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THE FINANCIAL PORTAL'S MONEY
SAVING TIPS
Food,
Clothing and Personal Hygiene
Make
a shopping list and stick to it. Plan your meals ahead of
time. If you go shopping,
knowing what you’ll be making, it will help keep you from
making the extra purchases that aren’t needed. Compare
prices of the different stores and look
for the specials. Buy in bulk. This works especially well with
regular necessities such as breakfast cereal, washing
powder, toilet paper, and other items you go through
regularly. If the price is right, pick up an extra pack
since it could be another month before they go on sale again.
Forget about the designer labels. Cut down on take-aways
or eating out at restaurants. Take your own lunch to
work/school. Freeze food; don’t waste it.
House
& Home Cleaning and Maintenance
Reduce water
heating costs: Install solar water heating panels. Install a
timer on your geyser. Insulate your geyser. Unplug or turn off
TV's, hi-fi's, computers, appliances and lights not in use.
Choose the right appliance for the job and save: an electric
kettle uses about a third less energy than a stove-top
kettle; a small table-top grill uses up to half the energy
of a conventional electric oven; a pressure cooker uses half
the energy of a regular pot. An electric slow cooker makes
soups a stews using much less wattage than a stove pr an
oven. Boil only enough water in your kettle to make that one
cup of coffee. Buy energy-efficient light bulbs. Recycle water. Do your own
repairs and maintenance and save.
For more
tips on saving electricity go to
Eskom's Conserving Electricity.
Transport
Get rid of the
four-wheel vehicle. Join a lift club. Service your vehicle
at regular intervals. Avoid driving with under-inflated
tyres as low tyre pressure not only increases consumption,
but also reduces tyre life. Avoid stop-start driving.
Accelerate slowly. Don’t speed. The faster you drive the
more fuel you use.
Holiday
and leisure
Join your
local library. Cancel your gym membership, exercise at home.
Stay over at self-catering accommodation. Go camping. Travel
by train. Send
the kids to grandma during school holidays. Run searches for
airfare, hotels and car rentals through
Travelstart
and it will point you to the best deal.
Family
Planning
Save
money by doing proper
family planning and practicing
birth control.
Can You
Afford to Have Kids? Cost
of Raising a Child Calculator
If
you considered only the financial implications of having
children, you might end up childless. There's no two ways
about it: having a child is very expensive. Financial
experts say a home is the biggest investment most people
will ever make, but they're forgetting about the cost of
raising children, which far exceeds the average home price
in the US.
Read more...
Sources:
Financial
Services Board Consumer Education ; Personal Finance
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