Please give me your quick money saving tips?

With the view that money saved is worth twice as much as money earned, what are Singletrackworld’s best money saving tips?

Spend less.

Don’t buy food or coffee when out unless ‘going for a meal’, take it with you.

Combine the purpose of a car trip to save doing it twice.

Shop to a list for food.

Buy and store food shopping items bought in bigger quantities when on offer/cheaper.

Sim only phone contracts.

Don’t buy stuff you don’t NEED.  This is easier with advancing years

Spent money is gone, saved money is compounding.

All the above can seem boring but not as bad as being unable to get the numbers to add up.

Get on an elec tariff that allows you to set a timer for running washing machine/tumble dryer/dishwasher etc as a super cheap night time rate.

I have an alarm on my phone at 2130 every night, i go and sort the white goods and put on a 3hr timer. It has saved me a lot of money.

Only use cash for day to day spending – using cards and specifically contactless is proven to increase your spending by upto 25%.

Cash enables you to budget, and your more likely to retain change in your pocket for future use.

Banking apps are brilliant.  They make it so easy to monitor your outgoings and cancel unneeded direct debits ect.  Check your account regularly and you will be able to spot problem areas.

Buy a new bike.

You can probably tell yourself you’re saving money somehow, if you try hard enough.

Set-up a direct debit on payday to move some money into a savings account.
Start with something manageable (£50??) & when you have done that for a couple of months, consider whether you can increase it.
Because it is gone on the day you get paid, you don’t really notice it.

Don’t buy coffees and snacks when out and about. Any time you manage to do this, put the money you would have spent into a savings account

Set-up a Plum (or other) account that skims money out of your account that it thinks you can afford on a daily basis. You can set-up how aggressive you want this to be.

Drive more slowly/efficiently & try to use the car less – walk or cycle short journeys.

Review all subscriptions/contracts & see if you can get rid of some and/or switch some to cheaper alternatives.

Less important now but check out the central heating threads for tips on insulation and making your heating work better for less.

Sounds patronising but download all your statement data from your bank and go through everything, work out what it is, give it your own category (some banks attempt to do this for you but it’s not that reliable IME) and then use a spreasheet to work out where your money goes. I do this periodically (not often enough) and it really helps, although there are still lots of random DD payment messages popping up on my phone.

Those are the only quick tips I have, anything else would depend on what your top spends are.

Alot of bank apps do a good job of breaking down what you spend your money on. They often need a bit of training but its quite enlightening.

Stick an – agreed with yourself – amount on a prepaid card and only take that with you.

Remove you card details from the usual places make it a faff to buy stuff  online.

^ agree with timidwheeler. I have a weird habit of if I have £106 or whatever in my current account I’ll move the £6 over to my savings account. I do this all the time.

Move accounts around too, I got a switch bonus last year. Nearly £200 for about 40 minutes of work.

Using cars less is a big one. TBH I tend to try and take mine out for a short spin once or twice a week (to shops) as it’s used so little. Don’t go buying coffee at work – we clubbed together for a coffee capsule machine at work – saves a fortune if you like decent coffee.

Make sandwiches/take lunch with you – I tend to batch cook, so freeze the excess into ‘portion sized’ meals and take them to work frozen in my panniers (saves spillage).

DIY where possibly – getting someone in is very expensive. I’m loathed to do it usually.

Look after your bikes/car – makes long term sense – they last longer with fewer expensive repairs.

Audit subscriptions. I allow myself Zwift OR Trainerroad, Netflix OR Disney.

Shop to a list.

Make meals don’t buy them.

Have a look at all your monthly subs, it can all add up without you really paying attention to it, and really consider which ones are worth it.

Podcasts can replace audiobooks (if you use a sub/payment site like Audible)

Build a menu of things you can cook, then shop to that. Get it delivered.

Set up ‘save the change’ or whatever your bank calls it. Every time you beep your card it rounds it up to the nearest quid and transfers it to an allocated account.

As above, a spreadsheet that details everything. Will help you work out where the money goes. Also, for my wife and I, tells us how much we need going forward as retirement gets closer.

Live within your means. Don’t buy anything with debt except housing – wait until you can actually afford it (theres nothing worse than still paying out for something after the buzz of initial ownership has faded)

If you need to run a car run something cheap, practical and reliable rather than a status symbol that costs more to buy/maintain/insure. Use it as little as possible. Combine trips.

When you do buy stuff, buy stuff that’s well made and use it until it wears out (“buy cheap, buy twice”) and look after it. (I bought 4 really good kitchen knives >20 years ago. I’ve not bought any since, I’m still using them, I keep them sharp. My parents had a drawer full of craps knifes, bought because they were cheap/’a bargain’. they were all crap – they spent far more than I did).  Vimes boots theory doesn’t apply to everything, but it does to an awful lot.

