*Disclosure – This is a paid collaboration.
Affiliate links within my post will be marked with *.
As a family of four, I like to think we are quite frugal in our day to day life. When you have children every day living can become quite taxing on your finances. Also being self-employed, my wages aren’t as steady as someone who is employed, so I am extra careful of what I spend and save where I can too.
I have put together a few simple ways to save money in one week all from the comfort of your home.
Meal Planning
I am quite new to meal planning. I have been doing it for 10 weeks now and I must say we have saved on so much food waste since starting. Also, not only have we cut back on what we throw away, we have saved quite a bit of money too. Making lists each week enables us to know exactly what ingredients we need so this stops any over buying or unnecessary purchases when we do the food shop. You can check out our weekly family meal ideas for some inspiration.
Look For Discounts When Shopping Online
I love shopping online and with the current situation, I feel many more will be doing so too! There are some fab websites out there that give you discounts when you spend online. You could get money off for signing up to newsletters, decent discounts when you spend over a certain amount and much more! Sign Up Offers is a fab place to start saving today.
Amazon Prime Membership
New members get a * free month’s trial to Amazon Prime. With Amazon Prime, you get free delivery on thousands of items across the site. If you have a birthday coming up or you plan on ordering a few items from Amazon for any reason, Simply sign up for Prime membership and you will save all of those delivery fees. You also get access to Prime Video included, so you get to use all of the streaming services for a month. Just remember to cancel before your month expires and you won’t pay a thing.
Cut out takeaways and make your own at home
I am one of the first to admit I enjoy a good takeaway. I think it’s more the convenience of not having to cook! But you can create fakeaways at home with little effort and at a fraction of the cost! I recently made a Slow Cooker Doner Kebab Fakeaway and I kid you not, it tastes just as good if not better than a chip shop brought one. It is so much healthier too!
Give your bank an audit
How many times have you signed up for things that you couldn’t live without only to find after a few months you really didn’t need them in the first place? That new year’s gym membership, the insurance policy on your brand new laptop in 2005 or the magazine subscription that you haven’t read for three months? We are all guilty of forgetting to cancel things. Why not download your last couple of bank statements and highlight all of the things that you can live without. Add up how much all of these items cost you each month and you will quickly realise just how much money you have wasted. Get in touch with the suppliers and cancel everything you don’t need to save yourself hundreds of pounds each month.
Use Pouch And Other Money Saving Apps
Download apps such as Pouch and Qmee to save on your online spends. Both apps are completely free. Pouch will search voucher codes automatically at checkout so you don’t have to. I have made some great savings with this one.
Qmee rewards you for surveys and searching for websites. I have this installed on my MAC so I can keep filling my Qmee piggy bank up just by clicking through recommended websites. Say you type in a search, for instance, women’s slippers, and Qmee will pop up with websites you might like to visit and if you click through you can get anything from 4p. If there isn’t a cash reward it will give you a discount code at the very least.
It’s free to use and easy to cash out.
Turn your thermostat down
Each degree you turn your heating up requires your boiler to heat more water. To heat this water it uses energy which costs you money. The biggest saving is made by turning your heating off completely when no-one is at home. Set up the timer on your thermostat to turn the heating on before you get home so that it is nice and warm for you and your family, and you have saved a small fortune by not keeping it warm all day.
Use comparison sites to check best tariffs
You can lose a fortune if you are on the wrong tariff at the wrong time. Arm yourself with your recent meter readings and use energy comparison sites to see just how much you could save.
Barter With Entertainment Services
You could be paying over the odds for your TV entertainment services. It may be worth calling up companies such as SKY to see if you can get a better deal than what you have. I have saved a small fortune by doing this, so it’s definitely worth a try! You can also scrap any packages that you no longer need to save further.
I hope this helps you save a little in the weeks ahead.
This is so handy to know, especially with what’s going on at the moment!
I’m so glad you are seeing the difference with meal planning. It really does help. It’s going to be fun for the next few weeks when I am being imaginative with the food as we can’t get much shopping with the shelves being empty.
There’s one perk to us all being holed up in the house, the kids are not asking for any money to go out with friends. I’ve saved about £20 just over the weekend. lol x
Excellent tips and organizing your meals not only saves money but makes life easier too. #MMBC
Money situation is odd at the moment. On the one hand so many will struggle with lay-offs and less work if freelancing. On the other hand with the lockdown there will be less opportunities or temptation to spend. #MMBC
Those tips might come very handy in the coming weeks while the situation around the world deteriorates. thank you
Thanks for some great tips, especially the link to sign up offers.
Good tips!
ohh some good tips here, thank you