Buy All The Things, All At Once!

Ok, not literally. But I mentioned in previous posts that I've made a habit of buying everything I need for the year (or more) en masse in the January sales. Bulk purchasing items can save you a lot of money in the long run, assuming you follow some simple rules. Failure to adhere to these rules will result in you wasting money, so don't just rush in with your wallet before thinking ahead.

Try before you buy!

This may sound incredibly obvious, but don't buy any items that you haven't already tried and know you like. Splashing out £500 on 30 boxes of random deodorant, only to discover a day later that it leaves the underarms of your t-shirts looking like a bottle of Tippex exploded in the wash is a quick way to lose £500! Only buy products that you have tried in the past and know will be put to good use.

Avoid perishable goods

Another seemingly obvious one, but don't bulk buy anything that will go off long before you get round to using it. 10 crates of blueberries for £20 is a bargain only if you plan to eat, freeze or preserve them immediately. I tend to keep bulk purchases of most food items to a maximum of a few months supply and only do yearly stock ups of items that I know will last a long time. Also, a year of eating the same food can get pretty boring after a while if, like me, you prefer to change things up every now and then. Plan ahead and make sure you can either store or eat anything that could go rotten. Sometimes the amount of time and work needed to properly store it just isn't worth the money you save.

Check you have storage space

Following on from the above rule... if you do plan to store either perishable or non-perishable items, then check you actually have the space to fit it all somewhere. If you live in a tiny bedsit and only have one plastic container and a few empty gaps under the bed, then don't go crazy and fill up the entire place with 1000 loo rolls. Unless you enjoy living in a pretend fortress and want to relive the excitement of hiding in the supermarket stacks as a child (which is entirely understandable). If you're more of a minimalist type that recoils in horror at having a single ornament littering the perfect lines of your otherwise empty home, then make sure you know where all of your supplies will go before buying anything. Having to pay therapist fees for a psychological meltdown will quickly eat up any money you saved!

Shop around or wait for bargains

Buying things in bulk will usually save money anyway, but ideally you want to save additional money buy waiting until the items you need are on offer. Look around for deals before you bulk buy anything. Haggle further if you can, as some suppliers are happy to give you a better deal if you are willing to take a large amount of stock in one go. There are a couple of markets that I frequent where the traders will offer extra reductions if I pay in cash.

The January sales are a good time to pick up a lot of good bargains. Although check you are actually getting a good rate, as some shops will offer 'discounts' that really aren't. Just because the item is included under a big 'SALE' sign, doesn't necessarily mean it's worth buying. Check the price per item first.

For the less mathematically able among us, to calculate the price per item you just take the total price and divide it by the number of items included. For example, if a shop is selling a crate of 80 oranges for £12, then you would divide £12 by 80 to get a cost per individual orange of 15p.

Online cashback or coupon sites

If you prefer to shop online for most things, get into the habit of checking for extra discounts or coupons via sites like Top Cashback rather than going directly to the shop website. Obviously don't buy things just for the cash back, as that defeats the whole purpose. But if you are planning to stock up on an item anyway, then check if you can get a better deal. It's also worth asking around your friends and family in case they have coupons for items they don't use. Sometimes you can swap them for something you won't use. Which leads to...

Network, network, network!

Do you know others in your social circle that are trying to save a bit more money? If so, it might be worth teaming up and buying even bigger stacks of items in one go. You may find you get an even bigger discount if you purchase 40 boxes of something together rather than 20 boxes each as two separate customers. Or perhaps there is an item that both of you use, but you can't justify buying enough of in one go to get any discount. Teaming up with a housemate/colleague/friend/relative could mean that the total purchase qualifies for 5% off, which benefits you both. Just ensure you live close enough that you don't waste all of the money you save on delivering their shopping!

Buying things in en masse can save you quite a bit of money if done right. Just make sure you plan ahead and avoid any hidden costs.

Another Redundancy

I haven't posted in a while as I was hit with yet another redundancy last autumn after my company was bought out and half of our jobs offshored. It hit me pretty hard, as I honestly thought I'd left the crazy up and down swings of employment behind after the recession ended and was planning on several years of playing catch up for all that missed salary in my 20s.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. So in late October I began job hunting yet again (something I'm getting quite good at now). I managed to score a couple of short term contracts over the winter and early spring, but since the last one ended I've been struggling to find another temporary or permanent role within commuting distance. I was lucky enough to be offered voluntary redundancy, so I had a bit of money to tide me over and avoided having to borrow anything to pay the rent. But it seems all of the junior level roles in my industry are based miles away from where I live, and I've invested a large amount of money into my current accommodation and can't just up sticks and move right now. I've also paid upfront for a block of classes at a nearby school and can't get any refund.

So I'm having to make a decision of whether to remain unemployed for another few months and try to live off my savings until I can move home OR change career path yet again and just take any local job I can get my hands on to tide me over.

In the meantime, I've decided to just freeze all of my portfolio where it is and once I have money coming in again I can hopefully catch up to my last total and continue from there.

Sometimes life seems to be a succession of three steps forwards, two steps back!

I'm honestly pretty tired of spending as much time unemployed and job hunting as I do in employment, so while I continue to apply for a new job I'm also looking at starting my own business. It's an incredibly risky thing to do, as I don't have any real experience in entrepreneurship (I even struggle to spell the word) and have no spare money to use as start up capital. The vast majority of new businesses fail, which is a bit scary. I therefore need to start small and look at what I can do without any initial funds. I've worked in both finance and IT, so can at least deal with the book-keeping and technical side of things. I'm not great at thinking up new viable products and don't have a home so I have no space to store other people's products to ship to clients. It will therefore need to be some sort of digital service. An ex colleague suggested I become a Youtube vlogger since everyone seems to be getting rich off Youtube these days, but I lack the social skill to talk incessantly for the length of a video (which is why I have a written blog instead).

I'm still very much in the brainstorming stage, so feel free to send any useful suggestions my way! Any general business start up advice from those who have succeeded on this path would also be very much appreciated!