ARCHIVED Money saving tips competition

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This post has been archived and any financial information contained within it may no longer be correct.

Congratulations to our overall winner Laura Bowers. The Sainsbury's Bank Money Matters Panel voted your tip on how to carry out a money detox the best money saving tip. It's a great way to help people save money and increase awareness of their spend. We hope you can take lots of great photographs with your camera - we'd love to see them.

Laura's tip: a money detox

To Start

Record how much you think you spend each week and, if you can, break this down into categories such as food, clothes and entertainment.

Over the next week itemise everything you buy so you can identify any wasteful or unnecessary purchases. To allow you to see every penny you spend pay for everything you can with cash.

At the end of the first week use your notes to decide on a strategy to save money in four areas, for example, you could buy one less takeaway or take coffee to work instead of buying it.

Begin your Money Detox

Over the next four weeks trial one money saving idea per week, record everything you spend. At the end of each week trial, decide whether the saving you made was worth any additional hassle it may have caused. If it is then continue with it alongside the next saving trial, if not try the next idea.

To incentivise your saving put every penny you save into a glass bottle or jar. When this is full put half in the bank and use the other half to have a treat.

You'll soon find your savings begin to grow and your awareness of spending will increase, giving you total control over you finances. 

The referrer prize

We can now also announce the winner of the referrer prize, Vanessa Rozee, who referred Laura to the competition. Thank you and congratulations! We're delighted to award you with a hamper of goodies worth £100 and including an ipod shuffle - we hope you enjoy it.

Weekly winners

Kate Cunningham 

Walk away and take time to think about whether you really want it. Make comparisons - think, I can buy this or I can use that money to buy something else. Finally, picture your house and how much of it actually belongs to you, no spending spree compares to walking through your own front door.

We're delighted to hear from Kate and you can read more about her money saving tips and how she spent her £50 Sainsbury's voucher here. Kate's a keen saver and by recording her spend she's never had to compromise on good scarves!

White Lily Green

Save nectar points for Christmas, gifts and days out.

Josiah Allen-Litchmore 

Instead of paying around £30-40 a month for channels you may not need, you can watch many TV shows online through BBC iPlayer, 4 on Demand, Demand 5, iTV Player and several similar services. You can also find loads of great TV series and movies on Netflix or Lovefilm. You could even connect your PC to your TV if you still want the big screen TV viewing experience, at a fraction of the cost!

Clare Leahy

• when picking the kids up from school, take a small snack with you so they dont nag for the sweet shop.
• give them packed lunches, that way you know exactly what they have eaten, and you can make / grow lots yourself
• try to enjoy lots of 'free' activities, kids dont need theme parks to enjoy themselves, if they can run around and get muddy they are usually happy!
• make sure you pack a picnic for your days out, and dont forget snacks for longer car journeys
• stock up on supermarket brand ice creams / lollies in the summer, much cheaper than the ice cream van!
• use old birthday / xmas cards and let the kids make new cards / gift tags with them
• keep a look out for vouchers such as 2 for 1 for trips to the cinema etc
• if you are friendly enough with parents of your childs friends, then arrange to 'swap' toys and dvds
• did you know that there are swimming pools all over the country who support the governments scheme to allow under 16's to swim for free !!!
• if you are brave enough .... be the cool parent who always allows the kids to have friends over ... cheaper than 'going out' and you SHOULD get some time out for yourself. plus all their friends will think you are awesome.

We're also delighted to have received a message from Clare;"I have 3 kids and like everybody else pennies are tight, I need to do as much as possible to save wherever possible. I will be keeping my voucher back to use towards Christmas…maybe when the Sainsbury's toy sale is on ;) ".

A word from the Sainsbury's Bank Money Matters Panel

We've had a great response to our hunt for the best money saving tip and have had fun reading them. We now have no excuse for having empty piggy banks. We'd like to thank everyone who shared their tip with us, and to all those who voted for their favourites. We also saw some lovely blog posts and tweets about the competition, thank you.

We heard some brilliant ideas on how to entertain children during the holidays including home movie nights, treasure hunts, sports days and toy swaps as well as some great tips about growing your own fruit and vegetables, meal planning,  ice cream recipes (we will definitely be trying these) and food shopping strategies.

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This Money Matters post aims to be informative and engaging. Though it may include tips and information, it does not constitute advice and should not be used as a basis for any financial decisions. Sainsbury's Bank accepts no responsibility for the opinions and views of external contributors and the content of external websites included within this post. All information in this post was correct at date of publication.