Age-Net explores what people are spending on unnecessarily and brings you the items that you may never pay a premium for again
Saving money is on everyone’s mind, regardless whether the economy turns on its head or not. More money in each of our pockets lets us buy the things we really want, and the only way to do is often to make sacrifices.You don’t need to make significant sacrifices to shave your monthly expenditure down, sometimes by a significant margin, and that’s what we’re going to share with you here.
A list of 5 things you may be spending on unnecessarily
Credit monitoring services
The only thing you are paying for here is extra peace of mind. What you should consider is how much that is really worth, because in reality, you have peace of mind from every one of your creditors. Be it the bank, credit card firm, or a mail order account.
Every company that has your personal details are required to secure them with encryption security in line with consumer protection legislations.
Companies who hold your data already cover you, and if a breach does occur, they’ll notify you anyway.
You have to question why you’d want to be notified twice. If you have the luxury of spending for the additional peace of mind that subscription based credit monitoring offers, then by all means use it, but if you’re stretching your budget thin each month, cut the ‘added’ peace of mind out and settle for what everyone else has free.
You don’t need to pay to protect your data. Every company you do business with has you protected, and if you pay by credit card, you’re protected twice. In fact, if you need added peace of mind, put everything on your credit card. Just be sure to pay in full to avoid the interest charges.
Music albums and films
CDs and DVDs have had their day. It’s just a case of technology catching up. Some people need the tangible CD to listen to music in the car on the way to work. Sometimes the radio just doesn’t hit the right notes for your musical ears.
An alternative is to use free apps on your smart phone to stream the music you want, but if you must rely on the CD player in the car, go about it smarter.
You don’t need to absorb the production costs of music labels. You can download the music cheaper by track, or album and burn them to disc. A pack of ten blank CD/DVDs can be picked up in your local pound store. Put it into your CD/DVD drive on your PC/laptop, head to your music folder, or the film, and hit burn to disc.
USBs, Memory Sticks, and Thumb drives
These are so 1990s. Every year technology advancements are made, but the creators of the technology aren’t as effective at marketing what the real benefits are. You’re essentially left to figure it yourself. If you haven’t clicked on yet what all those devices have in common, it’s memory.
Memory is what you need on all your digital devices. Cameras and mobiles use SD cards, whereas computers and laptops use memory sticks, and thumb drives. Both of which you can easily lose.
The future is the cloud, and for most people’s needs, cloud storage is free. You can get it through services like Dropbox, Google Cloud Storage, and Amazon Cloud Drive. All of those have free plans and premium plans. If you reach your limit on one service, use the free plan of another. If you pay a premium for cloud storage, you’re only paying for convenience.
Bottled Water
This one has been preached about for years, yet bottled water sales revenue continues to soar. Are we all forgetting we’re already paying water rates?
The sensible thing to do is keep an empty bottle handy. In the car, in your fridge, and at work. Use the tap water and fill the bottle up.
Again, convenience is all bottled water is.
Wi-Fi subscriptions
This is another one that was a good option back in the day. However, in modern times, technology advancements are there. Sure, you may need to have a certain amount of data included in your mobile plan, but use that wisely.
The Cloud is one of the UKs leading free Wi-Fi apps. Asides from the Cloud, there’s the BT Openzone, or even just download the O2 wifi app (non O2 customers can use it too) that lets you browse for free in connected hotspots. Great for accessing the internet when you’re on the highstreet.
Whenever you are out, never enable your mobile data to browse online. Always go to your settings, search available Wi-Fi networks, and your device will tell you what’s secure and what is open. In some areas that aren’t as frequented as the high street, you can find that BT Hotspots will be open, but limited to range. If you go outside of that geographical range, it will revert to your own mobile data if you have enabled that in your settings.
Data roaming is only applicable to when you’re in a super unpopulated mobile range. City centres have many hotspots, and even businesses can connect their customers through their Wi-Fi. Some you have to ask, whereas others leave it open for customers to use.
There can be some stores that don’t have Wi-Fi access, but the business next door to them does. If you can get yourself close enough to the building next door, you can often get within range of their signal. Just keep refreshing available networks in the Wi-Fi settings of your device, and when it’s in range it will show. Then you just connect through it.
If the signal’s weak, which it often is if you aren’t in direct range, the speed will be slower, but the upside is that it will also be free.
Stick to those five cost saving tips, and see how much you can save each month.
