What have you stopped doing to save money or just about survive?

[heartbroken22]

Buy own brand? Eat less?

focus on yellow label and freezing items, live like a king on a shoe string budget. as the saying goes

@Hedjwitch yeah please be really careful with damp and get a mould spray. Damp is really dangerous and can kill.

@LoganCaleSeries5 what time do u get the yellow label stuff and where from?

Asda near me, seems to be the best offers, i prefer mid evening around18:00-1900 to get more cheaper priced, that said sometimes if you want the nicer but still reduced but bit more £ is around 13-14;00

its a mix to as and when and the items too, some supermarkets usually seems tight with the reduced prices, overall asda seems quite reasonable

@SootspriteSearcher thanks I'm going to have a look at the veggie meatballs in Aldi.

I was really broke around Feb - April this year. Minimal heating, Minimal food ( buying only what we needed as needed) not washing towels or bedding. I'm not sure it really helped BUT the mindset did. Won't pay to tumble dry a towel that week? So not frivolous spending on anything non essential. But going a bit feral also happens when I'm stressed. I had towels airing after every use. Fortunately it was just a few big unexpected expenses and I have set up some monzo pots since. There is Minimal room to cut back meaningfully in the last 18 months. We are pretty frugal

Plug in heated blanket for the sofa. The heating last year was on a LOT less and will be this year.

You can get them o Amazon and Ebay for around £40. Not cheap but in the long run the amount you save on gas makes it worthwhile. Best item I ever bought!

Swooped to aldi rather than tesco
Go out less
What we have nor what I fancy
Crossed of distant friends from Xmas birthday list
Stopped getting my nails gels
Hair cuts less often (short hair sadly) and stopped the foils
Less heating
Less buying of random clothes

I'm pretty certain that even with gas being more expensive now, you are better off using your heating. I googled this last year, and you really need to meter read to get accurate costings because your boiler will not be using energy all the time once it's heated up.

Before last winter, I used the heating as much as (more than?) I needed to. Last year, I got some cheap temp/humidity readers and used a dehumidifier when humidity went above 70% when opening windows wasn't enough/possible. This was usually when there was washing drying. The dehumidifier helped to get the washing dry much faster.

We didn't put the heating on until ... can't remember, but it was either mid or late November. It wasn't easy, but we tried not to hold off using the heating as much as we can.

• we all have Oodies. hated the idea, but they worked really well
• on coldest days, heating went on when first person got up for an hour or two and again at about 5pm. Off at 7pm when we got Oodies on. Also had blankets for sofa watching. These attracted cats - another layer
• more hot drinks during the day and soup for lunch
• radiators off when rooms not being used
• dressing in wool layers rather than cotton or synthetics. Two pairs of socks. Thermal base layers. Fingerless mittens and rechargeable hand warmer for WFH colder days.

We invested in termals, woolens, Oodies and radiator valves. Already had the dehumidifier. Even with that outlay, we made big savings on heating, and we're starting to use them all again this year.

I've been cooking lots of lentils and rice. Eating simple food that does not require expensive ingredients.
Going for more walks and taking my own hot drinks rather than buying.

And vinted for buying and (sometimes grrr) selling

I love the cheesy bake which is cooked lentils and rice mixed with cooked veg and layered with cheese and baked in the oven.
Lentil moussaka is good too.

We’ve downsized both cars to much smaller cars, sadly we can’t get rid of either due to living rurally and working in the opposite direction

Moved onto supermarket’s own brand

cancelled most of our streaming services except Apple Music and Prime ( I genuinely have no idea where to buy a vast array of different genre music if i don’t stream it as I don’t have a CD player and where sells that much of a mix) plus I enjoy podcasts and audiobooks too so save myself a fortune on books

Never had children ( the cost and the environmental factors were big issues to us but we love the children in our family)

Stopped buying gifts for everyone except ourselves and that’s now only a token gesture

