To ask how you all make small money saving changes?

[user3974465]

Especially with regards to food shops. Would like to cut back a bit before Xmas.
So far, have bought things like big batches of eggs, filled freezer with pasties for lunches, started buying frozen veg.

We're in a bit of a pinch so I've also looked into making money at home (but this is harder!)

If you're in the sticks I think a cheap supermarket delivery will save more than driving to Aldi.

I definitely think bulking out meals with veg is a good way to save. E.G 500g mince with 2-3 onions, plus 2-3 good size carrots (either chopped small or grated) and tinned tomatoes, possibly cheap mushrooms to make it stretch further.

I made pulled pork yesterday, and a £6 (2kg) piece of meat was stretched to feed about 10-12 by adding multiple onions, then served with chunky bread rolls and inexpensive salad. It also freezes.

Things like shepherds pie can also be stretched with extra veg and making sure the mash topping is thick.

Make sure you change/price check energy supplier if you haven't recently.

Soups can be cheap, hearty lunches. Things like a big sack of onions off the market (even small town otherwise expensive markets are sometimes good for stuff like this).

Things like cheddar will keep for weeks after it's use-by date so can be bought yellow-stickered without concern.

I also "pay myself first" so I put money into savings accounts straight away on pay day, and then I a) have to keep a really good eye on my bank account and b) am incentivised to spend less so I don't have to get the money back out my savings.

Heating lower can be a big saver but depends where you keep it. We tested this with the house down to 16 in the day and 10 at night when I was growing up and that was a bit extreme. Now I go for 18 and 14.

We are trying to do the same as we are trying to move house. I was doing an online shop but but I found I was spending more.
We now shop at Aldi and buy whole joints of meat to cook and use in a couple of meals.
We have also stopped doing a 'proper' meal every night, and will have a homemade soup night, a baked potato night, and sometimes a toaster and salad or scrambled egg and beans night. The kids love it, it's cheap, and healthy.

Meant to say it works out about £30 cheaper a week, so we transfer that into our savings straight away.
We also take picnics places instead of buying lunch out, and I batch bake muffins and freeze them. The kids can have them for breakfast lunch or snacks.

Ooh I also use own brand washing liquid for the machine and use lidl/Aldi (better than value but value still ok) dishwasher tablets and usually halve them unless it's a particularly grim load. Pound land is good for cheap washing up liquid but not worth a specific trip. Only buy shampoo/conditioner/shower gel when it's reduced if you don't go down to own brand.

I like bacon as a way of adding a meaty flavour to an otherwise veggie dish.

Have a look online for a local butcher who delivers, they usually do meat packs and offers.

Buy fruit and veg from your local market as these are cheaper.

Try to get unbranded foods, but if you have to have certain things branded then go to discount supermarkets such as home bargains and B&M.

Bulk buy washing powders and other cleaning products. Works out cheaper and easier to spend £25-£30 a month rather than £15 per week on small bottles/boxes.

Write a list of teas and dinners for the week and stick to it. Only buy what you need. Cook in bulk and freeze for another day. Takes longer but, grow your own herbs/veggies, there are plenty of books and websites to help with this. Buy eggs and cheese from your local farms (they will probably have a stall on the market) get milk delivered. I find when I have a milk man I actually drink and use all of the milk provided, supermarket milk in the plastic bottles seems to always be wasted (maybe we used to buy too much?).

I need this advice too OP! Am single parent and both my kids birthdays are in November/December just before Christmas so I am slightly dreading the expense of the next few months. I used to meal plan and I definitely spent much much less than I do now. I found the best way was to do a quick rekky of my fridge/freezer/cupboard and then plan and shop at Asda online. That way I could be really disciplined and check all the prices against each other. Some of the Asda smart price lines were fantastic value - I think the conditioner was about 20p a bottle and the spaghetti was 19p! Don't bother with cheap bin liners though - they are shit and fall apart.

@BlowMeDownWithAFeatherMissis

Put away some money each week throughout next year for birthday and Christmas. Start buying presents in January.

By December next year you'll have all presents sorted and wrapped plus savings to buy loads of presents in the January sales for the next year! & some leftover money for a big post Christmas shop. I've been doing this since DS1 was born, people laugh when I'm Christmas shopping in February but also complain that they've got nothing done by November c

My failsafe trick when we're abit skint - debit cards get put in a pot.

We withdraw £200 per week in cash for EVERYTHING. If we haven't got enough money to do 'x' out of the £200, then it doesn't happen.

Keeps us on track. We get shopping out of it, any 'nights out', takeaway at the weekend etc.

It really makes us think about what we are spending.

Take a flask for a hot drink, packed lunches and water out of the tap.
Meal plan and don't throw anything away.
Freeze individual portions so make a bigger meal to begin with.
Only defrosting the amount you need will save waste.
Separate meat portions in freezer also saves waste.

Buy whole milk & water it down rather than buying semi skimmed

Mysupermarket.co.uk is your friend, ads are a little annoying but it's great to see price differences.

