With so much doom and gloom in the news about financial crisis and credit crunch, exactly what can you do to beat the credit crunch?

In these troubling times, the Net is the best place. There are many ways you can use it to save cash and have fun at the same time.

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 trips will save you money. Nearly anything you may desire can be bought online – and usually at a saving to what you can find at your local retail park. 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 online auction sites like Ebay and classified ad sites such as Craigslist, Gumtree (and any local ones) to find great bargains – regardless of whether you are buying new or used. If you are more patient, search the lesser used auction sites too, as they can often have good bargains.

3) Use price comparison sites. For everything from car & household insurance, to electricity & gas suppliers, the price comparison sites will help you get the best deal on those must have 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) Find discount vouchers online. If you want an evening out – be it eating out , going to the cinema, bowling etc - just have a quick look online to see what discount vouchers are available. Either do a Google search for restaurant discount voucher, or go to one of the many money saving tip websites - they usually have pages 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 to “bring a bottle” round for dinner. You can find some hilarious party games at websites like partyplan.co.uk to make you dinner party go with a bang!.

That’s just five ways to use the Internet to help you save money, have a great time and survive these tough times. Can you think of any more?

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