Your number 1 money-saving tip

[PupInAPram]

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

Be generous especially when it doesn’t cost you very much. I mean offer people plant cuttings and excess seedlings. With things you don’t need any more like a tv or old clothes, you may have to tread more carefully. People will often return the favour.
The advice to buy the last round seems dubious to me, as a reputation for meanness won’t do you any good.

@GnomeDePlume

Be wary of growing your own fruit/vegetables as money saving. It is extremely hard to actually save money. What you can do is use this as a fairly cheap hobby which gives you access to the freshest produce you can get.

What you do get from growing your own is a strong sense of seasons. Eat seasonally. In general this will be cheaper and reduce food miles.

If you grow from seed, it tends to work out much cheaper than buying veg in a supermarket, even taking account of the compost used to start them off (which isn’t essential, but the easiest). Also, if, like me, you prefer to buy/eat organic veg (I’ve had to stop doing that), it saves much more and you know they haven’t been sprayed with pesticides!

Also, a freshly plucked cabbage, tomato etc tastes wonderful, when compared to those from a shop that have travelled from God knows where in refrigerated containers - so home grown is better for the environment too.

Home grown fruit and veg also goes further than you think with freezing, careful storage, jams and pickles seeing you through well into winter.

Be wary of growing your own fruit/vegetables as money saving. It is extremely hard to actually save money. What you can do is use this as a fairly cheap hobby which gives you access to the freshest produce you can get.

I think it depends on what you grow and clearly it isn’t an immediate source of food. I’ve just been out picking rhubarb from three crowns I bought from B&M 3 years ago. I have masses and it will come back every year and get bigger and bigger. Likewise raspberries go bonkers and come back every year

We had a good mix of lettuces throughout summer/autumn last year. Plus parsley and chives both of which are still going strong. A huge amount of dill. Chillies as well. All in boxes/pots as we don’t have an actual garden, just a very small back yard. Spring onions were not worth it. This year I’m going to try spinach. I’d love to have some indoor tomato varieties but don’t really have the space to grow them.

@Nnique deep window boxes make great planters for carrots and onions.

Ah thank you, I’ll keep it mind. We’re very limited on space, I’d love to have an allotment!

@Alwayscheerful thank you!

Spring onions were not worth it

You can grow spring onions much more effectively from the base of a used one. Simply put it into water and it will start growing again.

@Nnique - do you have room for hanging baskets or half baskets on the wall? We’ve had really good success with Tumbling Tom tomatoes grown this way.

@User76745333

Spring onions were not worth it

You can grow spring onions much more effectively from the base of a used one. Simply put it into water and it will start growing again.

Ohhh. Can you do that indefinitely? How does it work, or do you regrow once and then get rid? I’d love to have a little pot of spring onions available all the time!

[quote SweatyChamoisPad]@Nnique - do you have room for hanging baskets or half baskets on the wall? We’ve had really good success with Tumbling Tom tomatoes grown this way.[/quote]
Thank you! Hmmm...we could possibly try it! I’ll put that top of my list. They won’t get all that much direct sun or heat though, sadly... half a day’s worth of sun on a summer day, until about 2 pm and it never gets very warm here.

I’ve never found grow your own salad works well in smaller spaces You get tons for about two weeks then everything gets eaten by slugs and flies.
My bay tree has been a godsend though and both rosemary and mint seems to do well. That saves me more money than lettuce.
My tomatoes in pots or baskets are lovely but I never got the knack of them ripening when I want. I just grow them for that lovely tomato plant smell.

Tomatoes were the only veg that paid me back many time over. A grow bag and a pack of small plants was my outlay. I ripened the green ones in a paper bag or on the window sill and ate fresh tomatoes for free every day last summer.

Ohhh. Can you do that indefinitely? How does it work, or do you regrow once and then get rid? I’d love to have a little pot of spring onions available all the time!

In theory you can keep doing it over and over but personally I do it about 3-4 times The water gets a bit oniony so you need to change it regularly.

Luckily we don’t suffer with many slugs (thank goodness, I absolutely detest the things!!), so we’re doing it again this year - there’s two of us and it fed us comfortably for the whole of summer and into early autumn. Oh yes I forgot we had mint too. Rosemary isn’t happy here, sadly. Not sure if it’s too much rain/too little sun/too cold but I’d love to crack it although I freeze rosemary/thyme anyway so at least we never waste any. I can’t bear to buy things and not use absolutely every little bit. Bay would be lovely and I might consider it next year (this year we’ve just bought a huge bag of dried bay so I won’t need anyway for a while!). I’ve heard that blueberries grow well in a pot.

@User76745333 that’s brilliant, thanks! We use a fair bit.

Growing your own can be worthwhile in terms of quality but it is often slow returns.

I have a large allotment so do grow a lot of fruit and vegetables. Some things give good returns in terms of quantity and quality. Tomatoes are definitely an example of this. Onions are pretty good if you have space to grow and store them.

We grow a lot of flowers for cutting but if we didn't I probably wouldn't buy them. Fresh peas are lovely but Birds Eye freeze them far better than I can.

We make cider from our own apples and pears but would drink less if we were having to buy it.

On the whole growing our own fruit, vegetables and flowers is an inexpensive and rewarding hobby rather than strictly a cost saving.

Same with us @Nnique - we have three half baskets on the side of a shed that's west facing, and we're in Mcr so sunny days are rare! But we've had decent crops with the TTs where some of our others (Moneymaker etc) have failed due to lack of sun or blight.

@SweatyChamoisPad ohh that sounds promising! Do I still have time this year to get them going? Would you start from seed or buy a plant? We do have a grow light so we can get seedlings quite reliably.

We have a rosemary bush that is very happy despite our coldish climate and mostly soggy garden. Others have died along the way but this was planted on an southern facing corner "too close" to the wall in terrible thin soil that kills off a lot of other stuff.

Rosemary and lavender both like poor soil. So don’t plant near rises that like lots of feeding.

Mine was in a pot on the wall. I think there’s just too much rain here. Maybe I’ll try again and see if I can make it work.

[quote Nnique]@Alwayscheerful thank you![/quote]
My post should say Soap nuts were on offer at Dobbies last month, they were just over £9 but up to £12.99 again.,

Eco eggs are very good.