Every month I’m keeping not just a spending diary, but also a saving diary. Here’s February’s update.
As expected, savings this this month don’t compete with January’s total of £1421. But at the same time my spending was far more normal (and therefore less!). No big purchases meant no massive savings, yet the percentage saved is pretty good.
From a total spend of £1305.25, I’m£582.95 better off than I would have been without using the tips and tricks we write about in Be Clever With Your Cash. My total spend would have been £1888.20, so that’s a massive 31% saved.
READ THE SAVE-OMETER INTRO BLOG TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW THE SAVE-OMETER CHALLENGE WORKS
As it’s mainly little things adding up, here are some of the highlights savings.
Freebies
This month was great for freebies (read our Real Deal section to find the latest). Just through signing up for a month’s trial to The Sun+, I received £9.50 in rail vouchers and £20 in supermarket vouchers. I also received another £14.50 in rail vouchers, a £9.99 Sky Sports day pass and The Observer each Sunday for nothing. A total of £67.19 of useful vouchers cost me nothing, with more on their way for next month.
Supermarkets
I paid a whopping 44% less this month. Some big special offers and the odd coupon mean I saved £84.58 on all groceries, spending only £109.80. Of course it’s easy to get carried away and just buy things because they are on offer, but pretty much everything was something we needed. I did get carried away on condiments in a 99p shop for though!
A Cheap Night Out
Last Friday a group of us went to see the comedian Mark Thomas at the Leicester Square Theatre. Buying tickets in advance at the box office rather than online meant we avoided booking fees (read our 6 Ways To Save On Gig article for more tips). It’s been a while since I’ve been to a good old fashioned Indie club, so we carried on and hit one of the less dingy ones in Central London. Getting a flyer saved us on door entry and they had some great promotions on drinks, half the price of what you’d expect elsewhere. But the biggest saving of the night was using the app Hotel Tonight which gives discounted last minute hotels. Various offers had given me £55 free credit, so on the day I checked and was able to use it on a decent budget hotel, leaving me just £4 to pay and no need to get a expensive taxi to Zone 4. All in, that night could have cost me £80 more than it did.
So running total so far
January 2014: Value Of Spend £3817.86 / Actual Spend £2401.21 / Saved £1416.65 (37%)
February 2014: Value Of Spend £1888.20 / Actual Spend £1305.25 / Saved £582.95 (31%)
All of 2014 So Far: Value Of Spend £5706.06 / Actual Spend £3706.46 / Saved £1999.60 (35%)