Money talks, money talks.

What with saving my house deposit this year, I’ve had a renewed focus on trying to save money and have actually picked up a few decent tips along the way. You know when you find out something useful and assume you’re the last person to know? That’s not always true – I’ve shared a fair few of these with friends and blown their minds, so I figured they were worth sharing here in the hope that I could impart some wisdom. After all, it’s always good to try and save a bit of money, or just make a little bit of extra pennies to spend.

Quidco
I’m definitely late to the party on this one! In case you don’t know, Quidco is basically an affiliates site. You purchase things through their links, and make a bit of cash back. They have lots of brands signed up, and for some you might only get 1% back, but for others the reviews are much bigger. Friends of mine have made several hundred pounds in the last year.

I used Quidco to find the best mobile phone deal when I upgraded in January. It suggested going through Carphone Warehouse, rather than direct with o2, as the deals were better (even though I stayed with o2). I paid £100 upfront, got £60 cashback and am spending about £20 less a month than I was before – and that’s with an iPhone 5S. Sign up here!

RewardStyle
I’ve been using RewardStyle for a couple of years now, and it’s a great tool for bloggers. It’s another affiliates site, so every time you link to something to buy, you can potentially get money back if people click your link and go on to purchase. The good thing with RS is that if someone clicks your ASOS link but purchases something different on the site, you’ll still get that payment back.

It takes quite a while to pay out as commission isn’t closed until people can no longer return the items they purchased, and there’s a $100 minimum payment. But if you regularly post wishlists or post about new clothes, it’s really useful. And even if you don’t, it’s worth using when you do – you’ll be surprised how quickly it can build up!

Source
eBay / Depop
I use eBay a lot to sell unwanted items – I have a big session planned soon, in fact! But I’ve seen a lot of bloggers talk about Depop too. It’s basically a cross between Instagram and ebay, where you post photos of what you want to sell much like you would an Instagram sale, and then sort out payment through the app. It’s a set price system though, whereas I actually quite like the unpredictability of eBay, weirdly. I mean sure, you might only get £2 for that £20 Topshop skirt… but then you might get £40 for those £10 shoes from the Office sale!

Tesco Clubcards
I only found this one out recently from my sister and it blew my tiny mind. If you logon to the Tesco website, it’ll convert your points into vouchers – so right now, for instance, I have £16.50 worth of points. Not so great. However, you can then exchange these vouchers for rewards that are worth a lot more. There are a few different things on there like days out and holidays but now I’ve discovered it, I’ll be using it mostly for restaurant trips. You can swap £2.50 of points for a whopping £10 restaurant voucher for places like Prezzo, Pizza Express, Zizzi and Café Rouge. So my £16.50 can get me £60 worth of restaurant vouchers!

As much as this doesn’t make me money, I eat out a fair amount and it’s going to save me plenty. I used my Prezzo vouchers for the first time last week and there were no problems at all – it’s basically like a giftcard. It’s worth noting though that they don’t give change for vouchers, so you’re better to underestimate your spend than overestimate.

Go online
There are so so so so so many websites and blogs out there that will help you save money. I love VoucherCodes and Money Saving Expert, but I also regularly check blogs like A Thrifty Mrs and From Aldi to Harrods. I also regularly spot posts on Pinterest (this is a great board to follow) and even the likes of Buzzfeed has some handy hints.

If you have any extra hints though, I’d love to hear them – let me know in the comments or on Twitter!

FYI: This post isn’t sponsored, but I’ve used referral links in a couple of instances which means I’ll make a bit of money if you sign up and mention me!