Come tell me your top three tips for saving money that work for you please

[graceinabundance]

trying to learn, in this must needed area

Waiting with baited breath

Heres my 3:

1. I go to hotukdeals and check if there are any bargains if I need something in particular (ie have a wedding coming up and need to buy a gift)

1. Have started to shop in Lidl / Aldi - learning whats good there (any recommendations most welcome!)

1. I have started a budget sheet (wish me luck!)

1. Lidl. Look at orange juice, pasta, rice, petfood, formil washing powder, veg, half-bake bread

1. As above - turn heating on manually, esp in the mornings, makes a huge difference. If you have a combi boiler and mixer taps make sure small amounts of water for handwashing, teeth etc is on cold - easy to turn on gas/electric with no effect on temp of water. Get one of those devices free from your supplier showing how much you're using - they're great

1. For birthday presents, always get DCs to make cards and for older kids if you have photos, put them in frames from £ shop - makes great personalised gifts

Any money that isn't accounted for by bills or savings and that you just want to spend on food and general 'fun'/ shopping things, withdraw from bank. Put it in two envelopes - 1 for food shopping, another for general fun. Make sure any change you Get you put back. I find it far easier to control what money I have left for the month that way and it stops over spending.

If you can get hold of a cash and carry card, consider buying in bulk. You can always set up a sort of cooperative with friends and club in together to buy standard items like toilet rolls and split the pack if cash is a bit tight.

Lidl!

Lidl's olive oil is also a Which? best buy too!

Make use of loyalty cards. Tesco is particularly good for turning vouchers into days out - saves loads.

eBay or amazon for online shopping, but make sure you go to the Nectar website first to collect points!

Car boot sales and school tabletop sales are great too and can save lots. I recently bought DD some toys and puzzles - 50p per toy or 3 for £1! Great condition too.

brilliento

Do report this, won't you, OP so we can move it out of chat, would be a shame to lose this
Thanks M Towers

Hallo have moved this into credit crunch for you

thank you :)

I have more than 3 but the current top 3 are :

1. Do not take my debit card out with me, just draw out the cash instead.
2. Go to the shops shortly before they close, then plan meals derived from what I buy.
3. Write out a shopping list AND then stick to it so you don't impulse buy

I also have a group on Facebook called " A Penny Pinching Guide" where members can swap money saving tips. New members more than welcome it was featured in Womans Own earlier this year

To me though moomoo - you either have to pick

1. Go to the shops shortly before they close, then plan meals derived from what I buy.

or

1. Write out a shopping list AND then stick to it so you don't impulse buy

You can't do both can you? Or can you?

1. Make a cafetiere of good coffee first thing in the morning and pour most of it into a vaccuum flask. If I go out to the park with DS it saves on buying expensive coffee. If we stay home I still save on the electricity I would use boiling the kettle a few more times.

1. Use the quick wash setting (30 mins instead of nearly 2 hours) on the washing machine and the dishwasher. As long as dirty clothes and dishes go straight in the machine once used, this is usually enough to get all the dirt out.

1. Walk/cycle everywhere.

lol on different shopping trips I might do. When I get paid I do a shopping list for the essentials i.e loo rolls, soap powder etc so that is when I would use a list but then the rest of the month I look for whoopsies

Ah that makes sense.

1. I buy ground coffee from my local coffee shop and then make amazing coffee at home, either drink it before going out or taking it with me so I don't buy coffee out- this really saves money. In the same vein, take drinks and snacks for all of us anywhere, it really racks up how much you can spend out if your children are suddenly hungry and thirsty.
2. back to back use of expensive utilities, eg I run the washing up water straight after coming out of the shower or running the children's bath. I try to make a cake if I am using the oven for cooking a meal, if it needs to be in at a different temp then just put it in after so you don't waste so much energy.
3. online food shopping I am sure saves me money, I do the Ocado shop and can take time to compare price per g, and can review my basket a few times to delete stuff that's a bit excessive, of course it gives you a running total as well so you can see where you are spending your money. I also love going to the local Indian cornershop and the market for fruit/veg, it's amazing how much you get for your money and means you are not holding back on being generous with fruit and veg for your DC (as crappy food is a lot cheaper, isn't it?)

Its all about cashflow....

Its easy to say "we earn X p/m, our rent, elec, gas, etc are Y so we have Z leftover which should be plenty but it never stretches"

I do a budget based on date at the start of each month, listing transactions like Ddebits, etc on the day they will actually go out (allowing for Bank Hols, etc) then I see when I can pay for bigish things like big food shop, fill car up, etc. I add in actuals as I go to see if there is any point we will end up OD - if so we need to adjust.

Marking my place....great thread

We keep some juice boxes, little individual packs of biscuits and snacks, nappies, wipes, changes of clothing, band aids and colouring-in stuff in the boot of the car, in case the journey turns out to be longer than expected. Saves you being caught out having to run into a convenience store because you're in the middle of nowhere with a pooey baby and hungry preschooler.

I have an internet savings account that has a graph of your savings. It's surprisingly effective when you're trying to nudge it up to a round number.

I bake mini muffins about once a month and wrap them individually and freeze them. Everyone (including the nanny) is in the habit of grabbing one from the freezer whenever they're going out.

Just thinking about it, saving money is all about the mindset.

I realised this the other week when a colleague was moaning that she was into the sandwiches-from-home week of the month. I didn't say anything, but it's always sandwiches-from-home week for me.

The other thing I do is know exactly what my post-tax, post-childcare daily pay is. This will stop splurging in its tracks! I am convinced nobody would ever spend $300 on a pair of jeans or $60 on a bottle of salon shampoo if they thought of it in terms of days worked to pay for it.

Great thread!

ninedragons - what is the name of the savings account?

-Never leave home without a bottle of water and a Tupperware box of grapes biscuits - breaks my heart to pay extortionate prices because DCs are hungry/thirsty on a day out.
-Always challenge your insurance renewal premium
-Cycle/walk rather than take the car if it will take less than 30 min

loving this!

Ok, so stretching the concept of credit crunch somewhat, but if you are on a budget but desperate for a beauty treatment, try your local college's beauty dept.

I have just had a Dermalogica facial for £12! Ok so venue not as glamorous as a spa but fantastic treatment at a fraction of a salons price. A trained student will do the treatment closely supervised by a tutor.

Get a price list. Here they do facials, massages, mannis, peddis, waxing etc all at a bargain price.

Never again to £50 facials!!

Love this thread! I will be out of work at the end of May. I'm convinced we'll be fine on DH's salary but he is panicking...I'm going to start using all these tips to cut back :)

11plus sorry but I don't think Ecover is at all cheap on amazon:

3 litre = £3.05 litre (offer for 2 bottles)
5 litre = £3.35 per litre (cheaper to buy by the 1.5 litre bottle)
15 litres = 3.01 per litre (4p per litre saving on buying the bottles).
all plus postage

TESCO normal price is £4.57 for 1.5 litre bottle = £3.05 per litre.

I usually by the Ecover laundry liquid, when it is on special at the supermarket and stock up.

Sorry, stilldazed, I'm not in the UK, so it's just a local bank here.