your top tips for money-saving and a more frugal life..

[amigoingmadhere]

Right - having until now led a relatively good lifestyle, am about to be single with 3 young dcs and very little money (not going to go into background here as it's depressing and will only get me down on this sunny morning).

Rather than sit here terrified, I would like to gather the collective wisdom of MN to see how I can immediately live a more frugal life and preserve any little money we have for a house and the dcs' future.

So, here's what I can think of to start with:

• get a new Boots card (old one is connected to my stbxh's email account)
• get Tesco clubcard
• get Nectar card
• always scour the internet etc. for vouchers / codes etc. (do this anyway but in a more random way)
• only ever buy presents in sales
• when moving house, try to get as much as possible from charity shops / freecycle etc.
• use library more
• see if Surestart still exists (a while since I used their services)
• start looking for any local free/cheap gym / sports facilities

There must be more that I'm not thinking of.. would be grateful for your ideas! - shopping / cooking / kids' activities / house furnishing etc.

I'm starting afresh on a new and wonderful life.. but it's going to be hard.

thanks :)

crackcrackcrack- please could you tell me what the lead things are you use to watch stuff from lap tops on telly- never heard of it ....thanks !!

oh gawd now you're asking me.....you need an audio lead - these are like double ended headphone jacks. if you plug an ipod into your car through the headphone socket its the same lead. the other one you need is smallish and flat and has screws either side you have to tighten up. you need to look on the back of the tv to see what kind you need but the laptop end of it is standard. tbh i asked in tesco and the chap working there told me - they weren't dear though..see if i can find a link
www.videojug.com/film/how-to-connect-your-laptop-to-your-television

Bboksinbed. Some laptops need different leads. I have two sony vaio lappys and they need differnt leads. Take a photo of both sides of your laptop with your mobile, so you can see all the holes. Take your phone into maplins or your local currys etc show them, and ask them to write down the name of the lead you need. Maplins are good value, a lot cheaper than other stores.

I get soapnuts from Living Naturally. I think they do a free sample - if it's not them, it's the other main company who sell them. I think if you google 'free sample soap nuts' it should come up. I got a sample a while ago anyway.

Thank you.
Have ordered some. Hoe does one use them!!? :)
Anyone got any tips on drying clothes without using the tumble dryer???
I have an airer but its not massive and I have 2 young dc so LOTS of washing...
I figure if I do a load each evening and put it on the airer it might be dry by next evening????
I do love my TD but it costs loads to run and has shruck some of my stuff (even though it said you could TD them!)

You put some in a little bag (you get sent one, but you can also pop them in a sock) and pop them in the drum of the machine. You're supposed to soak them in warm water for a couple of mins before you first use them, though I don't always remember. You can re-use them a few times before composting.

Re drying, I either line dry or use a Lakeland dri-soon heated airer in a room with an extractor fan (it's supposed to be cheaper to run than a TD). We used to just hang things indoors on airers and they did dry (apart from in the winter - but that's because we don't really use heating). However, we have issues with damp in the house, and that was making it worse in winter.

We used just the airer, but we started to get mould in the room it was used in, even with a dehumidifier. DH put a cheap cobble-it-together-yourself extractor fan where our big airbrick/vent used to be, and it made a huge difference. A normal airer in a room with an extractor fan apparently works well.

If you have an extractor fan in the bathroom you can hang things in there, although obviously if you have to have the light on at the same time, that's a lot more expensive than if you can have just the fan on.

Hi. Sorry haven't read all the way through, but I finally have managed to save some cash!
On musicmagpie, I have just got rid of 65 dvds for 30 quid, and an just about to do a wii game and some cds. They collect free, and pay by different ways.

When i was growing up, bread and butter were on the table for every meal, meaning she could get away with smaller portions of meat.

A favourite pud of mine was custard with (broken) biscuits in it. It was only when i grew up that i realised that it was an economy pud when the cupboards were almost bare!
Also she only ever bought plain biscuits as they were cheapest!!

Oops, she being my Mum!

Looking at the Soapnut site!!! What shall I buy?
They have a £2 started pack.

Will it all work on manky London water?

