A Personal Finance Guide

How to Tackle the Credit Crunch Online! – Our Top 10 Money Saving Tips For the Internet

Let’s face it, we’re in the pits right now… but it’s not the end the end of the world. There is no-longer any reason to let the recession cramp your lifestyle.

In fact, you can even improve it with these Quick and Easy solutions.

Here are 10 ONLINE credit-crunch-crunching tips that will help tackle the tight purse:

1. Make FREE phone calls online

Use Skype to make calls to your friends anywhere in the world online for free. If they’re not also Skype users then you can call landlines for ridiculously low costs and they have some

fantastic international rates.

2. Listen to over 8 million songs online for free

Spotify, the new online music system, has just declared war on iTunes. They offer their whole collection of music, free to listen to. Not only do you save money on purchasing new music, you can save on that new hard drive you would have needed to support your massive music collection! No more pay per download & before you ask… Spotify is completely legal!!

3. Free Stuff Websites

There are hundreds of freebie websites offering free stuff, free samples, great offers and competitions all over the web. Check them out to get free stuff for your baby, coupon codes for shopping, free mobile stuff, free magazines and loads more. FreeStuff.me has been flagged recently as one of the fastest growing UK sites for Free Stuff.

4. Do your shopping online

Shopping online is almost always cheaper than going to high street stores if you know what you’re doing. Look out for sales and look for the large online stores selling the products you are interested in… and don’t forget eBay! Big online stores have a much larger target market than high street stores which mean they can lower their prices accordingly. Recent statistics show that nearly 24% of the world’s population use the internet – that’s over 1.5 BILLION potential customers! [1] – That’s how

they can afford to lower their prices.

Sites such as MySupermarket.co.uk let you compare prices of supermarkets across the UK. Just fill your trolley and they compare prices between Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Ocado. They boast an average 20% savings! (They also offer to save calories).

5. Get PAID cashback for shopping online

Sites such as Quidco or TopCashBack.co.uk offer cashback rewards when shopping at major online

retailers. Quidco offer you the full percentage of the commission that they would get for referring you to a site for a measly 5 annual fee. With cashback at over 10% for some stores this fee can be easily paid back to you (and some!) with your first purchase.

6. Compare stuff online

Moneysupermarket.com is a comparison site which allows you to compare car insurance, travel insurance, loans, broadband and LOADS more.

If you are thinking of taking out a loan or insurance then you have to check out this site, you are guaranteed to make a saving. See for yourself!

7. Sell your old stuff

Most people have loads of old stuff hanging about the house in cupboards, under the stairs, up the attic or wherever it may be. Do you need it? How much is all of it worth? I bet it’s more

than you think.

Write a list of what you’ve got and do a search on eBay to see how much similar items are worth, I think you’ll be surprised how much extra cash you could make.

Here’s a good way to look at it:

If it takes 10 minutes to list each item on eBay and 10 minutes to package and post each item, you are getting paid for your time the selling price of 3 items an hour. More appealing now isn’t it?

Some people are too lazy to sell their old stuff but work out the profits and you’ll be pleasantly

surprised. Gumtree and Craigslist are good sites to get rid of stuff too.

8. Send free text messages online

Save your credit! Use services like cbfsms.com to send text messages for free to your friends. Also useful if you have no mobile signal.

9. Download Free Software

With Microsoft Office 2007 retailing at over 250 it’s no wonder people are downloading the free open source alternative OpenOffice. There’s a massive selection of free software to download at sites like download.com.

10. One mans rubbish is another mans GOLD

Uk.freecycle.org is a site where people get rid of their unwanted stuff. You can get hold of televisions, sofas, microwaves, monitors and all sorts as long as you’re quick enough to reply to the ads. In some cases it will even be driven to your door!

Follow these easy steps to immunise yourself against the recession and perhaps even stick a little cash in your savings account.

References:

1: Stats from internetworldstats.com

UK Free Stuff – FreeStuff.me – UK Free Stuff updated Daily!