5 money saving tips - and political hallucinations

Well folks, it’s the end of the summer as heralded by air traffic control meltdown, miserable drizzle and a lingering sense of irritability with bored children mooching around the house!

Before we spring back into full action next week, I’m going to share 5 quick money-saving ideas with you this week to banish the post-holiday budget blues.

1. Tax Tips 1 – This article shares 5 ways we can reduce our tax bills. This includes ideas such as the Marriage Allowance for couples where one earns less than about £12,500 a year and the other is a basic-rate taxpayer; there are also tips on tax-free childcare and how to make sure your tax code is correct.

2. Tax Tips 2 – There are more higher-rate taxpayers than ever and they are being clobbered by threshold freezes. This guide shares 5 ways in which higher-rate taxpayers can reduce their tax payments without resorting to dodgy dealings in Panama.

3. Cash Tip 1 – If you have cash which you can lock away for one year then the Government-backed NS&I has launched a 6.2% Guaranteed Growth Bond. This is a bloody good offer! It’s like being a teenager and having the best-looking boy in the class tell you he doesn’t drink and offering to give you a lift home. Exciting and reliable – they don’t often go together. (N.B. You’ll pay tax on interest above £500 – basic-rate taxpayers – and interest above £1,000 a year for higher-rate taxpayers. Higher-rate taxpayers might be better off looking at short-term Government bonds for chunky cash sums you have outside the protection of an ISA as these babies are tax free. Worth reading up on and I covered it in this blog

4. Money Management Tip 1 – If you are a couple, claiming child benefit and one of you doesn’t work, for gawd’s sakes make sure the non-working person claims the benefit – you will get National Insurance contributions which boost your State Pension. Lots of people leave the ‘money jobs’ to the working partner and miss out. So this weekend, down the pub, don’t bother chatting to parent friends about politics or how you’ve never heard of anyone in this year’s Strictly apart from Angela Rippon – talk about their National Insurance contributions instead!

5. Money Making Idea – We are currently running a lot of projects for some big brand advice firms and fund managers. We need to talk to their customers to find out how they’re doing. Some more involved projects might take up to a few hours but we do pay £100s for your input. And there are plenty of smaller opportunities too, which can all be done online from home. If you don’t mind the idea of talking to us in exchange for some wonga then you can register here.

That’s all this week, people. I will leave you with a mad thought which is bothering me! I am very disturbed that Grant Shapps is our new Defence Secretary. For anyone else who wasted hours of their youth watching Neighbours… Mr Shapps is a dead ringer for Bouncer The Dog. And you don’t want Bouncer The Dog facing off to Putin. Please tell me someone else sees this and it’s not just me!?

Have a good weekend everyone. I’m sure I’ll be back to normal next week once the kids have gone back! :0)

Holly

Want to get Holly's weekly blog straight to your inbox?

Sign up for no-nonsense tips, tricks and food for thought every Friday!

SIGN UP

I would like to hear from you about products, events, general marketing and other things from Boring Money – including personalised content and ads - but please try not to make them as boring as everything else in finance!

Already have an account? Login