Top 10 Money Saving Hacks

Budgeting and saving money can be tedious and there are websites everywhere telling you how to save money. However by using our top ten money hacks you can easily save hundreds or thousands for very little effort.

So without further ado, read on to learn our a few of our tips and tricks, listed below.

Buy a car at the end of the month

If you are looking to buy a car, go to the dealer at the end of the month. Dealers will have quotas to meet and if they are short at the end of the month, they may be more likely to offer you a deal or incentives for your new car to help them meet their quota and therefore get their monthly bonus.

Even better, look to buy a car at the end of a quarter – March, June, September or December because in those cases, you could find even larger savings depending on how well the dealership is doing.

You don’t necessarily need to visit the dealership on the very last day of the month – usually the last weekend will suffice. This is because many people will be buying on a weekend so this is when the most sales will occur so is when the dealership will start offering deals.

Of course if a dealership has hit their target for the month or quarter, they will be less likely to offer any incentives.

It is always worth doing your homework in advance – test drive several weeks ahead so you have time to evaluate the car fully and don’t end up making a rush decision. You can then visit the dealership at the end of the month to purchase the car.

Check the job title on your car insurance

Subtly changing the job title on your car insurance can make a world of difference to the premium you pay. So try variations on what you do to see if it makes a difference to your premium – for example try secretary instead of Personal Assistant, or Software Engineer instead of Computer Programmer.

Of course, it goes without saying that you should never lie to an insurance company as it will invalidate your insurance – so never say you are a Creative Director to get cheaper insurance, when you are really a Tree Surgeon.

Credit Card Cash Back

This will only work if you are strict with how you handle your money. If you are good at paying your credit card bill off in full at the end of each month, get a credit card which offers you cashback – this can be in various guises including actual cash, vouchers, or air miles. Always take a credit card where the cashback is something you will use – there is no point getting vouchers for a store that you will never buy anything at (unless you are planning to eBay the vouchers). Some credit cards offer more points for shopping in their stores, so it weigh up the potential returns carefully.

There are often limits on the amount of cash that will be returned to you annually. If this is the case, consider having a couple of cashback credit cards to ensure you get the maximum amount of cash back.

Abandon your online shops to get a discount code

This money hack requires a little bit of patience! If you have an account with an online shop, it can sometimes pay to be patient. Log in to your account (so that the retailer knows who is buying) and add the items you want to buy to your shopping cart. Abandon your cart and move away from the site for the day.
Many retailers will try and tempt you back to complete your order and may send you a voucher code. So if you abandon your shopping cart you may find a tempting voucher code pops into your email account the next day. So unless the item you are after is likely to run out, or you are in a massive hurry to purchase your goods, it is always worth trying this trick to see if you get a discount voucher for your goods.

This also has the secondary benefit that it makes you think about your purchases – by sitting on a shopping cart for 24 hours, you may find you don’t want to buy the items after all thus saving yourself even more money!

Use your local library

Do you read a lot of books or magazines? Do you watch a lot of box sets? It is always worth checking out what your local library has to offer. Library cards are free and most libraries are not just for books! If you have a tablet, many libraries offer free book downloads.

There are also audio book downloads and e-magazines – there is usually a wide range of magazines to choose from including specialist hobbies and there is often a back catalogue if you want to catch up on previous magazines.

Some libraries also offer free film, box set, and video game rentals.

Most libraries will have a few computers for library card holders to use and these computers will be internet connected meaning you can surf the web for free too.

Lower the brightness on your TV

By lowering the brightness on your TV and computer monitors, you can save on their power consumption by up to 40%. You don’t often need full brightness to fully enjoy the majority of films, TV, and video games. The default full brightness is often to make the monitor look good in very brightly lit stores.

Don’t use your dryer

Tumble dryers use a large amount of electricity. Dry your clothes the old fashioned way by using a clothesline or clothes horse. This will save you a huge amount on your electricity bill. It has the added advantage that it will also help your clothes last longer too.

Print in a friendlier font

Different fonts take different amounts of toner ink to print the same words. One of the most ink-efficient common typefaces is Garamond so if you need to print anything and you are not bothered by what typeface you use, consider changing the font of the document to Garamond as it will help save you ink. You can also save even more ink by changing your font size to a smaller font – of course, be careful the size you change to is still readable!
Bold fonts will also use more ink than standard fonts so try not to print documents with too much bold in them.
There are also a range of eco-typefaces you can purchase. These typefaces typically have holes in the letters which are almost undetectable to the eye and leave the words easy to read whilst saving on ink. Examples of these are Ecofont and Ryman Eco typeface.

Close Zips Before Washing

Always remember to close your zips before washing your clothes no matter where the zips are – jeans, trousers, tops or coats. Those little metal teeth will cause wear and tear on whatever is in the washing machine in them. By closing up the zips, you are preventing wear and tear and will help your clothes last longer.

So there you have it – our top ten money tips that everyone should be doing.

Do you have a tip you would like to share? Post it in the comments below as we would love to hear from you!