reducing outgoings tips!!

[frazzled74]

I would like to reduce my monthly outgoings of £1800 plus food, I know we waste loads and could cut back heaps if we tried, any tips?
so far i have cut sky package/mobile phone plans, changed pet insurance, house insurance and stopped magazine subscriptions ,this has saved £80 a month, I am going to start baking own bread cakes etc and start meal planning, cut trips to coffee shop down to once a month.

Change mortgage?

Mine are under £800 so I assume you have expensive rent/ mortgage?

What about Internet/phone?

I cant get a better deal on the mortgage without adding years or changing to interest only (already tried) , dont live in a posh house but bought at 100% mortgage so now in a little negative equity, we will have to just sit tight whilst we chip away at it. I do a phone and internet package with sky which i am reluctant to change as we use the broadband a lot and it works really well, we have cut the tv part of the package so thats a saving.

Gas/electricity?
Can you run a cheaper car?

Small thing: half the amount of washing liquid you use and switch to own brand - I did & notice no difference

Groceries: try own brand or value. Most taste the same, some are better (Sainsbury's basic pork pies & Tesco plain crisps are better, IMHO). Stretch out stews and casseroles by adding a handful of red lentils. Got a slow cooker? Use it. Fab food for next to no electricity.

When you say you waste a lot what do you mean? Because it's relatively easy not to waste.

I write down what I spend everyday, when I added up what I spent on parking and shop bought sandwiches in a month it came to £50. I don't even work full time. I take a baguette most days and it's sooo cheap to have a really nice lunch. I park in side streets when I go into town for free and get everything done in 30 mins.

If you haven't tried Aldi I would advise going, I used to think I would never go there but now we do and apart from the steak the food has been really good.

If you have a farmers Market/shop nearby then use it! Our potatoes only cost 60p for 5lbs, they are £2 in tescos.

We use sainsbos basics tea bags, they cost 33p for 80 and Dh still comments how nice our PG Tips tea is as I haven't told him that we have changed brand (15 months ago).

If you have a coffee addiction then a flask and a good ground coffee would be so much cheaper.

If you get a breadmaker get a panasonic one, they are really good.

I used to use basics/smartprice oats and golden syrup for flapjacks, very cheap but delicious.

If you replace any lightbulbs need replacing then the LED ones are comng down in price and use so little electric, lighting and heating make up most of your electric and gas bills.

I forgot to add, I use amazon for some of my vitamins as they are cheaper and better quality than holland and barrett.

I use smartprice washing powder/homebargains alur wool wash for laundry.

eBay for dermalogica/clinique.

I've just started a spreadsheet to catalogue everything I spend so it's easier to identify waste then.

I'd agree with Fluffycloudland77.... keep a notebook and jot down all your daily expenses, no matter how small. The act of doing that will mean you spend less automatically and it'll highlight areas that you could cut back. Another way of cutting back on incidentals is to set yourself a fixed amount of cash for the week, leave the credit and debit cards at home, and do everything you can not to visit the cashpoint again until a week has gone by. Keep repeating the exercise with a smaller amount of cash each time. Cash is a tangible thing to spend and, when you're down to your last fiver, it's amazing how resourceful you can get rather than spend it.

Good luck

That's what I do - I don't like writing everyhing down so take £10 out at the start of the week and that's all I have. I walk to work and take sandwiches so I don't need much, it's just enough for a coffee a few days and a cake or something once :) It's amazing when I realise how much I would have spent at lunch etc if I'd had he chance!

We have recently been eating our way through the freezer. It was amazing how much meat was shoved in there because it was about to go out of date and then forgotten about.

We are doing that at the moment Soupdragon. Unfortunately I'm veggie and eating some odd meals while the others eat meat!

thanks, lots of tips. I dont think i can reduce household bills etc, any further.We dont have a car. so it has to be now saved on food and packed lunches, trips out etc.I am going to use up freezer food over the next week and look at breadmakers.

Thats the easiest bit to economise on. I went into the supermarket today and got loads of fresh fruit marked down.

Amazon do good deals on breadmakers, if you have a nectar card they often do offers if you buy through the nectar website.