What small things have you done to save ££ that have really made a difference

[HowToChangeWays]

We need to find a way to save for a house deposit but whilst renting private.

WE CANNOT MOVE. We pay 1150 pm rent . Average in this area is 1600. We have a great LL. Who has kept it as low as possible.

We cannot move due to our business / work being here.

I'm thinking ways to spend less on groceries / top up shops. Or other small ways that may make a difference

Only subscription We have is amazon music as dc practices dance with the music and used daily.

We don't eat out but prib have a fortnight take away. So that will be stopping .

What cheap meals ? I'm a shit cook and with work / kids activities I do use jars for some stuff as quicker.
Shop aldi tesco and lidl. Tesco for the things I can't get elsewhere.

I move as much as I can into my savings on payday.

I cancelled all of my subscriptions and sign
up to one at a time.

I stopped wasting money on unnecessary things while out so no nipping into a corner/coffee shop.

Keeping out of the supermarket was a big one for me. I’d go in almost everyday but now I try to shop for a few days at a time.

My teen on the other hand asks me to transfer money constantly so this needs to be stopped.

Stopped using sainsbury's local, did one shop each week. Meal planning. Switching to cheaper meals - some of my favourite meals now are less than £1 a portion!
Used clothes swap to save on baby clothes (donate a bag of clothes that are too small and exchange for clothes in the next size up)
Clarks shoes from vinted.
Walk, cycle, bus - no car
Stop buying coffee out except for with girls once a fortnight or so
Stopped buying snacks and drinks
make use of free baby groups and classes
Second-hand books and library.

meal suggestions:

• butter beans, courgette, avocado (optional), mint, olive oil, lemon juice, salt
• Tuna rice salad (could sub tuna for cheaper tinned fish such as tinned mackerel in spring water)
• Chickpeas - veggies & greek salad cheese (the cheap one from lidl) - (I use onion, courgette, aubergine, tomatoes, mint)
• get a cake tin, crush some boiled potatoes to make a base. Drizzle with olive oil,on top add chopped tomatoes (actual tomatoes not tinned), red pepper, spinach, three eggs (beaten), and top with cheese. Season. cook in oven.
• Pasta
• Quiche and salad (or omelette if you can't be faffed with pastry)
• sweet potato and chilli
• in winter lots of soup
• in summer lots of salad
• I use a load of beans - black beans, butter beans, kidney beans etc. They work on their own with spices, herbs and dressing, with rice or potatoes. So versatile, and quick to warm up straight from the tin. Chickpeas are 35p a tin!
• Keep it simple, use the same ingredients in different ways: eg. I always have in onions, garlic, courgette, tomatoes, avocado, red pepper, broccoli carrots, mushrooms, some kind of cheese (salad cheese or cheddar), potatoes, rice, pasta, chickpeas, butterbeans, chopped tomatoes, tins of tuna mackerel, or sardines, tinned soups, sourdough, olive oil, salt, pepper, fruit, yoghurt, oats, flour, eggs, almond milk, coffee, maybe one kind of meat or fresh fish such as chicken or sea basa. I bake mini muffins for dd as a snack or its fruit.

Stop buying stuff unless it’s absolutely needed.

use what you have. You probably have everything you need. Stop buying wants. You’ll be surprised how much gets frittered away.

if you think you need something write it down. If you still need it in a month you can buy it.

borrow things. Swap with friends etc. get super frugal- make it a challenge. Make it fun. It’s not forever- just for a while to support you in your goal.

if you do need to buy something buy 2nd hand if possible.

Being frugal isn’t a punishment- it can be quite liberating standing outside the rush of consumerism we are mostly all living in.

good luck achieving your goal. You can do this.

Pizza dough. makes a big lot & raw dough freezes well. This recipe delicious & easy.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread/pizza-dough/

The best way to save money is not to spend it.
That sounds trite, but look at your spending. Most of your bills and regular outgoings are probably paid by direct debit. I've assumed you've already looked at these and decided that all are essential. It not, do this first.

