How To Make Small Changes To Save A Lot

This is a collaborative post but all thoughts and opinions are my own

Anyone looking to save money knows about making the big changes and cutting back on spending. But it’s the small things that can also make a difference. But you don’t want to deprive yourself when you’re saving. Don’t cut out every single nice thing in your life otherwise, you’ll begin to grudge saving. And it can also lead you to spiral and spending loads to combat it.

We probably all know the analogy about cutting out the bought coffee which is used to show how small things add up. If not here’s an example of a small change. Say you buy a coffee at £2.50 a day on the way to work. After 4 weeks holiday and a week sickness over a year you work, 37 weeks a year. At 5 days a week that’s 185 days. So you’d spend £462.50 on your daily coffee over a year. That money is enough for a city break away which is crazy.

But there are so many other little things you can tweak to save big in the long run. Here are some of my favourites.

Don’t always buy new when you don’t need to

Whenever we need anything we always think about buying new items. But this doesn’t always need to be the case. For example, if your car breaks down but you need it for travelling to work every day you may be tempted to invest in a new car. But the hefty initial price tag or financial ties of monthly payments can be off-putting. Used cars from Fords of Windsford mean you can get a good quality car but save money.

We’ve all heard the saying that a car loses value as soon as you drive it out of the dealership. And that’s so true, so why spend the money when you can get a great used car. When I bought my Renault in 2017 in hindsight I wish I got a used car, as it’s dropped in value so much now.

Examine your streaming costs

Most of us will have subscriptions to more than one streaming device. Between me and Luke we have Netflix, Now TV, and Spotify. And we both have Amazon Prime. We decided we didn’t need them all so have cut out Now TV which is saving us £12.98 a month (movie and entertainment package). Just by cutting this out we’ll save £155.76 in a year.

It’s worth seeing how much you use the streaming services, or see which ones you can combine with others. For example, we have a family Spotify account now so five people can have access at just £9.99 a month. Compared to it being £4.99 per person which saves £14.96 a month if split between five people.

Budget yourself for meals out

Going out can be where some of us spend a lot of money. I don’t like saying no to meeting up with friends and would try to never cancel due to money. But there are ways you save money when you do go out.

If you’re like me then you’re a full 3-course kinda gal (I do love my food). But 3 courses of food and drinks can be quite pricey so try cutting out one of them. Say you go out once a week and an average starter or dessert is £5, you can save £260 a year just by doing this. Some of us won’t go out for a meal every single week but then everything creeps up at once. So you may not go out for 3 weeks and then bam 3 things happen within a week of each other. You have a friend’s birthday, colleagues leaving do and a family reunion in one go.

You can also cut out alcohol when you go out. Not only does this mean that you may be able to drive and not pay for an uber/ train home (even more savings!) But you can save money by going for water, or a soft drink. If you swap two glasses of wine at £10 for a diet-coke at £2.50 each week then in a year that’s another £390. See how it’s all creeping up!?

Take lunch to work

Now I’ve generally always made my own lunches, other than the odd rogue day when I just want canteen food. But Luke didn’t until we started to live together. As someone who has a physical job that can have quite long hours, he’d generally spend a tenner a day on food and drink. It’s easy to do. You go to a cafe and get full English, extra toast and a drink. Then a drink to take with you and bam.

As Luke is self-employed he doesn’t get paid for any holiday he takes. So he only takes days off when he really needs to. And he works some weekends. So he might work 260 days in a year which would mean a whopping £2,600 spent on lunch food.

Now I buy packed lunch food and a weekly shop for lunches and squash for drinks costs about £12. This means in a year we could have saved £1,976 which is incredible. Of course some weeks he might have a treat breakfast, which is fine but those figure differences are amazing.

How to make small changes to save a lot

I’m not here to tell you how to spend your money and what to cut out. You need to do that yourself but remember the little changes all add up. But we do need to still have some things non-essential to keep us on the straight and narrow.

I still buy clothes each month, but I try to set my budget and only keep things I know I’ll get loads of wear from. I still buy books but I try to get them through swap groups on Facebook so it only costs postage or a few pounds. And we do still go out for the old meal but we try and plan these so we can work within our budgets.

The changes you make are up to you but anything you do can help your savings goals.

Have you made any small changes to save money?

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