Ways to save during hard times

Although there are signs in the world economy that things are slowly beginning to improve many leading economists fear it could be some time still yet before there is a full recovery from the economic downturn. In the UK it seems that things have picked up this summer, with the housing market beginning to show some signs of partial recovery with a slight rise in prices in some parts of the UK. With banks becoming pickier about who they issue credit cards and tightening up their policies you may find that the trusted credit card is something that can't be relied upon anymore.

Indeed many banks, are being stricter on credit card application forms examining closely your credit scores, raising interest rates, switching customers from fixed rates to variable ones and enhancing reward programs but at the same time adding more fees! It also looks like the banks could go down one of two ways in the future for offering credit cards: 1.no fee, no frills no cards that can be offered to a broad range of consumers and/or 2. "premium" reward fee cards, or annual fee cards that offer bonuses/incentives for using the card such as cash back on all purchases.

You don't have to rely on the plastic

There are many ways you can avoid using your credit cards for purchases. If you haven't got the money simply don't buy the item! As obvious as this sounds, a lot of people will let their emotions override their rational decision making process (not just when it comes to purchasing and financial matters either). You can always save up to buy that new lcd tv or go way on that two week holiday. Here are some ways you can do this:

• Collect coupons, vouchers for shopping to get discounts.
• If you have a car, get a BP, Shell, Esso loyalty card and accumulate the reward points for filling up at your respective station.
• If you have a loyalty to a certain chain of supermarket sign up to the reward card scheme and each time you shop there points will be added to your balance that enable you to get certain prizes once a certain level of points have been amounted.
• Take any old unwanted stuff to a jumble sale or auction house if you feel the items in question may of be some value. Use ebay for an online alternative.
• Consume all food and vegetables before the use by date. Don't let food go rotten in your fridge. Keep your fridge clean.
• Rather than buy new clothes, customize old ones and use hand me downs for the kids if they don't object too much.
• Mix up your shopping at the supermarket, buy value items as well as non-value items.
  
• Shop at charity shops if you're after real bargains, don't pay too much attention to in-store discounts at leading high street fashion retail stores.
• Cancel any direct debits that you're not really making use of. You may have signed up to a wine club a while back, but perhaps not drinking as much wine as you thought you would when you first sign up. If you can, cancel any unnecessary subscriptions.

Most of these are fairly straight forward steps to take, but aren't the simple, straight forward steps always the most effective?