How to find savings and bargains in unusual places
Do you feel that your money problems are insurmountable? That you will never get ahead, even though you follow all the usual money saving tips? Well, there’s a chance that you’re not grabbing all the bargains that you could be.
Here are a few ways in which you can save more money by grabbing some unusual bargains:
Buy fresh produce from source
Fresh fruit and vegetables can be costly, and they can be one of the first things to be economised on when you are trying to save money. But you do not have to miss out on your healthy hit of vitamins and minerals – not to mention lip-smacking flavour. Most of the cost of fresh fruit and veg involves almost everything except the produce itself – picking, packing and transporting the produce adds hugely to the costs of your greens, until the product on the supermarket chiller shelf is too expensive to justify buying while trying to budget.
However, if you have a car or a good public transport system, you can take a trip to many farms or gardens where the seller will let you buy plenty of fresh delicious veg and fruit for a fraction of the price that your local market or store does. If you take your own bags to fill up and are prepared to pick your own items, then you might get even more of a bargain. Most fruit and veg can be blanched and then frozen so will last you a long time – keeping you in fresh and nourishing fruit and veg for just a few pounds.
Free entertainment abounds
Look for free entertainment and you may be surprised at how much is out there. You can join your local library and take out books and movies, rather than buying the books or paying full price for tickets at the cinema. Theatres often offer last minute discounts on tickets to ensure a full house, and volunteers who give their time to festivals and playhouses are often gifted tickets for performances that would otherwise cost them a pretty penny and we have all heard stories of people taking out a short term or payday loan to fund going to these concerts to see their favourite bands
Car Boot sales and Charity stores are bargain-heavy
People live quite wastefully these days: buying a whole new wardrobe of clothes each year. The effect of this is that they tend to donate their old clothes to charity stores, or to sell them off at car boot sales – which means that they are just waiting for you to pick them for a knock-down price. Not only will you be doing your bit for the environment, you will be saving these – often hardly used – clothes from ending up in a landfill somewhere. Keep a list of items you need and pop into every market, charity store and car bootsale that you see: you never know when one of your ‘must-haves’ might pop up for an excellent price.