Please share your best money saving tips

[SouthernNorthernGirl]

We are now in what is deemed the 'squeezed middle', after having spent years trying to drag ourselves out of the 'poverty' area.
For some reason, I thought it would be a much better place to be

Paying my bills aren't the problem any longer, getting to do any living beyond that is. Reducing bills somehow may free up some money?

I'd love to hear tips on how to get by on this!
Days out / in with the DC, ideas for DH & I to have for date nights (I know the term isn't popular, we would still like quality time that's not gawping at the telly though)
Clothes are a big one for us, with 3 DC too. And of course, Christmas is looming.

I guess just any tips for general day to day living expenses.

[YoloSwaggins]

For activities and date nights: Groupon.

Me and my BF have been to a birds of prey centre, animal sanctuary, trampolining, laser quest, local restaurants, afternoon tea and spa....for dirt cheap.

I also get all my haircuts from Groupon, £17ish for a wash cut and blow dry. The hairdressers have all been experienced (not grads) and did a great job.

[Littlechocola]

I love the idea of adult pocket money. I would be more likely to save!

[PurpleCrazyHorse]

DH and I have our own pocket money accounts. We both get £20 a month for our own treats. It's stopped adhoc purchases that get out of hand (a magazine, fancy makeup, coffees and hobbies). It works brilliantly and we save it up for bigger things we want.

Previously we've switched to cash and had jars in the kitchen. Doesn't work where we are now but was brilliant before. Nothing like adding up your shopping because you've only got £x to spend. We now use Tesco scan and shop or shop online so I can tot it up as I go.

We sell stuff using Shpock. It allows you to leave feedback on users and I've not been messed around at all yet. Buyers are local so no need to post and ideal for getting rid of larger items.

[HarvestMoon9]

Love all the tips here!

The libraries in our county offer an e magazine service - you can download all the magazines they subscribe to for free (lots of good ones like BBC Good Food etc)

You have to check what’s available in your area (check your libraries website) but it’s stopped me buying magazines for a treat!

[Equimum]

We eat quite plainly in many weekdays. Every week, we have a jacket potato, beans & cheese evening, and a lentil dal & rice evening. The kids love both, but they are really cheap. At this tune of year, we also tend to do a soup and Home-made bread evening and a basic pasta evening. All of these meals are super cheap and filling. We then save things like fajitas, Indian feasts, lasagnes etc for the weekend, and rarely feel deprived.

For date nights, we don’t have childcare, so make a point of nice evenings in. Sometimes we buy a meal deal from M&S or Waitrose. We also plan an ‘activity’, often a board game or a film we have both been wanting to see. Means we at least do something together.

Sounds obvious, but with clothes, we hand down where practical and buy a proportion of chocolates uniform from the second hand shop. Ours only have one pair of shoes and a pair of wellies until school. DS1 now have school shoes, trainers and wellies. They also have one waterproof, a filet and one warm coat. If the latter get wet/ dirty, the others can be layered. We also often buy second hand for best clothes. People often buy Boden etc for special wear, so it’s still like new when sold on.

[creepingbuttercupdrivesmemad]

Drop the thermostat by half a degree. You won't notice!

[creepingbuttercupdrivesmemad]

a couple of teeny tiny ones:

Refill hand wash dispensers with value bubble bath. does the same job for a fraction of the price and helps to save the planet too! even better - use soap as it lasts longer.

Keep a four pint milk bottle next to the sink and save any running water (this particularly works for me as I don't have a dishwasher and can easily run off four pints of cold water before the hot kicks in, iyswim! My water bill has dropped by £7 a month doing this).

Meal plan and batch cook. very popular advice - because it saves you tons of money. As someone upthread said, use seasonal veg and you'll save a fortune!

Budget your finances. And keep to it.

