Budgeting Tips

Should I use a price calculator as I shop?

If you have a price calculator and need to use it to help with budgeting, then use it when you shop. If you've got a calculator on your mobile phone or you want to slip one in your pocket, why not?

Should I plan for Christmas throughout the year?

Try to plan for Christmas throughout the year. It makes it a lot easier to grab a bargain when you see it, rather than spending a huge chunk of your budget over Christmas. If you only spend at Christmas, you end up facing everything in the New Year - other bill like the television license, council tax, etc. It does make sense to try to plan for Christmas throughout the year. I shouldn't, however, pay into special Christmas savings schemes of any kind at all. If you have money to spare throughout the year, pay it into a building society and get the interest.

Is it more cost effective to shop weekly, fortnightly, or monthly?

Does it make better budget sense to shop weekly, fortnightly or monthly? It's more important where you show than how long the intervals between shopping are. Buy your fresh fruit little and often, preferably open markets for the very cheapest things. Farmers' markets tend to be a bit more expensive these days. But don't buy fresh fruit and stuff at places by busy roads because of pollution. Then you can bolt buy other things like cleaning fluids when you see special offers in supermarkets or even warehouse shopping clubs or, I recommend, foreign known cheap supermarkets where the items for sale may not have familiar trade names but they're certainly very good value. Guard against the impulse to try to have everything that's possible to have in your cupboard. You are not a restaurant. Your family will and can make do with what there is there.