Save your wallet during the scorching summer months

The summer months are here. As the global average temperatures are on the rise, we must brace ourselves for increased energy consumption and the heavy toll it will take on all of us. According to expert statistics, around 20% of the total energy consumption is used for cooling the buildings. Whether it be offices, public spaces, or homes, a seasonal rise in demand for energy is significant. Now that international tensions are on the rise, importing energy by conventional techniques is questionable and it only means you will likely see a surge in prices sooner or later.

In this context, how can you plan your personal finances considering the increased energy consumption? Or better yet, how can you make sure the energy bill doesn’t make a hole in your wallet as the price of energy increases?

We’ve got you covered. In this article, we will discuss some fail-proof techniques to help you save energy and reduce your energy bill this summer.

Tips to save energy

We have talked about this extensively before, but there’s no harm in repeating if the point we are making is worth it. Saving energy is vital for our personal growth and the sustenance of the planet. Every person should take responsibility to save energy and strive to make it more sustainable. Here are a few tips to save energy at home.

• Use of LED or energy-efficient Light Bulbs
  Conventional incandescent bulbs use more electricity and thereby lead to increased energy consumption. You can swap them with energy-saving LED bulbs to make sure your energy bill doesn’t spike even if you are using them extensively during the summer months.
  
• Use a thermostat to maintain the house temperature
  You don’t have any control over the temperature outside, but you can control it inside your home using a thermostat. It will help you set a certain temperature that you are comfortable with and allows you to maintain that temperature consistently. This means you don’t have to run the AC till you feel the chill inside. The thermostat will control and turn off the AC as soon as it reaches the set temperature. Make sure that the AC is working correctly and in sync with the thermostat, however. If there is a lag or malfunction, call in guys from Sandri Energy (https://www.sandri.com/) or a similar service to fix it. Once it’s working properly, and since the whole process is automated, you can significantly reduce the amount of time and energy you spend to cool off.
  
• Use blinds and ventilation to avoid any extra heat entering your house
  It’s simple, yet highly effective. Ventilation and sources of heating can be managed to ensure they don’t increase the temperature unnecessarily. Moreover, you can really manage the mild summer heat most of the time with proper ventilation. Fixing the vents, installing exhaust fans, keeping the blinds or shades on during the high noon, and making sure all of the unnecessary appliances are turned off make a huge impact. You can also look for custom window treatments that can help to control light and heat in the house to keep the indoors cool during summers. It could benefit you reduce the total amount of energy consumed at home, thereby bring down the cost.
  
• Use of fans with AC and a de-humidifier
  We are so accustomed to having an AC or heater that other options feel meritless. However, that’s not the case. You can easily use a fan to cool off at home without having to run an AC all the time. It’s a major step down in energy consumption and a fan only uses a fraction of the energy required for an AC. Similarly, there are apparatuses like the de-humidifier that help you maintain the humidity level that impacts your perceived temperature. In simpler terms, a de-humidifier manages the amount of water in the air that heats up the atmosphere.
  
• Focus on the outdoors and try grilling instead of using the oven
  Another feasible alternative for energy saving is opting for outdoor activities instead of spending too much time indoors. You can take a walk to enjoy the sun and spend some quality time with friends and family at outdoor activities like grilling and strolls through the park. Grilling can be a fun activity to do with the whole gang, and if you’re inviting a lot of people over, remember to stay fueled up! If you enjoy regular barbecues, then it may even be useful to have an oil tank installed in the home with the help of professionals (like those at greensealoiltankservice.com), which could be a way to save energy around the home as well. In any case, try to plan more outdoor activities during the summer. These can help you interact with nature and be more in terms with it. The more time you spend indoors inevitably creates energy demand in one way or the other. Avoiding the need altogether is a great way to save costs.
  
• Trying alternate routes on your commute
  Summertime also incurs more energy during the time spent on the road. It’s the outdoor season and streets are bound to be more crowded. The traffic increases and you have to spend more time on the road for your daily commutes. Using devices like GPS trackers can help you track your travel timings, length, routes, etc. and help you plan accordingly. You can also check out the regular routes you take, see how long it takes, and search alternate routes using simple GPS tracker devices. If you can shift to biking or taking public transport, it can be highly effective.

In times past, keeping track of your finances and budgeting could really be a chore. Checking statements or logging into multiple bank, credit card, and store card accounts, then collating the data into a spreadsheet, or even just into a notebook. It was time consuming, fiddly, easy to make mistakes, and hard to get a full picture. Luckily, in the last few years, new innovation, regulation and technology has emerged that can make it all far easier, and even fun.

Open Banking:

One of the biggest reasons that all of the apps that make budgeting easier are possible is Open Banking. In 2015, the European Parliament issued a directive that aimed to open up the European finance industry to innovative new technologies. The UK was the first country that took up the baton, and in 2016 the UK financial regulators stated that all of the large banking providers had to give access to customer transaction details to licensed Fintech providers (upon the request of the customer of course). In 2018 this came into force, and by 2020 there were over 200 of these new companies operating in this area.

The way that it works is that if a customer requests that their bank gives access to a particular app/product, then the app can then get all of the transaction data, and can then do analysis on this data. This becomes particularly powerful when the customer connects several bank accounts, credit card providers and other financial institutions into one budgeting app – as it then allows the customer to essentially see their entire financial life in one place, which is a fantastic tool for budgeting.

There are many categories of app that utilize Open Banking, but below we focus on 2 – budgeting apps, and saving & investing apps.

Budgeting Apps:

Given that Open Banking is so perfect for budgeting apps, it is not surprising that many companies have entered the market. Indeed, some apps have already been and gone, such as Yolt, which closed down last year, and Cleo, which recently left the UK market to concentrate on the USA. There are still many options to choose from however.

