To ask for your tips on frugal living?

[SeeClearNow]

First time poster. Reading some posts earlier prompted me to start a thread for us to share our tips on frugality and budgeting. Most of us are feeling the pinch and I thought it would be helpful to hear all the different ways we can save some money that perhaps we hadn’t thought of.

Would love this to be a friendly, judgment free thread. Hit me with your top tips, no matter how big or small - I want to hear them all!

And I agree, bathing once a week, hoovering once a week and never using a hairdryer would be merely existing for me, not living. We're all different.

I'll read the full thread later but my latest tip is to stop throwing away half a baguette that's gone stale. If I buy one for lunch and we only use half of it or part of it then that night I'll make macaroni cheese and then the left over baguette into a garlic baguette with homemade garlic butter.

It's a necessary way of life for many, me included.

Change your car/house insurers every year, using Topcashback or similar. It is a bit of a pain admittedly but there's no financial incentive for loyalty. Same with broadband. Put reminders in your phone for a month before.

And I agree, bathing once a week, hoovering once a week and never using a hairdryer would be merely existing for me, not living. We're all different.

Yes we are. I shower more than once a week, but I only hoover once a week and I never use a hairdryer. I don't call that merely existing. I hate hoovering so doing it more often would annoy me, my hair can dry without a hairdryer, I have no desire whatsoever to use one. I'm not in dire financial straits, this is how I live all the time.

Yes this!

it takes me at least thirty minutes to Hoover the house. No way I’d have time to do that everyday. Still as the post is about tips I use a brush and broom to keep on top of crumbs in the kitchen in between a full house clean. . I’ve started extending this to other rooms with hard floors to cut down Hoover usage when cleaning. We don’t have any carpets downstairs.

There is a weigh up of everyone's personal situation, values and priorities here. Each to their own.

But...there's no reason to compromise a healthy diet (from reputable sources!!) if you learn about nutrition and how to cook... I started learning to cook when I was on benefits, albeit two decades ago. No regrets. I found ready made meals bland and depressing after a while which motivated me to learn to cook things and freeze them.

Gradually stocking up on herbs and spices over time if you can't afford a load in one hit will do. There's actually a public herb garden near us so we can source free bay leaves.

The best thing for me was to open an account with Revolut. It rounds up all my spending and puts the money into a vault. It gives me weekly spending insights and I have set a daily/weekly/monthly budget and it gives me notifications when I have used my card and how much left of my budget I have. Also the best thing for me is the fact I can set money as side into different pockets. So bills in 1 pocket and pocket money for the kids i. Another. I would highly recommend Revolut account if your like me and terrible with money. It was a massive shock to see how much money j literally throw away
mid your interested in this account please use my referral link and once your account has been opened we both get £50

Join me and over 20 million users who love Revolut. Sign up with my link below: revolut.com/referral/kellyf91u!AUG1-22-AR

DH recently got a 'Chase' debit card - it pings his phone with details of what he has just spent and he says it's made him very aware of impulse purchases.

Yes my dh has the chase account aswell. The Revolut account is very similar but it has more advantages as you can round up your purchases and have the different pockets of money. The basic account is free and with that I can have 1 child account. My kids account I can have full control over and o also know when and where she is spending her money. Honestly this account has changed my life!!!

Stop doing the lottery and put the money into premium bonds instead. You still have a chance to win good money but you can always withdraw your money in future when you need it.

Ditch subscription services like Netflix and Prime and go with free ones instead. TPTV Encore, Plex, Pluto and Roku all have free TV shows and movies. There are also free channels broadcast (check if your TV can receive "Freeview" (aerial) or "Freesat" (satellite)) so you can cancel your cable or satellite TV subscription. I was paying over £100 a month with Virgin Media for TV/broadband/phone, now it's £25 or so for broadband/phone only with another provider.

A good VPN is worth its weight in gold, allowing you to access TV channels from abroad. Often programmes from the US for example are available on free TV there but end up on Sky here. A VPN allows you to access the US channel's equivalent of BBC iPlayer and watch it for free. This also works for sports events, a lot of events that are on pay TV here will be on a free to air channel somewhere round the world. It's completely legal to do this, as opposed to using dodgy pirated streams, because you're just accessing the legal broadcaster's legitimate broadcast feed.