Buy and sell stuff on eBay.  If you need a tool for a job either buy a good one new and then sell it, or buy one used then sell it again. Don’t buy a cheap shit tool that’s immediately worthless and won’t even do the job well.

Simple spreadsheet with all your monthly outgoings and lots of little pots that save up for upcoming costs. For example, we save £10 per month for car tyres, a small enough sum that we don’t notice it but when the big bill comes along it’s all covered. This planning pulled us out of a largish hole many years ago and still serves well today.

When you are looking at something to buy, think about whether it’s a want or a need. Nothing wrong with buying something you want but don’t need but don’t kid yourself. I think people do this a lot with cars “its fine now but its at a mileage / age where it might start to go wrong”.

Obvs savings to be made over time if you decide not to buy things you don’t need.

For me the main thing is; Do all your purchases by card

Then at the end of the month categorise the spending. I’ve been doing it so long I have a spreadsheet & pivot table going back aeons. It really helps show exactly what you/we spend money on.

For example on my “household running” category (all the household DD’s) I can immediately see when a DD has changed and can look into it and decide if action is needed. On the “groceries” category I’ve got a staggering example of food inflation and the effect of shopping at Aldi 4x a month as against popping to the coop 3x a week for odds and ends.

Also really good to play about with your spending a bit; ”if we eat cheaper this month by having more vegetarian meals, then we could have an extra £100 to use on the bank holiday weekend next month – we could perhaps go away with that”.

it’s the old “if you don’t measure it, you can’t change it” maxim

Get on an elec tariff that allows you to set a timer for running washing machine/tumble dryer/dishwasher etc as a super cheap night time rate.

How much difference does this really make? Have you done the sums? Most of those tariffs have a higher daytime charge in exchange for cheaper nighttime (or extra standing charges). I know they can work if you’re charging a car, or dumping power to batteries (though again, payback periods) but not convinced so much by washing machine and dishwasher.

Most of the electricity saving tips I see are nonsense – “unplug your phone charger”, “turn stuff off at the socket” – modern stuff is significantly less than 1w on standby.  You might possible save a few 10’s of £s a year doing that but nothing more.   The biggest electricity consumption in your house is (for almost anyone) your fridges and freezers.  And you have people running >1, and running them in an outbuilding where any waste heat goes to outside rather than the house.

An Air fryer might use a bit less power than your existing oven. but the payback time is probably longer than the thing will last. And the you mostly use your oven in winter when any extra heat goes into your house anyway.

Heating is a much bigger cost than power for most people.  Insulate.  Get your boiler set up so that it’s actually running efficiently – low return temperature (so it actually condenses at c95% efficiency rather than c80% – if you can see a plume outside then it’s NOT condensing).  Have it fitted with weather compensation (varies flow temp based on outdoor temp).

Earn more, spend the same.

Just spend it! Life is short and you’re a long time dead

Audit Direct Debits at least once a quarter and set yourself a target or removing or reducing spend on 3 of them. Include subscriptions in this. TV, apps, insurances they add up to a fortune.

I have a ’round-up’ account that automatically rounds up spend in my current account to the nearest £ then moves the balance into a savings account. It soon adds up.

NEVER click on the PSA thread on this site! It’s cost me a fortune in buying stuff which is no doubt a bargain but not something I really need!

Sim only phone contracts.

Not always the case, last time I needed a new phone the cheapest price over 2 years was tied into a tariff, the secret is to make sure you shop around when the deal is up, and not too continue paying a tariff that is subsidising the phone  after the 2 years.

Which brings me on to my tip, review subscriptions and contracts (ie energy, phone, insurance, memberships ect) and compare prices before renewal. Beware of contract momentum.

Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves – doesn’t work. Don’t worry about the pennies they won’ make much difference. The more zeros the more interest you should take but people often do the opposite.

Chooe your partner wisely, divorce is expensive

The biggest purchase/expense is housing and people morgage themselves to the hilt.

Next biggest expense is a car so they buy/lease something expensive and flash rather than practical and affordable.

Holidays, lets just blow thousands more than we’ve saved by shopping in three different supermarkets and cutting the kids pocket money.

Netflix subscriptions etc. Just bin the **** lot. You need a basic smartphone and a £20 contract.

Enjoy life you can’t take it with you.

Buy a new bike.

You can probably tell yourself you’re saving money somehow, if you try hard enough.

True, I saved thousands by buying a new bike in a sale!

Like all things it’s a balance

Holidays, lets just blow thousands

Vs

Enjoy life you can’t take it with you.

I always wonder when I see stuff online about people hiding every penny away by never buying anything nice, never going on holiday, sitting in a cold house to save on heating, eating the cheapest food possible etc etc so that they can then boast that they’re retired at X age. Great, you get to enjoy another 35 years of cold, bored misery living off whatever you can get from the ‘yellow sticker’ section of the supermarket. I’d rather still be working!

