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 :)

Off topic, but don't skip breakfast because you're dieting, badvoc - you're more likely to get the snack attacks later if you do. Could you do scrambled eggs on toast for yourself? Not sure if you have eggs in...that'll fill you up.

Back on topic, how about tinned fruit if you get stuck, rather than fresh? If you buy own-brand, basics style stuff in juice, rather than syrup, it's not bad for you and is cheaper than fresh.

Sainsburys basic tinned fruit was in juice last time I bought it. Really cheap too, cheaper than aldi.

Yep, their basics fruit salad in a can is actually pretty ok. And I think 16p or thereabouts. Aldi pineapple is in juice, but all their other stuff is in syrup, which does annoy me. I got loads of tinned fruit in juice from Approved Foods a few months ago which is now running low. They didn't have any when I did my last order, annoyingly.

I live in a village so no shops at all unless you count hairdressers, second hand furniture shops, boutique type shops and a small co op :(
Am going to go through the freezer later to see what We've got...I know there is some frozen veg in there somewhere!!
I have a whole line of washing out and it just started pissing it down...sigh.
I feel thwarted at every turn....:)

I made a shopping list on the computer with tick boxes next to the items. It lives on the fridge and I tick when we run out of stuff. Quick and easy to know what we need in our weekly shop.

Badvoc if you have a sainsburys nearby they do plain choc for less than 40p a bar - its quite good and I always use their milk choc for baking with good results (don't work for them btw but bit of a fan as we don't have an aldi or asda nearby)

Wow purple that's pretty damn organised!

just seen sainsbury's choc already mentioned! we used it to hold our gingerbread house together at christmas and it worked a lot better than icing.

fluffycloud £24 for two of you! that's amazing. my finances change radically over next couple of weeks- i'm waiting to see what housing benefit i get before i do a budget and the only thing i can reduce is food and new clothes and books from amazon. I'd like to keep the books if i can - i already use the library as much as possible and don't buy many clothes. Food budget seems obvious place to make cuts. I've always been very frugal with everything else- don't even have a TV.

Fabulous thread! Depending on the ages of yor DC, ANtagony's advice was excellent - my DC(14 & 12) take great delight in checking supermarket prices and gleefully explaingin that they bought two small ones instead of the economy size becasue the priice per 100g was cheaper (supermarkets have to display this so worth checking). Is very good for them as life skills to make choices/decisions, and understand the relative cost of things.
Definitley second the idea of taking own food for picnics we originally did this to save the queing for food when I had a baby and toddler, but also saves a fortune, and also meand the DC have a reasonbaly balanced nutriton, and if tehy only like plain ham you don't have to root through a load of overpriced sandwiches with tomato in them
Also, you do an awful lot with tinned tomatoes, garlic and whatever veg you have - make loads, for some reason sauces/casseroles etc taste better the next day.
Water down juice, milk, wine - a bit of water added does not reduce the flavour - we always dilute fruit juice and makes it less calorific as well.
You can make a fantastic virgin mary with V8 (lasts ages, often on offer eg £1 a litre in ASDA), diluted 70/30 and worcester sauce.
A bit of grated cheese added to vegetables make the kids more inclined to try unfamiliar ones, or familiar ones they are not keen on.

Sainsbury's Basics fruit cocktail is quite expensive now - about 35p a tin, but peaches are much cheaper (and are in juice, not syrup).

I never buy salad as it's so expensive. e.g. one portion of veg is a whole big cereal bowlful of salad, while the same portion of veg is only 3 tbs of frozen peas or 1 fresh tomato (much cheaper). We eat a lot of cheap veg from the market e.g. carrots; cabbage is very cheap at the moment (30p/lb at our market stall).

I agree on the breakfast issue - have eggs on toast if you can manage the time - will fill you up loads more than something without protein, and if you have a decent breakfast you're more likely to stick to your diet, and less likely to end up eating expensive snack foods later. :)

Growing own salad leaves in a couple of pots means it's not expensive, Angeldog, and the cut-and-come-again stuff does exactly that, with different leaves/flavours. Salad to me includes various grated veg apart from carrots - try sprouts with spoonful of dressing, really spicy raw & grated, left-over veg mixed with saladcream or mayo is also good cold, (remember macedoine?) as is par-boiled cauliflower (nice topped with plain yognurt), potato salad of course, and am about to make my French friend's recipe for grated courgette cooked in seasoned egg/milk mixture like quiche filling, also good hot.

Frozen garlic, ginger, coriander, chopped onions, baby carrots make cooking faster and cheaper (no waste), and just as delicious, esp in stews and curries.

(not sure if this has already been mentioned)

Where do you get frozen chopped onions from???

:)

Badvoc I buy a bag of fresh smartprice onions and chop and freeze them myself, I do the same with fresh peppers and mushrooms.

I think you can buy them ready chopped and frozen though.

Oh!
I get the smiley face now!
(sorry its been a long day!)
(blush)

I wasn't sure if it was intended to be a joke or not - made me smile anyway!

:)
Honestly, I am not normally so slow on the uptake....
:)

I don't get it

Question was 'where do you get frozen chopped onions from' - you chop them and freeze them, probably only amusing as on a frugal thread.

I blame baby brain!

night night.

Not just me then silk!
:)

You can buy them already chopped in Tesco too.
I may achieve a nsd today but then again I might go and buy a fish tank for dd - fail!