small ways to save money in January and beyond?

[hidinginthenightgarden]

I intend to leave my purse in the car rather than take it into work. It will stop me buying crap helping both my waistline and bank balance.
I already do the food shop online using vouchers, but want to try and stretch the budget further but still have healthy meals.

What will you be doing?

Ah sorry I mistook the second post for yours - about buying coffees when out!

Also, try making a big thing of soup at the beginning of the week and taking that in for lunches. It lasts quite well, is healthy, cheap and satisfying.

Flugelhorn I saved my nectar points and doubled them up to spend on Xmas!

Lunches are hard for me. I’m often out and about in my car at lunch so cannot have got lunch. If you know of a device that will guarantee to keep my soup hot until lunch though I will give it a go!

Always keep emergency bread and milk in the house. Long life or frozen milk and bake at home or frozen bread.

Cuts out those emergency supermarket visits when you always seem to spend 30 quid!

If you do want a coffee when out find a weatherspoons, there coffee is only £1.20 and you can have as many refills as you want.

We take fruit shoots out with us wherever we go to avoid paying too much when out and about.
Going to find a snack I can keep in the car to do similar with.

I've already started.

I'm writing down in my notebook any money I witdraw from the bank,what date I withdrew it and what I've spent it on.

Seeing it in black and white should stop me withdrawing so much money and stop me wasting it on rubbish.

I'm going back to doing a meal plan but I'm changing it slightly,I'm going to buy a months worth of frozen food,tinned and packet stuff and I'll get the fresh weekly,that should save me a few hundred a month which I'm then going to save.

I take a bottle of water and refill it wherever I go. Also saves on plastic!

I'm going to for the first time ever meal plan- would like to be as strict as if it didnt come from my own kitchen I won't eat it but i know that's unlikely for me and I'll fail that.

no more costa and Starbucks- £3.60 for a large latte too fucking much!

any chance I can put a £ in my saves t
rather than a till I will.

ideally, I would like to save £2000 by next november it'll be extremely tough but i am aiming high!

I'm reviewing all of our DDs and SOs. I forgot that we're actually paying privately to be patients at our local dental practice because there are no local nhs spaces. However there are spaces at the practice 10 miles down the road and right next to my work so I've just registered us. It will save £28 a month plus I get free treatment at the moment due to mat leave.

I've also started buying nappies at aldi rather than pampers. I actually think they're better and they're really cheap.

Buy bulk for the car Tesco’s is cheaper than a one off item

Put coke in the boot it keeps cool
6 bag of crisps etc
Amazon or secondhand books
Download books to your phone
Download an app to track spending

hidinginthenightgarden you can buy thermos flasks that plug into the car usb charger

Green tulips I am going to Costco. Even cheaper!!

For anyone wanting to treat themselves to Books,DVD's,blu rays,Poundland sell some really good one's for adults and children,we bought some DVD's,a blu ray and a couple of books for stockings for Christmas.

If you have friends with similar age children or with the same interests you could think about setting up a swap shop once a month or so to swap,books,dvd's,cd's it's a good way of getting to read new books,see new films and listen to new cd's without spending a penny.

Some people set up swap shops for clothes and shoes as well,they're quite popular now.

OK, this is really stingy, but I have recently started reusing teabags!. I drink herbal tea and can reuse them 3 or 4 times with no difference to the taste. Instead of going through 2 boxes a week, I now use a box every 10 days. This will save me well over £100 a year.

Funny how such a small thing will save so much!

I'm also needing to cut down on spending this year. I would love to do more big days out with dds but I seem to fritter money away on silly things. I was tracking my spends this year and have spent over £650 on clothes for myself, half the week I wear a uniform for work. I've spend around £300 each on dds clothes too. It's so unnecessary and if I had bought even half that amount we could have gone on a family holiday.

So this year I'm tracking spends again but using a book instead of an app.

I've set up an Amazon top up direct debit for £3 a week which would have been an unnecessary bus fare or a coffee. This way I can buy christmas/birthday presents as they get reduced through the year. I'm also buying a money tin you need a tin opener to open so I can save £2 a week for Christmas. Plus a jar to put £1-5 per week in so there's always change in the house to stop me withdrawing £10 for the bus and frittering away the extra.

I'm also taking note of all the ideas here. Like previous person will also use a jar for things I've sold which can be our days out fund. We have so much clutter hopefully we can get enough together for legoland again!

Thats a great idea Bitch Queen. I just checked our 3 accounts and transferred 1.76. All really good tips in here. I am going to try and bulk out food more and freeze portions and not basically do a shop the week before pay day except perhaps bannas. will have frozen fruit, bread in freezer and uht milk in.

I deleted my PayPal account last October. I've already saved quite a bit. All the little cheap things here and there really add up.

This year I'll be writing all my spending down. Hopefully after a few months I'll be able to see which areas I need to improve on.

Besides the monthly amount that we put away; DH and I each put away £4 every day in a money jar. We started doing this in 2017 and intended to use it as holiday spending money. Luckily we have not needed to use it.

nocutsnobuttsnococonuts

Use Tesco vouchers for days out
Reuse the Chinese cartons or buy tin foil ones to freeze portions of meals - I always add extra veg so there are left overs

Coke kept in the car is a good one. Ditto packs of crisps, Go Ahead bars, Club bars etc. Keep a supply there and take one a day into the office. Cup a soups and mini sealed packs of crackers or Ryvita will do for an emergency lunch if you're in the office, or a can of Big Soup if you have microwave. Not so easy to keep a whole emergency lunch in the car. If you are very organised you could make savoury muffins (eg Jamie Oliver sweet potato muffins). Keep them in the freezer. Take them out the night before if you have no other lunch made and they will be defrosted by lunchtime.

Soup and bread for lunch rather than buying a sandwich from Waitrose

greentulips I used to use Clubcard vouchers for days out but since switching our food shop to Lidl I don't really get very many points, I think last year was about £6 which doesn't go far even doubled up 😂

I do have my eBay account linked to my nectar card so get points when I buy from there which I use in their double up event. This year I bought dh a switch game for Christmas :)

I do all my top up shops in co-op as its closer to me, hasn't got loads to be tempted by and not badly priced. Also the £5 frozen meal deal is great value. Their points card is great, I got £40 last year which paid for the Christmas food shop.