Posted on 25 Mar, 2009 -
What would you do if you found money in a phone box?
17 creative, intelligent and innovative ways of saving money (that you probably won’t have read elsewhere)
Plus: How the tiniest change in your environment can change your personality for the day
This week’s email is in two very different parts which I will attempt to connect, however, with the help of nothing more than the tinniest silver coin. (Drum roll, please.)
In a moment I will regale you with a list of bright, intelligent, creative and fun ways of spending less, saving money, or spending your money well.
First, however, I did want to share an interesting idea that I came across yesterday which shows just how whimsically our moods, morals and actions can be influenced by the tiniest of details.
How our moods can turn on a sixpence because of the tiniest detail
In an experiment carried out by researchers in America, unwitting subjects who found a dime placed in a phone box were far more ready to help someone pick up dropped papers afterwards than those who hadn’t had that tiny bit of good luck. In a similar experiments, people’s willingness to help others was quite significantly influenced by whether they were standing outside a pleasant-smelling bakery or a hardware shop.
The interesting thing about this for us, I feel, is the realisation that our moods and morality can be so susceptible to tiny factors of events, place or situation. On the individual level, we can use this information, for example, to ensure that our moods and personality are positively influenced for the better. Feeling a little glum? Then look around for your ‘tiny bit of good luck’. Or just sniff a danish pastry or a bar of rose soap!
On a social and political level, it will pay us all to be aware to what extent a person’s character is influenced by whether nice things happen to them, the smell in their bathroom or the quality of their ketchup…
How to feel more lucky about money these days
(Drum roll, please as I attempt to connect this deep thinking to the second part of my email....).
See a penny and pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck… Ah, now I understand the saying!
Yet how many people can honestly say we’re feeling lucky yet alone positive about money these days?
Fear, dread, uncertainty or at least the need to be ‘careful’ are the more common emotions regarding money at the moment.
Now, I do not of course have some magic wand that will give you that lottery win to take away all your worries (although my 4-year old daughter is completely convinced that the wooden chopstick her friend gave her is a real Light Sabor). And of course it wouldn’t really leave you free of worries even if you did win the lottery because that would bring you worries too.
But what I have collected for you today are a few simple tips and methods to help you ride the times a little easier and actually get pleasure from smarter spending and saving.
Many of these really can save you money even when you thought you had none to save!:
1. The most important step to take before attempting to cut back your spending. If you’re serious about learning how to cut back your outgoings, the first thing you must do is spend a month writing down every last detail of everything you spend. Only when you have a full picture of where your money goes can you make good decisions about the smartest things to eliminate.
2. Try to create an emergency fund. Having say £300 tucked away in a designated ‘unexpected bill’ or ‘nasty shock’ fund, for example, can help relieve you of at least some of the anxiety and lessen the pain when the inevitable shock if a broken washing machine of failed MOT arrive. Of course, the more money you can squirrel away, the safer you may feel.
3. When bargain-hunting can actually cost you more. You may feel that you’re being thrifty by shopping at a car boot sale, pound shop or ‘designer discount sale’. What often ends up happening, however, is that you buy things you don’t need or wouldn’t have bought if it wasn’t cheap.
4. Whenever shopping, follow the ‘measure twice, cut once’ rule. Don’t throw anything into your shopping basket unless you’ve really double checked whether you really need it - or will really like it once you’ve bought it if it’s a pleasure purchase. Most people will think for a long time about buying a car or a house. Most people spend little time thinking about expenses that come up every day. Yet it’s the little expenses that matter most.
5. Wash your hands in COLD water. “Sounds awful? Then think about it: you probably already do, but you do it under the HOT tap, turning it off before you get hot water. But you have wasted the hot water that was drawn from the cylinder and which will then go cold in the pipes while the heater works to heat up the new cold water which filled the cylinder.” From ‘The Penny Pincher’s Book Revisited’ by John and Irma Mustoe.
6. Drive at the right speed. Driving at 60mph instead of 70mph or 80mph is not only safer, it can also cut your fuel costs by as much as 15%. You may also be able to cut your fuel costs by an extra 10% just by cutting one journey a week. (Yes, you’ve probably heard this one before, but how many of us actually do it?)
7. Read newspapers online. Most of them are free so this could save you a lot of money. As a lot of newspaper content is just fillers anyway, you’ll be saving yourself time to do something more worthwhile as well.
8. If you do read newspapers, turn them into papier mache and get creative. You’ll be amazed by what you can make from it - from jewelry, vases, bowls, masks and pinatas to sellable art work and furniture. Look up recipes and ideas online.
9. “Buy it cheaper, make it last longer, use it less.” Wise words from The Tightwad Gazette but what exactly does it mean in practice? Whether it’s something small like a lipstick or big like a washing machine or car, there are always cheaper options for the purchase and ways of making it last longer. Do our clothes, for example, need to be washed as much as they are? Clothes brushes are great ways of removing dirt and will also prolong the life of your washing machine and clothes. The longer you make things last, the less often you will have to re-purchase. Follow this rule across all your purchases and you will save a fortune.
10. Before throwing anything out, ask if it, or just part of it could be recycled. The Mustoes’ Penny Pincher’s book, for example, suggests keeping zips that still work that might prolong the life of something else. Ripped sheets or duvet covers can be made into smaller covers or pillow cases. Get together a collection of old door and drawer knobs and mount them on a plank of wood to make a beautiful coat rack. They even say you can melt down old crayons and set them in interesting moulds!
11. Take advantage of free offers whether you feel you need them or not. If you can get free trips to the swimming pool by collecting tokens from your cereal packets, for example, then do it. Imagine all those £5s you save floating off to a special fund that will one day mean you wake up to realise you’re richer than you thought.
12. “Turn off the television” says the website, The Simple Dollar. You will save yourself money in several different ways. Not only will you save money on electricity but you will also get “less exposure to guilt-inducing ads, more time to focus on other things in life”. You can also use the time you’d normally spend watching telly to get creative with recycling, make your own things, do some DIY or even earn some extra cash.
13. Also from the Simple Dollar website: Buy a slow cooker (crock pot in the US). “A crock pot is perhaps the best deal on earth for reducing cooking costs in a busy family. You can just dump in your ingredients before work, put it on simmer, and dinner is done when you get home. There are countless recipes out there for all variety of foods, and every time you cook this way, you’re saving money as compared to eating out.”
14. Carry out regular maintenance on electrical equipment by following suggestions from the guide it came with. We discovered recently, for example, that our tumble dryer was taking so long to dry because we hadn’t washed the condensing unit. All equipment will work more efficiently and live longer if you look after it, keep it clean and clear it of dust.
15. Encourage your friends to do less expensive activities. If you find yourself spending money doing things like eating out because that is what your friends want to do, try being the first one to suggest an activity so that you can do something less expensive - and potentially more fun.
16. Be grateful about luxuries you don’t have. Conservatories, for example, may sound like a wonderful treat but they are normally too hot to sit in during the summer. A yachtsman once said that a boat was “a hole in the water into which you pour your money’. Most trappings of wealth - and indeed, wealth itself -comes with a downside.
17. Don’t beat yourself up when you make a mistake, waste some money or buy something wrong. We all make mistakes and if you only make one for every ten good moves you make then you are doing brilliantly! What’s more, if you make a mistake and realise it, you can avoid that mistake in the future.
Happy penny pinching. And happy living.
