Can we have a 'best money saving tip' thread please?

[PlateSpinningAtAllTimes]

Myself and DH have decided that we really need to have a frugal couple of years to start properly saving some money. I think the MSE website is good but can be a little overwhelming- so much info! What are your best tips for curbing spending?

My tip: meal plan, cook in bulk, freeze individual portions. Lasagne and pasta bake seem to freeze well and are cheap to make.

Any Veg or fruit which Izmir getting old gets turned into muffins for snacks for Ds- loads cheaper than baby snacks and freeze really well. Don't throw any fruit away, mix with with natural yogurt and freeze for pudding (depending on fruit you might need to add honey) - mashed bananas in particular are great for this.

Sign up to freerecycle and freegle - I've got all sorts from there including brand new boxed buggy for our holiday. Someone on my local one today is advertising some veg from their organic box scheme that they don't like. Last week I gave away enough clothes to see baby from newborn to a year. I love it

Izmir?! is

Swap expensive and toxic cleaning products for a mix of white vinegar, water and bicarbonate soda.

Make your own marmalade and jams, for your own home and as gifts. Grow your own veg if you have the time and space.

Buy only one store bought Xmas gift per child and one family gift and start to focus on traditions that do not involve spending money I.e baking gingerbread houses, making decorations, singing together and volunteering at a homeless shelter/food bank.

Get in the habit of batch cooking one day a week and always save and eat leftovers.

If you are really hardcore, raise your own rabbits for meat. A local butcher might be willing to slaughter them for you.

Wow, loads more tips, thanks! Kukeslala Personal info: have DS (nearly 4 - having a birthday party soon so party tips are useful!) who starts school in Sept and baby DD (6mo). Renting our home (hence wanting to save- so we can get a deposit together). Both work (DH ft, me PT).
Loving the frozen cake mix, MN surveys (£700!! Who knew?!), cleaning tips.
Please tell me more about microfibre cloths lavender - do you not need any sprays or anything with it?
dyslexicdespot what are the ratios for your cleaning solution? Does it really work as well?
Definitely want to downgrade xmas a bit, plus I like all the 'buy through the year' tips. We made jam one year, may do that again this autumn.
Growing my own veg always seems to cost more than it saves- I don't think I'm very green fingered!
I've signed up to quidco , next on the list freecycle!
re. selling stuff, would anyone recommend ebay? Or is it more cost/hassle than it's worth? Car boot may be better...

Hint heavily at Christmas to family members about getting something useful like a Panasonic Breadmaker. We save so much money making our own bread every day and that's even using organic ingredients, if it wasn't organic it would be really cheap. It's great for making pizza dough too which again is cheaper then frozen pizzas and obviously cheaper than take away.

Also decide what your weekly shopping budget is and stick to it, my DH goes around the supermarket with a calculator (discreetly) while I have the shopping list and once we've spent our budget we stop shopping. It's embarrassing but it works. I'm hoping this will give good spending habits to our children...

Oh, and we're vegetarian which must be our biggest money saving factor!

I bake twice a week solely for two DC. I've just popped twelve fairy cakes in the oven for their pudding after their evening meal which they will have along with a piece of fruit. I put them in an airtight container and it will last them three nights, two each each evening as the cupcake cases were quite small, and then once they've been finished midweek they will have yogurts for pudding with fruit and then I will bake again Friday ready for weekend so they can have puddings after lunch etc.

By the way, the Tesco Value chocolate covering is about 30p and is melted on top of fairy cakes. One pack will cover at least 24 cakes

The best tip I can give is to actually keep track of what you are spending. I kept a spreadsheet for a year and logged every receipt. It made me see how much I frittered away. I don't keep such a detailed one now but do still keep track of my bank account.

This is after learning the hard way.

For a day to day cleaning spray in a spray bottle I use a solution of about 50% water to 50% vinegar and just a few sprinkles of bicarb.Bicarb foams a lot when you add it to vinegar so make sure you don't put the lid on the container before it has settled. It works really well for cleaning.

When cleaning very greasy bath tubes or getting off limescale, mix a paste of bicarb, water and vinegar, let it sit for a while, and then scrub.

I think it works just as well as store bought products, and it is so much better for the health of your family.

I agree that growing your own veg can be an expensive pain. The things I tend to grow are herbs, such as rosemary and bay leaves. Very easy to care for and so expensive to buy.

