FOOL'S EYE VIEW
25 Money-Saving Tips

By Alison Hunt (TMFAlly)
March 9, 2006

If you can't increase your income, you can effectively give yourself a pay rise, simply by hanging onto more of your cash. So without further ado, here are 25 ways that we can all save a bit of cash!

1. Use, or re-join the library - if you're fond of reading why not re-discover the library and save your cash by borrowing that novel instead. Or why not trade those books you've read at Read it Swap it?

2. Pay less for CDs - check out online sites such as CDWow and Play. Supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury's can also be surprisingly cheap.

3. Loyalty cards - if you regularly shop at one supermarket it may be worth taking out its loyalty card. Those points can add up surprisingly quickly and mean you can have free days out and other rewards. Buy your petrol at the supermarket too and you'll rack up points in no time.

4. Reduce that mobile phone bill - check out the tariff you're currently on and work out when you make your calls. If you're using your phone at different times to when your inclusive minutes can be used, it's time to switch. Text bundles can save a fortune compared to paying individually. And if you need to make calls whilst at work, use your office phone rather than your mobile you could save a fortune.

5. Make the most from work - give yourself an effective pay rise by signing up for any useful perks from work. Many companies offer a whole range of free or taxable benefits, which could save you a fortune. Life insurance, critical illness cover, income protection and health insurance are just a few of the types of cover that could be obtained for free, or at a reduced rate through your employer.

6. Save on childcare - working parents who pay higher rate tax can save up to £1,066 on their childcare costs (and basic rate taxpayers £816) by signing up for the Childcare voucher scheme through their employer. The first £50 of vouchers can be bought, free of income tax and National Insurance (NICS) -- and your employer wins too as it doesn't have to pay NICS either. Two working parents can save up to £2,132 each year -- not bad!

7. Switch current account and get free cash - if your bank isn't up to scratch, consider moving -- you could get rewarded for your trouble. First Direct and Lloyds TSB will give you £50, and Citibank £75, once you've switched and your salary is credited to the account. Find a friend with an Alliance & Leicester current account and you could both earn £50, simply by opening a Premier Direct account using its recommend a friend promotion. Plus, your cash will be earning interest at 5%AER, too.

Switch to a better bank account in our Banking Centre.

8. Pay less for books - before buying that book, check out the cheapest place to buy it using sites such as Bookbrain or Kelkoo.

9. Earn more interest on your savings - there's no point carefully squirreling money away if the interest you earn is pitiful. Switch to ICICI bank's HiSAVE account or Alliance & Leicester's Online Saver and earn a whopping 5.15% AER on every pound.

You can open an ICICI Hi SAVE account right here, in our Savings Centre.

10. Supermarket savings - keep an eye out for Buy one get one free and 3 for 2 offers on items you regularly buy, when out shopping. By bulk buying you can save yourself a fortune -- just don't get tempted by items you've never tried. Remember to use any coupons you're sent too -- some supermarkets will even let you use coupons when you haven't bought the item. And remember, when buying over-the-counter medications you can save some cash by choosing generic items rather than the brand names. Check for the active ingredient in the brand you know and find the generic brand with the same ingredient -- you can effectively buy the same medicine for a fraction of the price. Supermarket own brand cold relief, for example, can often be pounds cheaper than brand names such as Lemsip.

11. Pay less for DVDs - make sure you're not paying too much for DVDs by checking out price comparison websites such as Find-DVD.co.uk first. Better still, don't buy them at all, and rent them from your local library.

12. Get paid to spend - if you always pay off your credit card bill in full, why not get rewarded for your prudence by using a cashback card? You can earn up to 2% cashback with a Morgan Stanley Platinum card, and high spenders could make a fortune by using the American Express Platinum credit card. It can all add up surprisingly quickly, and could mean a hefty cheque of free money will be winging its way to you in a year's time.

Apply for the Morgan Stanley card in our Credit Card centre.

