Stretching Your Salary

However much you earn it never seems to be enough. Even if your salary goes up it is soon taken up with higher mortgage repayments, the loan on that new car or that gym membership you signed up to in the new year. However, with a little bit of thought and commitment you can make your salary stretch further and enjoy every penny of your hard earned cash.

Take Back the Tax

A large percentage of our salary is taken away before it ever reaches our bank accounts. Unfortunately you can’t avoid paying tax but you can make sure that you are paying the right amount. There are many reasons why the taxman may be taking more than necessary such as the wrong tax code, a misunderstanding or your circumstances not being communicated properly. Give them a call and get it sorted.

Get Cashback

There are a whole variety of credit cards that offer cashback on your purchases. Although it is only a small percentage, over a year it all adds up and is essentially free money. In the same way, make the most of any stores that offer points on purchases. You will be surprised how quickly they add up and some can be multiplied if you apply to the specific special offers.

Drop a Brand

Going to the supermarket is always expensive but by dropping a brand you can save up to a third on your grocery bill. For example, if you always buy named brands, buy the supermarket’s own. You may be loathe to do this as you feel you are compromising quality but often you won’t be able to tell the difference. Try it out and if you don’t like something, swap back but it is likely to generally won’t.

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Save Your Pennies

If you’ve ever heard the saying – ‘look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’ then this is a good time to put it into practice. Every day put your lose change in a pot and it will soon add up. Then you can either take it to one of those coin change machines and get a nice little cash bonus, or dip into it every time you are just popping to the shops.

No To Needless Spending

Be honest, how many things have you signed up to the last month that you really don’t need? How about that gym membership you never use, for example. We often think that if we pay for something it will make us use it but it’s just not true. The same goes for phone contracts. Do you really need 1000 minutes a month? Take a look at how much you actually use the things you are paying for and see if there would be more efficient way to do it.

So there are lots of ways to stretch your salary, they just take a bit of understanding and thought. Cutting back on small things and saving your pennies will soon add up to a big difference, While getting rid of any financial commitments that you don’t make the most of will free up money to spend on something that you can make the most of.