Shop for final yellow sticker bargains, last reductions are often down to 10p.
Look out for discount food shops that sell shortdated/slightly out of date packaged food. Online there’s Approved Food.
Don’t drink anything at home except water, tea, herb tea, coffee, milk and one bottle of wine per week (or equivalent size of nice cider/ale). Soft drinks, juices and booze quickly add up. If your water tastes yuck and you buy bottled water, get a filter jug.
When vegetables are marked down, buy a couple of extras and make pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi etc. Also make up a batch of vegetable soup and freeze in portions.
Downshift a brand level on everything till you can notice a difference.
Cut out virtually all sugar at home (just have sweet treats at celebrations and days out etc) and cut back on processed/starchy carbs… eating carbs, especially fructose based sugars, sets up intense carb craving cycles and you can easily get into an expensive snacking habit This article on the subject is good www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/well/eat/are-you-a-carboholic-why-cutting-carbs-is-so-tough.html
Make your own cleaning products. Use an empty spray bottle, fill 1/3 way with white vinegar, top up with water. Don’t use on surfaces like marble and stone. Bicarb is great for shifting stubborn grubbiness… scum line on bath or greasy baking pans. A damp microfibre cloth with a drop of washing up liquid is great for cleaning surfaces. Look up zero waste/frugal cleaning products on blogs and youtube.
Cut dishwasher tablets in half… I use Lidl 3 in 1 and they still work great… just saw the top with a serrated knife, hold the tablet over an edge and press down.
Eat mince… lots of great recipes which are cheap and tasty such as lamb koftas, shepherd’s pie, chilli, thai curry with HM turkey meatballs, HM burgers etc.
Eggs are cheap and nutritious. As is tinned fish.
Lentil dhal costs pennies, is nutritious and delicious.
Buy dried pulses in bulk. You can cook up a big batch and freeze some to save on the energy costs next time.
Make use of any growing space… even if you just have a windowsill you can grow microgreens and herbs. Sprouts in jamjars. Work up to cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets, strawberry planters on the patio, tubs with kale, cut and come again salad leaves, growbags with courgettes etc. Get your own compost heap or cone going so you won’t need to buy next time. The best investment you can make is a fruit tree if you have space… decades of crops for the price of one takeaway!
Toothpaste - either use Morrisons value 30p/equivalent. Don’t pay 10x over the odds for heavily marketed pretty stripes! Just use a pea size amount on the brush… just enough to ease the bristles around the mouth. Or you can make your own - 2 tbsp coconut oil, 1 tbsp of bicarb, 10 - 15 drops of peppermint oil. Mix and put into a small glass jar.
Deodorant - put a pea sized amount of bicarb on the corner of a damp facecloth and rub onto armpits. Or try one of those salt sticks you can get from health food shops - they last for years.
Shower gel and hand wash - swap for bar soap. Just have a bottle in the downstairs loo for guests - Aldi is under £1 and very lovely smelling.
Shaving - get a safety razor and a job lot of blades. Keep the blade bone dry after use and it lasts much longer. Costs the same as a couple of packs of expensive branded disposables, and they'll last for many years. Or buy an epilator... get it when Boots or Amazon have a heavily discounted sale day.
Monthly stuff - invest in a mooncup for around £20… it pays for itself in a few cycles. Either buy washable san towels on etsy/ebay or there’s tutorials online to make your own. Save a packet and zero waste!
Have the odd expensive takeaway? buy a copy of The Curry Secret (or The Takeaway Secret). Make up batches of curry sauce and keep in freezer. Have meat/chickpeas/vegetables on hand, and you can quickly make up a curry house style curry in the time it would take to ring up and wait for delivery.