We"ve been talking about making money with 5 Smartphone Apps That Make You Money but how about saving some! We all hate the monthly direct debits or the brown envelopes, demanding attention and refusing to go away like unsolicited emails. But keeping an eye on what you use and staying on top of offers, discounts and bargains you can make a tremendous difference to your financial outlay.
Have a Light Bulb Moment
One improvement you can make is changing your lights. A regular incandescent 100w bulb costs on average 0.016p per hour to run. One 15w LED costs 0.002p per hour. Let"s give you that in layman"s terms. Leaving an incandescent light bulb on for 24 hours solid would cost you £142.89. The LED equivalent would cost only £21.43 in comparison. That"s an 85.31% difference in savings. Clock that up over a month; you can start saving for your holiday next year.
To have your lights swapped from incandescent to LED can be slightly costly (six halogen lights were replaced in our house to LED and cost us around £100) but the overall savings are enormous. My poor mum would sigh in despair with me every time I"d walk out of the room and leave the light on, and now I know why! Don"t you love hindsight?
Turn the Thermostat Down
We"ve all seen the campaigns to turn the thermostat down 1 degree on TV, and as we"re all responsible for the energy we use, we need to clamp down on waste. There isn"t much difference between 21 and 22 degrees, so give it a go. If you have other people in the house, don"t make a fuss about doing it because alerting them to the fact will inevitably encourage complaints. Just do it quietly when you"re on your own for five minutes. We managed to take the thermostat down from 22 to 18 without much difference at all, so just one little degree adds up to a saving of around £80-£90 annually.
Buy Yourself A Bowl
When I was a kid, my Mum and Dad had a bowl in our sink. We"d throw the dirty plates in there all day then Dad would dutifully wash them all up and give them a quick rinse. Nowadays bowls are redundant as many people throw their cutlery and plates in the dishwasher. But dishwashers can add £60 to your bill over the year. So invest in a washing-up bowl. They"re not expensive, you can get one to match your kitchen, and it gives the kids something to do after dinner before their desserts.
Spend More Money = Saving More
OK, that kind of defeats the object of what I"m writing about, but when I say spend more money, I mean pay a little extra to gain a lot. Let me use this as an example. I won a competition about 5 years ago for a washing machine and tumble dryer. They cost £1000 at the time. They arrived with an extended 5-year warranty which included a like for like swap if anything happened. Both had been going strong, until a few weeks ago. The heating element broke in the tumble dryer. As the warranty was still valid, we gave the manufacturer a quick call. Within a week, they had delivered us a brand new £500 machine. This new one can do everything and more. But if it were a cheaper item, the warranty may not have been extended and it undoubtedly wouldn"t have resulted in a brand new machine.
Buy a Big Bottle
No, you"re not drinking yourself into a stupor. You will be throwing your spare change in it at the end of the day. We bought a sizeable plastic bottle from eBay for about £15, but it just sat in our garage. When we bought it in, we"d empty our pockets out and everything under 50p would go in it. We emptied it a few months back and were staggered to have collected £154. Bank wasn"t too pleased as we gave it to them to get it changed but that sorted our shopping for the next month. If you see one of those oversized bottles, grab one and start doing it yourself, I promise you will be shocked when you get round to cashing it in.
Have you got any household saving tips and techniques that you can share? Let me know below.
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