5 Ways to Save Yourself £45K Over The Next 10 Years
admin • May 14, 2020
Do you fancy saving £45,000 over the next 10 years? Thought so! With some simple changes you can avoid these five simple spending mistakes and cut your monthly spend by £125 a month!
- Why pay more to drink out?
Walk into any local bar or restaurant and you can easily expect to pay £4 for a pint of lager or £4.50 for a glass of wine. Just three drinks every Friday night will cost you £54 per month! So why not take turns to visit a friend’s house each week with a bottle of wine or 4 bottles of beer. You’ll still get social time but for a fraction of the cost!
Cost of drinking in pub: £54/month
Cost of drinking at home: £20/month
Saving over 10 years: £2,880
- Paying to access your own cash? No thank you!
Many Link machines will charge a cash point transaction fee of £1.75 each time you want to take cash out – they rely on our urgency for cash and people thinking ‘I’ll pay the fee just this once’. But for the sake of a few extra minutes’ walk there is usually a free cash machine nearby. Alternatively many supermarkets, shops and bars can offer cash back.
Cost of four cash withdrawals: £7/month
Cost of bank withdrawals: £0/month
Saving over 10 years: £840
- Meals that quickly ‘take-away’ cash from your wallet
The study back in 2013 found that an average of 12 takeaways were purchased per person per month. Chinese food took over Fish and chips as the nation’s favourite takeaway but you can easily recreate your own Chinese meals at a fraction of the cost by purchasing meat, veg, and sauce. Plus the great thing with wok cooking is that you can use all kinds of leftover food to avoid it going to waste!
Cost of 12 takeaways: £110/month
Cost of buying fresh meat and veg: £72/month
Saving over 10 years: £4,560
- The sky’s the limit with online viewing
Do you pay a premium for TV packages? It’s a lot of extra money per month especially when there is so much choice on the market now. If you are used to a wide choice of the channels it can be quite daunting to cancel the package and go for a cheaper option, but you’ll soon find that there are lots of options out there such as Netflix, 4 on demand, YouTube and channel based websites. Many TV’s come with free view and catch-up TV now, or you can purchase Now TV for just £24.99.
Compare this to the complete sky bundle (with movies and sport channels) which currently costs £75.75/month!
Even if you are worried about missing your favourite TV series because it was on a channel you cancelled then you can usually pick up a box set for under £20 or download it online through iTunes or Amazon.
Cost of Sky package: £75.75/month
Cost of Netflix and 1 box set: £26.99/month
Saving over 10 years: £5,851.20
- Stop your cash going up in smoke
Smokers can waste thousands of pounds every year through high priced insurances and the cost of purchasing cigarette packs. A person who smokes 10 cigarettes a day will spend nearly £25 every week on cigarettes. This is based on the average £6/pack, so buying from machines can increase this cost even further.
It can also cost you in other areas too. According to Confused.com, premiums for life insurance can cost a third more for a 30-year-old smoker and up to twice as much for a smoker aged 50….and if you bend the truth about being a smoker you won’t be entitled to a pay out at all so that’s even more money wasted!
Cost of cigarettes: £100/month
Additional cost of insurances: £20/month
Saving over 10 years: £14,400
Remember 118 118 Money are here to help. We’re full of tips and hints to help you achieve a healthier financial future. Have you got your own money saving tip that’s worth its weight in gold? If so let us know! We’d love to hear about it.