How do you save money with prices going up?

[Krenonges]

Seen the thread on how much prices have gone up in recent years and I've really noticed it too.

I've adopted lots of habits to save money and wanted to share them and find out what other people do to keep costs down at the moment.

I earn a decent wage but I've started budgeting it much more carefully now so we have money to save or for experiences like holidays or days out rather than stuff.

Here are some from me:

1. No takeaway coffee ever. Got a cheap coffee pod machine from Aldi for Xmas and a milk frother and make my own.

1. Very rarely buy new clothes now. All from Vinted and I also sell mine on there. Made £50 this month (Any Vinted seller tips appreciated)

1. Never get nails done. Used to always get them done but not anymore. I'll paint my own for special occasions.

1. Find cheapest haircut I can via Fresha app - last one cost me £18. I've stopped with expensive Keratin treatments.

1. No subscriptions apart from one (Netflix). I used to have loads (perfume, Amazon prime, make up) but it just led to an accumulation of stuff.

1. Use ChatGPT for recipes with what I have in cupboards rather than loads of top up shops. This week my weekly shop was £38 as I have so much in freezer and store cupboards that don't need to do full shop.

1. Cheap days out - we use a free app with walking routes in our area and take a picnic. Need ideas for when weather turns wintery though!

I do still spend on a gym membership and monthly massage to help with health and wellbeing but things like nails/ expensive skincare are out of the window to make that happen.

going to try and bulk buy items which hopefully will put off put against the increasing price rises and will last a while and save me having to pop into nearest shop and pay their prices each time

What kind of items?

Not wasting food, buying in bulk, own brands rather than expensive ones, buy second hand are what I’ve always done. Coupons and vouchers are useful for treats though the deals aren’t what they used to be. We take a flask of coffee to the beach sometimes

Where is good for vouchers these days? I remember when restaurant vouchers were a big thing but not seen as much recently

@Krenonges

anything, shampoo, toilet roll, dishwasher tablets etc

items that will last

Bumping on case anyone has any more tips

I echo the tips above; coffee machine at home, don't shop when youre hungry, bulk buy non perishables. Make use of freezers, wash clothes when the weather is decent to hang out (harder in the winter).

We don't eat out or have takeaways, (only for birthdays) I would rather recreate our favourites at home. A small deep fat fryer makes the best chips.

Sell clothes, old phones and books.

Before food shopping, always stocktake the fridge, freezer and cupboards to avoid duplicates.

Eating vegetarian a few times a week. Replacing mince or chicken with lentils or chickpeas in a recipe reduces the cost of a dish by at least half. You can also bulk up meat dishes by adding a few handfuls of legumes so you can get two meals instead of one. I use dried chickpeas instead of tinned ones as they can be bulk cooked and frozen in individual portion sizes.

Bulk buy cleaning products and non perishables like jars of coffee when on offer.

Shop the Tesco ClubCard prices.

Not having the underfloor heating on

Use discounts like Blue Light Card if eligible

Try not to use tumble dryer

Turn off lights

Online delivery shop once a week, you don't get tempted by the "offers" in store

Breadmaker - family of 2 adults, 2 basically full sized teens, x3 love bread, so just make what is needed as and when, virtually no waste

Milkman - considerably less popping out for milk, when you inevitably get more than just milk

Freezer has bags of vegetables, sweetcorn, peas, broadbean, green beans, so you use just what you need for that round of dinner

Befriend an allotmenteer! - at the moment we are getting boxes full of allotment veg, only really need lettuce and some fruit - although apples and pears are covered, unfortunately I don't know anyone with an orangerie full of lemon trees but I am on the look out!

We have a cinematic set up at home, and we haven't been to the cinema for so long, nothing worth the trip, and the teens are into more acting films there is a huge back catalogue they want to see, we have caught up with fairly recent releases on sky movies, so that should see us through most of the autumn/winter/spring

Read the books you already own!

