Bish Bash Bosh, How to Save Dosh

Well Hello, and thanks for stopping by. Let’s get right into it. Bish Bash Bosh simply means easy as one two three, and Dosh means money. So re-reading this title you will get ‘How to save money as easy as 1, 2, 3.

According to Andy Webb (Be Clever With Your Cash), there are hundreds of ways that we can save money, we just need to explore them.

In our household, we are always looking for ways to save money, not just for the sake of saving it, but for those times that matter including emergencies, holidays and other long term goals. I’m taking this opportunity to share with you some of these simple ways with the hope that you too can bask in some success. The operative word here is simple. Especially if you don’t already try to save money, I’m going to start you off really simply!

Save on Electricity and Gas

Much money can be saved if we imagine the scene of actual money (notes and coins) taking wings and flying out our windows. We lose money when we pay too much for these bills. Take the chance to save by conserving on energy in the following ways:

• Switch off electrical items when not in use. That includes light switches too.
• Cover saucepans to maintain the heat and lessen cooking times
• Turn down the thermostat even by 1 degree
• Set your heating system on a timer to maximize use and avoiding use when not necessary
• Don’t use your dishwasher if you can avoid it, and if you must use it, do a full load instead of lots of smaller loads.
• When your heating is on, look for ‘holes’ where the heat might be escaping. Plug the holes!
• Be smart with the use of your hob and oven. Think about cooking 2 or more meals at a time and refrigerating or freezing some. Also if you plan to use the oven and the hobs to make a meal, rethink that if possible to see if everything could be made in the oven only or on the hob only. A lot of meals can be frozen when cooked.

 

Keep a Budget

Some might think: what is the point of a budget if all I want to do is to save money? Well read on and I will explain.

There are lots of complicated ways around but there are also simple ways. Find one that works for you. The simplest way I think is to make a simple table with 2 columns. On one side give it a title of ‘money coming in’ (Income) and on the other side ‘what I spend’ (Expenditure). Then list the items in each column. Be as thorough and honest as possible.

Now, what’s the point? A worst-case scenario is that your expenditure exceeds the money you have coming in then you know you are living above your means and you need to find ways of cutting back and actually doing it! If, on the other hand, you have more money coming in than you are spending, good! You need to be saving that money and not squandering it or giving it away. If your income and expenditure are close to each other, good too! Because it means that you have the capacity to save some money, and should!

Meal Planning

If you have not yet heard the virtues of meal planning, then I don’t know where you have been living! It’s amazing and this is one that has saved us a significant amount of money. I’ll just leave a couple of posts here to show you how we have saved. But the basic idea is that you are to plan your meals so that you purposely buy only the things you need to make those meals. That way, you don’t shop unnecessarily and don’t overspend, which will then lead to binning lots of food and reducing your bank balance.

Plan to Save

 

Make a deliberate plan to save each month. There are lots of plans available online that you could follow for some extra motivation. Some encourage you to save like ten pounds in the first month and increase this amount by 2 or 5 or 10 each month. These ideas are all good and I like them for their motivational quality.

However, they have a drawback in that one might be discouraged if you find that you cannot afford the incremental increase sometimes which will be a turn-off. I quite like the idea of saving each and every month regardless of how small. You will know your own personal circumstance and so if £2 is all you can afford to save sometimes, go ahead and save that. You might even want to set up a direct debit from your main account to a savings account just so you don’t have to think about it and it is automatically done each week or month.

Sell on eBay, Amazon, Sphock, Facebook maeketplace etc

These are just some of the sites which are accessible to us where we can sell what we own to make a profit. It’s a good idea to have a ‘spring clean’ every once in a while. Those items which you once loved and used but perhaps not so much anymore can be magically turned into cash which you must save. I have recently used the Marie Kondo method to declutter a couple of rooms in my house. I found so many items which I no longer use or which were doing nothing more than adding clutter to my home! It was truly amazing to see the boxes and bags of stuff which were discovered! Some items were still boxed just the way they were when we moved from our previous house! Shame! Anyway, better late than never!

Mobile phone Deals

Most of us have mobile phones. Most of us don’t shop around for deals but instead continue with the same company who might be ripping us off. Try this next time: A little over a month before your current deal is due to expire, start shopping around for the best possible deal. Some people are afraid to do this because they think they will lose their number. You don’t need to! You can arrange to have your number transferred to your latest deal. Thank me later, and oh yes, remember to save the money you have saved.

Also, if your current phone is in perfect working order, there is no need to take out a new one. Common sense, isn’t it?

Related: It pays to complain

Haggle

This one might see you out of your comfort zone, but trust me on this. Some places are disappointed when you don’t haggle with them. What is haggling? It is the art (some may say Science) of asking a vendor/seller to reduce the price that they are selling an item that you wish to purchase. It is one of my favourite ways and it does take some charisma. Whatever the difference is between what the seller was asking and what you eventually paid, is your savings and that is what you must do with it.

There are lots of other ways to save money. The list here is not exhaustive. I would like to encourage you to make a move on it. All the ways might not suit you, but try a few and find the ones that work best for you. Above all, do remember that when the savings are made, the money is to be actually saved for those essentials we talked about earlier.

Related: 50 tips for savvy shoppers

Happy savings.