Practical Money Saving Tips

There are literally thousands of ways to save money. Advice and tips may range from practical easy to implement ideas to extreme penny pinching practices. Hands down, the first and best place to start for any type of money saving strategy is with creating a true budget that reflects all your financial ins and outs. This quickly identifies any areas of wastage and allows you to clearly understand where you spend all your money.

Anyone can actually save money in almost every aspect of their financials, from their mortgage or rent, right down to groceries and utilities. After creating a budget and understanding all of your outgoings, it’s easy to formulate a plan to start saving (a little or a lot – it all adds up) in all areas.

How you attack your spending habits is up to you as some tips are easier than others. Below are some of the different areas that most people spend money and how to save.

Money saving tips includes:

 
Mortgage – There are a few different things that can be done here to establish savings. A mortgage refinance to a lower interest rate can do two main things for you. The first is a reduction in interest repayments which can save you thousands over the life of the loan and the second is a possible reduction in your monthly repayments. In addition, in certain circumstances it might be appropriate to down size to a smaller and cheaper home or possible sell up and rent.

Vehicle – Options here can include, down grading your vehicle, selling off second or third vehicles, possibly selling your vehicle all together and using public transport. Selling a vehicle will eliminate, maintenance costs, insurance, petrol and registration costs. This may not be practical, but is for some, especially for those living in or around a city.

Consumer Debt – If you have multiple credit cards, personal loans, store cards or any other forms of unsecure credit, a debt consolidation would be beneficial. This takes all outstanding debts and wraps them into one. If you do this with an overall lower interest rate, just like a mortgage refinance, you can end up paying less in overall interest repayments and could receive a overall, lower monthly repayment. In certain instances you can use a mortgage refinance to handle all of this. This however will depend on how much equity you have in your home (if you are a home owner).

In addition to the above, a balance transfer for credit cards can sometimes be beneficial. Look for 0% interest rate deals on balance transfers with no or low annual fees.

Utilities – Shop around and don’t get locked in to long term contracts. With the use of the internet, it is easy to go to comparison sites to locate great deals on utilities such as electricity and gas.

Phone – Similar to utilities, it is easy to go online and compare the different providers in your area. In addition, you might want to ask yourself if you even need a land line if you already have a mobile. Can you do without one or the other?

Cable, Internet – Jump online and research, also, don’t be afraid to negotiate with the providers. Lastly bundling different services may allow for additional savings.

Insurances – The main theme with most things here is to research via the net, bundle packages where possible and always negotiate. Try and get customised solutions that fit your needs. No point in paying for things that don’t benefit you!

Groceries – There are numerous things that one can do to save one food costs. Here are some of the most popular; coupons, buy store brand products, buy in bulk, always create a list before shopping and stick to it.

Entertainment – There are so many forms of entertainment and they can vary dramatically depending on you and or your family. Things that can be done to establish savings here include taking on hobbies and activities that are low cost or free. Examples include, gardening, hiking, camping, fishing, reading, biking, exercising, bbq vs eating out, picnics, etc… the list can go on and on.

Eating – This is huge point and an area where many can save a large amount of money each day. It’s very simple, pack a lunch to work, once, twice or every day. Try eating at home as often as possible. For the occasions where you do want to go out, take advantage of group buying sites which provide huge discounts for meals at fine dining restaurants.

Shopping – As mentioned in other points, use the internet as often as possible. There are so many discount buying websites online, not to mention the auction based sites and classifieds. In addition there are specialised sites for daily deals and online coupons.

If online shopping isn’t your thing, try to only buy from shops during sales, especially the big end of financial year and Christmas sales.

 
The above just outline some of the popular and easier to implement money saving tips, there are obviously many, many more that can be added. Any one of these tips will establish some savings, but a combination of utilising multiple tips will magnify the savings greatly. Please share other practical money saving tips in our comments section!

Other articles that may be of interest include ways to make money from home and learning about budgeting.