Financially, what have you really cut back on recently?

[Tigerblue]

Due to expected & unexpected expense, we've had to tighten our spending over the last six months. Just wondering how other people have cut back.

1. I've got our food shop down to £50 per week, from approx. £75. Never thought I could manage on this, but I can by looking out for offers, using different shops and buying items at best prices

1. We are only buying clothes because we really need them - not just because we fancy them

1. Day trips - we are trying to take food & drink with us more and recently have only done things which are free - like forest/woodland walks, pottering around town with our Xmas vouchers. As it gets warmer we'll start cycling to places more and taking our lunch with us.

I'm going to look into our energy bills in the spring, as we moved to a larger house (our expected expense!). I will know exactly what a year's energy use will be then, although I'm certain we won't be paying any more than at our old address.

Laurie how much did you save with your no spend Jan?

I owed £450 on my credit card for December, paid that off and haven't used it.

It's been really difficult, I've had to not leave the house on many days.

I wouldn't have been to do it any other month - no birthdays, no one wants to go out.

It's made it easier by Kondo-ing as sorting through stuff to throw out has made me see where there are over surpluses - I thought I had no shampoo/conditioner and I've found a box with 20 half used ones in it

And that's not a one off, I can apply the same blushing embarassment to toilet rolls/bin bags and 8 (!) bottles of bleach I forgot I had.

I'm sure I will go back to buying things soon once I've finished sorting - ive got 80 plus items to sell on eBay so I might make my next challenge 'only buy from money for selling'

Well done Laurie, great you have done it.

We have been selling a lot, if you are on Facebook, do have a look at your local selling pages. Will save you some fees and the faff of posting (buyers collect).

I'm about to do facebook selling - I don't have or want facebook so I need to set up a thing just for selling - dd said she'd show me

Do a monthly shop at a discount supermarket (-150 / month)
Got rid of mobile phone (-20/ month)
Bring lunch from home (-60 /month)
Bought annual train ticket rather than monthly (-20/month)
No takeaways (-30/ month)
Changed energy supplier (-60/ month) < - must have been paying over the odds

I still feel skint....

l can't believe how much money I wasted in the past...
Packed lunches - more nutritious as well as cheaper
Tap water
using store cupboard stuff - running down stocks while still (just!) in date
meal planning
slippers and extra jumper to reduce heating
bus instead of tube

Mostly the obvious things posters have listed already:-

Shopping in Lidl and Aldi but also keeping an eye on the other supermarkets for special offers.

Buying birthday cards and wrapping paper in discount shops like Dealz and the Euro shop. I'm embarrassed to think about how much money I must have wasted spending €3 or €4 on kids birthday cards in newsagents .

Cutting down on misc. spending like takeaway coffees and newspapers/magazines etc. Before I would have treated myself to lattes fairly regularly and would have occasionally bought a newspaper or magazine. I guess I've finally realized the truth of the saying, "Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves". Except it's cents and euros in my case.

I've finally (in my early 40s) developed a sense of style. I'm very good at buying clothes that I love and that suit me and are appropriate for the occasion - mostly smart casual. My wardrobe isn't as extensive as I'd like but I love everything in it and get lots of wear out of everything. So I don't waste money on clothes iykwim. I avoid sales as I think impulse buys are a waste of money. I'd rather buy full price for something and be 100% sure about it.

I've planned a few days out with DH and DD but we'll bring flasks and packed lunches with us. Eating out (and buying coffees/scones etc.) can add significantly to the cost of a day out. Often these places charge more than average because they know you can't leave the venue to go anywhere else. We'll also look up the entry prices before we go so we don't get any nasty surprises when we get there. And factor in the cost of diesel to get there.

Stopped shopping through Ocado, and shop at Lidl instead, though keeping our veg and meat organic, and so, to afford it, I have reduced household meat consumption by about 70%

Given up Sky - we don't watch tv - and all movie/books/music subscriptions

Cut out all minor insurance plans on specific items

Stopped most donations

I go out about once a month, and have drastically reduced my coffee-to-go/snack consumption

I only buy essential clothes, i.e. school uniform, activity-based clothing, underwear, etc.

I do my own hair and my son's is cut by my ex-DH

Absolutely no impulse buys at the shops, and no internet shopping for things that aren't requirements

No international phone-calls through anything other than Skype-to-phone

I've switched my gym membership to a yoga studio (£30 cheaper)

Sugary cereals! Just remembered that one . Just stopped buying them.

Along with clingfilm, fabric conditioner and (mostly) fizzy drinks.

Doesn't sound very joyful but we have not really noticed.

