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!

1. Cancel Paypal Credit card - this allows you to defer payment on items costing over £150 for 3 months (lethally tempting);
2. Cancel Amazon Prime and attached credit card - I have saved so much money by not instantly clicking on items - found with a bit of research I can buy most things locally, so better for the high street and my wallet;
3. Any clothes catalogues that arrive in the post - do not look just toss straight into the bin.

MismatchedStripySocks

I understand your way of thinking , however I do the opposite.
Each week I buy one more item that will not go off / I can freeze. esp if i can get something that I would buy normally and it is on offer.
So my cupboard and freezer are always full of food ,
I work on a similar principle with my prepaid gas and electric and rent .
I pay a little extra on each ( dd set up for rent a little higher than my rent actually is ) I have been doing this for almost a year now and if I was made redundant tomorrow I would have enough food / gas / lecy / rent to last me at least 4 - 6 weeks .
It cost me about £5 a week extra ( or two take away coffees ) to have a lot of piece of mind .

MSE has really helped me over the years!

The biggest things that have saved me money over the years are;

I don’t smoke or drink alcohol

Quidco! You can use it for so many things; holidays, insurance, mobile phone contracts and I always convert my cash back to a Zeek voucher, earning me another 15%ish and from there I buy people’s unused vouchers for cheaper than face value for Debenhams, Starbucks etc.

I always compare prices online when I want to make a purchase and look for discount codes.

Buy good quality coffee and a decent travel mug and you can save a fortune. If you must have coffee out go for a coffee and a cookie or donut at McDonalds or Subway a £2.20 coffee and cake deal at Greggs - you also get rewards points or a stamp card so eventually you get a free coffee and they are about half the price of the equivalent in Costa and Starbucks.

Rewards cards and apps. I get free coffees at Costa and Dominoes Pizza, Rakuten films etc with Wuntu as well as cheap offers for eating out. Meerkat Movies and Meals or cheaper nights/days at the Cinema are great too. Make the most of Boots Advantage Card points and 3for2s. I only buy my staples in skincare and things like shampoo when they are on offer.

Bulk buy when things are cheap.

Cook from scratch.

Don’t get a gym membership. Couch25k is free as is ParkRun, there are great videos on YouTube and free training plans via Blogilates and the like. If you like swimming check out a swim only pass at your local council gym, it’s often a fraction of the price of a full gym membership. Kids often swim free during school holidays. I traded my Quidco cashback for a bike and go on local bike trails when I can - essentially it cost me nothing.

Buy good quality clothing that will last for years in sales. Things like timeless coats, cashmere jumpers, leather boots in styles that don’t date. I’ve picked these up in sales at about 2/3rds off full price and they last for years. Shop at Outlets too. I almost never buy anything full price.

Keep an eye on interest rates. Make sure any savings you have are growing by checking your rates and moving them to another bank if needs be. Same goes for mortagages. Work out if it’s better to overpay on your mortgage (or any debt you have) or to save in a savings account if you are having a good month or an unexpected windfall. It’s almost always better to throw the money at your mortgage or debts first and then save. That being said DO save, even if it’s a tiny amount. It all adds up.

Use your library! Don’t get Sky TV.

Meal plan and utilise your freezer, learning how to make fakeaways for nights when you CBA to cook!

If possible live as below your means as you comfortably can. A smaller house with smaller bills and an economical car can save you a fortune and mean that you can put some money aside for the future.

Don’t keep up with the Joneses!

have it deducted from your salary and put in to credit union

Don't spend money you don't have on things you don't need to impress people you don't like. ( I really need to feed my own advice!)

Rather dull but nonetheless essential. Get saving for retirement as early as you can. The state pension will likely be gone by the time I retire so grow your pension pot as much as you can afford to.

Don't buy liquids.

Don't look for a cheaper shop, just don't shop.

Good waterproofs, snacks/teabags in a box and a thermos flask of hot water will get you a long way.

Don't expect spending less to be exciting.

You do have to count spending on presents and travel to see relatives in your budget.

Ask for vouchers and bottles of wine as presents, and regift them.

i got into the habit of paying extra rent but someone pointed out the money was better in my account that in the HA's account. It did make sense to me, for quite a while

Control costs.

Do Dave Ramsey financial peace university if you struggle with budgeting.

I waste quite a bit of money on food/coffee so I wish I could be better there but the biggest things that have helped me are:

• treat savings as a bill not something optional
• use cash sites or cash back credit cards for all spending
• take out credit cards for the offers, spend the required amount, pay it off and then cut them up. *search for vouchers or discount codes or wait until sale periods for items. *avoid big rounds of drinks- I can’t keep up so prefer to pay for my own. When I was younger I overspent by getting into rounds with big drinking men when I’d never drink as much.
• time season ticket purchases for December before the uprices go up in January. Always do delay repay immediately.
• don’t go shopping as an activity. If I need clothes I look online first and work out what I need to save stupid purchases.

When I used to be on a tighter budget I planned my cash flow for the month or two ahead. If I knew I had big events or bills to pay etc I’d budget for them in advance and then adjust my budget accordingly. I found that a lot more effective than trying to reconcile as I went along or trying to catch-up at the end of the month.