13. Borrow for free - if you're currently paying interest on your credit card balance, you could save a fortune by switching to a 0% card for balance transfers. You can currently get up to 12 months to pay off that debt whilst accruing no interest -- just make sure you pay off the whole lot before the deal expires.

Search for a great 0% card in our Credit Card centre.

14. Pay less for insurance - if it's been a while since you took out your life insurance, and you can't get free cover from work, you may find you can save some cash, simply by re-brokering. Apply for a quote from a broker such as The Idol and see if you could save.

Apply for a quote in our Insurance Centre.

15. Spread the cost of a large purchase - if you know you have a large purchase to make in the next few months and were considering a personal loan, why not consider taking out a 0% card for new purchases instead? You can currently get up to 10 months, interest free with the Sainsbury's bank credit card, or 7 months with the Cooperative Bank Travel card, meaning you could save that cash into a high interest account, ready to repay the balance when the 0% period is up.

You can apply for the Cooperative Bank Travel card in our Credit Card Centre.

16. Save thousands on your mortgage - although this tip is for long-term savings, the money to be saved far surpasses almost everything else! By making a simple overpayment each month into your mortgage, you can reduce the interest payable by thousands, and shave years off the term, too. Find out how in this article and check that the interest is calculated daily, not annually on your mortgage. Why not try this calculator and see how much you could save?

17. Don't pay your lender's SVR - Although we constantly harp on about it, thousands of us fail to re-mortgage in time and end up paying our lender's Standard Variable Rate (SVR). As these rates can often be around 6.75% APR, whilst the best deals on the market are currently around 4.3% APR this is money we're literally throwing away! Check out the details for your mortgage and if you can, switch to a better deal.

Find mortgages from just 4.3% APR in our brand new Mortgage Centre.

18. Pay less for contact lenses - if, like me you spend a fortune on contact lenses each year, there are savings to be made, simply by purchasing your lenses and solutions from a different source. Instead of buying lenses through your optician, check out one of the many companies such as Postoptics or Tesco that sell lenses in bulk. You'll need an up to date prescription and the brand name of the lenses you currently use (such as Acuvue) and generally the more you buy, the cheaper they are. And the savings can be huge - in some cases hundreds of pounds each year. You should then be able to simply pay for regular check ups with your current optician, or Tesco has its own opticians.

19. Top up your pension - another long-term saving, but by sorting out your pension now, you can provide yourself with a far more comfortable retirement. The key to producing a large pension pot is by using the miracle of compounding -- the longer you can leave money in there, the more it can grow. Why not take a look at your pension and see if you can pay a little extra in each month. And if your employer provides a pension scheme to which it contributes, snap it up; that's effectively free money!

Find out more about saving for retirement in our Pension Centre.

20. Holiday for less - If you're planning a long haul holiday, try to book early, you can snap up cheaper seats on planes etc. Plus, you can find the top places to get foreign currency, travellers' cheques and insurance in our top tips for travellers.

21. Pay less for holiday parking - driving up on the day can be hideously expensive, why not follow these tips and save money on your holiday parking.

22. Switch supplier - you may be better off waiting a few weeks before following this tip, due to the recent price rises that have yet to be reflected by all, but switching energy supplier really can save you a fortune, especially if you've never switched before. And why not follow these tips to save even more money on your fuel bills?

23. Spend less - don't waste money on fancy coffees on the way to work if your office provides the stuff for free -- at £2 a pop that's a tenner saved every week. Newspapers are available for free, online and why not swap magazines with friends and read three or four for the price of one. Plus, buying fruit and vegetables at markets rather than supermarkets can often save a fortune.

24. Install a water meter - if you live in a small household, it's likely to be cost effective to fit a water meter -- and why not follow these tips to hack back that water bill?

25. Pay less for fuel - sign up to petrolprices.com and find the cheapest place to buy your petrol or diesel. And why not follow these tips - you could use less fuel, too. So there you have it, 25 ways to save some cash.