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!

Wearing one contact lens when at home all day makes dailies last longer. My eyes aren't that bad though. I certainly wouldn't drive like it either.

Measure out everything rather than free flow.
Porridge, cereal, pasta, rice and washing detergent and softener.
I have heard about cutting dishwasher tablets in half but I haven't done that yet

@FeelingwearyFeeelingsmall what pre-grated cheese do you buy, and where? The stuff in our usual shop is currently on offer price of £8/kg, while I can get a block for £7.13/kg.

Use pearl barley instead of rice. Soak it in water for 15 minutes before you turn on the heat otherwise it will take longer to cook than rice which will mean you don't save anything. Pearl barley is cheaper, contains less carbohydrates and doesn't release methane into the atmosphere.
Use washing nuts instead of washing powder. They cost the same per kilo but washing nuts can be reused.
Eat chicken instead of beef.
Instead of throwing away old t-shirts cut them up and use them for cleaning.
Compost veggie waste instead of throwing it in the bin to use fewer bin bags.
Use rain water from the water butt for the first rinse when your car is very dirty.
Read a book instead of watching telly or being on the internet.

Also grated one usually has starch in (to keep it separate)

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Haha! Good idea but there was once a right royal MN bunfight about the legalities of this. It got very heated.

On a much smaller scale keep an eye out for free samples on Facebook and Instagram (SoPost mostly). Just sachet or vial of fragrance but higher end brands like Jo Malone, Tom Ford, Clarins etc. The more you ask for the more the algorithm will show you.

I do it all the time! But I don't get out the plug and cable and start crawling around to get to a plug socket. I stick it into my USB port on the PC which is on anyway.

@Tessasanderson

A little bit cheeky but make sure you charge your mobile phones at work each day, not at home…. Also if you have battery banks they can be charged at work and used at home to charge the kids phones/tablets

This does depend where you work though, I work in a school and we are already on our knees with high energy bills. They've asked specifically for people to not charge phones and power packs at work.
We are also encouraged to sit and work without the lights on whenever physically possible.
It's quite worrying given the predictions for this winter 😫

If you have a dishwasher, cut your dish washer tablets in half. You can still run a full load on half a tablet and have your items come out squeaky clean. Your dish tabs then last double the time.

Charging devices is not particularly bank breaking so not worth getting into arguments at work.
Depending on a phone it can be anywhere from 3 to 6kwh (if I remember correctly) a year for daily smartphone charge.

We haven't had a tumble dryer since the last one broke in 2005. We found there was no need - we use a ceiling mounted airer - wooden bars that you can lower/lift with a pulley. We are lucky we have a long utility room that houses the gas boiler and the fridge freezer - so they generate a bit of heat that helps to dry things. We also have a couple of stand alone airers that we sometimes need to use of the main airer is full of other washing but we really don't use them that much.

How are they @larkstar ? I was looking at them for above staurs but wondered if they end up being impractical gimmick

I always make did that I've got a fully stocked larder. Mine is typically

2kg porridge oats
2-3 various cereals
2 jars jam
6-9kg strong flour
3kg flour
1kg sugar
1kg Salt
2ltr olive oil

6 tins/jars hot dogs
5kg various pasta
5kg various rice
8 passata
6 tinned tin Toms
8 coconut milk
Lots of curry powder mixes
Thai curry pastes
6 ambient tortelloni
6 tin chick peas
6 off each carrots/peas/potatoes
8 beans
6 beans and sausage
4 corned beef
2 spam
2 bacon grill
4 tin meat balls
8 tuna
Dried smash
3 fray bentos pies
12 chicken noodles
Stock pots/cubes/marmite/gravy granules etc

This gives me a really good fall back in case of financial difficulties but it means that I can make the best of yellow sticker bargains in terms of meat. I buy the best quality fresh farm eggs I can get by the tray and save as much as I can on meat. My instant pot and air fryer are the BEST! I also got a cheap £30 food dehydrator and this is actually brilliant. I had no idea but you can actually dry your own surplus veg and mushrooms and basically make your own cup a soup mix. WHO knew?!

We used a heated throw that was on all day to heat only the rooms we used and it made such a difference! A lot cheaper and the rooms were comfortable all day.

WHO knew?!

Eastern Europeans, @doodlywoodlydingdong 😁 i just eant to warn that next step in frugality after preservation is... Preservation of all and any jars, bottles and cups to reuse when necessary. Do you want to know how I know how many cleaning products taste?😂 Grandma and her reuse and repurpose mantra which included squash bottles.... Not for squash

Creels /ceiling airers work brilliantly.

Charity shops and buy it when you see it - already have a nice kid's coat waiting in the next size up that was £3.50 and excellent condition. And lots of top and jeans etc waiting in the next age up for when they fit.

Also saw loads of shorts including the grey school shorts the other week in charity, good condition that I could have stocked up on but unfortunately I had to go out and buy when we had that heat wave and spend loads. So that taught me to underestimate the summer last year!

Totally second using Vinted for clothes. And buy out of season. I have just bought my son's winter coat off Vinted for £15. Also 4 pairs of M&S school trousers for £18. And a Boden work blouse for £10.00 (all of these were new with tags.) I am aiming to try and buy 80% of clothes from there this year. Only really buying new for intimate things (swimming cosies, bras etc) and shoes (I've got awkward feet.)

Keep the kids amused over the summer hols with 'new' toys from car boot. My DS happily playing on carpet with his 'new' trains as we speak.

Have overhauled finances a bit. Cancelled a few app subscriptions I wasn't using. Have done price comparison shopping to bring down prices on car/home insurance, broadband /phone subscriptions.

@Bubblebubblebah they work very - we just open a window slightly to get some air flow going - the extra work is that you have to hang everything up - every sock, pants, tea towels, etc but once you've got a quilt cover up it takes up a whole rail so you sometimes need another stand alone one - I'd never go back to using a tumble drier now. The tricky bit is knowing where your wooden roof joists are as you have to screw the pulley wheels into them - we never both lowering and lifting the airer TBH - we just reach up and put things on.

This is the type we have - only 4 rails
pulleymaid.com/classic_clothes_airer.htm

Recently-retired teacher here, where we were encouraged to have our phones on us, to snap board work and put it up on the online resources for the class/absentees, as well as playground emergencies when on duty. I had no compunction in charging my phone as this seemed reasonable: quid pro quo.

I used your code - thank you. To cancel do you go to subscription settings and choose pause or go to account details and disable your account?

Thanks @larkstar and @MrsWooster !

always go shopping with a shopping list

if something is on offer replace it for item like for like

I have surprised myself on how much I save sticking to a shopping list