Understanding how the supermarket functions can save you money, there are plenty of saveins to be had, and here are my top tips to finding them:
Know the reductions - Every supermarket has a reduction system, where the out-of-code products(products on todays date) get reduced, this is done to sell the products quick and lower the sections waste bill. Each store and sometimes, each department; has there own method of doing reductions. I’ll explain how the UKs leading supermarket Tescos system works:
Every evening a member of staff(usually the same person) will scan all of the products that are being reduced the next day into a PDA. The next day someone will use the PDA to reduce these products. There are two rounds of reductions the system sets, one at 25% and one at 50%, so its best to catch the time of day when there doing the 50% routine.
This may take alittle trial and error to get the timing right, but once you know how the store operates you can better choose the best shopping time to make the most savings.
Don’t be tempted by offers - Offers are just about everywhere ‘half price’ or ‘buy one get one free don’t be tempted by things that you dont need, always keep to your list and you wont go wrong.
Assess weight as well as price – Often prices don’t change week to week, but sometimes the weight will change. Always keep an eye on the weight and when assessing the price compare price per weight and compare with other products of that nature to find the best deal.
Know the Law – Know the law, if something is priced wrong – the supermarket MUST sell it to the customer for that price, or remove it from sale for the day. If a ticket price is wrong, take the item to customer service and you will get the product for that price. If not ask to use there phone to make a call to trading standards.
Also if you have been overpriced for a product, take it to customer services, they will usually give you a coupon for your trouble and if they don’t, a letter to head office will definitely get you some free money next time you shop.
Use your coupons and collect points - Always make the most of your coupons, read them correctly and if the checkout wont except them then leave the item. But never use coupons un-productivley – if you dont need the item don’t buy it just because you have a coupon. Also don’t forget to use your club-card and collect points!
Staff loyalty cards - If you have a friend that works in a supermarket, you should see if you can do your weekly shop at the same time
Be price loyal only – Don’t stick to the same supermarket because just because your accustomed to it, shop around and find a routine for the best prices for your shop. Take a notepad inside the supermarkets and assess the prices for your products. Tesco may advertise to be ‘the cheapest supermarket’ and across a wide range of products this is probably true. But there are definitely cheaper places out there still.
Consider alternatives or bulk buying – Toilet paper may be cheaper if brought from a wholesales for example, or razor blades may be cheaper on ebay, remember ‘be price loyal only’
Online shoping - If getting to and from a supermarket is expensive, consider shopping online. There is a charge for this service, but it may save you both time and money in traveling.
Add your own here – Everyone has there own way to shop, you need to find your own style and find your own methods to cut the shopping bill in half.
Today everybody seams to be blogging, everyone for there own reasons. I choose to blog because I feel i have knowledge to share, and also knowledge to learn; Learning is a big driver for me, and I aim to improve my writing skills. Blogs seamed a perfect productive outlet for me to practice with.
I have been reading blogs for many years now around the topics of: Design, Technology, Productivity, Business, Entrepreneurship and Finance among many others. Starting a blog of my own was a natural progression from the nights of long reading. Below are 5 reasons to love a blog
(1) The blogging journey – In life its not the end result that brings the most satisfaction it can be the journey along the way, as it is the journey where you learn, grow and develop.
(2) Additional Income – How nice is it to go to work and to know that in the back of your mind that if you lost your job you can still survive just from your blogging income. (unfortunately my blog does not earn this yet, however many others do)
(3) A Personal Journal – It is nice to have a journal where you can reflect over the day, or what you have learnt and blogging technology offers this with the added bonus of sharing your thoughts with the world.
(4) Add Value to the internet – The internet is what it is today because of the richness of the communities of people that contribute towards its existence, these include the designers, developers, writers and most importantly the readers.
(5) Meet great bunch of people – the blogging community is filled with millions of subscribers who daylie follow particular blogs, leaving feedback and offering comments and opinions on your posts.
(6) Learn new skills – blogging is simple and anyone can pick it up however it does take a learning curve and you will develop some new skills. That may be design, writing or other technical skills.
