Pennypinching ideas that can work for you
We often exceed our household expenditure budget. And as the month ends, we are left wishing that our money had lasted just a little bit longer. You have heard various takes on ‘pound-foolish, penny-wise’ approaches. Fact is, especially in today’s age of gadgets and technology, penny pinching can help you save quite a few pounds— much more than what was ever possible in the past. You can have it all, and still save a bunch every month with these five penny-pinching ideas.
Most retail and grocery stores offer coupons to their customers. These coupons give deals on future purchases, with offers such as ‘buy one-get one’ on select products and even cash discounts. If used smartly, these vouchers help you save money. It is a good practice to organise all these coupons in one place, so you don’t have to go on a treasure hunt before grocery shopping. Remember that most of these vouchers have an expiry date. You can plan your shopping to make the best of these offers.
Most banks and mobile wallets have cashback offers on online purchases. These offers can be from banks (for credit and debit cards) or e-wallet companies. In these offers, you don’t get upfront discounts. A certain percentage of your billed amount—which can be as high as 50% of your bill (and even 100% for ‘lucky’ users)—gets added to your card or e-wallet upon completion of the transaction. This cashback can be used to reduce your next shopping bill. Spend a few minutes to compare the offers, to know which e-wallet or bank card to use, before heading to the payment gateway.
There are so many e-commerce websites that you can never really be sure that another isn’t offering a better deal. This is where price comparison websites come in. These websites get the price feeds from many shopping portals and show them to you in one place. They let you compare prices from many e-retailers such Flipkart, Amazon, Tata Cliq, eBay, and Paytm. Some price comparison websites are—pricedekho.com, compareraja.in, and mysmartprice.com.
It may not be wise to get loyalty cards of every retail store you go to. However, if you visit a store more than the others, it could make sense to have its membership card. The store usually adds points to your card every time you shop with it. When accumulated, these points can be redeemed later while shopping. However, some stores charge membership fees and in some case the accumulated points expire after a time. Analyse all this before buying a store membership card.
To make the most of the sales, you need to plan your shopping in advance, and organise your wish-list cart as well. If you know what you want, you can track its price and go for it the moment its price reaches your target price. Most brands go for end-of-season sales, in which the price of older collections can be cut by 60% or more. You can plan to hit these sales as they follow the same calendar every year. According to Uttam Kumar Sen, a certified financial planner, everybody should pennypinch as it helps one understand the worth of each penny and develop a sense of responsibility. “If you want to earn 8% interest to get ₹1, you will have to invest ₹12.50 for 1 year. However, we do not think about this before spending that ₹1. We need to understand the value of money,” said Sen.
Melvin Joseph, founder, FinVin Financial Planners and a registered investment adviser, said one should do a cost-benefit analysis before deciding if it is really worth spending that much time on penny-pinching. Pennypinching requires you to be financially disciplined and needs you to religiously track all the methods adopted. Remember that penny-pinching is not a one-day exercise. It requires you to be smart and tech-savvy and can be a little time consuming at times. So, do it only if you see value in saving every penny and if it suits your lifestyle.
The goods and services tax (GST) council chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley, will meet in Hyderabad on Saturday to consider an increase in cess on large cars and examine demands for tax rate relief on branded agricultural produce and a few other items of mass consumption.
While the union government promulgated an ordinance on September 3, raising the maximum cess that may be levied on medium-sized to large cars and SUVs from 15% to 25%, the Council has to decide the amount of increase to be enforced in view of revenue requirements.
The cess goes to a fund meant to compensate states for revenue losses in the first five years of the GST regime.
According to an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, 10% is the maximum increase allowed under the ordinance. The official said many in the council may not find a 10% increase on all cars desirable in view of the decline in economic growth rate to 5.7% in the June quarter of 2017-18, and ahead of the festive season.
Another person informed about the discussions, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said only cars and SUVs priced above ₹20 lakh may see an increase in cess of 10%.
Car makers have made repre- sentations to the Council to refrain from raising the cess at present, said an industry representative, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
The final decision is also likely to be influenced by state representatives who tend to support revenue raising measures.
The Council will also discuss demands for giving relief to branded agriculture produce from the 5% tax rate. Un-branded agriculture produce is not taxed.
The Council will deliberate on the performance of the IT infrastructure supporting GST. In view of the difficulties faced by businesses in filing returns, the deadline for filing detailed returns for the month of July and August were extended. The last date for filing returns on supplies made by companies is September 10 as per the revised schedule.