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One of the other pages in this Guide is called 'Where
to Put It' and you can get to it by clicking on the link
in the box. It describes how we can make the most of our money
by putting it in the right places so that it works for us.
The other element of helping our personal finances and
thereby making the most of our money is spending it wisely. The
less we spend on the everyday necessities of life, the more we
will make of it and we will be able to spend more of it on the things that we actually want to do. You might find
that some of the ideas below are definitely not for you, but we
think that if you do some sensible things to spend wisely, you
can help your personal finances by up to £500 a year.
Firstly, there are all sorts of concessions that are
available to us once we reach a certain age. For most things,
the concessions begin at age 60, although there are some
exceptions. So, for example, we all get concessionary travel
(the 'bus pass') at 60, as well as the annual heating allowance,
free prescriptions and free eye tests. You can go to many shops
and stores on certain days and get a reduction (B&Q on
Wednesdays, for example) and many local businesses will give you
a reduction. For a comprehensive review of concessions, go to
our
Guide to Concessions and Discounts. Make sure you are aware
of all the concessions that are available to you and then take
advantage of them. If you go somewhere where you feel that there
ought to be a discount (an attraction, say) and there is not one
advertised, ask, 'What is the discount for the over-60s?'
Probably the biggest single expenditure that is likely to
increase as we get older is heating; the more time we spend at
home, the more we will need the heating on. Therefore, it makes
sense to shop around and get the cheapest utilities that you can
find. Go to one of the price comparison websites, such as
www.saveonyourbills.co.uk or
www.uswitch.com to see if you can get your electricity
and/or gas any cheaper.
Making the Most of our Money links
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The latter site, plus
www.simplyswitch.com , will also give you price comparisons
on other services, too. If you want to save money on items such
as household goods, go to
www.kelkoo.com . You can get price comparisons on hundreds
of items in many different areas of spending.
In terms of heating and utilities in general, there are other
things that we can do, too. Insulation grants are available, we
can use low energy light bulbs, we can turn off the TV rather
than leave it on standby and we could consider a water meter.
There is a rule of thumb that says that if there are fewer
people living in a house than there are bedrooms, it will
probably be cheaper to have a meter.
The above web sites make the concept of 'shopping around'
fairly easy and time-efficient. The concept of shopping around
is a very good one for spending wisely. You can shop on the
internet, looking at individual items, you can go to one or more
of the web sites shown above, you can walk round the
supermarkets to get the best offers in each one or you can use
the telephone. Spending a bit of time can make you significant
savings on your spending.
A good example is when your car or house insurance renewal
comes through the letter box. Most of us, when we're in
full-time work, have very good intentions to shop around and get
it cheaper for the coming year, but very often we never get
round to it. As we get older, and certainly as we go into
retirement, we should have a bit more time to ensure that we
translate our intentions into actions.
for a start, look on
yahoo
finance for comparisons on car and house insurance.
Another area of large expense as we get older is
motoring. Again, there are a number of things that we might do
to alleviate this expense. How about trying one or more of the
following:
- If you have two cars, go down to one, especially if you
and your partner have both retired. you could use a taxi for
those occasions that you both need a car or you could use a
car club if there is one in your area. Go to
www.carplus.org.uk
to find out about car clubs.
- Buy a car with lower emissions - the road tax is cheaper
- Get a car in a lower insurance group - you will pay less
insurance
- Drive a smaller car - you'll get more miles per litre/gallon
- Walk or cycle more, use your bus pass, buy a
senior citizens'
rail card (£20 per annum and then one-third off the
price of all rail journeys) and use the car less
These are some of the major areas in which you might be able
to help your personal finances by spending wisely. There are
countless others (major and minor), some of which are listed
below. Pick the ones that are most applicable to you and start
to save even more money:
- Keep your expenditure under constant review
- Downsize your property
- Take your holidays in the off-peak seasons
- Grow your own produce - or if that's not possible, buy
fresh food and cook from basics
- Bulk buy. You could join with friends and get a card for
Costco or
Makro
- Take a shopping list and only buy what's on the list -
no impulse buying!
- Join the library and borrow books, don't buy them. Or
you could join the online community at
Read
it Swap it and swap books with people.
- Go to charity shops - they can also be good for books,
as well as clothes
- Shop at supermarkets when they are selling produce off
at reduced rates
- Buy and sell on Ebay
- Have a look around car boot sales
- Use direct debits to pay for bills when the company
gives a discount for using DDs
- Pay off credit cards monthly
- Be careful with your use of phones - especially mobiles.
Get other people to ring you!
You will be able to think of others that are applicable to
your own situation. Without living like a trappist monk or
letting it become an obsession, be sensible in your spending and
let your spending patterns become part of the help you give your
personal finances.
There are other strategies for getting the most from your
personal finances. Click on the links in the box to go to the
rest of the Guide.
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