Nine Ways to Change Your Spending Habits

This is a guest post from the folks over at VoucherCodes.co.uk, a British coupon website. Believe it or not, Own The Dollar is very popular over in the United Kingdom as you can see by a lot of our “Sponsors” on the right side of the blog. To find out how to guest post on Own The Dollar, check out our guest posting guidelines.

With Summer looming and only a few signs of the economic situation improving significantly for ordinary families in the near future, squeezing the most from every penny is more important than ever. Money-saving website VoucherCodes.co.uk has rounded up ten great ways to change your spending habits.

Budget – The foundation on which all money-saving is built. Remove the drudgery from the process with clever new service Kublax, which allows you to see all your accounts in one place and track spending.
Online Discount Codes – Issued by retailers, these codes offer an instant discount at the checkout. Save as much as 50%, get free delivery or a free gift. Sites like VoucherCodes.co.uk gather them together in one place as well as offering exclusives and 2-for-1 restaurant vouchers.
RSS – There’s little worse than hearing about a great deal or sale just after paying full price. Avoid this by using RSS where its available to deliver the latest discounts from your favourite retailers to your reader or iGoogle homepage.
Freecycle – Before reading out to the shops, check out Freecycle first. You can pick up furniture, appliances, toys and more for free. It’s organised by area so it works best in towns and cities but you do have to be quick to snag the best items.
Recycle and Repair – We have lost the art of re-using things, preferring to toss them out and buy new. If something is broken, repair is often much cheaper than replacement. Check out Creative Recycling for some tips on how to find new uses for so-called rubbish.
Newsletters – Sign up to as many as you can, from retailers to money-saving websites and newspapers. This way you can get your hands on exclusive offers and discounts straight to your inbox.
Pay Less for Petrol – Don’t burn money driving around looking for the best deal, log on at GasBuddy for a free comparison of almost 10,000 UK petrol stations. Also available as an iPhone app.
Downshift – There’s often little difference between supermarket brands beyond the packaging. Experiment with switching from premium brands to cheaper versions and watch your grocery bill tumble.
Learn to Cook – Not only are pre-packaged meals more expensive than fresh, learning to cook will allow you to make the best of your leftovers. Did you know a single chicken can feed a family for three meals?