Prices in the UK are soaring, and sadly, things aren’t changing any time soon. It’s one of those nationwide ‘adaptive’ moments where we all pull together to share ideas on how to save money. In this blog, we’re always talking about how you can make little changes in your lifestyle to help protect our planet. But did you notice, that we also focus on saving money?
Living a reduced lifestyle will often save on your waste, carbon footprint, and water usage but more importantly, it can save you money. We’ve done our investigations and we’ve got ideas from fuel and energy saving to food waste and product eking. Take a look for yourself.
How to save money by product eking
Eking has quickly become our new favourite hobby. It means to increase, enlarge or lengthen something and we’ve completely transformed our households into eke freaks! Eking is the small step that you need to take in order to make the most of things and save money. Don’t underestimate the difference a small action can make.
Take a look at the bathroom. How many times have you thrown out a bottle of shampoo or a toothpaste tube, knowing there’s a little leftover inside. We’ve been cutting the tops off our toothpaste tubes and sticking our toothbrushes in there to get a couple more days’ use. We’ve cut up our shower product bottles and left them to drain into a spare pot or dish overnight to give us a few extra washes. Over the course of a few weeks, we’ve found ourselves buying these items less frequently.
From small steps to big ones. Those of us who commute can really benefit from eking our car’s fuel. While some techniques for saving fuel can be dangerous, we’ve discovered that simply sticking to the speed limits, reducing the need for excessive braking and acceleration, and looking after our tyres can extend our tank’s demands by 2 days or more! Those two days may not seem like much, but when it’s 3 days until payday and you can’t afford a tank of fuel – it really counts.
Save money by saving energy
Perhaps one of the biggest increases in your monthly outgoings this year has been your energy bills. That’s not down to your consumption of gas and electricity, but sadly, it is the only way to reduce your bills. You may have already shopped around for cheaper alternatives but with price increases all around, it’s much of the same. So, once you’re happy with your provider, start reducing your energy use.
First things first. Your tumble dryer is perhaps the most energy intensive item that you do not need to use in your home. If you’re truly wondering how to save money. Start here. Grab a clothes horse, and use the washing line outdoors or on your balcony. The weather is getting warmer and drier, make the most of it!
You also need to stop leaving things on standby. We were shocked when we discovered how much money we saved in a month simply by turning things off at the wall. TVs, PlayStations, microwaves, ovens, blenders – every single switch in our home is off, except for the internet. It’s shocking how much energy is used when you’re not using anything at all – it’s estimated that we spend £147 a year on standby energy – and that was before the price increase!
Freezing your food to reduce waste
It’s difficult to save money on the items that you need to buy – like food. You can shop around and find the cheapest products locally to you, but ultimately, you save money by reducing waste. Each time you allow a food item to go to waste, imagine yourself throwing money in the bin.
It might be freezing your leftovers or freezing a couple bits of meat before they go out of date. Remember nothing is too small to freeze. Do you have half a pepper that’s starting to go soft? Chop it up and pop it in a freezer bag. Then, the next time you make a stir fry (or our favourite – fajitas) you can add it in frozen. Check out point 4 in our blog on ways to reduce food waste – you’ll find lots of tips in there for freezing foods you wouldn’t typically think of.
How to save money by restyling your wardrobe
Most of us have a summer wardrobe and a winter wardrobe with a few items that can sit in the middle for all year-round use. However, this doesn’t mean everyone has the storage space to facilitate such a diverse wardrobe. That average Brit will spend over £40 a month on clothes and shoes. It might be replacing an old pair of jeans, grabbing a pair of shoes in the sale or even just the annual refresh of underwear.
If you want to know how to save money, restyling your winter wardrobe into a summer one is a great idea. It might be cutting off the sleeves of an old t-shirt to create a vest or cutting your jeans short for new shorts. If you can’t transform some of your older clothes into new summer items, start your shopping trip in a charity shop. It’s a great way to save money and there are amazing treasures to be found lurking in the rails!
There you have it. Four areas you can focus on when learning how to save money. Make the most of your products inside and out of the home, especially the ones that cost more money. Reduce your energy bills because it’s the one bill that’s the easiest to reduce and is costing the most. Flip food waste on its head by freezing items, don’t throw your money in the bin by letting it go to waste. Then finally, focus on reducing the amount of money you spend on clothes. It might be restyling your winter wardrobe for summer or shopping in charity shops.
The more small steps you take this month, the more you’ll save in the long run. What may come as a surprise, once you implement these changes, is that you’ll barely notice a difference in your habits. You’ll be wondering why you weren’t doing these things all along!
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