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With the credit crunch having turned into a recession, I’m sure there are many out there that are wishing to cut down on everyday expenses, so here’s my tips for frugal living. However, don’t think that being more frugal is the only way to beat the recession - the optimum strategy to beat the recession is to play a good offence and a good defence. So cut your costs down by following my frugal living tips, but also look to increase your income by following these simple ways to make money online.

Frugal Living Tip # 1

Downgrade to a less expensive supermarket than you usually shop at. In the UK, the conventional wisdom is that the most expensive supermarkets are Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, with the cheapest being the Aldi’s and Lidl’s of this world. So to make a huge saving, stop shopping at M&S and start shopping at Aldi. If you want to make a modest saving and you usually shop at Sainsbury’s, try shopping at Asda or Morrisons for a few weeks - you’ll notice a difference in the price of your shopping and the quality is comparable, in my opinion.

Frugal Living Tip # 2

Take a keen interest in the prices of petrol/diesel at your local garages. The variation in petrol prices can be pretty big, especially if like me, you fill up with premium unleaded (104.9p/litre) by accident. This was a full 10p/litre more expensive at Texaco half a mile down the road than the local Morrisons regular unleaded, which is £4.80 on a 48 litre fill up! But even comparing like for like (ie, regular unleaded with regular unleaded), the variation in price between the supermarkets and other petrol stations, even within a small radius can be quite large. Clearly it’s not worth driving an extra 20 miles just to fill up, but if you’re passing nearby, a slight detour may be worth it if it will save you £2-£3 on a tank.

Frugal Living Tip # 3

Eat in, or if you really must go out for dinner/don’t have time to cook, then get a takeaway. If you order a takeaway, you don’t pay VAT, so immediately you’re saving that 15% that would have been added on, also if you are eating a takeaway, you can buy any booze to go with it cheaply from the supermarket, rather than paying expensive restaurant prices!

Frugal Living Tip # 4

Take sandwiches/packed lunch to work. I find that when I don’t prepare a lunch to go to work, I end up buying rubbish or spending more because I am shopping in more expensive shops than I would do my everyday grocery shopping at. If you make your own lunch each day, you could save £10 - £15 a week, which is a significant saving over the course of a month.

Frugal Living Tip # 5

Examine all your monthly direct debits to see firstly how much you are spending each month and secondly to identify which ones could be switched to cheaper suppliers. I did this recently and found that I was paying £35 a month for a mobile phone contract which supplied me with more texts/minutes than I ever used. I’ve now downgraded to a cheaper deal (with the same supplier) and am saving £15 a month.

I got rid of Sky TV and bought a free to air box, am saving £37 a month that I used to pay to Sky. Clearly if you are a big football fan then this will be painful, but it does give you more excuses to go to the pub - but make sure you only have a squash and don’t spend the money saved on Sky on beer instead!

I wear contact lenses, and couldn’t do without them (I’m as blind as a bat otherwise), so what I did was shop around and find a supplier on the internet that will supply my contact lenses and solutions for £15 a month, compared to my optician that was charging me £33.80 a month.

And of course, it goes without saying that you can switch your home insurance, gas, electricity, water, telephone, broadband - just make sure you are getting a better deal, this can only be calculated by reading the small print of each deal to ensure there will be no hidden surprises!

Lastly, as an ex-mortgage broker, I’m going to recommend that you don’t use your trusty mortgage broker when buying your life insurance or other protection products. Instead, get some quotes from them, this will ensure you get the correct amount of cover for your needs etc etc, but then go and buy from an online broker that strips out the commission (about 30-40% of the monthly premium) and instead charges a small fee (£30-£50) to set the policy up. A company I used was Cavendish Online and they were very efficient.

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