[SouthernNorthernGirl]

Just giving the thread a little bump. I haven't posted in a fortnight or so, however my eye is still on here and I'm loving the all the tips

[Squigget]

Another thing I do is periodically have what I call fridge / freezer week. This is when DH and I only eat food we've already got in - I really struggle with meal planning so we tend to be quite ad hoc with meals. It's a great way of making sure everything gets used up and makes you quite inventive!

[delilahbucket]

I cannot recommend meal planning enough. We have a subscription to Good Food magazine so we use seasonal food. I do our shop every week, get it delivered and use a delivery super saver.
I tried Also and I mean, I really tried, but personally, I couldn't get half of what I wanted, had to visit another supermarket, and what I saved was wiped out by time spent doing two shops a week. Fine when my work is quiet, but when I'm busy it is time I don't have.
We always snuggle up in out lounge in the evening, curtains and doors shut, and cheap fleece blankets from IKEA. As a result, a quick twenty minute heating blast keeps us warm for the evening.
We buy a lot of basics from the supermarket. When you are cooking it doesn't usually matter. We liven everything up with a well stocked herbs and spices cupboard.
We go to a local butcher. He is cheaper than the supermarket and we can buy the exact quantity we need.
Weigh your ingredients when cooking. Not only will this give you healthy portion sizes, but it saves waste.
We often cook for four adults but there are two adults and a child here. The remaining food is frozen into two lunch portions for me.

[Squigget]

I buy loads of my DTD's clothes on eBay. I tend to stick to mainly buying new items as it seems many people have a different view as to what excellent / good used condition is compared to me! I also try to look ahead and buy out of season e.g. summer dresses for next year now or winter clothes in the summer as they are generally cheaper that way.

[Serin]

BikeRunSki Thanks for the information about CSSC.I am actually eligible for that and had never heard of it. Just signed up now.

OP Re; childrens clothes, we used to get loads from our local NCT sales, they are not just for babies, ours includes clothes up to age 12. Also resell any that your own have outgrown.

It's hardly a "date" but what about taking up running with DH? Free, healthy and doesn't matter if its dark.

[BertramTheWalrus]

You could save loads on your grocery shopping! We're on a budget so what we do is this:
We only have meat once every ten days or so. All our other meals are veggie which is much cheaper. You could have meat more often but smaller portions, potatoes and veg should be the main foods you fill up on (healthier anyway!)
When we have a roast chicken I use the carcass to make chicken stock, which I use for another two meals.
I buy seasonal fruit and veg only as it's cheaper.
We don't drink soft drinks - they cost a lot if you add them up over a month! I have a bottle of water which I refill with tap water and which I take everywhere. I also never go out without snacks for the kids, I don't buy things like fruit purees though, I'll take bananas, bread, cubes of cheese etc.
We do all our cooking from scratch, I always do more so DP can take the leftovers to work or I can freeze it. It sounds hard work but we don't do any elaborate cooking, we have about 20 recipes for quick and simple meals that freeze well.

[Wolfcub]

A good veggie cupboard meal is good food’s Mexican bake. Black beans are expensive so you could substitute kidney beans which are not. Making your own fajita seasoning is cheaper than packet but I buy them on offer and keep in for cupboard dinners. A few bits of sad pepper or onion pad it out if you need to and if you have any leftover chorizo or bacon that’s a good add in too

[Chestervase1]

ScrubbyGarden Lidl or Aldi?

[ScrubbyGarden]

Cheese, olives and antipasti are on my list of expensive treats!
This is getting a bit monty python...

[Chestervase1]

Do you bake cakes from scratch. What about some evenings having cheese and crackers or olives, bread and antipasti. I don’t think meals have to be meat and two veg. The Sainsbury’s magazine has lots of lovely recipes. Yogurt and granola for breakfast. When money was in extremely short supply when I was a child we had a tray of eggs. Egg on toast, omelettes with cheese or mushrooms, etc.

