Your number 1 money-saving tip

[PupInAPram]

What is your number 1 tip that saved you the most money on regular household spending?

Not sure if this has been mentioned but I think it's important to tell people if you can't afford stuff. I have been in financial difficulty for a while and I felt a kind of shane with not being able to afford stuff. For example the collection at work for a leaving present or a birthday or the friends that want to go out. In the end I found my voice and said - sorry I can't afford that .... It was empowering. I was recently at a dentist and was getting the sell for whatever and I simply said, sorry can't afford that. Same with school when they are looking for £ for whatever.

@RoseJam I need an automatic door closer for the living room as the cat flings open the door with a "here I am" statement to which I ask "how big are you?"

No takeaways.

Stopped using detergent with dark clothes.
Use washing up liquid for stain removal.

Dishwasher not on every day.

Always look at price per kg even if stuff is on offer and appears cheaper, sometimes it isn’t.

Be a bit grubbier in all things. Perfume and scents starts off sneezing fits, so I stopped using anything but basic washing up liquid, no more cleansers hardly ever. I chop food on a board which goes in the dishwasher so it’s fine. Sinks, loo etc gets wiped down with a very small amount of product once a week by DH when I’m out.

When full lockdown was on we bought clippers and I cut DS and DH hair, I clipper the back but can actually cut the tops really well as watched a tutorial on you tube. It’s not necessary now but still cut DH hair and DS has his cut at the barbers every other time so 6 trips per year for free as he goes every month.

Use student discount whenever possible. If you're not a student become a student just for the card - you can sometimes get a student card when enrolled on free or very low cost courses

[quote PupInAPram]@SkiingIsHeaven 🤣 Too late. I was a single parent too, so did it the hard way. They have left home now, but I see them weekly and try to help them practically in every way I can.[/quote]
We had them too. Expensive little buggers but I wouldn't be without them just would have had more money.

No top up shops, ever. If you don't have it and it isn't completely and utterly indispensable until the next shopping date then go without it and improvise with whatever you do have.

The Olio app can sometimes be good if there is something you need but don’t have, especially as it tends to be perishables.

I make a big pot of soup most weeks with half a pack of frozen casserole veg, a small chopped potato, a handful of lentils and a knorr stockpot. I put them all in a pan, boil and then whizz with a stick blender. Total cost is under £1 and prep time is about 3 minutes + 4 minutes in the microwave when I'm ready to eat it. It's delicious, healthy and lasts for 3/4 lunches.

To keep it interesting I add different seasonings after I've heated it up. Sometimes sriracha or chili flakes, sometimes ras el hanout or smoked paprika. Whatever comes to hand. If I feel in need of a protein kick I'll add a couple of spoons of yoghurt or a diced hard boiled egg.

@SkiingIsHeaven

Don't have kids. Saves a fortune.

🤣

Ours is shopping in Aldi. I have a bottomless pit if a teenage son and it saves me a fortune.

When you take on or change your mortgage, spend a lot of time really making sure you get the best possible deal- use a financial advisor to help. The difference can be £££s a month.

Cycle or walk rather than drive whenever possible. Consider whether you actually need a car/both cars, or whether it would be possible to do without and hire a car for holidays etc. If you have small children use a cargo bike for the school run. You can also use a cargo bike to carry a big supermarket shop.

Eat more eggs, potatoes, carrots and cabbage. All very cheap in relation to their fantastic nutritional value.

Eat porridge made with proper oats and whole milk for breakfast. Cheaper and more nutritious than most other cereals, also warms you up and gives you lots of slow release energy to keep you going.

If you want a treat, make some scones or pancakes. Easy, cheap ingredients, short time to cook but so nice.

Buying a slow cooker and breadmaker.

Batch-cooking food and freezing it.

Growing own tomatoes & potatoes.

Going blackberry picking.

Eating out once a month only for Sunday lunch.

Making own compost.

