Help me learn to save money!

[secondchances]

The last few months have been a struggle. I've been doing as much overtime as possible to save up for xmas & dd's birthday only a month after. I've made my own earrings & am yet to sell them. (Just need those little re-sealable bags to arrive) I'm trying to look at other things but I cant think what. I don't want to join any representative companies because I most definitely wont have time for them. I have nothing that I can see to sell. I've just donated half my wardrobe to a charity because it just would not sell to anyone. Help me! I thought I was doing a good job of saving but clearly it's slipped now. What little things can I do to save money? Even if its a small hobby?

Mystery shopping? Good because you can do it to fit in with the rest of your life. Also good because often they need you to go to a certain shop and buy something, so if you're clever you can use those jobs to stock up on Christmas presents :)

How does mystery shopping work? I've seen it advertised.

I found the hardest, yet most lucrative, way to save up money was to focus on not spending it. I am really easily lured into spending money in order to save it, so I try to watch out for that. e.g. buying a slow cooker or breadmaker, spending money on washable nappies/bulk buying food etc. These types of things really catch me out because they tick the "frugal saving" box while still giving me a small adrenaline hit of s-p-e-n-d-i-n-g. All those things (and others) did save me money, but I needed to detatch from the spending money part - eg freecycle, asking around, making do with something else, swapping, ensuring that the bulk buying deal was really really good and was a frequently used staple etc. I find leaving the house without any money/cards at all the only reliable way of not spending, but I am very lacking in self-control.

As for making extra money on the side, pre-children I spent a lot of time at a boring and v quiet office job doing online surveys/no-spend cashback offers/amazon mechanical turk/competition websites/looking for exceptional deals on hduk and reselling on eBay or using for presents. When DS was very young and would only stop screaming whilst moving I spent days wandering the streets collecting coca-cola bottles for the coke zone codes - we won an xbox (sold) and traded most of the points for boots vouchers (used) or cinema tickets (sold). There was a deal with crisp packets too for a while. I think a good tactic is to look at what you are doing anyway and try to monetise it a little. If you spend time at work faffing about on the internet (MN!), then divert some of that time to paid-for mindless clicking.

The little things add up - particularly if you ringfence them and don't look at the total for a while. Do you have a target amount by a target date?

The best savings tip I have is buy the best quality you can afford but buy less often eg a £40 pair of school shoes once a year is cheaper than a £15 pair that break every term. Do that with everything and there's loads of savings

Spend some time working out how you can do Christmas for less. I don't know how old your DD is but Lidl have what look like some decent toys, clothes and books in next week(Mon 18th) for not a lot of money.
Bar work for an evening or two a week?