Money Dashboard:

The budgeting app with the longest history, Money Dashboard have been around since 2011, and have over 600,000 users in the UK. They are a completely free app, and allow you to connect multiple financial institutions to the app and then see a unified budget across all of your providers.

Moneyhub:

Moneyhub costs a mere £0.99 per month or £9.99 per year, and allows you to fully integrate all your accounts within their app and analyse the data.

Emma:

Emma are a newer entrant to the market, having launched in 2018. They aim to take a gamified approach to budgeting that makes budgeting fun. The basic version of the app is free, but they also have paid versions that have extra features such as the ability to calculate your net worth. 

Snoop:

Snoop are also a newer entrant onto the budgeting scene, having launched in 2020. They have a similar suite of budgeting tools available as on the other apps, but also offer Checkers, which analyse your spending on key categories such as energy, broadband and insurance, and suggest other providers who may save you money.

You can see a more detailed summary of the best budgting apps here. (https://www.wiseabout.money/best-budgeting-app-take-control-of-your-money/)

Saving & Investing Apps:

The budgeting apps are a great way to manage your finances. However, once you have organized things, and identified ways to save money, what can you then do with those savings to grow your wealth?

That is where saving and investment apps come in. They also utilize open banking to analyse your spending, and then suggest an amount you can easily afford to save. They then offer savings accounts, and easy to use investment funds and ISAs which are perfect for beginner investors.

Plum:

Plum was launched in 2016, and since then has utilized Open Banking to facilitate their product. It is based around their algorithm, which analyses your spending and calculates an amount which you can comfortably save, and then moves it automatically into your Plum account. They then have savings and investments that you can put your saved funds into.

Moneybox:

The central concept behind Moneybox is that they aim to be like an actual moneybox. Using Open Banking, they use their Round-Ups function to round up all of your spending to the nearest pound, and then move these funds from your bank into your Moneybox automatically. The idea is that you can save without even noticing. You can also set other regular or one off payments to go into Moneybox. Once the funds are there, you can choose to put your money into one (or more) of their many savings accounts, investment funds and ISAs.

App based Banks:

Another option if you wish to have more budgeting tools at your disposal, but you want to do it all within your bank account, is to look at some of the app based banks that have been growing fast over the past few years.

These will offer you various options to separate out different areas within your account. For instance you can ensure that your money for bills or subscriptions is automatically ringfenced from your spending money, so you can’t accidentally spend it.

Starling Bank:

Starling Bank allow you to create Spaces within your account, with which you can separate your money. You can also get spending insights which categorise all of your spending.

Monzo:

Monzo had attracted an impressive 5 million customers to their platform by early 2021. They have a variety of budgeting tools, from Pots, which allow you to separate the funds in yoru account into different areas, Salary Sorter, which distributes your salary automatically into your Pots, and the ability to set monthly budgets for all of your different spending areas.

Overall, the 2020s are fast becoming the best time to be looking to budget and manage your finances – which, in an ever more complicated financial world, can be a fantastic benefit to anyone looking to take back control of their money.

Wiseabout.money (https://www.wiseabout.money) brings you reviews, comparisons, best of lists and more related to personal finance in the UK.

Learning how to save money when purchasing anything is not a small feat. You need to find the best ways to do so without spending money on irrelevant purchases. When it comes to buying a computer, the decision to save money may seem even more overwhelming. There is a wide range of specifications to consider, in line with your needs. Also, the price ranges vary widely. If you’re facing a price wall, don’t fret: A Dell coupon code may be all you need to take home the computer model you’re after.

Here are a few tips on saving money on your next computer purchase. It will help you get the best value for your money.

Get Coupons and Rebates

These will help you get a discount on your purchase. Coupons are vouchers that entitle you to a price cut, while rebates offer a cash return on what you buy. They come in different forms and various sources, from newspapers, magazines, to websites. When ordering a computer online, be on the lookout for these offers.

Companies like to use coupons because people forget they have them and proceed to buy the products at the usual price. Your best move, then, is to see if you can get a discount just before purchasing a computer.

Look Out for a Slightly Older Model

Computer companies release new models every few months. These come with incremental improvements to the overall features, performance, and capacity. However, these improvements are minimal. Most people will rush to get these new products, helping manufacturers and retailers profit.

As the manufacturers and retailers profit from the new products, they sell previous models at a discount. They do this in a bid to clear stock and create inventory space.

Purchase a Computer With Less RAM

You can get a computer with minimal memory. It is less expensive, and you can always upgrade the memory later. The strategy works when purchasing a premium brand or performance-class system. Do not forget to ask for a discount when the time comes to buy memory.

Purchase a Refurbished Computer

Refurbished computers are returns or products that fail the initial quality control checks at first. The manufacturer rebuilds them and sells them at a discount. They cost five to twenty-five percent less than the standard retail price.

When buying a refurbished computer, there are several factors to consider. These include a warranty, who rebuilt it, and an actual discount. Some retailers can take advantage of your assumption that since it is a refurbished system, it is cheap.

Build Your Own

If you want a gaming computer, you may need to part with quite some money. It will cost you, instead of saving you money. On the other hand, building your computer will save you hundreds of dollars. You can learn how to do this from online tutorials. It could get even cheaper than buying a budget computer.

Conclusion

Saving money when purchasing a computer may seem like a difficult feat. However, there are many ways you can do it. First, get to know what kind of computer you need. Then you can shop around and know the prices. From there, follow the tips above. Check for coupons and rebates, or decide on any other action that fits your needs.

Sources:

https://www.lifewire.com/seven-ways-to-save-money-on-a-computer-832356

https://money.allwomenstalk.com/ways-to-save-money-when-buying-a-computer/