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!

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 would make more sense to put that money in an emergency savings account than to prepay bills. The usual advice is to try to build up 3 months worth of expenses in the emergency account. I personally would not be happy with less than 6 months. I've gone through job loss twice in my career, it has made me appreciate the wisdom of an emergency fund.

Never just renew a payment when you come to the end of a contract - as that's when companies like insurance/breakdown/power bump the cost up substantially. Use it as an opportunity to shop around - and very often if you then say you're not going to renew because you can get it cheaper elsewhere your current supplier will find you a cheaper deal.

Most of mine have been mentioned but here's one that hasn't - think about moneysaving when deciding what hobbies to pursue. For example I used to love travelling, scuba diving and skiing but now I'm into dog walking and gardening. I'll always have the memories but my lifestyle now is much, much cheaper!

So if you do like a drink, brew your own wine. You can get all the kit pretty cheaply at Wilkos and once you have it, it's pennies a bottle. So far I've made raspberry wine which tastes great, and I'm about to make rhubarb. I'm also planning to go foraging for elderberries.

I grow a lot of fruit and veg and enjoy bottling things and making jam. I reuse old jars and lids from shop bought items and have never had a problem. Put a pretty label on some jam from garden fruit or foraged blackberries and these make nice little gifts for friends and neighbours.

Having cheap, time-consuming hobbies also keeps me out of the shops!

I have a professional job and have to dress nicely for work. I buy from charity shops and also M and S in the sales (I actually thing they have a lot of good things in now and good quality for the price). If I get sick of something I put it away for a while and often find myself thinking oh I'd quite like to wear that dress again and get it back out. Almost as good as new clothes.

Always Google for money off vouchers. Switch your bank account from time to time to get cash rewards. I've had £100 from first direct and £150 in gift cards from M&S bank. Switching online nowadays is easy and at my work we can enter new bank account information in the system ourselves.

Have a few months where you don't buy anything except food, transport, bills, gifts and toiletries. I tried this as my New Years resolution last year but only made it to April. Still it made a big difference!

When doing up your house try to do what you can yourself to save money and get expensive paints colour matched. My local paint shop matches anything with jonstones paint (brand name is something like that) and it's excellent quality. Don't rush into doing a room up but really think about the best most cost efficient way. There's a Facebook group called DIY on a budget that helps although they're a bit too into sticky back plastic for my liking.

Have all your DDs coming out of your bank account a few days after your salary goes in it.
We got into a great deal of debt many years ago and really struggled to keep the spending under control. We managed it by getting a very low interest loan to consolidate all our debt, cutting up our credit cards so we couldn't use them any more, calculating how much money we neeeded weekly for food, bus fares, petrol etc and withdrew that amount in cash then stuck to it. We didn't use our debit cards for anything! Any cash left over at the end of the week went in a tin. At the end of the month we used the money in the tin to treat ourselves to a take away. some months that was just a bag of chips lol! Every time we got a pay rise, we put the extra income into a savings account and didn't touch it.
By the time the loan was paid off, we were so used to using cash only that we continued, and very quickly started to increase our savings pot. The satisfaction you get from saving up and paying off debts far outweighs buying unnecessary crap from expensive shops!

Check out your local FE college.

Catering students need to make things like bread and it is often sold cheaply.

Some have cafes / restaurants, which vary a lot but if you find a good one you can have a decent meal outwith waiter service.

Also free/cheap massages, low cost hair cuts, nails, spray tan.

If you read there are loads of websites that give access to free book eg project Gutenberg. You don't need an e-reader, you can use the kindle app on any tablet, pc or phone.

Dishwasher powder, i can get from Sainsbury, alternatively Finish do one but i am not sure how economical the Finish one is

sainsburys dishwasher powder 1kg is currently £3.

Finish 1kg is £3.50 in sainsburys but £3 in tesco.

Daisy seems to have disappeared

Waitrose do one as well, same price as Sainsbury, so these 2 places, unless Finish is on special offer.

My Tesco has stopped the dishwasher powder.

I'll stick up when I get to a bigger store or a Sainsbury's. Thanks for the information.

I'm now using the tablets and it's far too much detergent for our water.

Don't have dc.

If you have to pop to the supermarket, for something you forget on your main shopping trip, don't take any cards; just take the money for the bread, milk etc that you need so that a £2 purchase doesn't turn into £20+ when faced with tempting special offers.
Generally leave your purse/bank cards at home when you go out to avoid the temptation of unnecessary purchases - this also works well when giving lifts to teenagers who may make sudden requests for cash! I would always have an emergency few quid tucked away in the car/phone.

Don't have children. They cost a fortune.

It's easier to save a pound than it is to make a pound. That motto has always stayed with me.

Other tips I try to live by:
Never buy drinks/food when out and about. Take lunch to work, picnics for days out etc.
Never go food shopping when you're hungry!
Avoid popping to the shops to get a few bits. It easily escalates to a £20 shop. Instead, do a weekly shop and stick to it.
eBay for clothing.
Avoid browsing Groupon is another! It mostly ends up being unnecessary, impulsive spending.

Don't buy lunch out.
Keep emergency lunch at work.
Transfer any balance left before payday to a savings account.
Don't make random visits to shops to browse.

What i would say is though - if you can afford it, make the lunch you take a really nice one. Sounds daft, but a lovely box of dinner leftovers wuth some extra salad makes your packed lunch something you realky enjoy, whreas if you make dry ham sandwiches on value bread there's more of a risk of 'treating' yourself to a can and a choc bar - more spending.

Another lunch one. I keep 2-3 frozen meals at work and a can of nice soup. I have a supermarket delivery of lunch items delivered each week to my office for my lunches. Saves me carrying it in each day.