Your number 1 money-saving tip

[PupInAPram]

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

posted under another user name once how DH and I bought a baby grand piano once when shitfaced on pink champagne. neither of us play the piano. Nor do we have room for a piano).

Best money saving tip EVER - do not drunk buy a grand piano. I love this!!

@shssandhr

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

For people concerned about private dental costs, look in to treatment in Hungary. If you need quite a bit of work doing even with the flights and accommodation you will save a lot of money. And you can combine it with a bit of a holiday.
I live in another European country and have a dentist in Hungary. She is amazing. I haven't had any major work done but even the savings on a scale and polish and small fillings (and I also had a cosmetic procedure done on 4 teeth) made it worth the cost of the petrol to drive there.
Obviously you'd have to do your research properly to make sure you get a good one. The quality of the work and the materials used are as good as in the UK - the reason it is cheap is not because of the use of cheap materials and cheap equipment, it's because the costs of wages and running the clinic is so much lower there.

I have an auto-immune disease that also affects my mouth.

I've spent several thousand pounds on my mouth in the last 3 years, all of it for treating abscesses and stress fractures in the jaw with root canals, implants, and bone grafts. You'd never know how expensive my mouth is by looking at me.

I'd be really grateful to have some ideas of costs for Hungary or other countries for dental work. Or even a hint of where to look because I don't know what I'll do if I start another abscess or another bit of the jaw infection spreads so that I need a bone graft.

To save on haircuts, marry a bald man who can cut in a straight line.

Ideally make sure he also takes the same shoe size and, for bonus points, the same size for t-shirts, jumpers and flannel shirts.

Communal/unisex clothes can save a lot of money when you only have to buy half the amount to keep both of you warm.

(Returns from kitchen looking flustered) And ensure that he knows washing powder also comes in a handwash variety before it is put into the washing machine.

Going vegetarian or vegan will not save you money if you buy substitute products like fake chicken etc. Plus they're not that healthy, and not that nice imo. It only really works if you embrace a new way of eating and base your meals around vegetables and pulses, eating entirely different meals rather than trying to recreate your meat based ones with substitutes.

I am trying but it certainly isnt cheaper, a block of tofu is £2 at the cheapest and pack of fake sausages is more money then real ones
all the vegan stuff costs more money then real meat, if your buying frozen fish fingers, chicken nuggets and cheap ham etc not fancy pants stuff from waitrose
and the fake tuna is 3x the cost per can then regular tuna.

Don't buy the fake meat and the vegan stuff. It costs an absolute fortune.
Most of my food is now vegetarian, I have cut my meat right back but do eat a little from time to time. I don't touch any of the kind of stuff you mention. When people are talking about a vegetarian diet being cheaper I presume they are talking about buying vegetables and making meals from scratch which happen not to have meat in.
I enjoy making a veggie chilli with various kinds of beans - it's delicious, cheap and goes a long way.
Lentils also go a long way.

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus

Will send you a pm

Fake meat for vegan and vegetarian foods is processed unhealthy plus expensive. I stay away from processed and am following Jack Monroe recipes using tins of beans of all types. Easy to cook and much cheaper. I felt healthier in 10 days flat!

Avoid brands. Do blind taste tests with your dcs for fun.

We can't tell the difference between Marmite and supermarket equivalent, and it's half the price. And the value strawberry jam tests more of strawberries than the expensive one. It's a quarter of the price.

Buy frozen fish rather than fresh. Buy 'cooking bacon' which is just offcuts. Make your own tomato sauces and salad dressings - those bottled ones are VERY expensive for what they are.

@5128gap

Going vegetarian or vegan will not save you money if you buy substitute products like fake chicken etc. Plus they're not that healthy, and not that nice imo. It only really works if you embrace a new way of eating and base your meals around vegetables and pulses, eating entirely different meals rather than trying to recreate your meat based ones with substitutes.

I agree. Dh and Dd are vegetarian. Dh eats no fake meat at all and no tofu. The only fake meat Dd eats is quorn mince which is cheaper than meat and quorn pieces which is cheaper than chicken. Also more economical as you keep it in the freezer and use what you need for that meal. I’ve started eating quorn pieces rather than chicken as it’s cheaper and tastes fine in curries, etc.

Apart from that they eat veg, chickpeas, lentils, etc.

My DH is a clothes hoarder. It has been a godsend since I haven’t had to buy clothes for DS17 for over 12mnths. He found a pair of 501s, now back in fashion thank god, the skin tight jeans is not a good look on 99.9% of grown men. Teenage boys are leading the way and going back to jeans that show off their best asset, a decent arse.
He spent last night sorting through DHs vast collection of chinos from the 80s, 90s and 0s building his summer wardrobe.
I have to

Meal planning and online food shopping, I saved about £30 per week by being able to avoid temptations and just buy what we need based on what’s in the cupboards/ freezer already. I went from Aldi to tesco too and still managed the saving.

