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Achieve Regular Financial Savings By Incorporating These Simple Tricks Into Your Life

May 22nd, 2017 Posted in Money Tips
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Regardless of your financial situation, wasting money is never advised. After all, you wouldn’t offer your business services to an employer or client for free. If you’re going to work so hard to maximize your earning potential, you’d be a fool not to do the same with your spending.

Of course, there are a variety of major life moments where you can save big by doing your research. However, mortgages and car purchases shouldn’t be your only concerns. Making positive steps in your daily life is just as vital. Here’s what you can do to unlock those savings to see your money last longer.

Become Eco-Friendly

Living a greener lifestyle has become a growing trend in modern society. However, the environment isn’t the only beneficiary. Simple ideas like cycling to work rather than driving or switching to LED light bulbs can soon start boosting your bank balance.

Likewise, improving home insulation and cutting down on household waste can work wonders for the cause. You might only save a few cents each day, but those small savings will soon add up. The fact that you’ll be living a better life in the process is only another incentive still.

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Look For Direct Money Savings

The best way to save money is to do literally spend less money on your purchases. Haggling might be a dying art that is now restricted to the big purchases. However, the internet has opened up the opportunity to take another tradition to the next level. Learn to research your options, and you’ll find the best deals in no time.

Price comparisons can be useful for many services. Meanwhile, using printable coupons could make a huge hole in your daily spending. From clothes to groceries, spending less money on those regular expenses will soon make a huge difference to your life. Do not underestimate it for a second.

Do Things Yourself

The DIY game is a longstanding idea that can allow you to complete home upgrades and various chores without breaking the bank. Once upon a time, you had to boast skills, ideas, and the right tools. Nowadays, virtually anyone with the right level of determination can achieve those goals.

Online tutorials can show you how to fix various home problems, as well as other issues. Meanwhile, upcycled fashion and furniture is becoming a bigger trend than ever too. When combined with suitable care to ensure that those items last longer, your financial situation will look far brighter.

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Quit Expensive Habits

We’re all guilty of wasting money in this life. This could manifest itself in a number of ways, including gambling and smoking. Learning to rid yourself of those habits that offer no real benefit can work wonders for your health as well as your wealth.

Those expensive habits could also include throwing items away when they could be sold. Your trash could be another man’s treasure. In turn, it could mean a few extra dollars in your pocket. Even if you sell $50 worth of goods each month, that’s one less bill to worry about.

 

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3 Ways To Inspire Your Child To Make Good Financial Decisions Through Life

April 14th, 2017 Posted in financial education, kids and money, teaching children about money, teaching kids about money
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Time spent educating children is time that is never wasted. Unfortunately, despite school teachers and the school faculties best intentions, it’s difficult to fit in every lesson at school that it takes to become a responsible, sensible person in later life . Kids have a lot to deal with, not only growing up and coming to terms with their identity, but also increasing levels of responsibility as the years pass on.

Filling your child’s head with knowledge is fantastic, and will surely help them in later life. But giving them guiding principles to live by through inspiration and demonstration is more valuable than anything you can tell your kids. So how do you kindle this burning fire of curiosity that children seem to so naturally emanate? Here is a list of 6 different methods you can use to not only teach your child or pupils positive life lessons, but to bond with them as well.

  1. Take an interest in them.

Kids are naturally attention hungry, especially from those they rely on. If you water them with this special ingredient of available openness, listen to what they’d like to achieve in life, and stimulate a few ideas based off of what they say, you can really open their mind from an incredibly young age.

For example, let’s say your daughter says she’d like to ride horses and play with ponies all day when she’s older. Perhaps you could suggest she’d like to be a vet, and help all animals who are poorly feel better! Or perhaps she’d like to open a sanctuary for horses and donkeys. Sit back and watch as her eyes widen with excitement. Keep this up and she’ll start believing she can do anything, which, of course is absolutely true.

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  1. Help them envision their future life.

Helping a child envision their future life is something that is immensely beneficial to opening up their horizons. Of course there’s no need to come to concrete answers, and this exercise should be fundamentally fun. However, sometimes it’s great to stimulate their imagination. For example, you could ask what sort of pets they’d like as an adult, what countries they’d like to visit, or you could go to a website like Pink Realty to give them an idea of the house he or she would like to throw family parties in one day.

