From cutting down on your food bill to
entertaining at home, Hannah Ricci shows how you can cut back on costs without
sacrificing your quality of life.
With the economy
showing little sign of recovery, now is an ideal time to overhaul your
lifestyle for a simpler way of life. In fact, more and more people are shunning
the consumerist, spendthrift existence that has developed over the last century
or so, and embracing a back-to-basics lifestyle to combat the economic slowdown
by saving money and reducing waste.
That’s right: it’s now
cool to be frugal. Staying in is the new going out, charity is the new designer
fashion and saving is the new spending.
So, to assist you on
your way to thrifty living, Moneywise has put together 20 top tips to help you
transform your lifestyle and fight the recession.
1. Plan your meals
Draw up a weekly menu
to help cut back on the huge amount of waste UK households create every week.
It will help identify areas where you can use up leftovers, finish half-eaten
sauces, use fruit and vegetables before they turn bad and avoid grabbing
expensive ready meals.
Remember to factor
packed lunches into your shopping list to save on school-dinner costs and
expensive take-out lunches. Try to stick to one big weekly shop to help budget
and save on petrol.
Plus, never go
shopping when you’re hungry - you'll only end up buying snacks you don't really
need - and try to shop at the end of the day when many items are reduced.
2. Make your own
Supermarkets and
chemists are lined with rows of expensive cleaning products, but a rummage
through your kitchen cupboards could unearth a multitude of products that also
do the trick for a fraction of the price.
For household
cleaning, a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda on a damp cloth works just as well
as expensive brand-name cream cleaners, for example, while vinegar is a great
smear-free window and mirror cleaner.
Ideas for homemade
beauty products include mixing natural yoghurt and honey for a deep
moisturizing face mask and mixing a couple of teaspoons of olive oil with
granulated sugar to exfoliate rough hands. An egg yolk will revive dry skin,
while the white will leave your skin feeling silky soft.
3. Review your services
If you employ a
gardener, window cleaner or dog walker, or use a car wash, for example,
consider whether you’re paying for a service you don’t need. In many cases, you
can probably do it yourself. If you haven’t already done this, it’s a sure-fire
way to make some savings.
4. Go vintage
Raid your parents’ or
grandparents’ old wardrobes for original pieces from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s
– even 1980s fashion is cool now – for an authentic spin on the retro fashion
seen on the high street. Alternatively, push shopping snobbery aside and scout
out your local charity shops.
Head to shops in
wealthier areas, where you may stumble upon designer label clothes for a
fraction of the retail price. An absolute gem for discovering cheap
one-of-a-kind items is eBay.co.uk, and Oxfam’s online fashion shop at
oxfam.org.uk/shop, is also worth a visit to find thousands of clothes and
accessories for as little as £1.
5. Swap service
With more people
staying in nowadays, why not organise a free hire service for books, DVDs,
games and CDs with your friends and family.
Get everyone who is
interested in taking part to draw up a list of the titles they own, swap lists
and borrow items from each other. Keep things organised by arranging it like a
library and agree a date by which each item must be returned
Updating your home can
seem like an expensive feat when there’s little spare cash for decorating and
new furniture, but it is possible to do it on a shoestring.
Wooden furniture,
especially oak and pine, can be completely transformed with a lick of varnish or
paint and some new handles, for example.
Grab some books on
furniture restoration and different painting techniques from the library, and
look at interior magazines for ideas on colours. Similarly, old sofas, chairs
and cushions can be brought back to life by covering them with new material or
adding details such as buttons.
7. Start a car pool
If you live near your
colleagues, suggest starting a car pool where you take it in turns to drive
each other to work to save on petrol costs, reducing your carbon footprint at
the same time.
8. Grow your own
Fresh fruit and
vegetables are an essential part of a healthy balanced diet, but packaged
supermarket produce does not come cheap. Instead, buy some seeds, invest in a
few gardening tools and grow your own.
Whether you’ve got a
huge garden or a little patio, you can grow fruit, vegetables and herbs for a
fraction of the price – and it will taste much better too. Team up with friends
and family to trade the different items you grow.
9. Revive your wardrobe
Dig out the sewing
machine, assuming you can use one, and transform your old clothes instead of
buying new ones. Tie-dye is a big trend this year, as are sequins and sparkle,
so head to markets or haberdashery departments for some cheap artistic
supplies.
Use magazines and the
internet for ideas and start simply, for instance by replacing buttons or
adding a trim to update a tired jacket. This is also a good time to repair any
moth-eaten clothes that are unworn due to holes or missing buttons, rather than
just throwing them away.
10. Make your own coffee
A cup of fresh coffee
is what many people need to function in the morning. But at around £2 for a
small cup from cafés such as Starbucks, Prêt a Manger and Costa, takeaway
coffees are an expensive luxury, so simply make your own instead.
An electric filter
coffee-maker can be picked up for as little £20, and packets of ground coffee
can be found in any supermarket for under £2, which means you’ll start saving
after just two weeks if you normally buy coffee every weekday. Split the cost
with colleagues if you drink your coffee at work, or invest in a flask.
