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Top 10 spending tips
Get to grips with basic money skills and you can boost your income by thousands of pounds every year. Whatever your financial aspirations, getting the basics right will make it much easier to realise your dreams. Here are our top Stock up on 'buy-one, get-one free' style offers when it's a product you use frequently. Take advantage of the January sales to buy your Christmas cards, wrapping paper and decorations. Buy your contact lenses online. There are several discount lens distributors, including supermarkets, where lenses can cost less than two-thirds of the price you'd pay at high street opticians. Book train tickets as early as possible to take advantage of any special deals. Buying two single tickets for one train journey can often be cheaper than purchasing a return. Use 'shop bots' like kelkoo.co.uk to find the lowest web prices on everything from a new TV, books and CDs to flights and hotel rooms. Forget petrol station loyalty - use petrolprices.com to find out where the cheapest forecourts are in your area. Alvin's tips on how to get some good money habits Financial guru Alvin Hall regularly appears on television and radio with his no-nonsense approach to managing money. Here are his tips on how to spend less. Always deduct the amount (15% of your salary is a good target) you will deposit into your savings or investment account as soon as you get paid. Then tailor your spending to the amount you have left. This is the equivalent of paying yourself first, one of the most sage pieces of advice for wealth-building. Try to live on 75% to 85% of the money you earn. When you are young and just getting started, 90% is a good target. This not only makes saving easier, it helps keeps your discretionary spending in check. Credit cards are part of our lives and can provide added value like consumer protection when you book a trip, for example. Learn to use your credit card prudently by charging only what you can pay off in full each month. If you occasionally have to charge more than that amount, stop using the card until the bill has been totally paid off. It's best to give yourself a fixed deadline. And if you are going to have credit cards, limit yourself to no more than two. As soon as people get a few thousand pounds in the bank, they want to try to turn it into tens of thousands as soon as possible. This often leads them to make dodgy investments in shares and property. Always determine how much money you're willing to lose before you invest. If you don't want to lose anything, keep your money in the bank and let compound interest work for you over the long term.
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