Having a huge declutter and realising how much stuff you buy is more impulse than requirement, saves purchases in the future.

If you do get tempted, put items into you online basket and wait at least 24, preferably 48 hours before "buy now"

Saying this there are huge expenses you can't cut back on with teens, namely anything to do with their education. And we will in the not too distant (hopefully) be having to support one, then two, university rents and expenses, and all the above is pissing in the wind compared to that!

We are lucky in that we still have enough left over to put a little money in bonds, and an investment account (literally fifty quid a month in each) but we have changed our habits.
Vinted for the vast majority of new clothes.
We pay for tesco subscription thing and time out 10% vouchers for when big shops are needed.
We stock up the freezer with M and S yellow label foods.
We make a big batch of soup and bread rolls on a weekend for lunches instead of buying meal deals.
We re-visit our budget every couple of months to ensure it's still accurate.
I've drastically cut back on my wine habit 😂

Turn the boiler down to eco setting so hot water is hot enough but not scalding, saves gas.

Launder clothes on a cold wash

Mostly eat vegetarian at home

Buy DC school uniform items from PTA secondhand stall as much as possible

Family help with DC childcare in hols as much as possible saving on holiday clubs

Holidays at family and friends’ in UK rather than abroad. Reciprocal visits so we have them to stay with us too and do local free or cheap things for fun.

Running and walking outdoors as exercise instead of paying for gym or classes

Eat leftovers for lunch as much as possible when WFH or super cheap food like beans on toast

Switched to supermarket own brand beans, ketchup, tins

DH batch cooks huge amounts from bulk bought food from the farm shop reduced food and freeze lots of meals

Probably more

I honestly hope your post helps people who need it but I’ll be honest I never did any of the stuff you saved money by not doing, don’t drink coffee, have bare minimum clothes and they last for years, never had gym membership, never got nails done, haircut once every two years. This is just for the people who came on but are disillusioned as it is a good thread so thank you for starting it!!

Good thread.
I would say, check Money Saving Expert, sign up to the weekly email: Excellent tips and vouchers etc. Things like switch your energy or bank account, reclaiming lost pensions, there's loads on there.
I have only recently discovered the lower temp settings on my washing machine, so I hope that is saving a bit of money through energy use.

Being Eco conscious mainly by not buying the unnecessary stuff saves money.

Always dry outdoors if I can, I really resent putting clothes in the dryer.
Packed lunches not meal deals.
Most eye-opening,and hopefully impactful if we keep it up, was a really detailed line by line review of our bank statements and credits cards to categorise all our spending. It was quite laborious but DH is a whizz with a spreadsheet: it really shows where we have been spending quite frivolously and can make savings. (Takeaway coffees, meal deals, rubbish from the school canteen, lunch out because we haven't planned ahead, small purchases from Amazon)

@frozendaisy it is the prospect of finding the money to support DCs at university that has made us really think about this now and make some changes. Even if they manage to get a part time job (which is increasingly difficult) we will need to top up loans and earnings quite substantially. 😫

Big expenses we cannot do anything about: My commuting. Paying off home improvement loan until 2028. DC school dinners, DC wraparound care, fuel for car.
Big expenses we keep because help so much/ worth it for quality of life: Sometimes get Hello Fresh. Multiple subscriptions to tv streaming and music streaming. Eating out or takeaways couple of times a month.

Someone mentioned Netflix, we rotate most of our TV subscriptions, binge Netflix for a while, then swap for Disney...
Cheap (and now old) mobile handsets and a SIM only deal. £5 a month and plenty of data for me.
Always negotiate broadband etc when the provider ups the price.
A recommendation for "the batch lady" cooking on a budget book (I bought it cheap in Smiths)

A few more tips - are you entitled to a Blue Light Card or Charity Volunteer Card - both have wide categories for entitlement, great for discounts / money back. Gym type wall dispensers in shower, saves a fortune on shampoo, shower gel, etc., pump type dispensers for washing up liquid as stops the tsunami of liquid from a bottle (I buy cheap plastic dispensers from Dunelm, but you can reuse hadwash bottles, as labels peel off). Use colleges for massages, hair, nails and even meals out.

