You don’t have to be a math expert to get your finances in order. Just a bit of effort to find out best deals on personal loans, savings accounts, credit card charges and utility bills can yield big rewards and make more of your money. So take some time and get smart with your savings.
Saving money has become the bigger priority than spending time with family these days because of the huge financial squeeze in the current economy.
In a survey, about two thirds of those surveyed replied that they hoped to save more by changing their priorities, sacrificing things or changing their life style. The top priorities in the list were home improvements and holiday spending.
However, the savings market is filled with drawbacks such as short term big headline bonus rates accounts and gimmicks to mask a low interest rate. Most often, people end up thinking that there is no point in switching their accounts because there won’t be big savings. But a survey on this subject shows there are huge improvements to be made by switching savings accounts and staying up-to-date with the changing interest rates.
Switching is often considered a smart move to save money. It always saves consumers money with best deals and providers. For those who have never tried to look at best deals or never switched before and are staying on standard tariffs gain up to £389 the first year.
Comparison sites such as uSwitch offer a service to find you the best deal if you can post your latest bill. Richard, a solicitor, 45, who is married to Helen and has two kids, Tom and Lewis, has recently switched to dual-fuel deal online with Eon to a fixed tariff with Scottish power. They expect to save a good £110 over the period until April 2013.
Although there is a risk factor in fixed rate prices as they could fall this year, it gives a peace of mind of getting into a deal without worrying about rising prices.
Times are challenging, with a recession squeeze on wages and rising bills. But small changes can bring in good savings like Sasha Kennedy has found. She is a single parent with two children aged 1.8 and six months. It is not an easy task to cut back on her weekly supermarket bill. Her weekly shopping bill comes to about £95 including baby nappies and milk bottles if she shops at Morrisons or Sainsbury. But she switched to cheaper supermarket such as Aldi and Lidl that saved her £11 in her weekly budget. Also, she searched for best deals and started saving through high yield savings deposit accounts so she can have a good sleep at nights without worrying about future.
Germany’s Lidl launched in 1994 in Britain has 580 stores, and Aldi launched in 1990 has about 440 stores all over Britain. With the recession economy blowing the country, these stores were the big winners.
With the competitive ‘super discount sales, they further increased their market share in the last year. And the same is expected this year too. However, it doesn’t appeal to everyone to shop in a discounted store. These stores are usually on business parks or busy industrial parks with fewer tills and typically long queues at weekends.
However, according to another survey by a comparison company, Waitrose was found to be top for customer satisfaction followed by Aldi and Lidl standing on decent second and third positions beating the big supermarkets, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, the Marks & Spencer Food and the Co-op.
Delin, a content writer, works 9 to 5. He started saving money and has managed to buy a home, a good new car and maintain a decent bank balance. He was quite pleased with his savings and thought to put his ideas into words so people will learn how to make more of their money. He is not a big math expert or have a great brain, but focusing on simple things made it easier for him to save money and achieve big targets.