When our wages are deposited into our banks, the first thing we want to do is spend it — thinking with our hearts and not with our heads! Making New Year’s resolutions can often be disastrous, with 80% of people failing by February and regretting it instantly — have you managed to keep yours up? One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to cut down on spending, and although this sounds achievable, if you don’t have a fully-pledged strategy in place, the likeliness of failure spirals out of control.
Unexpected expenses can arise at any moment, meaning that we must be prepared to fork out that extra cash to fix the problem. It all adds up. This is why dental insurance is very beneficial. We’ve made some assessments on how those extra savings can come in handy if something like that was to occur.
Public transport vs owning your own vehicle
Making changes to the way you commute can make a huge difference to your spending patterns throughout the year. Using a megarider ticket, you will be able to travel as much as you want and can tailor your own needs to the ticket type. Whether you’re in need of a weekly bus pass for your travels, or a monthly one — you will find yourself making a huge saving in comparison to paying for singular bus fares every day.
Over the course of your lifetime, driving your own vehicle will cost you £168,880 on average. With efficiency growing in public transport, there is no reason for you not to consider making the bold move that could help you fulfil your resolution this year and save you a fortune.
When we looked to calculate what contributed into this, petrol costs drivers £1,052.04. Servicing a vehicle costs can add up to £441 over a twelve-month period — which can change depending on the individual’s situation. MOTs can cost up to £168.46 annually. Cost of parking is on the rise, and with more vehicles on the roads, there seems to be a higher demand. Over the year, a motorist can find themselves paying £145.80 on parking. When it comes to insurance, this can sway dramatically as younger drivers will find themselves paying a higher cost to be on the road — on average, insurance costs an experience driver £436 every year. Tax can equate to £116.35 on a yearly basis. Car supplies can cost a driver £29.61 and if you were to go abroad and wished to drive, holiday rental cars can leave you £180 out of pocket. Speeding tickets equal £25.12 for the average driver here in the UK. This would cost a driver £2,594.38 in total where commuters find themselves paying considerably less for a significant service — imagine the saving you would make with a megarider ticket!
What is your lifestyle costing you?
The real cost of coffee
MyVoucherCode stated that there were over 21,000 coffee shops around Britain and that Brits visit them three times per week on average. This means that Brits visit coffee shops around 156 times a year with an average spend of £8.52 — with travel expenses, this could go up to £13.85. This creates an annual average spending of £2,600, a majority of which could be saved if you were to opt for taking your own coffee to work.
For example, a 250g pack of Douwe Egberts ground coffee can make up to 30 cups of coffee! When looking to see how much a 1kg pack would cost, Amazon has priced the coffee at around £15, meaning that each cup of coffee would cost close to 13p. Try taking a flask to work and even purchasing an on-the-go coffee cup that will see you through your day.
Leading a smoke-free life
Smoking a 20 pack of cigarettes daily could allow you to make a notorious saving if you were to quit altogether — with a generous saving of £3,796. MoneySupermarket.com has stated that non-smokers pay around £6,309 less for life insurance, which could be something worth investing in for the new year.
Vaping has become a popular alternative for smokers who aren’t prepared to give up completely. 10ml bottles of liquid cost around £5 on average — saving those who turn to vaping around £1,900.
Buying lunch for work
With pop-up food trucks on the doorstep of our offices, buying lunch has become an easier alternative. But what if we told you that, on average, forking out for lunch every day could cost you £1,288 according to research carried out by VoucherCloud. Evidently, you could make a huge saving by preparing your lunch at home — whether this is making a quick sandwich or taking in a tin of microwavable soup to heat up. When we looked at the total working days in 2017, there was 252 — if we went by Poundland’s price of tomato soup, which is 50p, you would find yourself paying £126! A massive saving for anyone looking to cut down on costs.
Unexpected expenses
Out of 2,000 people asked — 54% said that they had experienced an unexpected expense within their household, leaving them worried due to being underprepared. On average, these costs totalled £248.70 — showing that any saving is beneficial for occurrences like these. 47% of these issues happened in the kitchen, a room which is essential to the day-to-day running of any home, and if you don’t have the money to pull out instantly, it could cause an everyday stress. Using the savings you would have made by taking your own lunch and coffee to work, quitting smoking, and travelling smarter — you will be able to make life easier. It was also found that 35% of people had to use a credit card to cover the costs of unexpected expenses. With 18% of them not being able to pay more than £100 on their own, 17% had to borrow from friends and family!
How will you be changing your lifestyle to make better savings?
Sources:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/new-years-resolutions-courses-2016-12
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/782992/car-costs-uk-service-repair-MOT-petrol-fuel-price
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4680432/Britons-spend-2-210-YEAR-coffee-shops.html
https://www.stagecoachbus.com/regionaltickets/north-east/newcastle-upon-tyne/megarider
http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/new-years-resolutions-save-you-4927896
https://vapeandjuice.co.uk/blogs/vaping-ecig-and-eliquid-news/how-much-does-vaping-cost
http://www.work-day.co.uk/workingdays_holidays_2017.htm
https://www.providentpersonalcredit.com/unexpected-expenses/