(7) Educate yourself – To blog you need to find content and topics. You also need to do some research and some thinking around a particular topic once you have done that you then teach it back to your readers via the post. From this process you learn and improve your skills and knowledge and are therefore educating yourself.
(8) Your Hobby – last but not least – everybody needs a hobby, some hobbies can cost lots of money however why not make blogging your hobby as its cheap and very rewarding.
I hope I have convinced you to also enjoy blogging as much as me. If you enjoy blogging for whatever reason then please tell me your reasons below
One of my favourite activity’s is reading other peoples blog posts, its always good to see what other fellow bloggers are writing about and one topic i see pop up over and over again is many personal development writers are talking about how to give up coffee – and this made me think – why would anyone want to give up coffee?
As I personally love coffee, I love the smell and I love the taste. There is nothing better than waking up to a nice strong cup of coffee, I even have a favorite coffee cup that Ive owned for around 10years now. However after a few days of reserching I have realised some of the negative effects that caffeine has on our bodys, how it effects our sleep, mood, evergy levels and general health.
Since this discovery I have decided to kick the habbet cold turkey on Sunday 3rd January. So thats no coke, no coffee, no nice smooth cup of tea at work, not even a paracetamol to releave the headake that it has caused. Yep if your planning on quiting cafeeine then expect a soft long headache to follow. I have been expereinceing the following withdrawal symptoms:
- Lack of concentration
- A consistant headake
- Fatigue and more sleep required.
My headakes are starting to go, however I am yet at the stage where im feeling great and noticing the benefits. I still think my body is in withdrawal mode as this is only day 4 so hopefully ill feel better with time.
To combat caffeene I have been drinking allot more water and carry a bottle with me to sip and drink before my mouth gets dry. During the cold mornings before work I still enjoy a nice hot drink however its been hard to find a substitute as mostly all drinks contain some caffenine so I have been drinkinking a healthy cup of Wheat Grass.
Ill keep you posted on my journey for optimum effectiveness, however for now I have one problem to solve:
What the hell canI use my 10year old coffee cup for now?
1. Work extra hours or get a second job – Always a good one, got a job; then work more hours. Extra income is always welcome because its income that should be going straight to paying of debt on into the savings account.
2. Become a mystery shopper - Get paid to be a customer and evaluate the quality of services. This is a good way to make money during the evening time.
3. Police ID parades - Check your local Police station to see if they need anyone for your description for an ID parade.
4. TV Extras - Contact TV shows and list yourself as a possible extra for there shows. Find out what there willing to pay.
5. Pose as a life model - Check around the art schools, art schools are always on the lookout for life models for there drawing students, this could be an extra few hours income per week. Allot do evening classes also.
6. Freelance - Its always good to have something else happening on the side, freelancing is a great opportunity if you have a talent for writing or design for example. You can market yourself your own way, or check for jobs on Elance or Guru.
7. Supermarket demonstrator - if you have a flare for presentations and selling products, consider being an internal demonstrator for products in a supermarket, this could be a good income to do on your weekend off from work.
8. Car Boot Sale - Got some old stuff to sell, consider doing a carboot sale to get rid of it. Camera equipment and baby clothing always sell well and you can often make more money selling there than using online auction sites like Ebay. Also vice versa if you have good entrepreneurial savvy then you may be able to pick up some bargains and sell them on Ebay for a profit. Hell why not – i’ve managed to purchase items full price on the high-street and make a profit on Ebay before. If you know what your looking for, opportunities are everywhere.
9. Window Cleaning - Window cleaning is another weekend side business that you could get going in your local neighborhood. Hard work at first, but once you build up some regular clients then it becomes easy money.
10. Teaching - If you have a skill, then teach it to others. Put an advert on gumtree or your local paper to teach your skill. “guitar teacher” “French Lessons” “Maths Lessons” the list is endless. Teaching like Freelancing is good because you can usually achieve an hourly rate much higher than your salary job.
If I had to choose one stock book to read first it would be this one. It does not over complicate the market at strips it back to basics showing sound investing advice. It provides you with plenty of tools and resources to gain a good understanding of the market.
