A couple of months back we asked our newsletter subscribers (signup here) for their best money hacks and we published a first list in August. We did not use them all back then so here are more money hack quickies from the JOL community

• Cut your own hair (or get your kids or partner to do so). This was by a long way our most popular hack.
• I buy prepaid electricity in such a way that I stay within the cheapest tariff block that I can (the rate increases the more electricity you use, as I’m sure you know) through the whole year. It means buying a little more electricity during summer months so that you have a big enough balance during winter when you use more electricity.
• Universal Geyser Blanket Kit. This was a popular option with many suggesting wrapping your geyser.
• Using a few drops of Handy Andy in warm water to clean the tiles instead of fancy tile cleaning liquids. A bottle of Handy Andy lasts much longer!
• A list of load shedding friendly meals on the fridge door so that I’m not tempted to buy takeaways.
• Bar of soap instead of shower gel.
• Popcorn as a snack instead of chips.
• Don’t carry cash – its too easy to spend, kids, spouse, parking attendants, etc.
• I use an app called Snap and Save where you get money back for scanning your till slips, then the money I get back I invest in my EE account 🙂 I also use my Standard Bank Ucount rewards I earn to invest.
• I take massive advantage of the rewards programs offer by these banks, retailers, and insurers. Great savings there that one should be conscious of and benefit from.
• We catch all the cold water in buckets when waiting for the water to run hot e.g. in the shower/ bath. We use all this water for our kitchen needs and in the washing machine. It amounts to a lot of water which would just have gone down the drain
• A wifi geyser smart switch, has already paid for itself in about 2 months.
• I’ve been budgeting extensively for decades – monthly, annual and ad hoc budgets. I’ve recently open-sourced the program that I use so that other people may use it too.
• Use the cold water wash cycle (or set the temp to cold) on your washing machine. Reduced monthly usage from 700 to about 500 units and washing is just as clean

Each week, we receive incredible money hacks from a growing audience. In this blog, we share our favourites and why we love them. If you are a financial Master of Efficiencies, share your money tips with us by sending an email to info@justonelap.com.