To ask for your most ingenious money saving tips

[Toothiehurtie]

my Best one is…

a visit to the card factory for cheap cards and gift bags and then picking up presents from car boot sales or charity shops. I have got some brilliant kids party presents for 50p so with the card and a cheap gift bag I have brought the cost of a present in for a pound before.

looking for any tips at all, obviously you can buy porridge oats in bulk cheaper than buying expensive kids cereal etc but anything clever or that people might not have thought of before.

don’t know how bad the fuel crisis will be but considering charging battery packs to charge phones at work and taking a thermos of boiled water home 😂

We have decided to not use our oven for anything. It is a really large SMEG oven and this morning on GMB they were saying an average oven will cost over £5.00 to cook one roast. I use the oven alot during the week usually, but have decided to go to just using the hob and a slow cooker as required for stews etc.

Also I have just come back from Aldi . Usually DH does all the shopping and he ahs been saying prices are going up. Today was the first time I noticed it and the difference was pretty noticeable. So i have bought more frozen food that we would usually get (prawsn, chicken etc) and will be making very sure that we do not waste a thing. I can be a little cavalier when it comes to food waste (heels of bread go to the birds for example; not quite using up jars of everything before they go off) so I plan to really really pay attention.

Also- I am cutting down on alcohol. DH does not drink and I certainly do drink - probably spend circa £18 a week on wine at home (3 bottles) and would buy at least 3 glasses of wine over the course of a week at the pub. That's nearly £40 a week alone. Adding that up is quite frightening over the course of a year!!

If things ever got this bad for me I think I’d top myself and be done with life 🤣.

If you wash, dry and style your hair everyday, cut down. 10 years ago I washed, dried and straightened my hair daily, now it’s once a week. Do it gradually so it doesn’t get greasy. Saves loads of time too, and your hair will be In great condition.

Keep your hair in a long, simple style and you’ll only need it cutting 2-3 times a year,

Turn the shower thermostat down in warmer weather.

Buy next summer’s children’s clothes in a bigger size in the half price sale.

Always check short-date at the supermarket.

Re-use bathwater for the kids.

If you have a high credit card spend that you pay off in full every month, look at getting an AMEX card for the cash back- if you spend enough the cash back will exceed the annual fee. Most of the big retailers accept it now.

What upsets me is that there are 4 kids living like this.

what else is going on as this will likely be tip of the ice berg

Definitely use up all the bits that need using. As well as giving the fridge a clean out. Make sure there's no rotting fruit and veg that will spoil fresh food. Take a picture of your food cupboard as well. So your not buying something you already have. My ex's sister taught me to do this.

In what way is it stealing? Employers will say if it's not allowed (Ryanair I think had a rule about this in its offices).

Yep - sure. Unlikely to be any difference. Same with pretty much anything and everything you buy. Price has no impact on quality whatsoever 😂

I’d sell off a couple of kids ££££ just so I could have the luxury of flushing the loo 🤣👈🏽

Get a Versace one then.

Just remember to unplug it before you start sloshing your bathwater all over the floor.

Earlier this year I started cleaning a fridge shelf daily. It takes a minute rather than a full fruidge clean and means the entire fridge is cleaned through weekly. It has also had the benefit that I am really aware of what is in the fridge now (as I am moving things around in order to get to whichever shelf I am cleaning) and it has had the knock on effect of meaning that I know what is in my fridge and I am more likely to use things and they do not go off. It has worked pretty well.

Here is one that works which I picked up from a National Geographic programme. It won't work for highly perishable fresh food such as salads and soft cheeses, but works for food and drink you need to keep cool over several days. Wine, juices, cooked meats and fruit and vegetables.

Buy about 30 slabs from a garden centre or builders' merchant along with some bricks and a good quantity of sand. Arrange the slabs into a square or rectangle, so that the walls are double thickness, but with a space of about 1 - 1.5 inches between. At the corners arrange the bricks into a stack so that they 'seal off' the shape so that nothing can escape other than water. Pour the sand down the gap until it fills the 'walls'. Pour water into the sand to keep it moist. It will dry out if the structure is built on the patio, but if you place it on the lawn over clay it will retain some moisture throughout the year. Cover over the top with the remaining slabs, preferably two deep.

You can then store much of the food you would normally store in the fridge throughout the autumn and winter without using any energy at all. It is not dissimilar to a vegetable 'clamp' other than the fact it is cheap and requires no skills at al to build. Just follow my instructions above. It also works just as well in Summer, but you do have to keep the water topped up more. We already have Kilner jars in our loaded with beets, onions and cherries. There is some smoked meats there also and root vegetables.

Not sure about gym membership showers costing energy bills... technically gym users would shower, wouldn't they, so wouldn't they have factored that in?

Sorry - am I crap at reading tone on these sort of threads. The cold showers evidently doesn’t help with that!

This is so genius I’ve already amended my grocery deliveries to 8 days now. Thank you so much!

My sons are students, living in flats.

They both have gym memberships. I've suggested that they go there every day for a shower as it is very close by.

Buy a generator, and tell your electricity company to do one. It's unlikely to burn through £500 of diesel a month, or whatever the predictions are today.

@ThatsWahtYouGetWhenYouLetYourHeartWin
I looked, downloaded and scanned the offers Total rubbish. WD40 oil, men's razors, ice-cream cones I've never heard of the brand, very little choice, few bottles of beer...laughable. Most of the stores have fewer than 8 items to choose from.

Or drowning in the Titanic! 🙄

Did you have a bad day yesterday?

If the thread pisses you off then scroll past, no need to comment on it

As Endlesslypatient82 says upthread with regards to the constrained water use as just one example, it is upsetting to think there are kids having to live like this; though I'm fairly sure any government devotees on this thread and elsewhere on the site and in the real world will be frothing at the mouth and saying people shouldn't have more kids than they can afford. I occasionally shut some of them up by relaying the tale of a friend of mine and her husband (ex nurse and NHS worker). They could have afforded a second child easily on their incomes. When my friend got pregnant a second time, however, it was twins. I used to ask current government enablers which one of the three children they secretly thought should have been disposed of...

There will undoubtedly be additional excess deaths, severe illnesses, rampant malnutrition, and extreme pressure on the NHS, councils, libraries and other services this winter (that's the public services in red/blue turncoat wall seats, obviously, where services haven't been cut to the bone as a punishment to the locality for daring to not vote Tory).

I just hope anyone who put this lot into power is proud of themselves. And I sincerely hope they get a ruddy good dose of karma up the appropriate orifice before too long as well. Playing at poverty might seem a jolly jape when you're doing it for a few weeks, knowing you can trot back home to mater and pater and their lovely warm pile - it's a bit different when you've had to do it for years and years.

Not that even a good dose of karma would make current government supporters change their ways or opinions, of course - it's the fault of the poor for being born poor, see....

The offers change all the time and you get a lot of free offers on new things, probably to encourage you to buy them in future.

I've had mr Kipling cakes, McCain chips, Philadelphia, mini cheddars, coke, yogurts and cleaning products.

Obviously you're not going to like or want everything but it's worth checking before you go shopping to see if there's anything you would like.

It's not completely impossible that we'll end up having to do some of the water ones eventually, but for climate reasons. Certainly worth trying to be aware of water use. I turn the shower off while soaping - just use the water to get wet and then rinse. Quite surprised at the number of people who don't do that (teen dses, I'm looking at you ). Baths I keep shallow.

I cut up old/threadbare towels, holey T-shirts etc for cleaning cloths and wear holey leggings as pyjamas or base layers.

Showing at work and making I fully charge my phone when I am in the office.

No need for one. Foot stamping will warm you!