Photo credit: Michelle Arseneault/Wikipedia
When I’m not writing for Liberti magazine, I spend a lot of my time mustering up financial news and blogs. I often find myself compiling helpful money-saving guides; well, at least, I hope they’re helpful.
Although these often relate to switching bank accounts or getting the right type of life insurance, a common theme throughout is cutting back on waste. There are so many ways to squander money and resources, and even though I should know better, I’m probably the worst culprit of all!
So here are my three Cs to help us keep on top of our waste, both financial and otherwise (in ascending order of importance).
Cancel old Direct Debits
Statistics show 40% of Direct Debit customers don't know how much cash leaves their account via Direct Debit each month. Many of us have experienced that painful pang when we realise a payment we should have cancelled months ago is still coming out. With online banking available to all of us, it’s our responsibility to know exactly what’s coming into and leaving our accounts. Staying on top of this will also help to ensure your account isn’t being used fraudulently.
Cut energy costs
UK households throw £1.4 billion down the drain each year simply by wasting energy. There are so many ways to cut back on energy usage without even noticing the difference. Did you know that using energy-saving light bulbs could save you up to £40 during the life of the bulb? And that turning your thermostat down by just 1% could save you 10% on your annual heating bill?
Other simple energy-saving measures include:
- Turning electrical appliances off rather than leaving them on standby
- Confining heating to the rooms you spend most time in
- Only boiling as much water as you need each time you make a hot drink
- Taking showers rather than baths
- Turning the temperature on your washing machine down to 30oC
Control your buying habits
I personally feel a sense of achievement every time I put something in the recycling; particularly if I’ve gone to the trouble of rinsing or dismembering it in some way. Don’t panic, I’m not going to tell you to stop recycling or reusing items, but I am going to suggest an even better solution: not buying as much in the first place.
I was brought up to clean my plate each and every mealtime; my brother and I were well aware that there would be no pudding until we’d finished our dinner. Although I still do this as much as possible now, I continue to find myself throwing some food away every week. When will I learn that I’m not going to get through a kilo of grapes in a week? Why do I still fall for the multi-buy offers when I know it’s both false economy and wasteful?
And my wastefulness isn’t limited to food consumption. Each time I move house I promise myself I’ll never, ever accumulate so much ‘stuff’ again. But after two years in my current flat I once again find myself climbing over or banging into obstacles and items I simply don’t need: a foot spa, redundant mobile phone chargers and a host of old CDs I’ve never even listened to.
Every now and again I round up all the rubble and have a major cull. There’s no better feeling in the world than turning overflowing cupboards and full-to-the-brim drawers into minimalist vessels of essential goodies. Again I feel that warm fuzzy feeling as I traipse off to the charity shop to kindly bestow my discarded debris upon them.
But as with our financial affairs, the simplest and best approach is to only buy what we need in the first place. Don’t take out credit cards that will encourage you to get into debt and buy even more space hoggers. Don’t buy new versions of items you already have unless you are prepared to redeploy the originals. And definitely don’t buy presents for people this Christmas that will encourage them to follow you into the never-ending wilderness of waste!
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