Save on travel costs by staying indoors as much as possible, especially when winter comes. If you can't afford to heat your home it used to be the case that libraries would be full of pensioners who spend the whole day there to keep warm, you could revisit this tactic.

In my area people are always leaving stuff they no longer want outside their homes which you can take for free. Get into the habit of patrolling your local area for free stuff which you can then attempt to flog on Gumtree or eBay.

Bubble not really sure what you mean by this. I have only highlighted the benefits that have helped me.
No worries though if your not a fan , just thought I would share what has helped me massively as I had no clue where my money was going but this has proved just how much I waste on stupid trips to home bargains!!!

Separate bank accounts is my number 1 tip
I have 4 - a general one where all the money goes into and all bills go out of, then I have one for food & petrol, one for Xmas & Birthdays and one for kids uniforms, school trips and hair cuts, standing orders go into each account every month from the main account and I never have to suddenly find money for Xmas in December or 4 sets of uniforms in August or if someone’s school shoes wear out mid year, I always have money readily available for necessities
Also once all bills and standing orders have gone out of the main account (also having everything going out on the same day is another tip) then I know exactly what I have for general spending for the rest of the month without worrying about the ‘just in case’s

I was making my toast this morning and was thinking of how much butter and jam I put on it. I won't scrimp on quality butter and jam so I bulk buy when on offer. Use less of each on your toast by making sure your butter is at room temperature or using one of those special butter knives that shreds it when it's cold. Save the crusts and make into breadcrumbs then out in the freezer to use as gratin for oven dishes. Freeze grated cheese for the same. I buy grated cheese when it's on offer and put it in the freezer. I don't batch cook apart from marinara sauce and pizza dough as I don't like things reheated. I chop things like leeks, onions, celery and freeze for adding to soups. Freeze fresh herbs for sauces. They then crumble easily.

@kellyb85 Sorry! I will ask to delete that. That was my bad. It rang a bell so much.

Bubble not to worry, I was exactly the same when someone recommended it to me 😁

Thick question but where is best for one to get a VPN?

@tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz 'Nord Vpn'

I've been thinking of one of these accounts. I'm definitely going to look into it now. Thanks for the clear summation.

Ta muchly

We use hot water bottles in the winter in bed...or on our laps/back in the evening. I think we'll be turning down the heating and using them more this winter.

I was going to look at extra throws then remembered we have summer weight duvets on our beds at the moment and used them when Storm Eunice knocked our power off for 2 days. So they'll be coming out again in the winter for WFH or the evenings.

We just bought an 'old fashioned' carpet sweeper to use each day on our carpets and hard floors. My plan is to then vacuum once a week (if that). But I did an experiment the day we got the sweeper. I vacuumed the living room (which I'd only done two days before) then used the carpet sweeper...it lifted more pet hairs off the carpet! So sweeper it is from now on. It's light to move around so it'll get used more often. And...it's easy for DS to take up to his room whereas the vacuum needs Arnold Schwarzenegger to lift it so no excuses for a mucky teenager room now. Best of all, pennies or not, I'm not paying the electricity company (my brain is doing a little nah, nah, ne, nah, nah as I sweep).

I don’t like instant coffee but out of 5 in the house only I drink coffee. I only drink one a day so we’re buying those bags of ground coffee you use like a tea bag but at £3 for 10 I can’t really justify that anymore. So I have bought 150 empty bags from shein for £1.50 and a bag of ground coffee from Aldi for £1.39 and will make my own coffee bags.
I had stopped buying from shein and wish as it isn’t great shipping stuff half way around the world but I need to make savings so some principles have to go out the window. I have also picked up new woolly hats, gloves, scarfs and a couple of heavily reduced teddy fleece jumpers from shein spent £30 and have enough to do me all winter plus put one of each into my sons Christmas stocking.

Just picked up some Oodie dupes from Primark ready for the DC and me and Winter. I already have a heated throw (amazon) and heated pad (lidl) which will be used during WFH.

Great ideas on here!
has anyone heard of / used / got a heat pad for the floor? A friend was telling me about them the other day?! They come in at around £125 for a desk sized one..wondering if it’s worth investing in?