Just noticed this thread I just posted on is a zombie thread, so I am starting a new one because I thought it was a good thread.
Buy value wrapping paper
Walk instead of using the car or bus.
Walk or get the bus instead of getting a taxi if we want to have a drink out.
Reuse wee-free night pants.
Changed wet nappies every 6 hours (reusuable)
Only buy clothes out of necessity and only 2nd hand or discounted. Same for shoes and accessories.
Buy presents for the year in the sales.
Ignore use by dates and eat it anyway if it looks, smells and tastes ok.
On days out in the summer, will try to find a supermarket nearby where I can buy boxes of ice creams instead of buying them singularly or from the ice cream van.
I use a mobile hair dresser.
Occasionally get nails/tan done as a treat but again use a mobile lady (£15 for nails, £8 for tan if I go to her, £10 if she comes to me)
Take my own food and drink to the cinema. My favourite is hot dogs cooked just before we leave the house and wrapped up in foil and a plastic glass of wine 
Essential oils and water for air/fabric freshener. Also spray onto vacuum filters and dab neat essential oil on radiators.
Only put the washer on between 10pm and 8:30am because it's cheaper.
Reuse gift bags.
Ask for nice Neals Yard stuff for birthdays and Christmas as could never justify buying it myself.
Rehome people's shower gel/shampoo at the swimming pool when they have left it behind.
I buy big bottles of castile liquid soap and dilute for hand wash, shower gel, bath soak, washing up liquid.
I only wash my hair once a week. I use coconut oil (the stuff you cook with) the night before as a conditioning treatment and shampoo out the next day.
limit non-hair washing showers to 5 mins. brush my teeth in the shower.
I don't buy fancy face cleansers. I use the oil cleansing method. (google if you haven't heard of it)
I use 1 tablespoon of laundry liquid for all loads and wash colours and darks on a 30 minute fast wash. wear things more than once until they are dirty.
I always try and park for free or hunt out the cheapest car parks.
I take a quick packed lunch for us if we are going out for the day. try and go out after mealtimes and eat at home first.
hand wash, wax and valet the car.
keep a list of products I buy regularly on my phone, the cheapest price I have seen them and where. update the list if I see it cheaper elsewhere not on an offer.
refuse to buy a tumbledryer because of energy costs.
turn lights off and all plugs off at switch. I want to get one of those things that tell you how much electricity you are using.
have an indoor thermometer and only turn heating off if it goes below 17 degrees c.
don't have heating on a timer. turn heating on when we come in/go out.
don't buy fancy cleaning products. everything gets cleaned with white wine vinegar, bleach, bicarbonate of soda, lemon/lime, microfibre cloths.
dp has switched to smoking an e cigarette type thing and is trying to quit.
dp and ds both take packed lunches to school and drink the free water available from the dispensers there.
dp drives to train station and gets the train into work. a monthly train pass was cheaper than driving and he parks there for free.
meal plan and try to batch cook and freeze so using energy costs to cook only once. buy cheap joints to coo in slow cooker which is mores energy efficient too. get 2 or 3 types of meals out of a joint for example a roast, a soup and a curry. I also look in the reduced section and freeze things from there. I only have 3 drawers in my freezer so don't buy much from the freezer section, freeing up the space for meat and batch cooked things.
slow cook a gammon joint, a beef brisket, a lamb breast, a whole chicken and slice/freeze for sandwich meat.
buy big pots of natural yoghurt instead of individual pots.
buy spices, veg, flours, rice etc from world cuisine shops.
snacks are hard boiled eggs, cheese, salad, cold meats, homemade meatballs, leftovers, yoghurt, fruit, breadsticks/crackers/rice cakes. i buy mr kipling cakes for lunchboxes from heron foods when they are 65p for 6. I stock up on lindt dark choc when its on offer and I buy a pudding and ice cream once a week. I find fresh fruit goes off and gets wasted so buy a mixture of fresh and frozen fruit and the little pots of pineapple from aldi.
we have fakeaway (homemade) curry/chinese/kebab nights and fake gastro pub lunches as a treat. we buy more expensive better quality food and drink than what we would normally have for example brie and crusty bread, matured steak and asparagus, a posh pudding, a bottle of chateau neuf de pape, a cheese platter, liquer coffees and chocolates. we make an afternoon of it, take our time between courses chatting perhaps playing a game. we take perhaps 3 or 4 hours over lunch.
cut flowers out of the garden instead of buying them.
grow our own herbs.