I wash non soiled swimming nappies and reuse them each week to save using a new one each baby swimming lesson.

Switch bank accounts regularly to ones that are offering switching bonus’ (read the requirements first though)

Purchase all food shopping on tesco credit card and then pay it off as soon as the money clears on it so you get extra Clubcard points (obviously only works for Tesco’s but points add up).

Buy a flask. Has saved me a small fortune on take-away hot drinks, and no queueing needed!

Also meal planning (cliched I know). But yes now much less food waste as we only buy stuff I know we will need. I try to avoid going to the supermarket outside of our once weekly delivery unless unavoidable as I end up buying non-essentials like cakes and snacks.

Not a money saving tip but a plea.

Ignore that millionaire cunt Jamie Oliver's advice about a little street sweeper he met in the back streets of Naples who cobbled something fantastic together with some anchovies, linguine, a glug of olive oil and parsley he found growing at the side of the road.

Also if buying anything online then set up a top cash back account and see if you get any cash back on your purchases. I’ve made £300 + over the last couple of years just on normal spending.

@limitedperiodonly

Not a money saving tip but a plea.

Ignore that millionaire cunt Jamie Oliver's advice about a little street sweeper he met in the back streets of Naples who cobbled something fantastic together with some anchovies, linguine, a glug of olive oil and parsley he found growing at the side of the road.

😂😂😂

Get a monzo account (other online banks are available). Best thing I ever did

I have a high street bank account I use to get paid into and pay the direct debits from.

Everything else gets scooped up within a few hours of it hitting the account on payday and dolloped into my monzo account. I have several saving pots in monzo one for the gas bill, one for Christmas and one for school related expenses.. etc etc..

Monzo does a great breakdown of spending and for the first few months I used it to see where I wasted money. Once I got,that sussed, and was suitably horrified then I nailed it all down and give myself a minimal amount of pocket money. The rest gets spirited into pots till it’s actually needed.

@MintJulia

Avoid brands. Do blind taste tests with your dcs for fun.

We can't tell the difference between Marmite and supermarket equivalent, and it's half the price. And the value strawberry jam tests more of strawberries than the expensive one. It's a quarter of the price.

Buy frozen fish rather than fresh. Buy 'cooking bacon' which is just offcuts. Make your own tomato sauces and salad dressings - those bottled ones are VERY expensive for what they are.

My DD claims not to like Aldi Stax, only Pringles. She doesn’t know I’ve been refilling the last Pringles tube for months….

During covid lockdown, I started dying my own hair at £6 per box. I wouldn't go back to salon highlights at £130 per visit. That's a big saving

I must admit I would tend more to Jack Monroe than Jamie Oliver. My trouble is that 2 decades as a single working parent have turned me off cooking from scratch, having got in every day after work and produced a home cooked meal to sit down to together. It's also a faff to cook for one.

I agree about buying your basics at discount and storing them well. (Freezing grains and flours can inhibit mites for example.)
Know how to prepare tasty, nutritious food from basics plus a tin or two. This can help you postpone the supermarket shop. Or at least avoid going to buy bits to make a meal or even worse the takeaway.
Postponing / lengthening the time between periodic events from the supermarket shop to having a hair cut can save money in the long run.

@PupInAPram

I must admit I would tend more to Jack Monroe than Jamie Oliver. My trouble is that 2 decades as a single working parent have turned me off cooking from scratch, having got in every day after work and produced a home cooked meal to sit down to together. It's also a faff to cook for one.

I cook my meal for two nights one night then the meal for ds for two nights the next night lol. He eats chicken meals.

working from home full time - no petrol costs, no coffees out, no daily lunches, no work clothes, no work shoes, less makeup, less shampoo

game changer

@silverbubbles

working from home full time - no petrol costs, no coffees out, no daily lunches, no work clothes, no work shoes, less makeup, less shampoo

game changer

Even accounting for increased heating costs ?

@Flatbrokefornow

I like your style!

@PupInAPram

I must admit I would tend more to Jack Monroe than Jamie Oliver. My trouble is that 2 decades as a single working parent have turned me off cooking from scratch, having got in every day after work and produced a home cooked meal to sit down to together. It's also a faff to cook for one.

Nah, not for me. I'd rather have stuff that tastes good and doesn't give me the shits.

GF pasta, rice or potatoes, garlic, onion, tomato, tomato puree, assorted spices, vegetables and a small portion of whatever animal protein I can get reduced or stretch out from a chicken does for the majority of the evenings. And for the other evening meals, there's nothing wrong with a jacket potato or egg and chips.