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 😂

Instead of buying a whole bunch of grapes, take one grape to the till, it won't register on the scales, so it'll be free. Repeat this around 100 times and you have a free bunch of grapes.

Give up tea and coffee

If you have a launderette nearby use their dryers, they're often big and cheap

Get an electric blanket and/or throw

Battery or rechargeable sensor or touch lights - had these in the understairs cupboard, bathroom and under kitchen units for years. Rechargeable Fatboy lights too

Walk

Pick blackberries, they're everywhere.

Plant things that don't need much water - lavender, geraniums, hebe etc

I charge my phone at work, I use my phone for work, no one will convince me this is stealing. I also charge it on the train. Until they take away the toaster I will also continue to make my breakfast at work.

Only ever have one netflix/amazon/now/apple etc subscription on the go - sign up again when there's plenty of stuff to blast through watching in a month, then cancel again for a while.

This winter, on days off, we will mainly be found in free museums and art galleries, culture will keep us warm, yes it will, it's that or sitting on the circle line all day.

Do you have a link please? Sounds like a great idea but I wouldn’t know what I was looking for!

My top tip is to wear an FFP2 mask. Who can afford to catch a virus and have to take time off sick, or end up with long covid? Not me.

🤣

I agree about rationing. This was a solution in the early fifties, and yet government can't seem to think of big scale strategies - except for Rishi Sunak and rationing . I wonder what Dominic Cummings is suggesting as a strategy to help the country.

Since Boris Johnson has been in power, we've had rocketing inflation; energy poverty, poorer relationships with European countries. Presumably, we're still paying for the effects and remedies to deal with Covid fall out. Sure, there could be macro solutions, but they need to be thought up.

The biggest money saving tip will be to vote Labour. I think the majority of people will do so. Increases to petrol prices and heating and power affect the self employed trades and professions - a group which has tended to support the Conservative outlook, but who are not very high earners and able to weather any storm. I think they'll vote Labour. The kids of this group have traditionally done very well, joining well-paid trades and professions, having support, being able to afford vans and cars. Not being able to set their kids up, when they've worked hard, will annoy this sector of Middle England.

Sorry replied to wrong comment !

Cost of tea for the year = £30
Cost of coffee for the year = £18 (instant) + £15 (fresh, 2 bags for a fiver) = £33. Push the boat out and get Illy, it would be £26, taking it up to £44 for the year.

Total £63 or 17.2p per day for 2 people (or £107/29.3p)
The world being a far, far, safer place if I have a coffee in the morning = priceless.

It's not something that's necessary to deprive people of, as the cost is negligible even over a year.

Netflix, however - £10.99 a month and Disney+ - £7.99. That's more than double my spend on coffees a month.

There's being economical and then there's self flagellation.

🤢🤢 I think this would cost you more than you saved by having to wash on very high temperatures to be even half hygienic to reuse .

If you are even serious .

OTOH our house was previously owned by DH's very frugal grandfather and when we moved in, there was a string 'toilet roll holder' attached to the wall with squares of newspaper hanging on it . Presumably from when you got free local papers .

If you want decent artisanal bread, learn to bake it. You won’t save money on cheap bread, but if you like expensive bread, you can make it for 1/4 the price.

Yes.

Far better to focus on reducing waste/unnecessary spending, energy etc and increase income before denying yourself those things important to you.

I'm prepared to cut back on heating and tumble drying because I have alternatives and the savings are worthwhile. Not ready to give up 'proper' coffee and other indulgences such as fresh vegetables and nice bread. I realise they are luxuries for some people, but I see them as a reward for working.

Some of these suggestions have been brilliant. Others - might as well move to the countryside and start living a "self sustaining lifestyle". It'd actually be less work and more enjoyable.

Life is meant to be enjoyed, I have no desire to try "subsistence living" so a big pass on a lot of these.

Sitting over a loo full of someone else's piss doesn't fill me with joy. Hard pass. Bet that one was made up by guys who don't have to sit in the toilet to pee.

@JudgeJ please don’t turn off your freezer. Lots of people have already gotten sick doing that. The savings would be minimal and the risk of making yourself ill high.

Bum wipe box 🤣

The bum wipe box actually isn't new. The washable sanitary products/face wipes/nappies companies have been doing washable toilet roll for years. They sometimes call it "family roll", which is absolutely repellent for reasons I can't articulate.

A couple of my friends who use it got smug during the toilet roll shortage of 2020 but even then I wasn't tempted. I can jump in the shower if I need to. I'd prefer that, no matter what it costs.

Wow. This is "Great" Britain in the 21st century. A third world country. And BoJo is still in power? Food banks? Does anyone else see something wrong with this?

I try to save money by watering down my blue lid milk. About half and half. I freeze it and it's fine when I thaw it. It works with green milk as well, but not quite as much.

I cut out previous Christmas cards and make them into labels.

I try to bulk cook, i.e. I tend to make a three day chilli, out of one pack of mince and a couple of tins and freeze it. My freezer is my saviour! Reduced price tomatoes, in a (rhymes with Fresco) supermarket, provided me with enough tomatoes to make my own tomato soup. 30 days worth of tomato soup. And it tasted so much nicer than Heinz! I use my recipe books, extensively, to get ideas, and buy only the ingredients I need, and again, bulk cook. I try to take advantage of reduced items. Mostly freezing. I love my freezer! Sometimes, I find a little gem at the bottom, a chilli, for instance, that I've forgotten about. An Ice lolly. What a treat! Oh. And a Mother in Law.

Maybe that's why it's called the family roll?

I'd sooner install a bidet. Don't know how cost saving it is but it seems far more pleasant. Most of the world uses water instead of paper anyway.

How many portions do you reckon you'd get out of your Mother In Law? 🤔

The idea of sharing bath water makes me feel ill... I'll never be rich 😂

You don't need the board - dry wipe markers work on fridges.

I used to bleach my mug daily from tea stains. Now I keep a spare mug of water with bleach in to hand and re-use the water each day. It also cleans up the teaspoons where needed. Believe it or not it lasts 7 days. Probably doesn't save much money as I buy my bleach in Home Bargains to start with but it is still money saving.