Marking my place

Got the YNAB software last March and it's really enabled me to get the family finances under control. We were going overdrawn every month now we have not been overdrawn for a year plus I have money saved for 'chunks' that need to go out eg car insurance, car tax

Switched from Tesco to Lidl and shaved shopping from £500 a month to £350

Haggled with the RAC who wanted a fortune and got them down to £70. Unfortunately we need the RAC too much for me to give this up!

Eating out as a family treat - using up left over Tesco vouchers changing into Zizzi vouchers. Good for Saturdays when there are no offers at places like Zizzi.

Cut back on cinema - just for special occasions. Have movie nights at home with something we have recorded and popcorn.

Spababe what software is this, please?

gatewalker's post has reminded me.

I did the sums and realized that I could save money in the long term by buying a decent quality exercise machine (it was on sale) and giving up going to the local gymn which required ongoing expenditure. It was a modest chunk of money but it was due to pay for itself in well under a year That was two years ago and it's still working fine.

It does require you to have a place to put it but I'm actually doing more exercise because it's there - and I suspect that this is a good time of year to pick up unwanted ones cheaply on auction sites.

I'll be downgrading my mobile contract in May.

I'm only buying clothes because I need them and not because I want them.

I've also gone through all usual internet shopping sites I use and have deleted payment details. And unsubscribed from emails.

We are using things up. Not buying new until they're gone.

And making the most if what we have.

Em, Try E2Save for a mobile. I've got a new O2 sim coming which works out free if I claim cashback by redeeming my bills with them.

It's got txts etc included in the plan.

Fluffy thanks, will look into it, but suspect they won't work here in the Channel Islands. We are a bit limited to mobile providers. (No O2, no orange, no tmobile, only vodaphone, but i think they work on a roaming charge basis...)

Will check though.

I've found a new contract with my existing provider which will allow me to pay £15 less per month, keep the same amount of data, half the amount of texts (currently get 6000) and half the minutes. Have checked back over past bills and never reach the limits I have as use iMessage whatsapp etc and rarely make calls.

Buddy - it's You Need a Budget. I only watched the basic tutorial and you can have it free for a month to see if you like it. I saw it recommended on here. Basically when money comes in you allocate it to virtual 'envelopes' like food, petrol, electricity, car tax etc. When that bill comes in you have the money in the 'envelope' to pay for it. Hope that makes sense!

Another frugal thing I have switched to is buying a big box of washing powder and only using one scoop per wash and no fabric conditioner. I also use the short wash programme on the machine. All the washing has come out fine and no-one has noticed any change.

Cancelled both our gym memberships which saved £40 per month. Cancelled Netflix, saved £6.99 per month. Told my parents they will have to visit us if they want to see us rather than us always going there (200 miles away) saved on average £50 per month on petrol. Need to work on our food and energy bills, and to try and get cheaper mobile phone contracts (currently £90 per month for the 2 of us which is ridiculous as we both only really use them on the wifi for whatsapp etc).

I'm paying off a big debt so I have:

Sold my cheap car and cycle to work and anywhere else I need to go

Halved my alcohol intake, and rarely drink more than one or two out

Increased my No Spend Days (about 4 a week now)

Meal plan (have been doing that for a few years now, but I'm tighter than ever - also fasting 1 or 2 days a week cuts back on food costs)

Only wash my face once per day (I use Liz Earle and this halved my costs)

Use Groupon for haircuts and have stopped with the highlights; always using vouchers and double points etc for Nectar

Use frozen vegetables a lot of the time

Cancelled my gym membership (but might join another one that's a bit cheaper)

Oh and I'm pregnant so can't drink wine and DH has also cut out alcohol, saved us probably £100 per month!

Spababe we do this. Dh is a fan of branded washing powder (Bold, lavender and camomile to be exact). I've been buying own brand powder and tipping it all in the old bold box for months now. He hasn't noticed. (he rarely does the washing...when he does things get shrunk/turned different colours/ruined).

We were in UK last weekend and found massive box of Bold on offer in telco for £6. Bought this and persuaded DM to persuade DF to put it in their car to bring it back on the ferry for us. Box would have cost us almost £14 here.

Fluffy just had a check, and none of the mobile providers will be of use to me on E2save. I could use them, but would be charged roaming. So not any cheaper in the long run. sigh.

Can I ask a stupid question - how do you do Facebook selling? I've looked it up and my area doesn't seem to have a page.

You can use another areas selling page. Try the next town over.

How about trying Gumtree for selling?

My mobile is payg with Three and costs me very little on 321 tarif. I'm not much of a texter and use messenger & whatsap at home which is free. My DDs have minutes on their phone so i give them a missed call and they phone me back