very least.