Five ways to save money this summer

Summer is a glorious season. It’s also an expensive one. Here are my summer saving tips - they’ll help your pocket and most will also help the planet.

Rewear your summer wedding outfit!

The average cost to attend a wedding in 2019 is £319 per guest, with £68 dedicated to that all important outfit, according to a survey from Amex. Unless it’s a themed wedding, men usually reach for that failsafe suit. But women often end up buying something new. Why not do a dress swap with a friend or simply rewear an outfit?

When my uncle got married in June, I wore a dress I bought for £15 on eBay for a wedding the previous summer. With no overlap of guests, no one would have noticed and even if they had, would anyone have cared? Extending the life of an outfit, buying second hand from charity shops, eBay or apps such as Depop reduces the drain on your bank balance and on the earth’s resources: nearly 20% of water wasted globally is due to the fashion industry.

Prepare your weekday lunches

When I worked in an office, I set myself a summer challenge of making lunch four days a week and only buying something pre-prepared on Fridays. On Sunday evenings, I’d roast some vegetables, make some couscous, and then each morning I’d add these to my tupperware box with lettuce and feta or mozzarella to make a healthy, delicious salad.

Essentially, I recreated a Pret salad that usually costs £3.99, for less than half of that each day. It also meant I didn’t use any single-use plastic packaging, which often comes with salads, pastas or sandwiches that we buy. For easy and cheap recipes, have a look at Jack Munroe’s website Cooking on a Bootstrap.

Buy your summer reading second hand or online

Books can be costly if you buy them new, read them once and never touch them again. Try not to leave your holiday reading to a last minute WHSmith sweep at the airport. Your local highstreet charity shop will often carry classics for £1 or £2 while the used section of Amazon can be so much cheaper than buying the book new.

That said, if the book you want to read is a new release, used options might be limited. For recently published books, I’d recommend ordering from Hive, an online marketplace with great discounts, where a cut of the price goes to your local independent bookseller. Books can be delivered or collected and there’s a 10% student discount.

My summer reading recommendations include Never Greener by Ruth Jones, who co-wrote Gavin & Stacey with James Cordon, Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, How to Fail by Elizabeth Day and Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls, author of the brilliant bestselling novel One Day.

Pay using the local currency with Starling overseas

If you’re travelling abroad this summer, don’t forget to pack your Starling card for no fees overseas. And when you use your card to pay for something on a card machine, make sure you pay in the local currency. That way, Starling will do the exchange and you’ll get a better rate. The less you lose on unfair exchange rates and ATM withdrawal fees, the more you’ll have for mojitos.

Fun fact - I recently learned in a pub quiz that mojitos originated in Cuba, one of the many countries on my bucket list.

Try a staycation

Of course, you may be opting to stay in the UK this summer. A 2019 study found that half of us plan to spend our main summer holiday in Britain this year.

If you’re based in London, you’re only an hour away from Brighton beach. Living in Leeds? You could take a weekend trip to the Yorkshire Dales. Booking off-peak trains in advance will get you the best prices or you could hire a car and split the cost between your group. Or you could borrow a car from a friend and buy pay-as-you-go car insurance from Cuvva and ByMiles.

This August, I’m off to Suffolk for a few days and will be enjoying the Fringe festival in Edinburgh - where are you heading? Tweet us your travel pics with the hashtag #TravelWithTeal.