The book covers: an overview of how the markets work, trading strategies (including 10 winning strategies), knowledge of spread betting, CFDs, SIPPS, top 10 invester mistakes and provides plenty of real life examples showing the good/bad and ugly of the stock market, experienced by himself and the readers.
The Author has been a journalist and writer since he graduated in 1981 and left fulltime work in 2001 to trade fulltime. If your new to the world of investing and don’t know where to start, this book is a must. There are plenty of books out there that will promise this system or that method will bring untold riches with little effort and in no time at all. This book does none of that. It sets out in plain down to earth English and with some humour, how to slowly, surely, and with safety in mind increase your wealth by trading shares. It’s packed with common sense.
Hot For Words is a youtube channel with a pretty russian lady who explains the origin of words.
Sounds boring huh? normally id say yes however I cant help but flick through her videos.
Is that productive? -- Nope….. Is that Effective -- Probably not! However I cant help but admire her innovative idea to draw in a crowd on youtube…. Do you think she makes money from this idea -- YOU BET!
So question time: how would you live the life of riley?
I can’t remember where I read it, but someone once said: ‘it’s not how much money we make thats important, but rather how much we can keep’. This is totally true, income is not just the money that we get paid, but also the money we save. Trying to double your salary income is a hard task – however doubling the money you have spare every month is easy – its called budgeting!
By not buying something (a can of coke for 50p perhaps) you then make a profit of 50p. These small amounts of money soon accumulate into bigger amounts over time. Throughout your weekly life there are hundreds of ways to make 50p here and 50p there; before you know it, you have saved a considerable amount of money threw budgeting.
To make cutbacks and budget – assess the following:
- Strip out all of your wants – buying items that are ‘wanted’ rather than ‘needed’ is the quickest way to waste large amounts of money and move into the opposite direction to what you are aiming.
- Downgrade as much as possible - many savings can be made from purchasing cheaper versions of the things we ‘need’ to buy. From cheaper accommodation to cheaper washing powder.
- Make lifestyle cutbacks – lifestyle cutbacks are another way to save allot of money for some people. Re-thinking expensive nights out, or dinning out is essential to make savings. After all there is no point making allot of small changes if when friday night comes around every week you blow all the progress on un-nessasary social entertainment.
- Don’t buy things that come free or come cheaper – don’t buy something that can be occupied cheaper somewhere else, try ebay and freecycle
- Review your travel – Do you need a car? if not get a bike, or take transport.
- Always review and tighten the budget – Cutbacks are never nice at first, but soon once the extra money starts to stack up saving becomes easier and easier. Monthly review your spending against your budget and see where you can make extra cutbacks, or see where you went wrong and plan accordingly.
This advice may seam too frugal for some people however its just things to consider, as there is also a contradictory opinion that you need to spend and expand your money inorder to bring more money in. However Budgeting is a concept that everyone should understand sand it belongs in chapter 1 of money for dummys!
Below are eight ways to kill the procrastination out of your life, we all put tasks off and lose precious time from our life. Procrastination is the biggest waste of time you could be doing, learn to notice and change it.
- Learn organization - Organization is key, without a clear structure and plan you will find it easy to put tasks off because you wont be able to see the bigger picture and an end to the work. Try using a calendar to organize your life’s tasks long term, then break them down daily with a top do list and you will soon see the difference.
- Learn to be realistic - One main reason tasks get put off because when you are planning your to-do-lists they can b overwhelming with tasks, keep them simple and make sure each task is manageable for the set amount of time. Don’t try and do too much too soon otherwise you run the risk of nothing getting done.
- Learn to tell the truth - Lets be honest, some tasks on the to-do-list are not going to get done. They are just not nice jobs to do, if you know that you have no intention of doing a task for that day; leave it off the list! However the task does need to be done sooner or later so instead set yourself a date to complete it buy, then your mind will come to terms that it has to be done and you will allocate the best time to do it.
- Learn to avoid social chat – If you work on a computer nothing encourages procrastination like social chat such as MSN, if your working close down all your communication, email included and just get on with the task at hand.
