To ask what small cheeky things you do to save money?

[monroeagogo]

DH routinely reuses stamps. His excitement when an envelope arrives and the stamp isn't marked is a wonder to behold.

Franking is the enemy.

What cheeky things do you do to save the pennies?

@PukkaP

Not much really. I wear my Oodie as I’m struggling to afford the heating bills. I buy the yellow stickered food and batch cook for the freezer. Always grate a couple of courgettes into spaghetti bolognese or chilli to make the meat go further.

I put oats in mine, it makes it thicker but not in a gross way. Been doing it for years and no one in the house has noticed!

Not really cheeky as such but it saves money; I buy stuff from the reduced counter with short sell by dates then freeze for use at a later date

Fill kettle once in morning and pour whole kettle into a large thermos. Keep this next to the kettle to avoid unnecessary boiling of kettle.

Slow cooker...much cheaper than the oven.

Use water from condenser tumble dryer in iron as ironing water.

Oats in old tights makes a lovely oat bath.

Maze76
I take full advantage of my supermarket offers on their shopping app. It’s great as all the offers are based on my shopping habits. I save money on items I actually use and collect points which I save for my Christmas shopping.

Oooh yes, nectar? I truly think sainsburys works out cheaper than Aldi for us when we factor in things like this. We have pet insurance with them, so they double our nectar points every month too. They’ve now added a nectar tab to the website so every week when I do my shop I check the savings and plan a week’s meals around the offers. I’ve collected £80 of points since Christmas.

Yes! This is why I stick with Sainsbury's too. I'd never save as much at Aldi as I make in Nectar points over the year. I think this year may be a good year too, as they've said they're going to do more targeted Nectar offers now they've stopped Double Up.

I have a Nectar tip too: get a linked card for your DH / DW / DP (not a separate one, one that's linked to the main account). You then get double the offers (like the fruit and veg challenge, as well as the weekly points). I use my Nectar for our weekly delivery, maxing my offers out, then go to the shop at the weekend for the top-up shop and max DH's out. I use Smart Shop for his discounts and also go round again as me if I have useful ones too.

I can't remember where we started the year, but I have £236 in points already. I think I may have made £110-ish so far.

@PukkaP
What is an Oodie?

0.5p to one nectar point. So 200 points is £1. 10,000 points is £50

For you to have accrued £110 in 10 weeks means….22 thousand points

You have spent £22,000 on items / services that accrue nectar points in 10 weeks?

Some of these posts are making me cringe... I don't have much money but I don't need to "steal" and pretend I'm just being a bit cheeky. Some of you need to take a look at yourselves tbh.

Is Sainsbury's any good? It never looks quite as fresh as Waitrose or M&S. Only been in once and was disappointed at the service and state of the shop. Not as nice as Tesco either.

isnt the entire point of it is that its distilled water so soft and wont cause limescale in your iron, so topping it up with tap water renders buying it utterly pointless?

Yes I would have thought top it up with filtered water at least. In which case just use the filtered water and save yourself £1.20.

I water down hand soap, particularly as the kids are quite generous. Apparently it’s spending enough time rubbing it in that’s key.

@monroeagogo

DH routinely reuses stamps. His excitement when an envelope arrives and the stamp isn't marked is a wonder to behold.

Franking is the enemy.

What cheeky things do you do to save the pennies?

Not read any further than this post OP but reusing stamps that haven't been ink marked doesn't mean they work again. The Royal Mail aren't stupid!

@statetrooperstacey

Stamps don’t have tube franked anymore for Royal Mail to know it’s been used. They will surcharge the letter and the recipient will have to pay for it . When they question why they are paying for it when it has a stamp on it they will be told it’s a reused stamp . Potentially embarrassing ?!

Exactly. OP seems unaware of this.

@VerbenaGirl

I water down hand soap, particularly as the kids are quite generous. Apparently it’s spending enough time rubbing it in that’s key.

Not advisable. It grows bacteria if you do that.

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads

Back in the day, I used to drink 20/20, Thunderbird or something equally as cheap and alcoholic at home before going Out Out.

This is now known as "Pre's" and very common practice even now

I literally couldn't care less. I don't pay for them and I'm not going to start paying for them

I was responding to your apparent lack of knowledge/understanding as to why the cost of buying new carrier bags has increased significantly over the last few years.

I wasn’t trying to make you see that it’s theft, because you already know that and your asserted ethical stance is that theft is acceptable. I wonder if you care so much if people steal from you, though – if we go from your perspective that you only have to pay for things that you take if you feel like it? Kids’ bike leant against the fence? Your handbag if you put it down for a moment? Your car? Or does it suddenly become less ‘cheeky’ then, when you’re the one being stolen from?

I always do the stamp thing - my view was that if they can't be bothered to stamp it then I got lucky! Feeling a bit unsure now though.....

Why should the default have to be that they deserve to be stolen from if they haven’t physically prevented people from theft? If you grab an old lady’s handbag and run off with it, is it her fault for not being fit/healthy/brave/unterrified enough to stop you? Ergo, she is the one at fault and her lack of preventing you effectively makes what you’ve done not a crime?