  1. Show them the benefits of saving money.

Kids are impulsive, and most adults are too. It’s a good idea to show them, through subtle, unintrusive ways, the best way to manage money effectively. You don’t have to sit them down and teach them the finer methods of understanding balance sheets, but perhaps giving them a small allowance to earn (if old enough,) and letting them spend it once a month only will teach them the value of saving in order to acquire higher value items, or replacing items they didn’t think they lost. You can also tell them in a way that will make them proud of you how your savings have helped you pay for unexpected bills etc, and they will slowly (hopefully) start emulating your habits in their teenage and young adult years.

These three combined steps will not only help your child begin good habits in a way that will bring you closer together and give them a slight understanding of how you run your family, but they will desire to emulate you. Kids are impressionable, so make sure to use this to their advantage.

This will hopefully provide the correct attitude that will stop them making big mistakes in adulthood. You can be sure then that you’ve covered at least some of the bases your tough job of parenthood requires you to address.

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Save The Pennies Now For Your Children’s Future

March 21st, 2017 Posted in Money Tips
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All of us try to save as much money as we can, whether that be on the smaller things or the bigger things. When it comes to any aspect of saving money we look for the cheapest deals and the best promotions in order for us to live well, but to live frugally. With bills we will do research on the cheapest yet most reputable utility providers, with food shopping we will scout out what promotions and money saving offers supermarkets local to us have got on, and when we decide to socialise or go out for the day with the family we will, again, do research on the best offers and savings that are available. Our financial situation is something which is very important to everyone – a bad situation can lead to detrimental effects whereas a good situation needs to be tended to, nurtured and looked after so that we keep on top of our good financial state.

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The state of our finances does not just affect us personally, though. If we have children then our finances can be paramount in our thoughts and actions, as we may want to save money and put some aside to help our children in the future. Every bit of spare cash that you have left over could be put into a savings account to benefit your children. If you were to put £5 a week, over the course of a year that adds up to £240. If you were to save this amount of money over a period of, say, 10 years that would add up to £2,400. And that is a nice amount of money to help your child when they decide to move home, go to university, buy a car etc.

If you find yourself in a situation which seems as if you may be nearing financial trouble, then it is not a good idea to panic and stress obscenely over your situation. There are places and professional which can help you, and all you will need to do is do some research on websites such as selfcertremortgages.co.uk/bad-credit-remortgages where you will be able to seek professional help, and this could allow you to calm down and reassess your situation in a positive light.

If you feel that your finances could be better, you could also write down all of the expenditures over a month that are necessary and then write down the expenditures which are not necessary. Then, work out whether you could save money on bills such as gas and electric, whether you are buying too much food when shopping (to find this out, take a look in the freezer: is there anything in there which you had forgotten about?) and whether you are being overly generous when socialising or out with the family. Looking after your finances is extremely important not just for the state of the way we live but also with the state of our mental health. Do all you can to keep your finances in check.

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Are You Your Worst Financial Enemy?

March 10th, 2017 Posted in Money Tips
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We all have big financial goals and milestones that we want to reach. The economy may be tough and your job may not be paying as much as you’d like, but often, our worst financial enemy is ourselves. If you want to reach those goals faster, you need to be critical about the way you’re spending. Here, I’ve listed some common wasteful habits that countless people need to drop.

Staying Loyal to Brand Names

With the sheer amount of advertising that we’re bombarded with, it can be easy to believe that brand name products will always give us more for our money, without counting the cost. This is especially true when it comes to clothes shopping, which is covered more in this Yahoo finance article. The next time you do your regular grocery shop, try substituting a few brand names for more generic, affordable products. Yes, the quality may not always be what you’re used to, but you’d be surprised at some of the hidden gems you’ll find.

Regularly Changing your Oil

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Okay, so staying on top of routine car maintenance is a good habit, and can save you a small fortune by avoiding hefty mechanic’s fees. However, if you’re changing the oil in a modern car for every 3,000 miles it clocks, you could be wasting a lot of money. This is because many of the latest cars to come out can run on synthetic oil, which can be good for 8,000 miles or more. Obviously, you should always do your research, and make sure that your car can run on longer-lasting oils and still perform well.