Making own chutneys and doing 'swaps' with friends.

We’ve gone (nearly) vegetarian, I make bread, pizza, soup, desserts, cake and jam myself (because they are so good you don’t notice it’s only pennies. They aren’t cheaper than supermarket bread and jam, but they make cheaper, much better meals than other stuff bought meals would) cook all our meals in twice a week batch cooks. I fast a day a week. We only drink water or milk. I grow some of our veg (a few herbs if you have a sunny bit of garden will make a huge difference to how things taste. If you can add a grow bag of tomato plants and salad leaves, or a fruit tree and some strawberries, it will lift a cheap diet immeasurably. It’s probably not worth trying to start grow a lot as an economy measure, although it’s low cost amusement for younger children) My weekly shop is £20 a week for me and DD for three meals each and two snacks for her and while it’s not an brilliant diet, either health or interest wise, it’s doable for multiple months while I weather my personal crises.

We’ve swapped our baths for showers and DIY spa-and nail bar on Sunday nights. The cinema for Netflix movies and a £1 bar of chocolate on Saturday nights, days out are country parks and a picnic with friends. DD only goes to free village youth club and after school clubs. I only go to coffee at friends’ houses. Holidays will be visiting friends and maybe some free camping. Everything is turned off at the socket all the time, the heating is at 18°C in the morning and evening for an hour and I’ve dug out every blanket and hot water bottle we own and I light candles and we pretend it’s cosy and not a bit grim (no one should have to economise so much in a first world county, British government!) while we watch Netflix, read library books and play board games, go for nourishing walks, do utube yoga and meditation and keep the dogs on DDs bed for warmth. DD relies heavily on tik tok and our daft dogs for amusement!

Then I go to bed and cry about the electric bill and the car MOT being due next month, and wonder how much longer I have the energy to be resilient and resourceful, because I’m already so tired of it. I’ll get up and remind myself it not my worst year and keep going with grim determination. Or at least, I have so far. I think we’ll make it, but I really feel for those who aren’t so resilient, I’ve had to dig seriously deep and I know it isn’t going to be forever (for me, this is a business crisis, not a cost of living one, but if it gets any worse, we’ll have to look at combining households)

We've switched to Lidl and are very happy with the savings plus the quality. Meal planning has definitely reduced my costs.
I do a meat shop from a high welfare online shop (field and flower) about once every two months and fill up the freezer. Batch cook bolognese etc and freeze that. I buy fish loin and make our own fish and chips in the fryer, home made chips as well. Fish batter is super easy, just flour, water (or beer) and a small amount of tumeric for the colour..
We also try to have 3 mini dinners a week, so pate on toast, tuna and baked potato, cereal/porridge, Spanish omelette (I buy premade but easy to make) - I have a third with big salad and some pickle. We found we were massively over eating having a big meal every night. So every other night we have a smaller, lighter meal. Costs us less and we feel better for it.

I use Chip attached to my bank account. It cculates based on your spending what it thinks you can afford to put away, so mine will take perhaps £5 here or £7 there. I end up with about £30 stashed away by the end of the month which I can either put into a savings pot or use if the end of the month is proving tight (but I would have spent earlier if Chip hadn't taken it). You can also set up monthly saves for set amounts.

@4thtimethecharm

Don't neglect your health (or your kids' health), as long-term health costs are much more expensive than the short term financial pain of early intervention. I had a terrible dentist as a child, picked by my parents (who did not put in any work to make sure they selected a good one, but went with the first name they heard).

As a result, I now need very regular expensive private dental appointments to prevent tooth loss. I am spending the equivalent of a week's holiday costs on dental care every year. It is money well spent, but I wish things could have been different, and my folks would have been more discerning.

