Jess's Guide To: Saving Money

After doing a guide to making extra money, I thought I'd do one from the other side of things - saving money. I find it quite difficult to save as there are so many things that I need to pay for (phone bill, travel to work etc.) and most of my money is gone before I can afford to spend on things for myself. However, in August, I used my finance section in my Filofax (you can purchase one yourself here) to work out what I spend my money on. Looking back at it, I realised that a huge amount of money went on bottles of drinks before and after work and lunch during work and travel. I didn't think that spending £1 on a drink would amount to so much, you always think "Oh, it's only cheap it's not like I'm spending loads" but it honestly adds up. So, today I thought I'd help out you all with ways to save your hard earned money and discover ways of treating yourself without blowing your budget.

1. Write down what you spend

Now this won't save you money at first, but when you look back, you can see areas in which it is possible to cut back. For example, for me it was drinks, and now I've started making a drink at home and taking it with me.

Bottle of coke = £1.20 (ish) x 30 = £36 a month = 4 depotted MAC eye shadows (£9 each)

2. Buy from blogsales/ebay

Another man's trash is another man's treasure! There are plenty of things online that you can get at a bargain price, especially if you can't resist buying make up. Look around on blog sales first - I bought a MAC eye shadow and came home to see someone was selling the same one for £5! However, be careful not to over spend simply because it's cheap. Buy what you need, not what is cheap.

Average saving = few pounds per item

3. Book travel online

If you know you need to travel somewhere in advance, book your train tickets online. You can save so much money which you can use on something else. Also, if you'll need to eat/drink on your journey, buy it before you get to the station and definitely don't buy on the train itself! And if you take regular journeys, get yourself a railcard. :)

Average savings = 30% off

4. Avoid shop deals when necessary.

This sounds a bit silly as sometimes deals are perfect, but when you don't need them, you shouldn't use them. For example, if you want a certain nail polish and it's 3 for 2, you end up buying another one for the sake of it when you don't really want one. I've done it so many times when I've ended up buying things I never use just because it was part of a deal.

5. Look on discount websites.

Groupon are amazing for deals, but there are also websites that offer freebies such as Magic Freebies. You can't go wrong with a freebie - plus it might be something you want. There's also other money saving tips on there.

I hope you've enjoyed this post, feel free to leave your money saving tips below!

x

My New Filofax

Filofaxes are everywhere, especially in the 'blogging world'. I've never considered myself to have 'enough of a life' to buy a filofax as I wouldn't have anything to write other than 'school' lol. But now, as I work shifts, I have various appointments, plus a lot of blogging to organise, I decided to get myself a Filofax.

I noticed that WHSmith had a 50% sale on, so I jumped straight on that, and purchased a lovely Filofax reduced from £50 to £20. I ordered this on Thursday 16th June with a big hope that it would arrive before my birthday (18th June). However, this Monday, I noticed a few people had mentioned WHSmith's rubbish delivery service. I looked on my account to see that my order was 'waiting for stock'. No thanks. I immediately cancelled and headed straight to the Filofax website. Please note that I normally love WHSmith, and it seems people have only had problems with ordering Filofaxes and not anything else, so don't give up on them just yet. :) A big thank you to Sofia for highlighting the problem (although she doesn't know that, I read it on her blog)

I ordered the Apex organiser in the Personal size (which is perfect for me - not too big, not too small) and of course I had to get it in Pink. It was dispatched the day after ordering (and I ordered in the evening) and arrived two days later. My filofax cost £26.00 and delivery was £3 something but if you spend £30 you get free delivery, so I bought extra To Do lists (my best friend) and website addresses (which Sophie bought with her filofax and I agree is a great way to keep track of blogs).

I am officially in love with my Filofax, and I can totally justify spending £26.00 as from now on, I only need to buy refills which are cheap. Plus, I spent more than £12 a year on a diary anyway.

I'm now heading back onto their website to find some more things to add to my Filofax - I'm thinking maybe some stickers or even a mirror!