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· Buy your petrol and food on a credit card with cash back – the American Express Platinum money back credit card pays 5% cash back for the first 3 months (max £200). If your food and petrol bill adds up to £500 per month, you’ll get £25 per month back for three months

· Do your food shopping just once a week and plan your meals for the coming seven days before you go. You should hopefully only buy what you need which will save money and lead to less waste compared to popping to the corner shop 3 or 4 times a week and impulse buying.

· If you haven’t reviewed your gas and electricity supplier for a couple of years, it may be worth having another look. There are some dual fuel and online tariffs available that can work out cheaper than the standard offers

· Work out your annual costs for car tax, car service & MOT and Christmas and birthday expenses. Divide the cost by 12 and pay this amount into a savings account each month – not only will this prevent you having to pay a large bill from one month’s wages, you’ll also earn a bit of interest in the meantime.

· Earn extra money by filling out online surveys at sites like www.valuedopinions.com

· Gumtree.com is a useful website - you can type in your nearest city and then find things for sale locally or even people who are looking to share lifts – see example attached for Manchester - http://manchester.gumtree.com/manchester/rideshare_865_1.html

· Don’t keep too much money in your current account – if you budget correctly, you can keep your excess money in a savings account so it earns more than 0.1% in credit interest.

· Whenever you’re looking to make major purchases, check out online price comparison sites such as www.pricerunner.co.uk or www.kelkoo.co.uk

· Make use of the sunny weekends and take your unwanted CDs, DVDs and children’s clothes to a car boot sale – you might earn up to £100 for three hours of your time – nice work if you can get it!

· Don’t forget to review your home and contents insurance – not just looking for cheaper cover, but also reviewing the level of cover you have – you may be able to cut back here and save some money.