Drinking Bottled Spring Water

If you always make a point of getting your recommended water intake, then great! However, if you always buy bottled water from a store, rather than simply refilling a bottle with tap water, it could mean the difference between spending a few hundred pounds a year or a couple of quid. I’m pretty lucky in that my area’s tap water tastes crisp and clean. I for one can’t tell the difference between the bottles you find in a store’s fridge and the one that I fill up before I leave the house. However, even if your tap water has a twinge of chlorine to it, simply refrigerating it can make a huge difference.

Eating Out

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I’m not saying you can never set foot in a restaurant again. After a lot of hard work, treating yourself to an exquisite meal at a great restaurant is one luxury that you should really make time for. However, eating out should never be a regular habit. If you get used to eating in your favourite restaurants every few days, it can be very hard to break the habit, and it will keep haemorrhaging money. You may not be an expert chef, but cooking good food can be much easier than you’d expect. Furthermore, when you make this one change in your dining habits, the amount you’ll save will encourage you to spend more time in the kitchen, and less looking at menus!

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Ways to Save on Daily Expenditure

March 1st, 2017 Posted in Money Tips
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Ways To Save on Daily Expenditure

Saving money is something that everyone could agree is a good idea. While not everyone has to rub pennies together to get by, a tighter budget might not necessarily be such a bad thing. There are many people who have seen the benefits of making their money stretch a little farther. If this is something that you too are interested in, you can find five quick tips to help you limit your spending without limiting yourself.

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Cut Out The Extras

You might be able to save quite a lot of money just from limiting the areas that are high cost with low usage. A great example of this would be your home phone (landline). It is easy to get caught in an idea that having a landline is great for emergency situations or to limit the use of your cell phone while you are at home. But given that nearly all wireless plans are now offering unlimited minutes for even the most basic of packages, you are adding an unnecessary bill each and every month.

Energy Efficiency

While it is certainly a noble effort to “go green” for the environment’s sake, being energy efficient for your wallet’s sake might inspire you a little bit more. There are a few ways that you can help cut your costs, and subsequent energy consumption.

  • Make sure that all of your windows and doors are sealed properly. Drafts through any season cost you money, as they require either your air conditioner or your furnace to work more than it should have to in providing the ideal temperature you have selected.
  • Ensure that your electronics are not just turned off, but completely unplugged if they are not being used for a while. Even something as simple as a phone charger can draw a lot of energy throughout a month just from being plugged in.
  • Cut your thermostat down a few degrees. A simple change like this could spell big savings for you, even if you have to wear a sweater some of the chilly nights.

Shop Around Online

The internet is a vast marketplace and a plethora of information. When you are utilizing the latter, you should appreciate the simplicity of your shopping experience and take full advantage of your ability to instantly shop around. Some websites are big on competitive pricing, without skimping on the quality of the products they offer, from foods, clothes, hobbies, entertainment, office supplies, home improvement and even travel, a vast choice for wants and needs are offered. A few great examples would be www.tkmaxx.com, www.sportsdirect.com and Glasses Direct. If you combine quality eCommerce experiences like these with the use of promo codes and coupons then you can really see some big savings.

Use Coupons and Price Matching

Printable coupons to use in physical stores are kind of dying out, but it isn’t gone completely yet. So as it stands right now, this is a suitable means of saving money. The trend that is taking over physical retail locations now is price matching, which most of the major stores are doing in an effort to stay competitive and promote customer loyalty. You only need to show your cashier a competitor ad featuring a cheaper price on the product you are buying, and you get it for that rate. It’s simple and it keeps you from having to drive all over town hunting good deals.

Consolidate Your Car Trips

The last point goes directly into the next way that you can save money on a tighter budget, and that is through consolidating your errands into a single trip when possible. You might not live all that far away from your local grocer, but that little bit of gas really will add up quickly when you are making several trips a week. Stock up, plan ahead, and consider all of the things that you need to do and attempt to make those all happen with as little wasted gasoline as possible.

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These are five quick tips (that are really easy to do) that can have you saving money this month. With just a few changes to your routine, and a few minor changes to your life, you can make a tight budget not feel quite so limiting.

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