Don’t have kids

love the tip on saving a small sum a month to pay for big expenses. I’m now going to set up another £50 a month did for the annual car service/mot , vehicle tax and insurance which hits me every October.

I do have a wee savings account with a direct debit of only £50 a month in it earmarked for my next bike purchase. I had forgotten about it. Checked the account it has £1700 in it. Another couple of years it will buy me a decent bike. It’s in a decent interest rate account.

I have recently started to transfer my day to day spending into a cash back account, Chase. It gives me the double bonus of keeping my spending to a budget and a monthly cash back.

I always wonder when I see stuff online about people hiding every penny away by never buying anything nice, never going on holiday, sitting in a cold house to save on heating, eating the cheapest food possible etc etc

These things can obviously be taken to extremes but for me it’s not about never buying anything nice, rather it’s about not buying things that I don’t need without thinking about it, and especially never buying them on credit (houses notwithstanding). For me, that means I have a nice bike, but also I don’t get take aways as a matter of habit. I took my daughter into London over the Easter holidays to do a thing that was quite expensive in the scheme of things, but took packed lunches for us both.

Buy consumables and sundries in advance. Things like brake pads from uberbike, barbs and olives in bags of 10 from ali-express for 99p, spd cleats. Stuff that is dirt cheap if you can wait for the postage but ££ in a shop when you need it.

Set yourself a rule that non-emergency expensive stuff has to wait. Say £100/week. Want a nice pair of moleskins from HebTroCo set a reminder for a fortnight to see if you really wanted them or if it was just a marketing e-mail that landed while you were bored. Want a new graphics card, give it a couple of months and see if you’re still actually playing cyberpunk, new forks – give your old ones some new oil and seals and see in 3 months if you still think those Kashima Fox’s are tempting.

Don’t buy treats on weekdays. You’ll appreciate the coffee and cake on the Sunday clubrun a lot more than the machine coffee and sad muffin from the work canteen.

Bring your own lunch, or at least find cheaper options.  £3 for a jacket potato is £500 a year cheaper than the £5 meal. £1 to make your own sandwich at home is almost £1000 a year in your pocket!

Batch cook. It saves waste, saves gas, saves takeaway cravings when you CBA.

Enjoy life you can’t take it with you.

Indeed, but consider that having a lunch that cost £1 Vs £5 over your working life is potentially 16 years* earlier retirement.

I’ll enjoy 16 years not working  a lot more than whatever the canteen is serving.

*£22/month, 7% interest, 40 years = £260k.

[inflation erodes that, but we’re still talking years if not a decade of not having to work just for swapping to something homemade ]

Get on an elec tariff that allows you to set a timer for running washing machine/tumble dryer/dishwasher etc as a super cheap night time rate.

If you do that have a good smoke alarm nearby. Many house fires start on unattended appliances (and face it – who watches their dishwasher or tumbler, it’s VERY repetitive) – but at least if you are awake you have a chance of hearing / smelling and getting out. If you’re asleep upstairs then worst case you’ll not wake up, or be trying to get out through a downstairs that is ablaze.

I’ve said this before and people will be along to say that it almost never happens and they’re right…..but, it does (to a friend who had to be rescued from an upstairs window by the fire brigade) and sufficiently enough that it is LFB advice.

https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/safety/the-home/bedtime-checks/#:~:text=Turn%20off%20and%20unplug%20electrical,or%20e%2Dcigarettes%20charging%20overnight.

Being burnt alive terrifies me, I know this thread is about money saving tips, I’d rather pay extra to avoid being burnt to death however ‘unlikely’

YMMV.

Interesting points about quality of life now vs saving for later.

For me it’s always been about saving money without adversely impacting my quality of life, eg a few years ago I realised that the money I was wasting on a “platinum” bank account and an expensive rolled over phone contract would pay for a weekend away mountain biking. No loss of quality of life, but money saved.

Most of the time a packed lunch is nicer than a bought lunch anyway.

Coffee, food and booze out and food for work lunch easy wins. Most of the time it’s not the best. I had a budget of £1 for lunch- tin of Baxter’s soup from B&M an apple and a banana.
It was healthy cheap and quite nice.
Cancel subscriptions you don’t use.

Assets Vs liabilities.

Don’t have a car 

We have 2 cars between us. But one is a tax/mot exempt toy that does barely any miles.  The other is the OH’s 20 year old fiesta that we pretty much share now and it still only does 5000miles a year.

£400 less insurance

£300 less tax

~£200 less in MOT and planned maintenance

££££ in fuel!

£££ in parking

Every time I have to drive it into town I remember why driving these days is an absolute mugs game, it’s just a rubbish experience and incredibly expensive.

Do have a car 

My last car cost me £625 to buy, I did about 25,000 miles in it, and almost every one of those was paid at 45p for work 😂

The profit on running that car was almost as good as my actual pay!

It broke down and I went back to an office job.

 money saved is worth twice as much as money earned

What are you saving up for?