I want to plant some fruit trees and have a veg patch but that's on my to do list.
got a phone contract with unlimited texts and unlimited minutes and cancel house phone contract.
I know people who have cancelled their tv license and watch tv via online catch up.
I would cancel virgin/sky tv and get a freeview+ box and netflix but dp won't.
Use our Cost of Living forum to discuss budgeting and energy saving with other users.
Cost of living
Little things you do because actually you are a bit tight
nappyaddict · 02/04/2014 15:58
Brushing your teeth in the shower can't save water or energy. You'd turn the tap off if you were doing them at the sink, and use only a small amount of cold water for rinsing the brush. It's not like you could brush your teeth at the same time as washing your body or hair, you'd have to just stand under hot running water for two minutes.
Did I overthink your tips? 
Oh, so it was you who'd nicked my shampoo and conditioner when I left it in the shower at the pool and came back to get it about 5 minutes later?
cloth nappies need to be changed more regularly than disposable s as they don't have the chemical stuff to wick moisture away. Do your children's bottoms not get horribly sore? 
dd's would be aflame if I left her more than 3 hours in cloth (and why would you want to leave someone sitting in piss for half a day?!) 
Harsh responses 
LOVE your cinema treats!!
Giffgaff for phone contract.
DD1 makes cards for people or I buy mega cheap ones from local hardware shop (I used to spend £4 on a card from Paperchase, why?)
Regifting. I do this with stuff we would love too.
Library books - they are so up to date.
Walk, walk, walk.
Aldi red wine.
CEX - do you have a store near you? We exchange all our old DVDs for 'new' 2nd hand ones for DD1.
Using shrapnel in the self serve machines in Tesco.
Car boots for DCs presents.
Raise the £££ for DCs presents by selling their old ones.
Value shower gel (about 30p). I read somewhere that you should buy cheap for what washes off and spend money on what stays on eg. moisturiser.
PUtting the washer on at night is only cheaper if you have economy 7 electricity.
No good for me cancelling my landline - we wouldn't have any internet without it. Better to keep landline but find the cheapest deal, and then when your mobile contract is up, switch to sim only, we have practically unlimited texts and a lot of call minutes plus some internet download, for £10 a month each on Samsung s2s.
Blurgh at the lukewarm hotdogs at the cinema. I simply can't believe anyone would do that. Everyone knows that you buy a huge bag of popcorn and a big bag of the m&M type sweets from lidl and take those in with you instead.
I used washable nappies and changed them very frequently. If i'd tried to leave either of my children in one for 6 hours the wee and poo would have been all over the house/pram/car.
Agree with others who say sack the sky contract. We have freeview and its perfectly adequate. And leaving a child in a wet nappy while your husband splurges money on a nicotine habit?
Anyway, some of my savings are:
No 'treat' fake tan etc, just buy a tube of 'holiday skin' type moisturiser, they have a good selection for a couple of quid in bodycare a big tube lasts me a summer for £3.
No air fresheners or fabric conditioner here, so no need for substitutes.
Only put as much water in the kettle as you need.
Turn heating right down and buy everyone slippers.
Buy kids stuff and my shoes from ebay.
Avoid expensive fruits like pineapple, stick to apples, bananas etc which in our house don't have time to go off. Very rarely eat soft fruits unless they are reduced, in which case we eat them within 24 hours.
We don't have a freezer, I find I save more money by meal planning and eating less meat, than when I had a freezer full of marked down meat.
Oh and when we are skint, there is no need to walk to the pub etc, as we don't go out when we are skint 
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