These are trying times, with a pandemic sweeping the nation and many people being made redundant or on temporary leave, it is stressful to consider that your piggy bank may run dry sometime soon. However, it is important to consider ways of saving those few pennies up for yourself, your family, or perhaps your friends. Here are a number of ways that have helped me keep my finances in check and may allow you to understand ways you can go about saving money whilst keeping environmentally friendly.
The idea of a circular economy is not well known in this age of excess but this is both a way of reducing those extra niggling costs whilst also giving back to the community and helping the environment. Swapabee is a service which allows you to swap your items for someone else’s. Swap a video game for another, a book, or perhaps something a little larger. This will help shift those hard-to-move items whilst giving someone good benefit for what you are offering. We need a sense of community at the moment, and this helps both satisfy your charitable nature along with keeping an eye on the purse.
Expenditure Tracking
Many apps are dedicated to tracking your spending. Just like installing a smart meter to measure your house’s expenses, downloading apps such as Cleo (which was voted the Best Money App of 2019) allow you to measure your personal expenses. Knowing when and where you spend the most and waste the most is an important start to revamping your life to better suit your now financially diminished lifestyle. Going digital with your spending also allows you to stop paper delivery of your credit statements as you can get free and quick updates to your very phone without wasting piles of paper and the postman’s time. With a rating of 4.8/5 on the Google Play and App Store, it’s no wonder this App has been adopted wholeheartedly by many around the world.
Reusable Bottles
We are in an extraordinary country that offers clean and fresh water at the nearest available tap. Using that to your advantage is important, both for not wasting money on plastics you don’t need, as well as helping the environment with its plastic consumption. Getting a reusable bottle and carrying it on your person as much as you can is both an easy way to save on plastic alternatives as well as keeping you hydrated throughout the day. This does not have to be limited to just reusable bottles, however. A variety of miscellaneous material such as bags can be replaced with reusable substitutes as every little help.
Bulk Buying
Buying in bulk involves purchasing a large quantity of a particular product (usually at a discount) and is a great way of reducing your spending on foods and snacks. Places like Tesco or Aldi offer large bags of dried pasta for a steal of a price that keeps for months after. This is both handy for lowering your costs whilst also using less wasteful packaging.
Blankets and Jumpers
Stock up on blankets and beat that winter cold. Heating is required next to every time of the year in this country, usually in summer as well, but you can’t easily measure how much heating you are spending your hard-earned pounds on every day. Many factors need to be considered from the direction that your house is facing for the sun to be most optimally sunny to the level of quality insulation you’ve had fitted in the roofing but blankets (or jumpers) can be very much measured. Getting a bunch of blankets or other physical sources of warmth can reduce the amount of heating you use and minimize your energy output (if you pay by amount) you will see savings every month that you have thanks to investing in just a few blankets, and they are great for cuddling up with a nice warm hot chocolate as well.
Although these are just a few of many ways you can both save money and be environmentally friendly these are far the easiest to commit to and will support your local and countrywide community in a time when we all need support.
