Citizens Advice financial capability

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Citizens Advice financial capability"

Priscilla Waters
6 years ago
Views:

1 Activity: Fifty tips to save money AIC 20 B W This activity is meant for very general placeholder use. There is no obligation for any adviser to cover all, or even most of these tips. Rather, these are intended to serve as a quick-reference bank of tips to allow advisers to have short or detailed conversations with clients about various practical money-saving tips that are easy to take on board. The list is organised into twelve tips per page; this way an adviser can choose to cover only one page (or two, or three) in a session. Many various online lists similar to this exist; advisers are encouraged to use whichever sources of money-saving tips they feel most comfortable discussing with clients. No handouts are provided, but advisers are welcome to show the remainder of the resource with clients for them to pick and choose which topics they would like to discuss. There are only 48 tips; this is deliberate. If the adviser gets through all of them, ask the client to come up with one or two of their own! If that was useful, why not try Energy and Water Saving energy in the home 2015 Citizens Advice BDA7/Aug17/v2 Citizens Advice financial capability

2 Did you know these 50 tips to save money? 1. Take advantage of cashback and reward credit cards. Barclaycard's Freedom Rewards card is giving 30 worth of vouchers when you spend 300 on the card in the first three months. Santander's 123 credit card offers account holders 3% cashback on fuel, 2% cashback in department stores and 1% cashback at supermarkets. Factsheet 2. Recycle old mobile phones, DVDs, CDs and clothes. 3. Use comparison sites to find the cheapest supermarket prices. 4. Use balance transfer credit cards to transfer debt from your current credit card that charges a high rate of interest, to one that charges 0% interest. 5. Buy own-brand goods at the supermarket. 6. Cancel your gym membership and opt for pay-as-you-go if there is a strong likelihood that you will stop going. 7. Bulk-buy foods that don't go off, particularly if they are on offer. An open or unopened bottle of tomato ketchup can last up to a year in your cupboard, so if you go through a lot of it, bulk-buying would save you money. 8. Switch energy suppliers. Households could save up to 300 if they switch energy suppliers, but millions don't. In fact, only 14% of homes change their gas and energy tariff each year even though the process is simple. 9. Use discount websites to save on days out. Sites like groupon.co.uk, vouchercodes.co.uk and wowcher.co.uk, to name a few, offer daily deals and discounts on events, activities, travel and restaurants. 10. Cycle/walk to work (if possible) rather than drive or take the tube.

3 11. Grow your own herbs. Keeping pots of herbs in your kitchen can save you money on having to repeat purchase packs of herbs. Growing from seed can be even more cost effective. 12. Pay less for your holiday by comparing travel agents online. 13. Find cheap flights for your holidays next year. 14. Rent a new dress rather than buy one. If you have a big event coming up but don't want to fork out for a new outfit you'll only wear once, there are a number of websites you can go to hire a new dress, for a fraction of the cost of a brand new one. GirlMeetsDress.com has hundreds of dresses to search through, and for around 50 you can rent a designer dress (often retailing for hundreds of pounds) for two nights, or pay slightly more for seven nights. 15. Share travel to cut costs. You can join websites like liftshare.com or GoCarShare.com to meet other people who wish to share long-distance travel in order to cut costs. Drivers and passengers can benefit from travelling together, with the driver getting contributions for petrol costs, and the passengers saving on expensive train fares. 16. Open a savings account. 17. Go without a TV licence. A TV licence costs 147, but do you need one? If you watch catch-up TV you do not need a licence, so 4 on Demand and ITV Player are all free. However, using BBC iplayer at all even to watch shows that are not live will make you liable for a TV license. There are concessions in place for those aged over 74 and for partially sighted people. 18. Use a slow-cooker for cooking stews. Using a slow cooker to make a stew is both easier, you can leave it to stew while you're at work all day, and cheaper. It costs around 10p to use a slow cooker for around eight hours, while using an oven will cost far more at 30p for one hour. 19. Do online surveys in your spare time and earn money. MoneySavingExpert.com lists the 20 best survey sites on the web. Number one is Ipsos and number two is Swagbucks. Both are free to join.

