Driving down the cost of living

Back in May, our chairman Andrew Gray looked at “The real cost of running your car?” (Tuesday 20 May) with the astonishing result that it could cost up to almost £1.14 per mile! One clear conclusion was that choosing a smaller model would reduce costs down to just fewer than 37 pence per mile. The article also gave a number of tips to reduce your running and depreciation costs. With that theme in mind we ran a quick K&H team survey on our top ideas to drive down both personal and business costs.

Here are the top ranked suggestions:

When buying goods, don’t be afraid to ask for a discount. Always check with customer services if you see items with damaged packing, imminent sell by dates, or superficial damages to the products – e.g. light scratches. Beware of asking for discounts on services, you tend to get what you pay for!
Negotiate – similar to discount: when signing up for a new product, ask for price match – many retailers offer this and yet how many times have you actually used it? Same thing if you are thinking of changing suppliers, it’s worth a call to your existing supplier to see if they have any special ‘loyalty’ offers
Look out for the free trial offers – a good example of this are digital photography sites. Check out Kodak www.kodakgallery.co.uk/ , snapfish www.snapfish.co.uk/registration and photobox www.photobox.co.uk/ to name a few
The above also applies for free upgrades or trials that may be on offer from an existing service that you use – a good example is broadband providers offering free data storage or free phone calls, internet retailers offering free delivery for regular customers. These offers will depend on the service supplier and your usage levels.
Check the sell by and use by dates at supermarkets, such products can be heavily discounted and if you have space in the freezer…
Do you really need the latest model and gadget? You can get great deals on end-of-line stock across all consumer goods. Here are a few examples for home entertainment: www.richersounds.com/clearancebargains.php?cda=clearancebargains1 www.clearance-comet.co.uk/
Club together. Many retailers offer increased discounts for higher spend levels, so you can always combine purchases with friends, family or colleagues. You can also take this further and into your business by joining a buying group
Google ‘free stuff’ or similar and you’ll be amazed!
Finally, if you want to really reduce the costs of running a car, then cycle to work and get a big discount on your bike purchase using a Government scheme. An overview can be found at www.cycle2work.info/ and for full details www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/cycling/cycletoworkschemeimplementat5732.

A few of the K&H team have started cycling to work in recent months, including Andrew Gray. Andrew has worked out that if he cycles to work two days a week and invests the £1.14 per mile savings for his 6-year-old son Theo then, by the time Theo is Andrew’s age (44), Theo will have a £1m nest egg!