Also if you have a dishwasher? tablets cost from 7p to local shop price 40p. That adds up if you use it every day.

Buy cheese in bulk, it freezes well
Bulk cook curry base and Ragu sauce - much cheaper than buying jars and you have a good base for several meals.
Buy and use that weeks Lidl/Aldi deal fruit and veg
Oh and have a flask by the kettle, fill it when the water runs hot for washing up and add anything left when the kettle boils

How about you spend much less on Xmas? I think people go totally ga ga over Christmas and spend too much money. Maybe it's because my children are really young but I don't get them much, we make a curry for a Christmas Dinner and we don't particularly drink so no massive booze bill.

Anyway assuming you're going to blow the budget anyway, how about making big lasagnes/cottage pie etc and freeze. Slow cooker recipes? Go to the supermarket late and pick up bargains that you can use up the next day in cooking? Make use of freebies from apple trees, allotments etc. I have masses of pears and apples at the moment that I would be happy to give away. Cut down on things like coffee when out and about, utilise coupons, cashback sites, 3 for 1 etc.

my family hate pulses, beans pearl barley, only one likes jacket pots! I cant feed them lentils they hate anything with them in, even well hidden. If my family would eat all that stuff we could eat well and cheap.

As for saving pennies I think the first port of call is your larger bills, leccy, water etc. Can you save money by moving? How much do you pay per month.

If something is expensive don't buy it. If something is cheap buy lots of it, then freeze/store. Everything is cheap somewhere, so shop around and when you find a bargain stock up. Don't waste anything, either turn it into a soup or freeze it.

I second dropping a brand on most things.

Take your own lunch and water bottle or flask.

Feed the freezer not the bin. Anything in the fridge that has nearly outlived its usefulness e.g. tomatoes, chop up and freeze for a tomato sauce. Onions, leeks, mushrooms, likewise. Grate cheese and freeze that. You then have some ready prepped ingredients in the freezer.

Make extra portions of food to put in the freezer, you then have home made ready meals to take out when you are tired, which saves a supermarket dash or expensive take away.

If you have extra hungry people in the family, give a good serving of the main course, but offer garlic bread/ bread and cheese , or make a pudding and custard to fill up on rather than seconds of a meat course which will serve for another dinner.

Buy in bulk where you can, stock up on things on offer that you know you will use. Your cupboard will become your shop.

Put away some money each week throughout next year for birthday and Christmas. Start buying presents in January

we put 8 pounds per week away and 10 per month for xmas, added to with ebay sales, bday money, any spare change.

now we can add more to it - really helps to have a few hundred by xmas.

Yes to going through DDs and bills. Are you sure you are on the cheapest deals for everything? Need to do this every few months as it changes. Are your phone contracts up soon and you're paying for stuff you don't use, same with TV, would you be better off on different utility tariffs? If you're out of contract, ring up all your providers and threaten to go elsewhere unless they give you a better deal.

We saved money by doing our food shopping in Lidl and Aldi - actually saved quite a bit. Still bought toilet roll and Toiletries from main supermarket, and eventually starting buying these at Lidl and Aldi...again saved a fortune, was quite surprised at how much less our shopping bill came to.

We further saved money by swapping our energy providers; done something with the mortgage (not sure what sorry, DH dealt with that,think we swapped mortgages or something like that). Cancelled Sky (got an Amazon stick instead which is amazing, actually better than Sky), and finally we changed our home and car insurance and saved quite a bit doing that.

i think in total our outgoings were reduced by £240 doing the above. It took quite a lot of searching on t'internet to get the good deals, but an evening doing that is worth it i think x

Also, are your bank accounts ones where you get cashback? There are some where you get an extra £5 or £10 a month for putting in a certain amount, having DDs etc. And are you using cashback sites? Cashback can easily be a couple of hundred a year extra without having to try too hard.

Do you have a farm shop or market nearby? Come autumn I always buy a 25kg sack of potatoes, keep them in a cool dry place and they will keep for a couple of months. Also they usually have large sacks of onions, football sized cauliflowers and cabbages. always cheaper than my local supermarket.

Farm foods is very cheap for frozen food and general stuff like bread, milk and tin food. Oh also washing powder, toilet rolls etc

If you need lentils, pulses then try an Asian supermarket and bulk buy.

Echoing what PP's have said, shop in Aldi, take the food money out as cash and then if the money physically isn't there you can't have it. DP and I got to a point of spending over £400 a month on food for two people.

In terms of making money from home, it's boring but I spend an hour or so a night doing paid surveys and earn on average £20 a week which you can have as a PayPal transfer, amazon vouchers, Nectar points and a whole bunch of other options. Just google paid surveys and loads will come up.

Don't buy frozen veg - it works out more expensive. buy veg in bulk, prepare and freeze. In fact do that with most meals as the bigger the quantity the more likely you are to waste if you don't batch cook and freeze where the food is fresh.

That's interesting talkie when I've looked at cost per gram for frozen veg it has been identical to fresh. So no cheaper, but none is wasted, and if you buy broccoli florets for example no paying for stalk. Although I quite like the stalk.