Are you cutting back? Or hacking forward?

In the pandemic crisis, we’ve all been making changes to our lives.

Cutting back

The vast majority of us have certainly been cutting back.We’ve cut back on our gym subscriptions, on our time with friends, and on our spending. With so many people on furlough, or at risk of redundancy, it makes sense to be savvier with where we put our cash.

Trimming back can mean buying supermarket own-brand instead of the main brand. Or buying less of a favourite product.

It may mean making our lunch instead of buying sandwiches, or even taking much more drastic measures and becoming vegetarian or vegan.

Walking and cycling means we save money on our car or public transport needs, whilst getting fitter too.

Hacking Forward

However many people have been “hacking forward” as well as cutting back. By hacking forward, we can save EVEN MORE money or time, or resource, but we can still get exactly what we want.

For example:

Planning ahead - like planning a trip, to save fuel. Rather than going out in our car two or three times, we do everything in a round trip. Yes it takes a little more organisation, but it all makes sense when it saves us a solid 30 minutes from our day as well as saving cash on the fuel. It just makes sense, so we all tend to do this unconsciously.

Bolting things together – we have a busy schedule, need to catch a train or get on the bus – so we make a phone call from the train, to save us time at the office. Same phone call, same journey, together they save us time. Everyone does it, like planning ahead, we barely think about it.

Upskill and drive – heading for a boring drive to work? Getting a few audio downloads and listening while we drive means we can get ahead while we get in a few miles.

Vouchers and offers - many more of us are looking out for voucher codes these days, and coupons are a valuable resource when we’re saving a few quid. It means “hacking forward”, as it involves slightly more planning than normal. Voucher sites are even more popular at the moment, as online shopping is the norm and we are all keen to save a few pounds.

Probably you can recognise yourself in most if not all of these money-saving, time-saving super-clever hacks? So would you like to power up your buying even more?

Here’s how Cardyard can help you power-up the Forward Hacks

And then there are the next group of people – the extreme-forward-hackers! These people are really in the know as they pre-plan their purchases to make sure they get the best from every £.

Yes – they get their discount from a vouchercode site, but after that – they will DOUBLE-DOWN by buying a discounted gift-card to pay with. So, instead of just getting a typical 20% off, they will get another 10, 12, 15, 30%* off with their pre-owned giftcard from Cardyard.

Example:

So, for just £35.20 of your actual money, you could buy the same shoes that someone else has spent £50 on. It will take a few seconds extra to locate a voucher code, and then to buy a Cardyard gift card, but ultimately it can save you a packet!

*Cardyard rates vary – check out what cards and deals are available at the moment.