We very rarely eat out any more.
I refuse to drink alcohol if we do go out as over a fiver a drink is ridiculous and then I’m also the designated driver so no taxis needed. DH refuses to regulate his drinking so we go out less and if we do it’s to local social clubs where drinks are cheaper.
I couldn’t tell you the last time I had a takeaway coffee.
We go for dog walks instead of expensive days out.
I actually save by shopping daily in Aldi or Lidl which is on my way home from work as there’s no food wastage.
It’s all a bit miserable really isn’t it?!

I bought a spin dryer to spin the excess water out of my clothes before using the tumble dryer . It was astonishing the amount of water it removed .

Got a dodgy firestick for £30 a year… no more wasting money on netflix, disney etc. No need for a tv licence either.
Turned down the setting on the boiler for hot water, so its hot but not hot hot. Saved money.
I go through my kitchen reguarly & list things by end of date so nothing gets wasted - saved a fortune.
I use vinted & temu for clothing rather than expensive clothes shops.
Use tesco clubcard + get 10 percent off twice a month for big shops.
No longer buy acohol (needed to stop drinking anyway but I have saved a bloody fortune so win win 😂)
I have an allotment that I grow veg on, i blanch it & freeze it rarely have to buy veg anymore.
I use the free swap libraries so i take what ive read & swap it for new books - amazing how many newly written books you can get!
Decluttering the house slowly made me realise how much crap I own and how I dont need to buy anything.

We buy supermarket own brands for most of our groceries. Never buy alcohol.
We have baking ingredients at home and bake bread, cakes and biscuits at home. I’ll bake bread (not always but try to as often as I can) and dd loves to bake so she happily does that once or twice a week.
We do free things a lot or find deals on groupon.
We go to the cinema occasionally but will go to a Vue for the cheaper tickets. Take our own drinks and snacks. Sometimes we buy a popcorn there but never drinks.

My friends are similar so we’ve found cheaper ways to get together. Walks out in country parks or local nice areas, meeting around someone’s house where everyone brings something. Sometimes we’ll go out for a coffee, shopping centre or dinner.

I save in some areas but spend in others. Things like we’ll always certain foods in the fridge like smoked salmon, berries and have nuts as even though they’re expensive, theyre nutritious and help to keep you full.
I’ll spend on occasional days out and holidays. We do the holidays as cheaply as we can but still go to interesting places. The money I mostly save gets diverted to holidays.

Grow your own herbs and chilli peppers on the windowsill. Once you get the hang of it, you will end up with plenty.

Vinted for clothes (buy and sell).

Swap your utilities regularly

Reduce spend on birthdays and Christmas by family consensus.

Swim membership at the pool so you can exercise frequently (at my pool kids get free swimming if they have lessons)

sim only phone deal; refurbished iphone not brand new

Stop drinking alcohol

don’t buy snack food - make your own popcorn, flapjacks and cereal bars (not necessarily cheaper but discourages you from buying loads). You can also do roasted chickpeas and similar for savoury snacks.

we signed up to the 10% off at Tesco so we do two big shops per month and top ups in between: this only works if you have lots of cupbaord and freezer space

Couple of these I have started doing recently.

I've stopped tumble drying everything so hope to see a decrease in electric bills.

I've started switching my electric yearly to get a discount. This year my provider offered me a 30% discount to stay!

Big one for me which isn't saving me money but is giving me peace of mind. Our winter electric bills with ufh are always high. Through the summer months I put away an amount each month and now I won't be hit with a massive bill in December when trying to get ready for Christmas.

I buy thinks like washing powder and toilet roll in bulk.

My plan for the winter is to get a slow cooker so that the temptation to buy takeaway when in a rush on the evenings is gone.

Love hearing these tips thanks everyone