A SMART saver is on track to save £5,391 a year with a few simple changes, and it couldn’t be easier.
Sioned Jones, 25 and living in London, has shared how a few easy changes have knocked thousands off her spending.
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As many of us are finding it hard to make ends meet, Sioned wanted to challenge herself to see if making a few better choices could help her save money – and they’re all sustainable too.
Sioned implanted changes like:
- Using up all of her food in the fridge before buying more
- Making use of food waste apps and other secondhand platforms
- Cycling to work and other places as much as she could
- Reducing how many washes she would usually put on a week
Sioned kept a money diary, tracking all of her spending and working out how much she had saved.
In the first week of making changes, Sioned saved £107.28 and on the second week £64.93.
In the third week, she managed to save £138.85.
It shows that things can change from week to week depending on what you’re able to cut back on.
The average across all three weeks comes to £103.85 and based on this, Sioned is on track to save £5,391 over one year.
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She’s a member of Virgin Media O2’s Youth Advisory Council which helps companies think about how they could be more sustainable.
Think about all aspects of your life
The first thing Sioned did was look at all areas of her life and think about where she could save money.
For example, Sioned has been a vegetarian for years, which is often a much cheaper way to shop.
A study from Oxford University found shoppers cut a third off their supermarket spending a year by cutting out meat and fish.
While even just cutting meat and fish out of your diet for a few days a week could cut your bill by 14%.
More recently Sioned looked at how she could save even more money with her food.
She goes to the reduced section first or looks for food with reduced labels on them.
She began using apps like Too Good to Go, which provides bundles from cafes and shops to customers of food that they’ll no longer be able to sell.
For example, one day Sioned picked up a bag from Chapter Coffee Roaster for £9, which may seem hefty but it saved her £7.76 based on her usual spending.
She received bread, sandwiches and pastries – enough for dinner that evening and lunch and snacks over the next few days.
One cheese and tomato croissant from this cafe costs you £5.
Shops like Nisa and Sainsbury’s as well as cafes such as Starbucks and Costa Coffee offer bags at the end of each day.
Eagle-eyed shoppers can get bags for as little as £3.99 filled with sandwiches, cakes and more.
It’s at a discounted price and shoppers are often given a whole host of products they can use over the following days.
She told The Sun: “Now, I’m very cautious of trying to eat all of the food that I buy.”
Look at what you can do in the home
Another way Sioned looked at her spending was by reducing the amount of washing she did.
“You don’t need to do as much as maybe you think. Try and keep laundry to a minimum, we don’t have a dryer in the house.
“Instead of turning the heating on during the winter, I have a huge hot water bottle that I have on me when I’m sat on the sofa.”
The average hot water bottle has a capacity of 1.5 litres, or six cups, and will stay warm for hours.
But you will need energy to heat that water up in the first place.
Boiling a 3kW (kilowatt) kettle for a total of 10 minutes over the course of a week would cost almost 17p.
Over a year, this mounts up to almost £9.
Estimates from Which? found that running a 2kWh oil filled radiator costs around 68p an hour to run.
While recent figures from CheckaTrade show that the average cost of running your heating per hour is 11.51p per kilowatt-hour.
This means that if you have a 24 kW boiler, it might cost you £2.76 an hour.
If you leave the heating on for a few hours a day then you’ll very quickly spend well over £9.
Sioned cut back on her washes by 50% and now puts on one a week.
Of course, whether this is doable, depends on the number of people in your house and sometimes it isn’t possible to do so little.
If you do have to put several washes on a week, you could put them on at certain times to cut your bill down.
She lives with three other people and they split the bills which can turn out to be cheaper than what other people are paying.
You could save money depending on what tariff you’re on and if your energy supplier charges more or less for your electricity at different times of the day.
The most expensive time to wash your clothes is between 4pm and 7pm.
You could save cash if you’re on an Economy 7 or off-peak tariff by putting your load on during less busy times of the day.
Martin Lewis said, for those on eco tariffs, the cheapest rates are usually available between 11pm and 8am.
Go with the ‘don’t buy it’ option first
One of the main things Sioned said has helped her save money is to go with the mantra of not buying anything at all first.
So if she needs a new dress, she’ll ask friends or if she needs to fix something, she’ll try and do it herself.
Then, she goes from there to try and make it as cheap as possible for herself.
For example, her and her housemates bulk buy things like washing up liquid and other essentials.
This week, she saved £5.77 by buying a large bottle of washing up liquid which she can fill a 250ml bottle of Fairy Liquid 20 times.
She said: “If you can use what you have first, if it’s an outfit for a special occasion then borrow it if you can.”
“If you have to buy it, then try from a charity shop or reselling app first
“Then if that doesn’t work, buy it new.”
For example, a zip on one of Sioned’s jeans broke and became unwearable.
As Sioned felt a zip was too much for her sewing expertise, she decided to pay a tailor to fix it.
This cost her £15, instead of £30 for a new pair of jeans and while she’s spent money, she still saved (and has been sustainable).
Just go for it, but don’t put pressure on yourself
Sioned explained that it’s important people don’t much too much pressure on themselves to make a load of changes at once.
“I always find the changes I find easiest to make are the ones that improve my life in some way,” she said.
“See what you’re buying, consuming.
“Look to see if you can change one thing. See if that saves you money – go from there.
“Just pick something, one thing and see if it works.”
Another way Sioned saves money is by cycling to work, but she’s very aware not everyone can do this.
She was able to buy a bike through a Cycle to Work scheme through her employer and now saves roughly £63.61 a week by avoiding public transport and taxis.
Employees can purchase a bike through work and pay it back via their salary each month.
Sioned pays £59 every month for hers and while that seems like a chunky amount, it’s much cheaper than £63.61 a week of buses and trains.
If Sioned spends £63.61 each week on transport, she’d save £195.44 a month by paying for her bike through work.
Of course, it’s important to note that it’s not possible for everyone.
Sioned said it’s really important to not be hard on yourself if you can’t make one of these changes – what might work for one person won’t for someone else.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected]
