Your number 1 money-saving tip

[PupInAPram]

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

Wrap iceberg lettuce, celery and spring onions in tin foil and pop in salad drawer of fridge.
Lasts for weeks.

Yes I think so @Nnique - I only started mine about 10 days ago. Look out for baby plants in your garden centre too - they are a fairly popular cherry variety.

Can I ask - if you are not quoting a message can you please mention what you are answering.
i.e - that's a good idea - I never thought to do that - where can I buy. are not useful answers as I have no idea what you are talking about and may miss something good.

If looking for furniture etc do take a look at your local auction house. My local one currently has a drop leaf dining table plus 4 chairs with an estimate of £15-£20 and it isnt likely to go much above that (they never do). You will need to be able to get it home yourself so only bid if you have access to transport.

We wanted an extra fridge one Christmas, bought one at the auction for £15. Needed a clean but still going strong a few years later.

I'm going to have a go at hay box cooking soon, as an initial experiment. Has anyone here tried it? I have a couple of boxes and an old duvet that I'm going to use as insulation.

@LadyHelenaJustina

I'm going to have a go at hay box cooking soon, as an initial experiment. Has anyone here tried it? I have a couple of boxes and an old duvet that I'm going to use as insulation.

Me. I recommend it for anything for which you'd consider slow cooking or using a casserole dish: they're idea for stews, curries etc. You need to get used to it because it's up to x3 the length of time (depending on the recipe) but I've never had a disappointing result.

I use a polystyrene box that had been used for a food delivery but lots of boxes will work with decent insulation.

I use wireless temperature monitors to check from time to time but I've never had a problem.

Good luck.

I've considered a credit card but clueless as never had one - I took an online survey that came back saying that NO credit cards would likely be issued to me.. though I'm not in any debt and successfully repaid a TV and a vacuum cleaner back from Littlewoods. Any ideas which credit card? Like, specifically please

Hair cut and dyes at local FE college. Find out when the Level 4s are in (they have a lot of previous experience)

Pp you need to build a credit history.

GnomeDePlume Tue 05-Apr-22 20:15:59

Ive pretty much furnished our house with beautiful antiques for free off freecyle!

Yes in amongst the treasures we had the odd cheeky people expecitng us to take their utter junk ( went straight to the tip) or the trees which were actually teeny twigs or the small mirror which was a magnificant huge gilt one.

we have had numeous amazing toys, beautiful wooden chests, dining table - chairs ( different people) out door sets, book shelves, wardrobes, beds, lamps, its endless!!

If you have kids, give them pocket money by the time they are about 8, it stops the pester power in every single shop. If they are told to buy it out of their money, then inevitably they won’t. I probably give them less pocket money than I spent on them in the first place.

@Passthecake30

If you have kids, give them pocket money by the time they are about 8, it stops the pester power in every single shop. If they are told to buy it out of their money, then inevitably they won’t. I probably give them less pocket money than I spent on them in the first place.

Good idea. Also teaches them the value of money and how to save.

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!

Yes.

Buy a bunch of spring onions, they usually come helpfully wrapped in 2 elastic bands.

Wind one band down to the white and chop between the to bands.

Put the roots in a small pot / far with water and wait, they start to grow virtually overnight.

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus Thank you!

@EliyanahM

I've considered a credit card but clueless as never had one - I took an online survey that came back saying that NO credit cards would likely be issued to me.. though I'm not in any debt and successfully repaid a TV and a vacuum cleaner back from Littlewoods. Any ideas which credit card? Like, specifically please

I think the advice on that one is to take one for people with crap credit score. Buy a few things and ALWAYS REPAY IT ALL AT THE END OF THE MONTH

This will help build your credit score back and you should be able to get a CCat a decent rate v

@notanothertakeaway - thank you so much for all those recipes! x

[quote gracedentssketty]@notanothertakeaway - thank you so much for all those recipes! x[/quote]
@gracedentssketty pleasure. hope you like them

Elyanah do you have a mobile phone contract? That can help to build a credit record.

If buying online, put stuff in your basket then wait 24 hours before checking out.
Often I no longer really want to buy things after 24 hours have passed.

Especially effective if you shop online after having a glass of wine!

@User76745333

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

Yes, I do think it depends. We are also doing it as a hobby (I am aware that we are very lucky to have the space to do this) - DH brought all compost from old house with us (he had been cultivating it), plus strawberry plants and lots of seeds from previous years veg. New owners left a huge, well rotted compost heap as they were downsizing. We also brought all our raised beds with us. We’ve had some further outlay in that DH wants to do this on a large scale, so has bought scaffold boards, painted them with linseed oil and has created further raised beds. Plus a large greenhouse was already here. We also had water butts from our old house so collect rainwater to use in the garden - better for the plants and saves on water bill. We are also fortunate to have some large water tanks under the house which also collect run off (we are on an old growing site) so we just need a new pump to be able to use that water.

This year will be relatively expensive for us as first year in new house so do have more set up costs than normal but, given the above, it should be fairly cheap going forwards

Plus given it’s a hobby which takes up quite a bit of time I view it as keeping us out of the pub and also cheaper than other hobbies (DH used to fly and that was very expensive and was stopped once we had kids who cost a fortune to feed)

I also def recommend the following:

1. See if any of your mates with kids can offer hand me downs. My DC do get some new stuff but I also have lots of hand me downs from friends which is a total money saver;

1. Charity shop is your friend for loads of stuff - we got numerous almost new cook books and also kids toys/books from there. Agsin, they don’t always have to have new;

1. Always make your own work for lunch and don’t buy coffee. The youngsters in my office seem to have 2-3 coffees a day from the coffee shop and I’m like how?! I make my own lunch and take my own snacks;

1. If you can get a credit card offering cashback or points which you can turn into vouchers and know you can be disciplined enough to pay in full each month, do. Every little helps;

1. Learn to do things yourself so that you don’t need to call tradesmen -I.e. Change a fuse/washer on a tap etc;

Sorry, that’s 5 tips

This is a fabulous post, I've picked up some excellent tips not just from a money saving perspective, but waste reducing/environmental benefits.

Hot waters bottles, eco egg, deleting Amazon/eBay and cancelling prime. Sharing Netflix and Disney with family. I could go on.

People with air fryers, what recipes work well? My oven is shockingly expensive to run but all I manage in the air fryer is chips. Surely there's more it can do?

One thing I started a few years ago was instead of buying a packet of mint, parsley or whatever was to buy the pot of it.
They usually have both options at the fruit and veg section and keep watering and sniping bits off when I need it. I’ve had my current parsley container for about two years. I’m going to have to start again with my basil pot as I neglected it but it’s had a good run!

Ok you mightn’t save much but it’s handy to have it on your window ledge or wherever than remembering to buy it or buying it and don’t use it all.

This guy is fun and creates dishes for under 2 Canadian dollars per portion. Struggle Meals

I've only skim read so apologies if these have already been mentioned but idMobile have sim only contracts for £6 month.

DH and I are thinking about not renewing our land line.

Apparently it's cheaper to boil water on a gas cooker than in a kettle.

Don't leave things on standby.