11. Rear chickens
Collecting fresh eggs
from your own chickens before breakfast is a little luxury that certainly won’t
make you feel like you’re cutting back. Providing you have the time and space,
keeping chickens is an inexpensive hobby and will knock eggs off the shopping
list for many years to come.
You’ll need to buy or
build a decent hen house and run, and provide feed and water for the chickens
everyday. However, do your research first. Birds bred to regularly produce
eggs, include the Speckeldy, Black Rock or Rhode Island Red, among many others.
Or, you could consider
giving a battery hen a new life; according to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust,
which re-homes thousands of hens each year, former battery hens still have a
40-50% production rate. So, 10 hens will lay four to five eggs daily.
11. Rear chickens
Collecting fresh eggs
from your own chickens before breakfast is a little luxury that certainly won’t
make you feel like you’re cutting back. Providing you have the time and space,
keeping chickens is an inexpensive hobby and will knock eggs off the shopping
list for many years to come.
You’ll need to buy or
build a decent hen house and run, and provide feed and water for the chickens
everyday. However, do your research first. Birds bred to regularly produce
eggs, include the Speckeldy, Black Rock or Rhode Island Red, among many others.
Or, you could consider
giving a battery hen a new life; according to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust,
which re-homes thousands of hens each year, former battery hens still have a
40-50% production rate. So, 10 hens will lay four to five eggs daily.
12. Buy in bulk
Sales and money-saving
deals such as buy-one-get-one-free offers can sometimes be deceiving if they
lead you to buy something you don’t need, but some items are always worth
snapping up. Look out for sales and deals on non-perishable items that you buy
regularly, such as toilet paper, shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste, tinned goods,
pasta and rice.
13. Entertain at home
Invite your friends
for dinner and drinks instead of going out. A fun idea to spread the cost is to
organise a ‘bring-and-share’ evening and ask everyone to bring a different
dish.
14. Go for own brands
Do you opt for popular
brand names over supermarket own-brands during the weekly grocery shop,
assuming they are better quality? Many products are made in the same factories,
and using the same ingredients, meaning there is often little difference when
it comes to taste or quality.
So during your next
shop, try opting for the supermarket’s no-frills range for a few of your regular
purchases.
15. Keep-fit for free
The expense of gym
membership and exercise classes is an easy area to cut back on, by
incorporating exercise into your daily routine instead. Try to walk more, by
parking further away from the office or shops, for example, or getting off the
bus one stop earlier.
Take the stairs
instead of lifts at work and walk across the office to speak to colleagues
instead of sending emails. At home, borrow exercise DVDs from the library.
16. Creative cooking
Look back to wartime Britain for
tips to cut down on food wastage and find a use for every last morsel. Boil up
leftover bones from meat and vegetable peelings to make tasty stocks to be used in stews, soups, sauces and
risotto, for example, and make meat go further by bulking out dishes with cheap
pulses, such as beans and lentils.
Fill up on cheap,
wholesome foods such as porridge, brown rice and pasta, and make use of
weighing scales to ensure correct portion sizes and avoid cooking too much
food. Visit lovefoodhatewaste.com for recipe ideas on using leftovers and tips
to make foods last longer.
17. Use vouchers & coupons
Vouchers and coupons
are more valuable than ever: whether it’s a discount on the weekly grocery
shop, a two-for-one deal at a restaurant or a few quid off at the petrol pump,
it’s really worth the effort.
Scour magazines and
newspapers and check out websites such asvouchercodes.co.uk and myvouchercodes.co.uk before hitting the shops. Also make
sure you are getting the most out of loyalty cards, such as Tesco’s Clubcard or
Boots’ Advantage card.
18. Become fuel efficient
Many of us are
throwing money down the drain by not considering how we use the appliances in
our home. Simple ways to cut energy bills include not leaving devices on
standby and always turning off lights when you leave a room; draught-proofing
windows, doors and floorboards, and fixing dripping taps.
Other tips include
switching to energy-efficient light bulbs and avoiding using high-energy tumble
dryers in favour of line-drying your clothes. Visit the Energy Saving
Trust's website for
more advice.
19. Brew your own booze
While buying your own
alcohol is cheaper than drinking out in a pub or bar, brewing your own beer,
wine or cider is cheaper still. Home brewing is also a fun hobby, and the final
bottled product can be given as an inexpensive gift – if you don’t guzzle it
all yourself.
20. Happy holidays
There are lots of
options to cut the cost of your annual getaway. If you’re used to two weeks in
the sun, consider ways to cut accommodation costs, such as finally visiting
those friends or family you’ve been meaning to catch up with, or taking part in
a holiday home swap.
While the weak pound
may force many of us to remain on UK shores this year, it’s a great
excuse for a budget holiday. Exploring the countryside with a tent can be a
great adventure.
Moneywise : Apr 2012-04-08
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