This is me! I’m not sure when I was a kid that you chose a dentist for your child ( I’m in England) you just went to the ‘school dentist’ as I recall ? ( or maybe my parents made that up !). I didn’t even know until I was in my 30s that I was born with a tooth missing they are all crowded together and the gap had closed but my teeth are just ugly and uneven and probably braces would have sorted it. (only found out as the dentist pointed out my dc had same and needed correction !) when I mentioned it to my mum she just shrugged. I remember when dc were little she ‘ accused’ me of ‘ being obsessed with their teeth when I was encouraging them to brush. Anyway like you I spend £100 each year at the dentist trying to keep my teeth as healthy as possible but I’m not sure they will last!

Sorry for the derail OP my tip would be cook from scratch if you can (and have time ) rather than pre prepped stuff eg pasta sauces or curry sauces .

@PupInAPram

I have a library ticket, but some clever person has set up a book exchange bookshelf in work. It's so much easier than having to go to the library because I'm going into work every day anyway. It means no clutter or recycling as well. It's grown enormously in about a year.

That's a good idea I might suggest this at work

Freeze absolutely everything.

Had a water meter fitted and reduced bill from £96 per month to £29.

Only have the number of children that you can afford to support for 22 years.

My tips would be:

If you have solar panels, use tiny appliances (e.g. washing machine, dishwasher) one at a time, during daylight. Never use at night.

Don’t plate food up, it saves loads on food waste. I put my pots and pans on the table/ worktop and we take what we want. There is always food over for lunch next day/ work lunch etc. I use any left over veg away and chick it in stock and blend to make soup. I take this to work with me every day.

I’d say opposite to bulk buy in my case. If I look thru all my cupboards I will have stuff I’ve been tempted to stock up on. If I was a business my stock levels would be a bit of a sham. My tip is to go thru all your food, toiletries and cleaning products and run them right down then buy more mindfully.

I also had a school dentist - I think because a lot of parents didn’t bother to take their kids and it was brought into schools as a result.

However since my parents cared about my teeth they took me to one anyway so turned down the school one.

Stop buying gifts for adults at Christmas and birthdays. Tough on the charity shops though.

if you if you buy for family for birthdays and Xmas, and can’t afford to, have that conversation now - well before those come around.

Sorry about typos. On phone with no glasses.

Use left over veg and chuck in stock.

Avoid paying full price for anything as much as possible.

This is from only buying favourite grocery items/brands when they're on offer (I generally don't buy brands but a few things I prefer but I stock up when on offer and never pay full price) to haggling on bigger price items and certain types of bills eg I haven't paid full price on broadband ever always haggle.

Shop around - sometimes shops that are generally held to be more expensive (corner shops, department stores like John Lewis) actually CAN be cheaper always check. My mum was shocked I bought some baking equipment from John Lewis recently in a sale and was like "you must have money to burn" then I told her prices and she was like "that's cheaper than wilko!" Always worth checking esp now it's so easy to check prices online even if buying in real life

Bulk buying and batch cooking - if I'm using the oven for a casserole (which is always a batch cook I live alone so it'll do 4 meals for me) I'll also pop in some baking or even another casserole or something too. Freeze and then that's what I call "home made ready meals" for me - not only cheaper but also lower cal/healthier for me.

Haven't had a tumble drier for YEARS use a big main airer and wee radiator airers and octopus for smalls. As long as you stay on top of it because takes longer to dry it's fine.

Plan ALL shopping not just groceries - use Martin Lewis/Mse mantras -

If you're skint

Do I need it?
Can I afford it?
Is it cheaper elsewhere?

If you're not skint

Will I use it?
Is it worth it?
Have you checked prices elsewhere?

I do a shopping list on my phone by shop having checked prices beforehand and buy the items in the shops noted. Sometimes I'll include a note to use loyalty points or a voucher I have (otherwise I forget to use em!)

That's another tip - get loyalty cards /sign up for loyalty schemes for EVERYWHERE!

Some are better than others but even if you hardly shop in certain places it's usually still worth doing especially as at certain times of year - usually Xmas - they'll send you vouchers etc to pull you in.

