Looking for ways to cut down on your weekly food shopping? Want the latest gadget for less? Those mobile minutes not cutting the mustard?
Then take a look at our simple tips and advice on shopping smarter.
Coupons, Discounts Codes and Special Offers
In today’s economy, retail outlets are aggressively vying for consumers every penny. Take advantage of this and use an array of websites that offer savings on your purchasers. Some of the largest voucher code providers are Vouchercodes.co.uk, Quidco.com and Vouchercloud.com. Between these sites you will get most of the deals available at the more conventional stores.
If you are looking for more specific voucher codes just hop over to Google and search for “WHATEVER YOU WANT TO BUY voucher codes” simple as that.
Negotiate and Save
People are often scared, embarrassed or just simply cannot be bothered to negotiate. If you’re visiting your local supermarket and ask for a 20% discount on your food bill, then you’re going to look like a bit of an idiot admittedly, however if you’re in a well known electrical store and have chosen a new laptop, then don’t be shy and ask for some money off.
As a general rule of them retailers often have a margin of around 30-50% on their goods, this means if you get a 20% discount they will still make a 10-30% on the sale. Trying to negotiate 20% can be tricky in the largest retail chains; however it is more than likely that you will get 10% off at the very least 5%. Even a 5% saving on a £500 laptop is £25, not too bad is it?
Household Bills
Brrrr it’s getting cold in here…
A simple way to keep your gas cots down is to turn down your thermostat just one or two degrees. According to the Engergy Trust this will save a household £75 per year. If you’re more daring and don’t mind wearing a thick woolly jumper in the house, then if you turn down the thermostat 3 degrees than that’s £225 per year in savings.
Leaving your TV on standby? Don’t do it!
When it’s time for bed, make sure all of the electrical appliances are switched off. Just go around the house and switch everything off at the plugs, yes it will take you 5 minutes or so, but this will save you between £50 and £90 per year. If you’re a lazy one, you can even buy remote controlled energy plugs, so instead of having a switch off each socket, just hit ‘Off’ on the remote – simple. Each plug does cost around £8 though, so you may not make any savings in the first year from the outlay, but hey least you are also saving the environment but cutting down on Co2 emissions.
Saving on Financial Products and Services
A lot of students will end up getting a credit card, especially these days with the high costs of going to university. Obviously avoiding one in the first place is the best approach, however if needs must make sure you get one with 0% interest on purchases for at least 6 months to give you some leeway to pay it back before the extortionate interest rate which average around 17%. This means if you are £1,000 in debt on a credit card, you will be paying £170 per year in interest and that’s definitely not a good deal.
If you don’t manage to pay of the credit card debt before the 0% interest period ends, make sure you transfer the balance of the credit card to a new financial provider. Many of them offer 0% on balance transfers, so again try to get the longest term the offer this for to help give you the opportunity to pay off the debt before the interest kicks in.
Remember it is always best to never get a credit card if possible, it can be difficult for many people to clear the balance and it may not always be possible to continually transfer from one credit card to the next, this means at some point you may be stuck paying that 17% interest, obviously this happens to many people otherwise the credit cards providers would not be in business after all.
If you looking for insurance then a great place to start are price comparison sites. Try a few of them and this will give cover the majority of the market, but also make sure you go direct as comparison sites cannot possibly cover every insurance provider, especially as some providers do not deal with comparison sites as they prefer customers to come direct.
I hope those few tips are of help and make sure to read other articles in our money saving section on Wealthy Student.