Heated and non heated throws instead of heating

Stopped paying for external help such as the cleaner

stopped all non essential shopping

Day trips to where it’s free

Cooking from scratch

We are fortunate enough to be comfortable, but I’d like to stay that way, so…

1. Thermal clothing. Lots of lovely base layers. Oxfam has been great for the children. Mine varies from Uniqlo, decathlon, Sainsbury’s and M&S.
2. Electric throws. If I’m cold, I tend to go to bed rather than stay up and try to warm the house.
3. Cut back on alcohol.
4. Trying to make the most of sunny and windy days for drying washing.
5. Rice, potatoes and pasta. Lots of them. And using finely chopped mushrooms to extend mince. I use an equal amount of mushrooms to mince and none of the children have objected.
6. Using big pans on the stovetop instead of the oven. We now have an air fryer too, so that cuts down oven use.
7. Blocked up draughts. Windows have been given fresh sealant. Doors have new draught strips.
8. Bathroom windows have bubble wrap on them, and I’ve used cheap shower curtains over the windows because the keep the draughts out but let light in.

Like PinkyDinkyDoodle, we are comfortable, but realise we have to rein in to stay that way. Some of those things such as only using the oven when full are lifelong habits, but more recent changes have been:

• meal planning and batch cooking. This is something we absolutely had to do when we were a young family. Going back to full-time work changed that, but we're back on track with it now and spending less on food.
• Alcohol - it's a treat I don't want to give up, but we're not eating out much to justify it.
• I used to tumble dry pretty much everything between Oct-Apr, but still hanging out washing now, and last winter dried everything on airer and radiators. Dehumidifier great help with that.
• Curtains and blinds lined. Not a fan of carpets, but we have them upstairs because they make a noticeable difference.

Heated furry blanket for sofa as we can't afford the underfloor heating.

And stopped the tumble dryer so clothes are now in the room with the fire to dry.

Same here.

Gas is much cheaper than electricity. If you have gas central heating, it's likely to be the most economical way of warming your house and keeping damp at bay.

Plug in heaters are for people with storage heaters or similar. So useful if gas heating packs up, but otherwise very expensive way to heat a very small space.

Bulking meals out by adding beans and lentils
Cut/dye own hair
Drink more water so feel fuller for longer

Last year I over halved the time the heating was onand set at 18. I have relented a bit this year and set it for 2 hours and ten mins a day over morning and afternoon at 18. Last year it was on an hour and a half in total.

We have oodies, we have extra blankets and hot water bottles, we have one electric throw.

One reason I have increased the time on the heating this year is to prevent the mould issue I had and ended up buying mould removal stuff.

. I also find when drying clothes the heated airer takes the edge off when its cold. I never run that for more than 2 hours a day.

Then I read the energy app daily to keep an eye on what I am spending.

I dont think I will be doing anything different really other than increasing the time the heat is on by 40 mins a day which doesnt seem like cutting back as such but is to prevent mould a bit.

Also I have new neighbours downstairs who might have their heating on this winter. My neighbour last year did not use heat as he said he didn't need it. My neighbour before that always had her heat on and it warmed my place up.

We are comfortable but I did an overhaul of our living to ensure we could still have our holidays and the children can continue at their many clubs

• One takeaway per month - usually around £15 for DH and I to share a starter and main course

• Lidl for 44p bread, £1 pancakes and cheaper butter

• Meal planning

• More conscious of when the heating goes on - however I won't have the children being cold

• I fit into Next children's clothing so age 11 - 12 when I need to upgrade my jeans/leggings/plain trainers/even knickers

• Never really have takeaway coffee unless it's from McDonalds

• Everything logged on the spreadsheet of doom. It's a pain but it really works to streamline expenses

When we moved into this house, there was no heating, but there was damp, so we bought a dehumidifier. That was in 2008, and we're still using it. My daughter cut back on her heating last year and ended up with mould. She bought a dehumidifier - much more sophisticated than ours.

If you are going to dry washing indoors on airers, the windows need to be open. Or a dehumidifier needs to be on. Worthwhile investment.

I am on an Economy 7 tariff. I get up in the night to put washing machine and dishwasher on (they are integrated, no accessible plug for a timer). I charge power banks overnight and use those to power lap top and phone in the day.

Only flush the toilet When Necessary

Use unnecessary compostable bags for fruit and veg from Lidl to use in my pedal bin and food waste caddy to avoid buying bags (e.g today I bought a grapefruit and an aubergine and out each in a bag, to get the bags)

I know exactly how full to fill the kettle for various uses and never boil more than necessary.

Shower at the gym