From the 4/4 first class stamps will be 95p, I think i will save money by just not sending anyone anything.

We’re so used to the speed and cheapness of electronic/digital communications now, that I think we’ve lost sight of what an absolute bargain it is that, for less than £1, you can post a physical letter in a village outside Thurso one day and have it taken 900 miles and delivered to a village outside Truro the next day. That said, your approach is the right one: if you deem anything not worth the price, you decline to buy/pay it and do without it. The problem comes when people refuse to pay the price but still feel entitled to the service/item.

I’ve set the shop alarms off in Lidl several times by taking my basket outside to the car to fill my own shopping bags that I forget to take in the store because I will not pay for carrier bags.

That’s one of the beauties of Lidl and Aldi, though – you never need to buy one of their bags (if you’re taking the goods out to a car, anyway – bit trickier if you’re walking/on the bus). They always have loads of boxes available for you to help yourself, so just find and take one of those – no charge to you and slightly cheaper for them on their trade waste bill.

@sweetbellyhigh
I think you missed the point.

[quote LoisLane66]@Cheeseycheeseycheesecheese
You do THAT?
Good grief, what a cheapskate. I always have the whole 600g tub with toasted tiger bread and maybe a sprinkling of cheese on some of their soups (which are delicious)
600g fills a soup bowl so 1/3 full would be hardly worth bothering to heat up.[/quote]
I don't understand why you're calling me a cheapskate? 200ml is plenty for me with a doorstop slice of bread and butter. It literally effects no one else that a 2 portion meal lasts me 3 days.
We've been asked how we save money and I save myself a few pounds a month doing this, it may not be right for others but it's a a lot more honest than some on this thread...

Not read any further than this post OP but reusing stamps that haven't been ink marked doesn't mean they work again. The Royal Mail aren't stupid!

Not one of these giggling thieves would find it quite so funny if their boss managed to delete/'lose' their time sheet for a week and 'informed' them that they would have to make up the time in order to be paid for that week that they've already worked in full.

That said, your approach is the right one

Why thank you @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll. I feel that 95p on top of the cost of a greeting card is really not worth it now. Which is what I was thinking about-especially Christmas. Best to send greetings by email or Whatsapp.

If it's something important for business etc, I always use signed for or tracked which is £££s but I prefer it.

I buy toilet rolls at Tesco £2.95 instead of Waitrose £3.75 although packs of 9 quilted rolls at Superdrug are £2.50 but not used them yet to compare quality. Waitrose t-rolls don't shred as quickly in water as Tesco's do, which can be a plus and a minus. Waitrose you use fewer sheets per shit so more cost effective.

I feel that 95p on top of the cost of a greeting card is really not worth it now. Which is what I was thinking about-especially Christmas. Best to send greetings by email or Whatsapp.

I know what you mean. I'm irritated with ITV competitions, where they obviously want you to text/phone in to make them money as you enter. The theory is that you can legally enter for free - by sending in your entry by post. It's true that they don't receive any money from your postal entry, but the little matter of the price of stamps - plus an envelope/postcard and a trip out to the postbox - rather takes the shine off the idea of a 'free' entry. I rarely enter them at all nowadays.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I feel that 95p on top of the cost of a greeting card is really not worth it now. Which is what I was thinking about-especially Christmas. Best to send greetings by email or Whatsapp.

I know what you mean. I'm irritated with ITV competitions, where they obviously want you to text/phone in to make them money as you enter. The theory is that you can legally enter for free - by sending in your entry by post. It's true that they don't receive any money from your postal entry, but the little matter of the price of stamps - plus an envelope/postcard and a trip out to the postbox - rather takes the shine off the idea of a 'free' entry. I rarely enter them at all nowadays.

Bit of an aside but I happened to utter the words 'answers on a postcard' at work the other day. All the Generation Z people in the office were
I imagine 'enclose an SAE' would mean nothing to them either.

Not cheeky but I do make a lot of things myself which is usually cheaper. Bread, yogurt, soap, hand cream, solid shampoo bars etc. also grow a lot of veg which we freeze

I send eCard greetings. Even the paid for ones work out cheaper than buying cards. I often use Jaquie Lawson e-cards as the yearly cost is the price of two nice shop bought ones and you can add your own greetings and get reminders. They're beautiful cards and environmentally friendly.

I happily exploit the rules on meal deals in Asda. Everywhere else makes you have a sandwich (or similar), a drink and crisps - although the crisps aren't ambient, are far cheaper to buy in a multipack and take no preparation time, and we normally just drink tap water (or fizzy water dispensed from the big cheapo 2l bottles) anyway.

The sandwich is the dearest element of the meal and the one that's least straightforward to make/take in yourself - but the terms in Asda are that you take three qualifying items and the cheapest is free; hence you're fully allowed to take three packs of sandwiches for your meal deal, get one of them free and then put the extra ones in the fridge for the next couple of days.