You like to save money right? Well you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t, but do you realise how much money you are losing when you shop? It’s a good job we are here to help! Our hints and tips below will help you save money without costing you time.
How not doing simple checks cost you £’s
So you want to buy something, say a kettle. You know which you want after your research, but where do you buy from? If you don’t compare prices you could be needlessly spending more than you need to.
Do you pay for convenience, sometimes delivery time can trump cost, people pay more to have something come next day, but some retailers are cheaper, you just have to wait longer for delivery. Unless you need something urgently why not wait a few days and save money.
Do you just head straight to retailers, what about auction sites such as eBay, Gumtree or Shpock, you never know what you might find, someone might be looking to off load the some kettle you want and in nearly new condition. Save even more by keeping an eye on Free Cycling sites or even Facebook groups.
Which retailers are raking it in?
So retailers do rely on the laziness of their customers, how do you think some of the biggest brands make so much money? Those that own our high street fashion brands are raking it in. The likes of H&M Group their net income for 2015/16 was £1.7 billion, Inditex who own the likes of Zara and Massimo Dutti had a net worth of £903 million. That’s a lot of clothes, and that’s a lot of your hard earned money.
In an ideal world they don’t want you to source the best deal, look for voucher codes or cash back offers or only wait till the sales. They want you to buy impulsively without researching to get the best deal. It means you spend more, they make more but really you the consumer are the loser.
What you can do to save money
First the best thing to do is either use shopping comparison site or simply Google shopping to find the places which sell what you’re looking for, for the cheapest price. From these sites you also want to check delivery costs, sometimes somewhere will be cheaper but delivery puts the cost up, somewhere might not be the cheapest but have free delivery.
Once you’ve considered the cost its useful to look for money off discount codes, many of the big online retailers will at some point of the month have money off voucher codes that can be used, ASOS for example will have them, which is great because they also sell a number of branded retailers merchandise, which means if that particular retailer website doesn’t have an offer on, ASOS may, so check out My Voucher Codes to see what savings are available.
As well as getting discounts when shopping, make sure you make the most of cash back offers, these have become popular in recent years as loyalty cards have seen a shift in rewards. Sign up to cashback sites, when you shop via these you can get actual money back. Also many bank accounts and even credit cards now offer cash back. But with credit cards remember to pay it off on time otherwise it’s not really a saving.