- Learn what you do to waste time – Everyone has there own way to waste time and procrastinate, mine is the one mentioned above ‘social chat’ and answering emails. However yours may be music, films, Facebook, telephone calls or anything. Learn your patens and what you do to waste time, then you can better fight it. Remember you are your own enemy.
- Learn your not perfect - If the task is important, and requires it to be done very well. Like a university thesis or an important work report we have a tendency to postpone the work in fear of the timing being wrong to do a good enough job. DONT waste time, it needs to get done so make a start, learn that you are not perfect, and there will never be a perfect time to do the task.
Actually I’m wrong, the perfect time to do the task is NOW!
- Learn to ignore failure - fear is a powerful emotion, learn not to fear your failings but rather praise your achievements. If the task is difficult you may fail, but if its difficult this only means that its a worth while cause, and the reward will be great. Get going, give it your best – and always remember that in life people don’t ever fail; they just quit!
- Learn to be fit and happy - If you are an unhappy and depressed person you will find any reason not to be productive and do a task, learn to look after your health. We all have bad moods from time to time but if your unhappy mood is serious and ongoing go to see a doctor. Your health and happiness go hand in hand, and will benefit your daily attitude to tasks.
The Greatest Salesman In The World is a short book that focuses on teaching 10 principles to success put across in 10 scrolls. Each scroll is recommended to be read morning, afternoon and in the evening to sick the concepts into your head forming the habits for success. This book has allot of 5star reviews on amazon and I can see why.
Here are the subject contents of the 10 scrolls:
1. Today I begin a new life.
2. I will greet this day with love in my heart.
3. I will persist until I succeed.
4. I am nature’s greatest miracle.
5. I will live this day as if it is my last.
6. Today I will be master of my emotions.
7. I will laugh at the world.
8. Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.
9. I will act now.
10. Today I will pray for guidance.
These sound concepts sound simple however this short well wrote book does a fantastic job with sinking the concept into your head. I highly recommend this book and it has a rightful place on my best books list.
What Will 2010 bring you? - 10 things you should be thinking about in the new year.
Time of new year around again and the holiday season is the perfect time to reflect upon the previous year and decide what has gone well and what has gone bad
and what better a day to plan your new years resolutions than on the day. What would you want to achieve in the new year. Here is a complete list of my resolutions for the new year:
(1) Upskill yourself with some real assets - Improve your financial education by reading and expanding your knowledge base.
(2) Continue the Career - Continue to progress with your career by staying of the path of progression in the workplace.
(3) Remember that there is more to life than work - Stand back to look at the bigger picture of your life. Your 9-5 may earn you a good living but it will not earn your fortune.
(4) Increase wealth by adding to your networth - Reducing debt an increasing your savings/investments is a total no brainer.
(5) Look into business ventures that will increase your Cashflow - This is important so you can move from being an employee to a full time entrepreneur by becoming financially independent.
(6) Review your health – This one is a new years classic,are you fit? would you like more energy? go you have a goal like running a marathon?
(7) How are your relationships? - remember to treat others how you would like to be treated and always be on the lookout for new opportunities as you are only as good as your friends you surround yourself with.
(8) Improve your personal effectiveness - productivity and effectiveness are at the forefront of what you can achieve, ignoring these simple aspects of your actions will result in less than desirable results. Keep your education up by reading blogs like this to improve your self development.
(9) Re-programe your habits - your habits and working in the now are what will put together the results of the future. Focus on forming good habits and letting go of the bad ones.
(10) Set measurable goals an stick to them, moving one small step at a time - Without targets or goals then your planning is just a wish-wash idea and has no substence, create a clear plan for the new year and set yourself targets so this time next year you will have allot of success to review.
One of my favourite activity’s is reading other peoples blog posts, its always good to see what other fellow bloggers are writing about and one topic i see pop up over and over again is many personal development writers are talking about how to give up coffee – and this made me think – why would anyone want to give up coffee?
I can’t remember where I read it, but someone once said: ‘it’s not how much money we make thats important, but rather how much we can keep’. This is totally true, income is not just the money that we get paid, but also the money we save. Trying to double your salary income is a hard task – however doubling the money you have spare every month is easy – its called budgeting!
