What's your number one piece of money saving advice?

[SneakyGremlins]

Own brand is just as good 99% of the time, I've discovered. Still always trying to save though!

Keep an excel spreadsheet of monthly income and all (to the penny) expenditure, update every few days against your online bank account. You will be able to see where savings can be made, and set budgets and stick to it. You can project months ahead to take into account annual bills to save towards.
I've been doing this for years. Takes about ten minutes every 3days or so.

Don’t buy stuff?

hmm

BMW6 Ooh sounds good!

Plan menu for the week. Shop for it. Stick to it.

Never buy lunch out or at work - take packed.

Dont eat and drink out if you can avoid it. Dont go crazy at Christmas.

Separate account for bills - open one of the accounts where you get cashback on direct debits and work out what your mortgage/rent, utilities, phone/broadband, insurance and any other monthly costs or subscriptions come to. Add it all up and, ideally, add in a budget for each week's shopping. If you're paid monthly, pay it all (or your share of it) in as soon as you get paid. If your income is weekly, divide it by 4 - either way, put the money in to cover the bills as soon as you get it and you won't be tempted to spend the council tax on anything else. The money left in your personal account is then up to you to decide how to spend but you'll know your essentials are covered.

I hope this doesn't come across as trite, but it's something that works for us - Take a thermos of your fav hot beverage with you - saved a fortune on coffee/hot choc for me and DH/ kids. Also take packed lunch/ snacks/juice boxes. Doesn't take too long to sling them into a chill bag/ in the car, but the savings can add up.

BMW6 that's exactly what we do too. Takes me minutes to do on a Monday and a Friday. Ours deducts all monthly bills plus as estimate on food and fuel so we know what's left to play with.

I have no idea how to use Excel

Buy second hand where possible or if not go through cashback sites and search for discount codes. I very rarely buy anything full price.

My dds love a good charity shop or car boot rummage. I can buy them 10 second hand books for the same price of 1 in whsmiths. We then sell or pass on when they have finished with them. Sometimes I've made a profit on toys/clothes!

I even buy second hand for presents for them - saves on packaging and they can get more for my budget.

YouTube has loads of tutorials on how to use excel

@BMW6 have you got an example of how you lay your spreadsheet out?

Take a picnic.

The amount of times I've spent a fortune on crap food and drink when on days out is ridiculous. Taking a picnic is better food, better drinks, enjoyed more and saves a fortune

It's not a bargain if you don't need it

Moneysavingexpert expert has easy to use budget planner

Stop snacking
once you are out of the habit of "grabbing a coffee"
then wallet gets fatter as waistline gets smaller

Good quality stuff second hand
is better than cheap stuff new

If it ain't broke, keep using it

Buy everything with a card so that you can look back and see where your money went

Already been said but yes yes yes to excel planner. We save for everything every month then leave ourselves x amount for the joint account for day to day things, and x amount for our own personal accounts. Yes also to meal planning and cashback sites

-make takeaway coffees, lunches etc a treat rather than a regular thing

• buy own brand things, we reduced our weekly shop massively

• takeaways a monthly thing

• check dds and cancel any non essential things, especially random insurances

• stop doing adult presents for birthdays and christmas and don't go over the top for the kids

Set a weekly budget for grocery shopping & draw it out in cash if you're tempted to use your card all the time

Never go food shopping on an empty stomach.
You've no idea the crap I buy when I do.

Don’t go shopping.

I know it’s obvious but don’t go shopping as a pastime eg I used to spend a Saturday in the city centre as a kind of day out going around all the shops, seeing random things I wanted/needed and come home with bags of stuff. Leading up to Christmas it would be ridiculous.

I shop more carefully now and research prices before I buy anything. This weekend I have put some clothes in an online basket and left it a couple of days and now decided I won’t bother purchasing after all.

Never go to anyone's wedding.

I can't believe how much modern weddings cost, from the hen weekend in Prague, to the special outfit in black and white that everyone has to wear just for the photos, and the extortionately priced room in a draughty castle to subsidise the b+g posh wedding

Just say thanks but no thanks and save a fortune!

Open a regular savings account, even if for a small amount such as ten pounds a month, so you get into the habit of saving.

Definitely meal planning and online shopping. It's a MN cliche but it's saved us a fortune. I find using a set amount of cash every week for top up shops rather than just sticking it on a card helps to keep spending under control. Any extra/unexpected money we might get we will pay something off the mortgage. I start making a list of ideas for Christmas from about September so I can a) stagger the cost by getting a few bits every month and b) take advantage of any sales/Black Friday deals where stuff I'm interested in comes up. And finally, if saving for something specific e.g holiday, have a seperate dedicated bank account just for that so the money doesn't just get frittered away.

Be aware of your mortgage and never just accept the bank's rate, always get a deal. Never just accept renewals for insurance etc.
Look at the big things coming out of your account before worrying about the small stuff.