In 2010 my girlfriend and I gave ourselves a personal bonus of more than £3100. I’m defining the bonus as money that would of been spent throughout the year unnoticed or on items that are pointless (lunch van sandwiches for instance). I often write about lifestyle on my personal blog and money plays an important role. This article is based upon on how my girlfriend and I gave ourselves a ‘bonus’. It isn’t a boastful article, just to share tips and receive feedback. Perhaps you can give yourself a bonus in 2011? Hope the article below gives you tips to achieve that.
The business world knows that money management is an important step to continued growth. The time taken can not only save businesses money, but present new opportunities. The same can apply for us as individuals or families.
Don’t think this article is for the poor or unemployed. This article presumes you are earning money, though there are some tips suitable for all below, if you have financial issues you should seek advice elsewhere and I wish you the best of luck.
To keep this article as short as possible it will only cover food, drink, books, magazines, insurance and mobile phones. Just think of what you can achieve if you focused on other areas of your life and perhaps some of the ideas below will help.
A pint of beer in a pub at a stunning location with good company can’t be equaled and I’m not going to find an alternative. Just as we won’t seek out a place to buy food if out walking through the countryside. We will take a packed lunch and have a breathtaking view instead.
All the savings are rough figures, no in-depth analysis of bills.
Food, drink and home items – Saving per year £2400+
An easy one to start with and for us the biggest area of saving. The average shopping basket cost for a UK person has risen, yet ours has reduced. Not forgetting the amount we used to spend on lunches brought out during a working day, food and drink whilst traveling or even on cups of tea and chocolate bars at the seafront.
How about dinners out? Here and there and we don’t chase savings for dinners out unless it is an Indian buffet, which we love! Like most people if we like the look of the place, been recommended and can afford it we will try it. Though I’d rather make a romantic meal at home than try and fool myself you can truly have a romantic meal whilst surrounded by others, no matter how great the restaurant and location are!
We write a shopping list, use different shops, have a spend limit on meals, make packed lunches and sometimes buy in bulk, but only if we know how to use the items. We view deals as how much they will save us compared to usual purchases, not based on savings on the product itself. For us if we shop more than once or twice a week our bill increases. Another bad thing is letting me going into a supermarket without a shopping list! Biscuits and expensive cheese somehow get brought if that happens.
Being vegetarian seriously helps reduce the weekly bills. Our quality of food is still excellent, the variety of food we eat better than most people we know and we make a lot of homemade food. Soups especially, it is often a false pretense that homemade soup is cheaper, but the taste is superior. I can’t stand carrot and lentil or leek and potato canned soup, but the homemade versions are my favourite. We’ve also brought packed lunches using boots points.
The saving is roughly based upon what we spent a few years back.
Property Insurances – Saving per year £130+
Insurances for your property can be costly. Our suppliers usually send out a letter at the last moment and usual the cost is rather unattractive. Each year we make a note on our calendar a month before due to start hunting for a deal. I quite like the price comparison websites.
The saving is based upon what extra we would of spent this year with our old supplier.
Books & Magazines – Saving per year £300+
We are quite extreme and read books daily. Yet I’ve brought only one or two recently. How? Borrowing from the library, Amazon wishlist for others to use for Christmas and Birthday, charity shops and the library selling used books. Two magazines subscriptions were paid for by our Tesco clubcard points and a third subscription was a gift.
The saving is based upon the amount of books we actually read. So it could be argued we wouldn’t of read as much if we had been buying from the high street.
Mobile phones – Saving per year £340
We brought two new phones in 2010 and both are not contract. Yet we use them multiple times a day for voice calls, text messages and social networks. With our mobile phone provide skype is free to other other skype users, which saves us a lot of money.
The saving is based on what it used to cost us over five years ago with similar usage compared to 2010 costs.
Conclusion:
Spending money just because I was wowed by a television advert, impulsed brought at a bookstore, walked into a supermarket without actually realising what I needed, else felt I was too tired to make my lunch for the next day is a waste. Now I can use that so called ‘unnoticed’ or ‘wasted’ money elsewhere to enrich our lifes.
Now if only I would stop breaking toasters and kettles each year!
Leave a Reply