4 20. Check to see if your children are entitled to any benefits, including free school meals and school uniform. 21. Make sure your child isn't paying tax on their savings account. 22. Don't buy bottled water, fill up a re-usable bottle with tap water. 23. Make your own drinks. Making your own juices and smoothies with a blender or juicer will save you the expense of buying these drinks in the shops. 24. Find the cheapest way to spend abroad. If you go on holiday make sure you are careful with your overseas spending. Pick a credit card that doesn't charge an ATM fee for withdrawing cash abroad. 25. Stock up on Christmas decorations now. Christmas themed wrapping paper and decorations went on sale around Christmas Eve/Boxing Day, so stock up now and save on the cost next year. 26. Have a dry January. If, according to recent figures from the Office for National Statistics, you are an average UK household that spends a week on alcohol, by not drinking for the entire month of January, you could save over Use supermarket loyalty cards. People are using their loyalty cards less, according to research conducted in August, but using a supermarket loyalty scheme could save you money on your weekly shop. 28. Patch up worn clothes instead of throwing them out 29. Use a spreadsheet to budget your household finances. Make a spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel adding up every household expense you will have to pay, including mortgage/rent, groceries, transport, utility bills, insurance, phone bills and everything else to ensure you don't overspend. Google "house budget template" for more help. 30. Turn electrical appliances off when not in use. 31. Use energy-saving gadgets to cut costs.

5 32. Swap books rather than buy new ones. Once you've read a book, you can swap it with someone else for a book of theirs that you haven't read yet, rather than paying for a new one. 33. Pay your children to do jobs around the house. Get your children to earn their pocket money by doing their bit around the house. Cleaning the house/car, taking the bins out, ironing some clothes or walking the dog will save you money on professional help, and will teach your children the value of money. 34. Make your own meals rather than buy takeaways. Save money on buying takeaways, which you can make yourself or buy from the supermarket much cheaper. 35. Avoid the January sales. Even though you might feel like you're getting a bargain, it is likely you are buying something you never really needed, and would never have bought in the first place had it not been on sale. 36. Check out websites for freebies. Go to websites like Gumtree.co.uk or Freecycle.org for free bits of furniture, old electronics, books, clothes and other unwanted items. 37. Shop at discount supermarkets rather than higher-end ones. 38. Use coupons. A teenager from Essex found fame for "Extreme Couponing" which saw him pay 4p for a 600 shop at Tesco. 39. Rent out a spare room. 40. Cut down on the cost of car insurance. Comparing premiums is easy on online comparison sites. 41. Try and rope your neighbours into a "sharing economy". Families can save hundreds of pounds a year by being part of the sharing economy which embraces everything from recycling second-hand goods through to hiring them out to other families on your street or hosting parties where guests bring a range of items to swap.

6 42. Sell old comics, postcards and other investment pieces. If you have annuals hidden away in your attic, old toys stashed under your bed or music memorabilia tucked away in your garage, you could be sitting on a lot of money. Old Beano and Dandy annuals have recently sold for up to 20,000 at auction, retro postcards could be worth up to 400 if you're lucky. 43. Buy a 'passive' fund over an 'active' one. If you are an investor, buying a "passive" or "tracker" fund is typically much cheaper than buying traditional funds, as there is no need to pay a professional to manage your money. 44. Collect loose change and pennies in a jar and cash them in at the end of the year. Without even realising you could have saved 40 or Get cashback for shopping online. Cashback sites like Quidco.com or Topcashback.co.uk give you cashback on your purchases once you have created an account with the respective site. You can browse high street and online retailers using the websites and once you buy an item, you will receive a percentage of the value of your shopping as cashback which will be paid into your account. 46. Follow retailers on social networking sites like Twitter. Amazon, ASOS, ebay and Debenhams are some of the retailers who tweet about their latest deals or sales on their website and in store. 47. Pay attention to your smart meter. 48. Don't waste food. The average UK household wastes 470 worth of food each year, or 700 for a family with children. This is equivalent to around 60 each month

Factsheet 2: Household Budgeting

Factsheet 2: Household Budgeting Mapping and Gapping The first step in smart money management is to know what money you have coming in and going out. For a user-friendly tool for mapping your income and