Most people these days are living payday to payday, and they find that they have too many days left after the payment has gone. So, you need to look at your outgoings and see where you can make cutbacks to save some money. Cutting down on your outgoings a small amount on certain things will soon add up and you could end up saving £100 a month. You might even end up saving more money than that.
There are quite a few areas where you can save money, and we wanted to help you by offering advice on where you can cut down on costs.
Eating Out
Eating out is expensive. It can be as cheap as £30 for 2 people for a fish and chip dinner, but can also be so much more for meals like Chinese, Indian, Turkish etc. Although eating out is fun and relaxing, it is an expense that you can do without.
You can make the same meal at home for a small fraction of the cost. Look out in the supermarkets for meal deals. You can get some really nice three course meals with a bottle of wine for a tenner. You can even buy a takeaway in a box for less than £10 for two people. Then you just chuck it all in the oven.
Cinema Trips
All though these are fun and enjoyable, they can be so expensive. It can be as much as £15 per person to see one of the latest movies. There are so many different ways that you can cut down on this cost.
Firstly you can buy a cinema pass, where you pay a monthly subscription and you can visit the cinema as many times as you want. You could pay for the subscription after 2 visits and then the rest of the visits work out as free. You can also bogof vouchers to make the cinema cheaper.
Another way is to wait a month or two and it will come to your streaming service
as a paid movie. you will get it for a fraction of the cost. Or alternatively, choose from one of the many free movies on the streaming service that you use. There is no cost involved then. You can get popcorn and snacks and cuddle up under a blanket.
Check Your Internet Service
We use the internet all of the time these days. But did you know that you can save money when your contract is up? When you sign up for internet service, you choose what you want to be included. If you do not need a home phone line, then you can have that cost taken off. After all, it is not worth paying for a home line and a mobile phone.
Make sure you know how long your contract is for. It will normally be 18 months
to 2 years, so start shopping around for a cheaper deal towards the end of the contract. Then you can approach your internet company, and they will usually match the deal. If they don’t match the deal you can always go with another internet provider.
You could also bundle your services together with a tv package. This might save you money, but only if you will use all of the services.
Streaming And TV Services
If you don’t use your BBC tv services, then stop paying for a TV license. You do this by going to the TV license website and declaring that you do not watch BBC TV, either live or on Iplayer. Without a TV license, you can still watch ITV, Channel 5 and Channel 4 streaming services but not the live channels. This is easy to do though, you just watch them as soon as they have finished on live TV.
With streaming services, share an account with friends. This way you can all put
some money in and it keeps the cost down.
Nights In Are The New Nights Out
Having a night down at the pub seems to have lost its charm a bit since Covid 19. But maybe that is a good thing. Because nights in are so much cheaper and often more fun. Instead of paying £30 for a bottle of wine in the pub, you can buy a decent one in the supermarket for less than £10.
Invite your mates round to have a night in. Get some fun board games out and
have some fun that you couldn’t have on a night out. Get them to bring some food and drink, to make it into an American supper. It will save you so much money as well as your friends.
You can have themed nights in, quiz nights, fancy dress nights, Xbox nights. The ideas for a fun night in are endless.
Think About The Money You Can Save
With the money that you save, you can either buy some nice stuff or use it to manage to pay the bills. Whatever you do, cutting down on your outgoings can save the day. With the money that you save, you can have a rainy-day fund, to cover the cost of emergencies.
I hope you too can start to save money with a little bit of budgeting.