I also plan exactly what we are going to eat each week so there is no wastage and by the end of the week we have a truly empty fridge. I plan what Dc will be eating for packed lunches, puddings, breakfast and also what me and DH will eat and I plan for snacks. Sounds a bit over the top I know, but if I don't do it this way I get sting by top up shops which is extra money being spent, here and there and everywhere

We also religiously take our own packed lunches and drinks out on days out. In the summer I look out for things like Jammy Dodgers for 57 p a pack to take with sandwiches and fruit for picnics. There's enough in a pack for a family of four to have two each at Christmas time if we are given any Christmas money we always get National Trust family card, beautiful days out which have cost us only petrol to get there.

I think salad leaves are worth growing but only really if you have a greenhouse as they're more protected in there from getting munched by something other than you. Next year I plan on buying one of those shelf things covered in thick plastic purely to grow salad leaves in. If you sow seeds once a week you should have salad throughout the summer.

An other tip would be to ask anyone that lived through the second world war (or any other war) for advice.

You would never catch my grandparents wasting anything. Socks where darned, clothes mended when torn, and made into quilts when they could no longer be mended.

On the subject of National Trust, I read on here that you can join through the Scottish NT and pay monthly. For £5.75 a month I get family membership so we get our moneys worth by taking s picnic.

I'm lucky that I live near a great NT property with loads to do for Ds so I go every week - it has a playground, soft play, discovery centre etc. Parking is £6 for non members so I'm saving £18 a month by being a member. Obviously only a good tip if you live near NT properties.

mommi I have one if those and I'm already overrun with spinach and rocket!

Really English that is so exciting! I bet it's yum! What size greenhouse thingy did you buy? I need to choose one
Any tips?!

Also English I'm very jealous of your NT property with soft play we are near three NT properties and none have soft play...well when I say 'near' I mean between 30 and 45 mins drive.

Get a milkman delivery. Stops the trips to shop for milk and then £30 later you've spent on stuff you don't need. I also do internet shopping into the basket then switch off the computer.

I get next size up of baby clothes when they are in the sale. Use tesco vochures,to but things, got chopping board and bang sleep sack recently.

Always,look for offers on eating out.

Look in your cupboards to see what you actually need to buy.

I've just done a huge sort of toiletries. I am so ashamed of how much stuff I had bought and some of it had 'gone off' - what a waste.

always, alway, always get a new quote for car insurance every year - don't let it just renew. I saved over £200 this morning by spending 10 minutes on the internet on a comparison site.

Use Facebook local selling pages rather than ebay. I made over £100 one Friday night listing my DSS toys before Christmas (most boxed) no fees and people collect from your house too. :)

I never lose a single salad leaf to pests,

I have rased beds for all fruit and veg, which are netted (buy netting from the farmers merchants much cheaper, buy everything from farmers merchants much cheaper than garden centres as most FM are non for profit) , more or less maintenance free, they are irrigated by drip freed from IBC food grade water tanks,

my salad beds are in lined galvanised water tanks, and cattle troughs, which are raised up on blocks, that sit on large rough granite gravel, I have plastic pipe looped over, which either has netting, or on some in the winter, they get turned into mini poly tunnels.

I have eight of these, provide all year round salad, herbs, beans, peas, the price of the years seeds is paid for in less than two weeks of harvest. I over plant, and pick as thinning out process, daily.

I have quite a small garden, but also have raised wooden beds, for fruits and larger veg, a combination of membrane heavy planting, means no weeding, or digging.

I put a strip of sticky back rough sandpaper type stuff around the bottom of tanks, so even is a slug or a snail made it past the gravel and up the blocks, they can't cross the tape, I have a pond, which brings in the newts, frogs and toads, I have a lot of slow worm habitat, they help keep all the slugs and snails away,

I enjoy effort free gardening, lots of companion planting, once you have set up properly it is just a matter of picking and eating,

if you use galvanised tanks, use a metal screw attached to a drill, rather than a metal drill bit, that way you only go through a couple of screws rather than a drill bit, it seems to work better,

great gardening system for renters as you can take it with you when you move, and the tanks stay warmer than ground planting so things grow faster.

I add feed/ compost into the soil before each new planting session, we garlic, salad , onions and stuff through the winter in the salad beds. nem

I use nematodes on incoming soil/compost, because it is a small eco system it works, salad beds are at thigh hight, so no bad backs, and children love tending them.

I save hundreds and hundreds of pounds by growing my own.