I've messed up this week and not done a proper cupboard audit before Tesco delivery but I'll figure it out I'm good at planning and making best use of things

Learn recipes that use up stuff that you can't freeze/is going to go off soon - reduces food waste too. Bread recipes, soups, stews, casseroles, fruit puds are all good for using up perishables

I reckon I could easily live off tins and long life groceries for two or three weeks.

Op in run up to brexit I got looking at the prepping boards on here and started getting into that. SO glad I did cos when lockdown hit and deliveries got all messed up I was covered! Also when I had Covid and was very poorly too sick to even deal with a delivery I had stocks of tinned soup etc in.

My mum is early 70's and laughed when I explained to her "so you mean being organised like your dad and I have done for years!" (Dad was military plus she lives in a wee village often cut off by snow in winter - we're in Scotland)

@EdgeOfSeventeenAndThreeQuarter what I'm noticing with the young uns and the energy prices etc is they're suddenly realising us older ones with our warm fluffy pjs, bed socks and hot water bottles aren't so weird after all!!

@Antarcticant I taught dd at a pretty young age on bogof and similar offers not only "will it actually get used" as she used to point out v cheap perishables but also "check if it's REALLY cheaper" sometimes they do cheeky things like smaller pack sizes etc

Agree with "sleep on it" type approach - eg if I'm planning Amazon purchases I won't buy until there's a few items in the "basket" and then when you review you often find there are items you no longer need/want.

Know exactly where your money goes.

Yep doing a budget and sticking to it as much as poss and tracking your spending makes a HUGE difference I've done that my whole adult life! Started off paper and pencil and now spreadsheet (love a spreadsheet!) love how you can plan long term with them, forecast and do "trials" eg if I buy x that month does it land me in the red the next month")

My ex and I had a huge row over spending when first married. When I actually sat him down and showed him in B&w how much he had spent the previous month compared to me he was genuinely shocked, he was sure I had spent much more - the spark for the argument was he'd spent on the joint debit card a large amount over budget and left us stuck for paying an essential bill landing us in overdraft! He was all "you go shopping EVERY sat with your mate!" And I was like yea, but I stick to a budget and mainly window shop" he was dropping £40-50 a time on bloody computer games and rugby stuff! And this was almost 30 years ago! That was a lot of money! So I listed all his personal spending that month and all mine and he'd spent something like 3-4 times how much I had! He just didn't track how much he spent or stick to a budget (he'd never needed to before)

Have a subscription clear-out.

Yea a regular review of this kinda thing is good

@Jmaho do you ever watch "eat well for less"? So many people (seen it on here too) when asked what they spend on groceries/food just go off their big weekly shop and forget top up shops, eating out and take aways

@VelvetChairGirl brokers are rarely truly independent they work on commission so will recommend the people they'll get most commission from have you ever double checked what they are advising you? Not just on comparison sites but the companies themselves? Often the price is cheaper going direct

Re eggs - remember quickly and easily done in the micro. I've an omelette thingy that makes a fab veggie & cheese omelette with just 2 eggs and whatever veggies will work in just a few mins in micro and it's really filling! Absolutely fine as a main meal for 1 sometimes

@Justanotherobserver I did the driving thing after reading a guide on Mse when I still had a car. Saved me loads just by slightly adjusting how I drove! Based on that my ex wasted a fortune! He goes nuts on accelerating and then slams brakes on doesn't read road etc

@Pegasushaswings yea Mse/martine Lewis say same shift one brand level down at a time if you don't like it go back up, but if you do/it's ok you can live with it go down ANOTHER brand level and keep going till you find your acceptable point. Eg I'm fine with budget beans but can't stand budget cereal but own brand cereal is ok

I just do my nails the "old fashioned" way trim and file them and then paint them while watching tv or film of an eve. Something to do (stops me nibbling too so save on cals too!) and they look perfectly nice to me and I've had compliments