"A dream in pusuit of a mathematical impossibility." E. O. Wilson in Consilience. This could be used to describe our chances of ever paying off the national debt the government has incurred on our behalf on our lifetime. After all it was just a year or two ago that we finished paying the USA for WWI!

Piggy banks.
The miserly interest rates make this worthwhile. Give each person in the house a piggy bank of some sort. Then each person chooses a denomination of coin - this means that even the kids can join in. So perhaps Dad chooses the £2 coin, and mum the £1, etc. Then that individual puts all the coins of that denomination into their piggy bank. The piggy banks can either be left until they are full, or it can be agreed to empty them at certain holdays or birthdays etc. This is a good way to get kids into the habit of saving. You'll be amazed at how much you can save. I once lived in a country where the interest rates are as low as ours are now, and I saved the highest denomination coin in a little box. When the box was full I was amazed to find I had more than enough to buy a very good stereo system and some new CDs.

De-clutter and get paid for it
Open up an E-bay account and a Paypal account. Then go around your house and gather all the stuff that you haven't' used or don't want. Then put it on E-bay. Get paid through Paypal and from now on use your Paypal account to fund your online purchases - nearly everyone accepts Paypal now. The result will be more space, a better organised house, and a few new purchases. I'm currently doing this with my books, and E-bay have a marvellous deal just now that things entered for £0.99 do not have a listing fee - so if you don't sell it you have nothing to pay. What has amazed me is the price people are willing to pay for some of my tatty old books!

Freeze you credit card.
Seriously. Put it in a cup, glass or other small container. Fill the container with water, then put the lot in the freezer. The next time you feel the urge to splurge you'll have to wait until it has thawed out. Hopefully by that time sober sanity will have prevailed.

Use cash more
Scientific studies have shown that we are more thrifty and aware of just how much we are spending if we use cash as opposed to plastic. The other wonderful thing about cash is that if you don't have it you can't spend it - if only plastic were more like this we might not be in the awful mess we now find ourselves in. - Grippy Gordon. Perhaps the other Gordon should have taken this advice.

Round up and save the difference
When you pay for things using cash - see above - round up the price. For example if the bill comes to £22.50 round that up to £25.00 or even £30.00. When you get home put the rounded up money away. Don't count or tough this money until the piggy bank or whatever is full. You'll be amazed at how much you've saved. Real cash back.

Magazine subscriptions
Do not automatically renew your subscription. Check out the deals for new customers, and also for gift subscriptions - they might be cheaper than your renewal. This is because companies have moved away from rewarding loyalty, and now are just desperate for new customers. If you take out a new subscription online often they will insist that you renew as you are using the same email address. Simply sign up for a free Google or Yahoo email address and get the mail forwarded to you main email address. You should always have more than one email address anyway.

Software and other online subscriptions, rentals etc.
Software antivurus subscriptions, rental of web space etc. is becoming more and more common. These people are very quick to tell you when the subscription is coming up for renewal - in one case I was warned about an annual sub. 6 months before it was due to run out! Be very careful when you renew these things. I recently renewed my Norton sub. I waited until it had 20 days to run out, and then renewed for 2 years. However the 2 year sub. ran from that very day. In other words I lost 20 days of my previous sub. So it pays to wait until very near the end of your current subscription. Also beware of bogus renewal notices for web domain names. If you have a website domain name these companies will try to get you to re-register it through them. Unless this is what you want, it is usually best to stick with your original registration company.

Tesco, and other loyalty card reward money.
Don't take Tesco clubcard rewards as money. Check out their deals - some are fantastic and worth on average 10 times the money value. They are especially good on RAC membership and magazine subscriptions.

www.oscaruk.co.uk
This web site lists discounts on just about everything for those over 50. You can choose the category and the area. There is a huge amount of information. So if you are going to buy something, try something or do something, this is a good place to check if you can get an age-related discount.

www.wine-pages.com/food/byoblist
This web site lists restaurants where you can bring in your own wine to drink with your meal. With many supermarkets offering half price wine, this can be a huge saving when eating out. However, the last time I looked there wasn't a single restaurant listed for Aberdeenshire! It is great for other parts of the country though.

Comparison websites
On the whole these websites are useful, but do be aware that many of them might not list the best deals at the top of the page. This is because they may be obliged to put their advertisers products first, so do scroll down to make sure. Also for some things, car insurance, for example the website may be next to useless if you have lived abroad. I lived abroad, and had no no-claims bonus for this country, so all the personal information I entered was useless, however I didn't know this till I gave one of the insurers a piece of my mind when he quoted double what the comparison site quoted. Then the insurer took time to explain what was going on.

Paying power bills by direct debit
Check your actual power consumption against what you have agreed to pay by direct debit. If you are using less than you expected then get the power company to reduce the direct debit. We moved to a new house and agreed to pay the same as the previous owner for our gas, but after checking things we saw that we used a lot less, so we agreed with the gas company to halve the direct debit. We also use a wood burning stove for heat whereas the previous occupiers didn't.

Burn wood
We have a wood burning stove and are getting another. They are the most economical way to heat your house, the wood is grown locally, so there is a low carbon footprint, and it is cheap. You can get various options - just the stove, stove with back boiler to heat water, stove with bigger boiler to heat water and a few radiators.

Travel insurance
1. If you travel abroad more than once a year then compare the price of annual insurance as it will probably be cheaper and less hassle than taking out a policy each time.
2. If you do not plan to travel to the USA and/or ski or do other "dangerous" sports make sure you travel insurance takes this into account. You should be able to get a sizable discount. If not, then you'd probably be better off with another company as your premium is contributing to those who do travel to the USA and do dangerous sports.
3. When you book a holiday or flight online be very careful when you come to the payment stage. Often the provider will have included travel insurance by default. If you want to pay for it then that is fine, but if not then unclick the box and make sure the total is recalculated to take this into account.
4. When you travel within the EU you will be entitled to the same care as the locals, however this does not include any accommodation or transport home, so do take this into consideration.

Telephone calls
Get Skype for your computer, then you can make free telephone calls to anyone else anywhere else in the world as long as they have Skype too. If you both have webcams you can see each other too.

Broadband
Are you paying too much for your broadband connection? Think broadband will allow you to compare as well as answer many other questions related to broadband setup and problems.

Moneyspermarket.com
This website offers tips and advice on a wide range of topics, but is especially good with financial advice.

uSwitch.com
Similar to the above, but this site specialises in utilities.

approvedfood.com
This is an amazing site offering branded named food that is near its sell by date for huge discounts. It helps if you can order in bulk as you can get 28 kg posted to a single address for £5.25. So it's the kind of site to keep an eye on as it won't always have what you want, but when it does you can save a fortune.