Then what else do you need to spend? Food definitely - so meal plan and go the shop/have a delivery once a week. Don't spend a penny more.
Things like clothes and household items - only buy when absolutely necessary and have an idea of budget before you start looking. Look at Vinted for clothes - you can get some great bargains. Fuel/transport costs are relatively fixed.
Have a budget for discretionary spending and stick to it - once it's gone, it's gone.

Definitely meal planning and shopping once a week online. I know exactly what we'll be eating when and minimise wasted money and food

I’m sure you’re not as foolish as me, but if by chance you’ve not checked your mobile contract, you can save big there. We were paying contract rates of £50+ months er month each long after our contract term ended. Switched to SIM only and are now paying less than £10 per month.

I also can’t remember the last time I bought new clothes. Vinted and charity shops all the way.

Thanks. Will definitely go back to meal planning. Dh nor the dcs eat any form of beans except baked beans , they don't eat tomatoes. :/ no one eats fish
They don't eat any salad except cucumber
But they do eat lots of fruit and veg.

So far I've got:
Meal plan. Shop ONCE. Make do if not unless absolutely necessary. Ie no milk left - I used to meal plan but have got lazy tend to plan weekdays and weekends not then I end up nipping to the shop and buying too much. This is going to stop.

Tomorrow I'm going to list all the food we have from both freezers and cupboards. I'm sure there's loads of odd bits to use up.

I do use vinted a fair bit for dc 2. However older one is bigger for age and the last 7 items I have purchased haven't fit so have been a waste. Even if I re list I lose the postage.

Fruit in season only. The price of Berries is bonkers out of season. And they happily go through a punnet of strawberry and raspberries a day or 2.
Maybe just buy 1 punnet each a week. Rest other fruits.

I buy everything second hand. I only replace things that are completely unusable.
You sound pretty sensible. It may be that there are not big savings you can make.

Have gone through direct debits. As I say only 1 subscription .

All car costs insurance, fuel and tax paid by work

I have £600 on a card I need to clear. That's 1st goal.
Phone is £23 pm in a contract 19mth left.

Clothes I only buy when needed. For me and h is rare. Kids always need something. But again I look for deals.

1 downfall I have is I buy a small bottle of coke each day at work £1.75. This is stopping.
Each day I will transfer 1.75 Into savings. As that will all add up
But I don't buy coffee or things like that out hardly ever. Maybe occasionally meeting a friend but rarely.

Great thread! Will be following with interest.
Agree with the meal planning, I use Taming Twins for meal ideas, and make meals ahead on a Sunday so that everyone can grab a homemade ready-meal during the week and around school, work, gym etc.

It depends on your starting point, ie how much fat there is to trim.

Make sure you get all your groceries for the best price. Some things are always on offer somewhere so never pay full price. If you have people who 'won't eat beans' will they eat cheaper cuts of meat wg bone in chicken, pork shoulder?

Make stews with less meat and more vegetables.

Look at the Moneysavingexpert money makeover and do everything that is relevant. A few quid saved here and there on all your spending will add up over time.

Massively reduce or cut out food and drink out of the house, meals out, lunches, coffees, takeaways etc.

Question every expense, but look for good value solutions eg NT or similar membership can give you access to cheap days out if you avoid the cafe and gift shop.

Being frugal isn’t a punishment- it can be quite liberating standing outside the rush of consumerism we are mostly all living in.

This. we are constantly encouraged to spend, spend, spend. Look how many people are feeling literally aggrieved that they are having to do without things that a couple of decades ago, would not have been imaginable. The constant want for things is so damaging.

Shop ONCE. Make do if not unless absolutely necessary. Ie no milk left

Absolutely necessary is no food left in the house at all (or not enough to cobble a meal of any sort together). Buy some UHT milk and keep it for emergencies. Danger is that if you go out for milk, it won't just be for milk ... Actually have the makings of an emergency meal available (could be e.g. )nuggets and chips or pasta and cheese sauce, then you have no excuse at all.

1 downfall I have is I buy a small bottle of coke each day at work £1.75. This is stopping.

