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 😂

Further to this, I had a bit of an epiphany many years ago. I'd sold a house and was living in a small, shabby rented house until I found something else. I realised that once I'd bought the big posh house I was buying, I wouldn't actually be any happier that I was in the small shabby house. Stuff (houses, cars etc) it's just background, it doesn't actually make your life better, whereas money stress really does make your life worse.

Steal a bicycle.

It could come to this

Well anti depressant meds are either cheap or free on NHS. Far better for some people to take them than to post endlessly about a penny here and there, and the effort required to save that penny would sap your energy anyway.

Don't waste food, be sensible with energy consumption, buy ONLY what you need, not want, and live a little.

you can only get water discounts if you have a condition AND are on benefits.

Nothing if you just have a medical condition.

I have chrohns and entitled to nothing. The important part is you're on benefits.

I just tried out cooking pasta this way and after the 10 minutes the pasta was a chewy, glutinous mess. I had to boil it for 2/3 minutes to sort it out and it still wasn't quite right but just about edible. Won't be trying that again!

@HintofVintagePink what's a giveaway group, please?

Why wouldn't you be happy with a charity shop present?

@PIITORNS

Yes, because what really helps the situation is yet another rant from someone who thinks anyone who votes differently from them is an evil Tory monster, rather than having the capacity to understand that a) people vote as they do for a myriad of reasons, often because the alternative is seen as worse and b) ranting does nothing more than create more division, more hatred and more “othering” in an already divided society. Well done.

(And I say all that as a non-Tory voter.)

@Kendodd

Stuff (houses, cars etc) it's just background, it doesn't actually make your life better, whereas money stress really does make your life worse.

Agree with this. Like the notion of material goods just being the background - the adverts we see would have is believe it will make us happier to have a new kitchen, new car, new sofa set, whatever. But of course it’s just a clever trick. The stuff just makes up the backdrop to your life, it doesn’t make you happier. Happiness is a lot more complex & layered than simply spending £££££’s on a new kitchen

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

If I turn off my shower while I wash/shave my legs, it’s freezing cold when you turn it back on. By the time you’ve run the water long enough for it to get warm, it would have been quicker to leave it on, and you don’t then need to shower for longer to warm up because you got cold waiting for the hot water to kick in again!

Haha. Stealing electricity. Do tell me how is it stolen? I don’t break into a locked cupboard to access sockets? There’s no pin code on the plugs
i charge my phones, kindle,headphones. Boil kettle to heat my flask

we do provide our own milk,tea,coffee though via the kitty

Yes, i can see that doesn't work (we're lucky, ours warms up straight away). Does make the soaping/leg-shaving etc quite a chilly experience if it's cold, though.

If you book tickets for a specific train then you can also sign up to automatic Delay Repay, they’ll email you if your train was late and you click to confirm and claim the money back.

I buy shampoo and Shower Gel in the 1000l sizes and put a pump on the top of them,
I then tell everyone they're only allowed 3 pumps of each per shower, Definitely found that it lasts way longer than it did and stops us using way more than we actually need.

@Searchingforsunshine

I voted yabu, I would def not be happy with a present from a car boot sale or charity shop. Rather have no present at all.

See I find this a strange attitude. Everyone is different of course but surely you know you can get some really great gifts at Charity shops & boot sales!! Like almost impeccable condition, & valuable too, if you know what you’re looking at. Also it’s a great way to save ££££’s & support a charity/local cause, plus a gift is a gift, so when someone gives you one you smile & say “thank-you very much,” don’t you?

My sister-in-law only ever buys her gifts second hand & I’ve got some truly amazing & thoughtful gifts from her. Pretty jewellery, antique vase, a beautiful top that would have cost her at least £150 new.

@Kendodd Absolutely agree.

It's ok to keep the heating off...
but if you get a burst pipe...

Are you insured for buildings and contents?
How much is your excess (I think it's separate for buildings and contents)?
Is the contents covered "new for old"?

Just something I thought I'd flag up...

Join Quidco and click through from there whenever you buy online. They have a lot of the most popular shopping sites on there. It doesn't cost you any more but you get credited with a percentage of your order.

app.quidco.com/raf/XyTp
If you use my referral link we both get free money!

Also, download the Honey add on, it will tell you if there are discount codes when you reach checkout and make sure you use the best one for maximum savings.

This is a very good point. People planning to turn off/down their heating need to check their building insurance policies (and possibly their tenancies, if they’re renting). Creating a situation where pipes burst because they’ve been allowed to freeze due to the house being insufficiently heated might result in a claim being turned down for failing to maintain the property sufficiently. That’s going to cost a hell of a lot more than turning the heating up a bit more.

Swapped to Asda essential range for our food shop. Normally £110 a week in tesco for our food now it's been cut to £60 with a bluelight discount at Asda. Two adults and a baby. Only think we don't like is their sausages.

no one surely is going to turn off their heating for the entire winter period? You’d end up better off than any other previous year because you’d have spent zero!

if you’re considering completely turning off - at least turn on so that it reaches what you have paid in previous years. It will likely be very little but it will be something

Stuff (houses, cars etc) it's just background, it doesn't actually make your life better, whereas money stress really does make your life worse.

I think you need a minimum level of "stuff"/space to be comfortable though - 90% of my daily annoyances are due to our rubbish flat.

eg, no outside space to dry and no room for a separate tumble drier means there's always washing drying somewhere, the carpet isn't great for the DCs allergies, our stuff is in the DCs room because there's no room for it in our room...

@HelebethH

Sounds ingenuous but could you give me an example of week plan? please 🙏

Crisps for school lunches - buy a big bag of plain value tortilla or other big bag of crisps, put into small containers / bags and freeze in portions to use as needed

Nope. I'm out at freezing crisps.

Buying all fruit and veg from the local market in £1 bowls. You end up with masses, but need to plan to use it up so it doesn't go off. Fruit tends to be riper and tastier than supermarket but veg from the market (eg loose carrots) keeps much longer than supermarket ones. We also find it makes us buy/cook more what is in season. It's also better for farmers eg some of the stalls are buying large crates of apples and plums directly from farms and then dishing them out into the bowls. Some of the fruit I think must have been discarded by supermarkets eg the bowls of single bananas probably left over from where some supermarkets sell bananas in bunches of 5.