When you are a parent that has to provide for a family with only one income instead of two, things can be difficult. You need to think carefully about every purchase and there can be no impulsive spending. On top of that in order to not waste money you need to plan out your monthly income and expenditure down to a minute level.
This can be a tough skill to master when you have children constantly asking for things. Needless to say anything you can do to reduce financial pressure if you’re in this situation is beneficial.
Shopping for groceries at the right time
Supermarkets go through a lot of food waste, with products expiring before they can be sold. For this reason they now go through their stock on a daily basis and apply heavy discounts to salvage some revenue before the goods are unsalable. If you shop cleverly and utilise these discounts by freezing food on the day of purchase you can eat for a fraction of the cost.
The trick is to get to the supermarket at the right time; there are no set hours that all supermarkets reduce their goods at. Therefore it’s a case of getting to know when your local establishment does so. Supermarkets will reduce their food in ‘rounds’, with final reductions usually being made around 2-3 hours before closing.
Avoiding unexpected car and home repairs
One of the worst costs that can crop up out of the blue is an unexpected repair to your vehicle. Depending on how old your car is the cost of repairs can range from a small fix to a colossal headache. There is however a way that you can have a set monthly cost, and never have to pay a huge and unexpected bill for car maintenance.
The answer is a car leasing contract with a maintenance package included. If you take out the optional maintenance cover then any accidental damage, repairs and servicing are covered within your monthly cost. This means that you will never be caught out with a large bill, having to drain your savings or worse… take out a loan or credit card payment.
Even worse than your car breaking down is an issue with your home cropping up, as home repairs can far outstretch the cost of getting a car fixed. That is why it’s absolutely essential to have cover for your main appliances such as boiler breakdown cover, white goods cover and of course home insurance.
Just like the maintenance package you can take our on a car deal, these cover options ensure that you never have any unexpected repair bills for a fixed monthly cost. Home insurance is actually a necessity for your mortgage to be valid, so it’s a legal necessity for most people.
Shop around and you can get a great deal by combining your insurance policies.
Switching utility suppliers
A lot of people get into the habit of staying with the same energy supplier(s) year after year. It can be a hassle to switch between them yourself as they try and make it a difficult process. But at the end of the days they are all selling the same power/gas to your home, so you might as well go with the lowest cost option.
Nowadays there are ‘switch teams’ at most suppliers who will take care of the process for you. This means that you don’t have to deal with difficult sales people trying to hard sell you into staying when you try and switch. With this as an option there is no excuse to sit overpaying for your bills month on month.
Even comparing costs is easy with a host of comparison sites which can pull accurate prices in seconds!
Resources:
Compare Gas & Electricity | Energy Comparison – UKPower.co.uk
Business & Personal Car Leasing UK – IntelligentCarLeasing.com