Have ordered soap nuts and astonish cleaner.
Have also looked at idea and another cheap airer for clothes...washing line is broken!
September will be an interesting month! :)
My mum used to fry spam! We loved it (being kids of the 1970s) but I realise now that a couple of potatoes for chips and a couple of slices of fried spam was all she could afford at times....
My fave our was sliced banana and custard :)
I have tried baking my own cakes etc but tbh with the price of ingredients it doesn't work out much cheaper...what am I doing wrong?
Have alread started getting little bits for Xmas...otherwise no one would get anything!!
I only buy plain biscuits too starfish...digestives, custard creams, rich tea etc.
Off to aldi in Friday for my first aldi shop (excited)

My mum always tuts that a cake is expensive if it requires lots of eggs!
Maybe tray bakes are cheaper? Flapjack etc. fridge cake must be cheaper - no baking - you know rocky road type stuff - worth a go with basic digestives and basic cooking choc? What you think? I might make some and price it up. Also it's quite rich so you can cut it small.
I shall ask the mother oracle (WI president no less!) about cheaper cakes

badvoc the problem with cakes is you're comparing like with like. Look at the ingredients in cheap shop bought cakes and you won't recognise what half of them are. Moving up to the better quality ones and the price rises. Also catering companies buy in bulk ingredients so even when you do recognise an ingredient- like flour or eggs its hard to compete with them on price alone. Taste and quality is another matter.
I'm an avid cake maker but still buy small cake bars from time to time as they are cheap and convenient. Where i'd never buy is for birthday cakes or larger cut and come again cakes or things like rock buns/scones. What do you want the cakes for? I might have some suggestions to add to any others.

I just do flapjacks and cupcakes really.
I made millionaires shortbread the other day but ds2 prefers the shop bout ines :(
I will be baking a cake for fils b day in sept though...
I am a bit fussy wrt baking though...I will not bake using marg (must be butter) and didn't use baking choc...must be good quality choc! :)
I am NOT good at frosting however!

I make banana bread and cakes with the manky old bananas from the fruit bowl (you can freeze bananas to use up later) and thats quite nice.

They are better value as you would normally throw them out anyway and banana bread - more like a loaf of bread with bananas and carumum - is passable as cake!

shop bought millionaires shortbread can be great- i like thorntons one and whenever its on special offer i buy!!

Hmm well i'd do the obvious, buy extra butter when its on offer/ at sell by date and freeze for later cake use. Same with chocolate. I too have a serious green and blacks and any other quality chocolate habit and every time i go into a supermarket i check the chocolate to see if it is on offer, same with menier choc in the baking aisle (often on offer and good). I just keep them in a tin for later use.

you'll definitely save money by making a birthday cake and it will taste nicer! Just start looking out for butter/ sugar offers and stock up.

what frosting is going wrong ? i may be able to trouble shoot. i'm planning a cake today for my dad so am going through cake books for inspiration. Think i'm doing a lemon cake with lemon curd filling (i have an open jar to use up) with white chocolate ganache (i think)

drooooool!

I am finishing off an orange polenta cake which I made at the weekend (BBC Good Food website recipe) and it is so lovely - a million times better than shop bought (a result of the recipe, not my baking!) and not as tooth-achingly sweet!

I had the ingredients in the cupboard already, so it didnt cost much to make really.

Haha yes it's the the thorntons one my son likes :)
I am going to attempt....ahem....one of those huge cupcake shaped cakes (got the mould already)
I could out lemon curd in the middle actually, fil loves lemon curd!
I make buttercream frosting and I always get it not quite right and yet I can't find a definitive recipe for buttercream iyswim? How much butterntomhow much icing sugar?
Argh.....

ooh yummy!! i'll have a look for that, love polenta cakes.

just remembered in Paul Hollywood's book-How to bake, which i have out from the library , he recommends Bournville chocolate for his Chocolate almond cake, he says " it has just the right balance of sweetness and cocoa flavour and is a very stable chocolate that's easy to work with". He goes on to say you can use any good chocolate as long as it isn't over 72% cocoa solids.
Just thought i'd mention as it is a much cheaper option than Green and Black's or Lindt. I don't like Bournville to eat but haven't tried it in a cake, i will now though.

I have to put buttercream in the fridge to set its always too runny. You can make v easy cupcake frosting with sour cream and icing sugar- it works if you have leftover sour cream from something else as you only need a spoonful or so

its half butter to sugar. So 250g unsalted butter to 500g icing sugar (sifted well). Then whatever flavouring you want to add. For the above it would be 1tsp vanilla extract or more if you really want to up the vanilla.

i have my book in front of me and for lemon curd buttercream you add 275g lemon curd into the above basic buttercream mixture.

for a chocolate ganache buttercream you make a ganache with 175 g dark choc and 125g double cream and then add that to the basic buttercream mixture. Great as a filling and frosting.

Ha!
So nigella is talking out of her arse then!
I always suspected as much....
Thank you.
Will try the lemon buttercream.

there are variations, Peggy Porschen says its equal butter to sugar but i've used the ratio i gave above for the past 20 + years and it always works !
The lemon curd recipe is from Mich turner (of Little venice cake company).