Or if you like coke and will miss it, bulk buy from the cheapest place (often trays of cans from Iceland round here) and take one to work each day. if you're using the buying coke as a proxy for something else, then work out what. If (e.g.) it's just to get away for a couple of minutes, will walking round the building scratch the same itch?

(About clothes) Kids always need something.
Do they really? They need underwear, socks, some casual outfits and school uniform (I'm assuming school age). Plus school shoes and trainers and maybe wellies (teens will be more expensive and need more, I will grant you!). They don't need something unless they outgrow an existing thing, and that's unlikely to be "always" unless they are at that awful growing constantly stage in mid teens for boys.

Agree about meal planning and having at least one meal a week that is really cheap eg tuna pasta, chickpea curry.

I barely buy alcohol now either.

Apart from buying barely any clothes and selling stuff on Vinted to get what I need, I’ve also stopped buying random crap from Amazon. Was terrible at that before. Kept same phone for years, use the standard I phone earphones and make up my own face oils with a big bottle of castor oil and Rosehip oil. Also I don’t really get my hair cut or any beauty treatments.

there are quite a few accounts on TikTok and insta with helpful tips. Some go way too far for me but could be worth doing even in the short run to help you save!

also see if there are any side hustles to earn a little extra (put straight in to savings) and check that you’re getting a good rate in your savings.

things like not eating meat, not having a car, walking instead of the bus and so on really help. charity shop clothes, buy second hand, reselling old bits that I no longer use.

can you get on a social tarriff for broadband / internet / phone. Sky offer broadband for £20 per month and you get a free sim card with it for a year. You need to be on certain benefits tho.

I stopped popping into shops......
tesco, B&M and primark were the worse.
£15/20 a visit 2/3 times a week soon adds up!

On this I would add to put a bottle of emergency milk, some part baked rolls and extra tin of something. Lader staples for a day or two to see you through so you don't worry you'll be hungry just before payday and end up doing a bigger shop than intended because you just needed milk or bread...

We always have milk and bread in the freezer, so never need to do a top up shop, because we'd never only come back with just the milk/bread we need

Reduce amount of packaged snacks and alcohol you buy

Add a tin of green lentils, and half a bag of frozen base mix (diced carrot/onion/celery) to any mince based meal (spag bol, cottage pie) to bulk it out and make 2 meals from 1 pack of mince

Shop at around 8pm to get the most yellow sticker items. Freeze anything that can be frozen.

Make use of Too good to go and Olio apps

Buy everything you can second hand from vinted, charity shops, car boot sales

Sell stuff you don't want

If it takes less than 30 min to walk it, don't drive

Make sure you're getting at least 4.5% on your savings

Put money in your savings as soon as you get paid

Can you get a side hussle? Delivering leaflets, dog walking, proof reading?

Can you learn how to cut your, DH, kids hair?

I know you say about shopping in Aldi, but I have recently swapped to doing online shopping with Tesco. I buy the Aldi price match food for as much as I can. I find that buy going into Aldi, I am tempted buy extra snacky food as it is ‘cheap’ but the couple of extra things soon add up. I said to my DH the other day that there is a reason they don’t put the scan as you shop bibbers in because so many people would be shocked by how much the extras add.
My normal weekly Tesco shop is around £70 for 2 adults and a 5 year old. I did an Aldi shop this week, over £90 bloody pounds because of the sneaky extras!!

As well as looking to cut spending, is there any way of bringing in a little more ?

One of you doing a shift in a bar at the weekend ? Or babysitting ? Or (not knowing what skills you have) teaching a skill you might have ?

As others have said, people have very different starting points, and maybe you are close to not being able to cut spending ?
Other things are gradually heating the house a bit less..... turn down a degree at a time, or use for 30mins less a day ?

Depending on what you use berries for, frozen are good. I have frozen berries (blueberries, cherries, raspberries) with Greek yoghurt for breakfast and a bag (£2.50 ish) would just about be enough for a week.

do not buy frozen strawberries, or any combo including them, they are gross