One of the hardest things I've found with saving for a house and paying off debts is curbing my shopping
Clear Your Browsing History
If you are shopping around for a big purchase make sure to clear your cookies, cache and browser history. Your cookies, cache and browser history are what's responsible for you seeing that dress you looked at 4 hours ago, put into your basket and decided you didn't want, on your Facebook adverts or in a side bar on another website. This is unlikely to help you save money on that dress but for big purchases it works wonders, especially holidays and flights as they can change the price based on your history, which is sneaky.
Haggle
Most people are reluctant to haggle for something or question a price in a shop but if you don't ask for an additional discount, you won't get it. Some shops admittedly won't do anything but others will. This is another tip that works well with holiday's as the prices are seen as more negotiable, but you need to call up or go into the shop for it to work. Always haggle for your phone contract as typically the first deal they offer you isn't the best for you.
Use Cashback Shopping Sites
There are some really great cash back shopping sites which technically pay you to shop through them. Some of the top sites (as recommended by Money Saving Expert) are below for you but make sure you register for the free memberships.
Alternatively some employers offer cash back shopping sites as an employee benefit. My company have what they call a reward gateway offering cashback shopping, pre-loaded discount cards and more. Some cashback sites also offer you cashback for clicking on adverts or links, such as clicking onto a website and getting a free car insurance quote.
I use my cashback site as a way of creating a little savings pot for something special. I withdraw the money as soon as it is available to me and stash it in my savings account. It all adds up, and I'm not at risk of losing the cashback if the website was to disappear.
Take Advantage of Price Matching
Most companies online and in-store will now price match against competitors. John Lewis are known for their price matching promotions. I recently watched a friend get a price match at a well known retailer by entering into an online chat with the well known retailer and asking them to price match against a link from an online vendor. The other online vendor was much cheaper but wanted postage on top and by price matching got the item for the same price and with free postage. Even if a company doesn't advertise price matching talk to someone and ask.
Use Loyalty Schemes
Loyalty schemes are a great way to bag yourself a free hot drink or more. My two most used schemes are Boots Advantage Card and Tesco Clubcard.
With Boots I pick up my make up where possible and other larger scheme beauty items, as I find they aren't always the cheapest for some things, and I collect up my points all year. At the end of the year I hit the perfume sales in Boots after christmas and splurge all my points on enough perfume to last me until the next christmas sale!
With Tesco I collect Clubcard points on my fuel and shopping. Again I save them up and sometimes use the vouchers for discounts in store but nine times out of ten I use them with their boost scheme and get vouchers for partners such as Bella Italia or days out across the UK. My mum is the one who taught me the benefits for this. She saved up her points and managed to tile her entire new bathroom with them and have enough left for some diamond earrings.
What are your best ways to still shop but stick to a budget and save money? Do you have any favourite sites or tips?
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