Cut hair at home. For a family of 5 (including teens) I think that cutting and dying hair at home rather than regular hair dresser visits saves us about 1000€ per year.

Stop buying stupid crap so your kids will have "lots of stuff to open" at Christmas and birthdays. Teach them young to appreciate quality over quantity.

I never carry cash, always stick to just my bank card as I seem to fritter away cash more on unnecessary crap than if I had to use my card to purchase. Added bonus is that I can also see where I've spent every penny so can keep tabs on my spending more easily.

When I get paid each month, I instantly deduct all bill money from it and put into a separate account that I opened specifically just for bills. I also split my remaining income into a weekly budget every month, this way I have to stick to only spending what I've got left to spend for the week, so then I won't overspend early on in the month and then leave myself short with weeks left until the next payday.

Finally, I only buy things I think I will get twice as many uses out of it per pound I spend, for example I will only buy a jumper for £50 if I think I will wear it at least 100 times, or a £15 lipstick I think I will wear at least 30 times. Obviously this mindset doesn't work for everything, such as food etc. but as a generalised rule it has massively helped me reduce my spending in the last 12 months, as I now think twice before say buying a gorgeous pair of boots at £90 but I know I'll probably only end up wearing 2-3 times.

Biggest way to save money on food is to go veggie a few days a week, and seriously reduce the amount of meat you eat when you do.
We compromise, better quality, but less. For example We have 1 sausage each now. Used to have two, and sometimes three! Now a good pack of sausages lasts 2 meals here. (3 people) Instead of needing at least 1 pack.

Also I use dehydrated Soya protein. The equivalent of 3.5 kg of veggie Mince for £2.

Breakfast cereals like cocopops or cornflakes are now treats. Too expensive, and wouldn't fill a fairy. So choices for breakfast are porridge (75p a kg where as even cheap value weetabix are £1.74 a kg), eggs, fruit, pancakes etc

Never go to anyone's wedding.

that’s a good one!

Fabulous idea for a thread! Marking my place to get some tips!🙂

My top tip as lots of people say is just not to buy stuff!!! We all waste money on things we just don't need.

My next tip is magazines are available FOR FREE!!!!! On your i pad etc. through the library.

Oh another thing I do is, whenever I have extra money in my account I will just randomly throw it if different bills, to build a safety net in case one month I have an emergency expenditure arise, or sometimes just to pay things off quicker.
So I may see that after bills and shopping I have a spare £10 one week, so I will go online and pay it into my rent/council tax/gas & electric/water rates etc. I do this on a regular basis, and I'm currently 4 weeks ahead in rent and almost 7 weeks ahead in council tax. This has given me some breathing space because it seems my washer is on its way out.

It's the old "look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves".

It might only be £1 on a choccy bar, £2 on coffee and £4 on a magazine but that's £7 right there. Do that once a week and it's £350 a year. It's only £1 but you can only spend it once.

Save 20p on 5 items a week in the supermarket, that's £50 pa

Don't bother with the bargain £10 top you don't need and didn't like enough to buy at full price.

Etc etc. Before you know it you've got enough for a holiday!

I think most of mine have bene mentioned but the main ones for us have been:

Overpay on your mortgage. Why pay extra interest if you don't have to.
Bulk buy when items are on offer if you have the space.
Use your library and make use of their audio books free online, magazines free online and books free online. I'm not sure how amazon have conned us into paying to download books.
Don't buy DC toys except Christmas or birthdays.
Batch cook at the weekend to avoid impulse shopping/takeaways.
Don't wander around town for fun.

Bar a mortgage, don't take on any debt, even interest free, you need to pay up or rate tart around. Can't afford it or save up for it, don't have it.

Teach children that advertisers are not their friend. This is an ongoing process!

Dishwashing powder : I am finding it harder to find on the high street/ in the supermarket. Best sources anyone?

• Don't buy for the sake of it, make a list, think about it, can you use something you already have? could you buy secondhand or borrow instead? Can you make do for a while longer?

• Buy quality over quantity if you can and look after what you have. It doesn't cost much to oil tools, clean and waterproof shoes and repair clothes. Obviously there's a limit but fixing a small hole when it appears can get you lots more wear out of an item.

• Consider secondhand especially for small kids clothes. I find brands like Next wash well and retain their shape so can be good buys on eBay etc. Thinks like shorts and sandals that get very little wear (one season usually) before being outgrown (or one week of wear if in the UK )

• Budget. Know what you have coming in and what you spend going out. Not just looking for good deals on bills but do you need the latest phone (can you go sim only instead)? what shopping do you buy? how much food do you waste? do you wear all your shoes and clothes or do you have lots sat unworn?

Have some emergency money.

Most people appear to be not to bad at living within their means the majority of the time. Things go very wrong when a big bill comes in, money is borrowed at a high rate and the just about managing suddenly find the money that just stretched doesn't stretch in the same way to keep up the debt repayment, interest and keeping managing.