Your number 1 money-saving tip

[PupInAPram]

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

My money saving tip? Stop buying on impulse, and don't buy stuff that you 'want' rather than 'need'.

No takeaways. They are not good for you and are usually disappointing. Keep a pizza in the freezer for an emergency.

Picnics, thermos for outdoor coffees. Always carry water and a snack for the kids from home.

Cook from scratch. Eat plant based food.

Ignore ‘best before’ and meal plan so you don’t waste food. Works for cosmetics too. I have a lovely eyeshadow palette that is 20 years old it still works (clearly don’t wear make up much!).

Don’t have heating on unless it is genuinely cold and wear jumpers and blankets. People seem to sit about in t shirts with the heating on 26 degrees, I can’t see that being affordable for many now.

Arrange work to reduce childcare costs (work opposite shifts if you have a partner, childcare share with a friend).

Walk or cycle whenever possible.

Never go on Amazon or ebay when drunk

Yes back in the day DH and I went out for his university reunion lunch, got drunk and then went shopping. We bought four CDs (mid 90s) and got home and found we already had two of them

Got a yellow label extra large chicken Friday from Asda. Just over £5. Cooked, carved up and have 5 dinners in the freezer for two of us.

@TR888

If you have a mortgage, set up an overpayment with your bank that goes towards the capital only. Most mortgages should allow you to do that. Even if it's just £50/month, it will add up and you'll pay it off much earlier. If you can go up to £100/month, that's even better. Do it by direct debit so you don't even have to think about it.

We did this.We used the money saved on holidays ( we went camping in France instead of package deals etc) .We are now mortgage free and it really does feel good.However...we do need to keep saving really!

Don't vote Tory!

Use halogen oven whenever possible. Instant heat, so no need to wait for a whole oven to get up to temperature.

Have grocery shopping delivered so you aren't tempted by impulse buys.

Google recipes in order to use up any leftovers in the fridge.

I try to follow a whole food plant based diet which is relatively cheap and very healthy. I batch cook when I can. I do have some fish, but don't eat meat so save money there.

@Limer

Don't go shopping (in person or online) as a leisure activity.

Learn to love your bank statement and seeing the balance increasing.

For food shopping - Meal plan, use a shopping list and stick to it. No impulse buys allowed.

“Learn to love your bank statement”

Wow I love this, for years I avoided looking at my statements .Now I am online I check in regularly and transfer bits of money into savings.

Got a yellow label extra large chicken Friday from Asda. Cooked and carved up, in the freezer, enough for 5 dinners for the two if us and all for just over £5.
Always keep mulk, bread and butter in the freezer. Also if any meat is left over from Sunday lunch I vac pack it and freeze it for a later date.

Also change banks frequently if there are better offers to switch, sometimes £150 plus £3pm if you use the app once a month and have 2 DDs.
If I curb my clothes buying then I'd save a lot more than at present but I do a financial check every month, get a free £30 senior Railcard with £10 worth of points from Tesco, and use my bus pass a lot. I also have a National Express coachcard and a free Tastecard which gives me 3 months of eating out 2 for 1 or 59% off plus cheap cinema tickets. Just before the 3 months is up, I canceI.
Get glossy mags, Woman& Home, Country Living, Elle etc when on offer at £6 for 6 copies delivered free for 6 months. A nice treat and I pass them on to people who can't get out much. I don't eat any meat of any sort or drink alcohol or fizzy drinks, snack type foods or biscuits. Stopped buying things I like but don't need.

I looked up the user manual for my washing machine. Am I going mad but it does seem.to confirm the quick wash uses less electricity?

Money saving this week:

Reverse meal planning - eating out of fridge freezer and kitchen cupboards.

Plan to spend £5 and no more tomorrow for top up shop of milk, bread and value biscuits/yellow sticker item.

Have set up weekly standing order of £10 to save towards school uniform and essential replacement clothing.

Wearing cosy, oversized fleece hoodie instead of putting heating on (heating off until 1 November🤞) An excellent investment!

Stayed at home today and played board games. A no spend day and checked bank account.

Vinted, for all clothes, for everyone. Sell on there too, dead easy.

We went onto a website (could have been SE water) and yesterday we had delivered (all free), a hippo bag for the toilet, some pipe cladding, some gel to put in hanging baskets, a toothy timer and a 4 min shower timer. Every little helps, I managed a perfectly decent shower (and hair wash) in four mins but would normally spend longer but the egg timer (stuck on the tiles) just prompted me to turn off.

@SpringLobelia

Never go on Amazon or ebay when drunk.

( 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).

You are a legend! We could easily be friends!! 🤣

Oh and I mentioned this upthread, don’t forget your P87 forms to send to HMRC, work from home expenses are £312 per person BUT you are claiming back the TAX element of that. It’s really easy. But will take a few months to come through. Even if you only worked from home for one day in 20/21 and 21/22, you can claim this. Two of us here, over £200 for spending 15 mins completing an online form.
TOP TIP - HMRC have changed their P87 form, you can now claim more than one year on the same form (previously you did a form for each year. They will not accept the old forms after May. However, if you have a HMRC Personal Tax Account, you can do it through that.

A few years back I stopped being a supermarket snob and now do 99% of my grocery shop in Lidl/Aldi. Have literally saved thousands. Also, less choice, so easier to avoid impulse buys.

After a shockingly high gas/electric bill in January (£178 vs what I used to pay -£65), I aimed to not have the heating on. I wear lots of layers and invested in an electric blanket for emergencies! Also only put the hot water on for 1 hour per day, so just enough for showers. Feb bill was ‘just’ £75. I live on my own, and know this wouldn’t be possible if I still had kids at home.

If you have space, try and grow your own salad and veg. I only started doing this myself last year (surprisingly easy, even for this novice!), and rarely had to buy anything fresh at the supermarket. Excess stuff can generally be blanched and frozen, or made into meals….

Get a slow cooker - make your own eg soups, stews etc and batch freeze.

I’ve just ditched Sky and the TV licence, as there’s more than enough for me on Netflix (much cheaper) or YouTube (free).

We have a community larder which we visit weekly

Its diff to a food bank as in open for all and is a way for supermarkets to distribute surplus food

We get loads of stuff. Meat, veg, dried
Goods, fresh food, bread etc

Don't vote Tory.

@PupInAPram

I don't smoke or drink but I could definitely cut my grocery bill by stopping ready meals for dinner on a week day and batch cooking on a Sunday. It is my one luxury as I walk to work and back every day and work in a full time busy job. I worked, shopped, cooked tea and washed up every night for two decades as a single parent with no support. Ready meals are an unnecessary indulgence though 😔

I agree. I batch cook chilli, curry, spaghetti sauce, macaroni cheese, shepherds pie. So I’ve always for a ‘ready meal’ in my freezer to pop in the microwave! I also buy reduced items and throw them in the freezer too.

Too tip that 👍
Heard something like that on Oprah about 20 years ago, and it’s excellent advice 🙂

If a trip is less than 5 miles, bike or walk.

Cut back on activities

There are so many of us doing this now, it feels like lots of places where we used to (waste money) treat ourselves will go out of business. You’d think the government would want to guard against that even if they don’t seem to mind some of us can’t afford to eat 3 meals a day.

@SpringLobelia

Never go on Amazon or ebay when drunk.

( 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).

This made me laugh out loud!

I've never succumbed to a large musical instrument, but I did once buy £50 worth of vinyl records that I already owned after a few glasses of red. I was really confused when they arrived & was about to contact Amazon to tell them my account had been hacked when the memory suddenly hit me