With so much gloomy economic stuff in the news about financial meltdown and recession, just what can you do to conserve your cash?

In these troubling times, the Net is the best place. There are many ways you can use it to save yourself money and have some fun too.

Here’s my 5 top tips to beating any recession and save money

1) Shop online to save fuel. With fuel costs rocketing, anything you can do to reduce journeys will save you cash. Nearly anything you may desire can be bought on the web – and usually cheaper than you can find at your local stores. If you like to see what you’re buying, then you can at least use the Web to research the best prices, saving you money and extra mileage between stores.

2) Find yourself bargains online. Use auction sites such as Ebay and classified ad sites such as Craigslist, Gumtree (and any local ones) to find bargains – regardless of whether you are buying new or used. If you have a bit more time on your hands, search the lesser used auction sites too, as they can often have good bargains.

3) Use price comparison sites. For essential charges like car & household insurance, to electricity & gas suppliers, the price comparison sites will help you get the best deal on those essential necessities. Why not make a night or two of it, reviewing all your insurance & utility commitments and see just how much money you can save yourself.

4) Look for discount vouchers online. If you want an evening out – be it a restaurant , going to the cinema, bowling etc - just have a quick search of the Internet to see what discount vouchers can be had. Either do a Google search for restaurant discount voucher, or visit one of the many money saving tip websites - they nearly always have a section with details of what vouchers are available. (Just type “money saving tips” “money off voucher” etc into Google)

5) Stay in and have a dinner party. Instead of a big night out, why not invite friends round for dinner-and ask them to bring a bottle. You can find some hilarious party games at websites like partyplan.co.uk to make you dinner party go with a bang!.

There’s my 5 top tips to use the Web to save money, have a great time and survive these tough times. Can you think of any more?

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