[charleyfarleysaunt]

I work out my monthly budget - everything possible on standing order

Work out largish annual costs (car insurance, MOT, Xmas etc) and divide it by 12 - DD that into a savings account

See what is left and then divide it by 52 and DD that in to a cash only (no OD) account each week and then only use the that card for weekly spending if that makes sense? Basically I have weekly pocket money - much easier to last a day at the end of the week than a week at the end ofthe month!

If I can get the weekly spend down after a few weeks (it gets easier over time to get in to a habit of spending less I find) I then reduce the weekly DD to up the balance in my main account, which is then transferred to savings every couple of months or left as a buffer in case a DD goes up

[ScrubbyGarden]

Butchers can be excellent value- and tap water is cheaper than any cola.
But totally agree that you need snacks.

[Queenofthedrivensnow]

I would ditch the butcher immediately too. Aldi and lidl for meat. Lidl is amazing for meat

[Queenofthedrivensnow]

Disagree that work snacks arnt a priority. I work long days opposite a bloody Tesco express. I need to have planned and bulk bought otherwise this is a cash drain. You could probably get him a weeks worth of gear for about 6 quid. There were 10 packs of coke in aldi for 3.85 last week. So 38.5p a tin which is as cheap as it will ever be. Multi packs of chocolate bars are less than a quid I think in there. I think a sustainable budget is having what you need the cheapest route possible.

[ScrubbyGarden]

You can do it! MNers are great at suggesting meals, if you post a list of what you've got in.
Maybe hide half the treaty things (biccies...) or you will have a nice week and a gruel week which is grim.

[SouthernNorthernGirl]

These are great tips.
The amount we spent on our food shop, was too much. I really have to make it stretch for at least an extra week.

Really like the ideas for days out too, along with the household budget ideas.

[ScrubbyGarden]

Yes- totally agree you need to replicate the treats somehow! Otherwise you will crack and run screaming into M&s one rainy day for chocolate coated caviar on the credit card!

[Unescorted]

We had a really restricted budget for about 6 years. Your weekly budget would have been for most of the month. To make it to the end of the month no saving was considered too small. It all came down to being super organised.
Bills reduced to the lowest to the lowest amount possible. We ran one car, this was a huge saving (over £1000 pa). My employer did a season loan saving £20pm. We had 1 mobile between us. No subscription TV, lowest internet subscription we could get.
Change to internet banking - by knowing how little money was available was a spur to not spend.
Put some money into an emergency pot this saves you having to sign up to expensive pay monthly schemes to get the boiler fixed. Or putting a new washing machine on a credit card.
If your kids catch a bus to school see if you can get a bus pass . At this time of year you may strike lucky if the budget hasn't been spent up. We have one child with a bus pass and the other isn't eligible - we applied for the first a bit of the way through term. But the saving of one is £20pw.
For food, as others have said, meal plan. Work out what you like eating and see if it is possible to do it cheaper. Our big savings came from replicating the treats and expensive ingredients - takeaways, bought lunches, beer, marinaded olives, tarts & quiches, beer nuts, salted lemons, spice mixes, dressings, sourdough bread ect. That way it didn't feel as if we were missing out.
Look for opportunities when you are shopping -that sad under ripe mango is mango chutney. That duck left on the shelf at 2 min to closing on Christmas Eve is crispy Peking duck. Lemons on special buy in Aldi - crystallised chocolate dipped lemon peel, salted lemons for Xmas presents and posh cordial. Pork went through a really cheap phase so we made our own bacon, name and sausages (including salamis).
Eat seasonally.
Grow expensive things - herbs, soft fruit, peas, sprouting broccoli - do varieties that you can't get in the shops. We have purple beans, caugettes to put the flowers in tempura, yellow raspberries. I also have a cut flower section to give as gifts -you are more likely to get a second invite for dinner! If you don't have the room to grow your own - buy 2 cheap bunches mix together. Tie just below the flowers- cut them off shortish and re wrap in one piece of the plastic and a sheet of brown paper - instant expensive looking flowers.
The other big savings were learning how to sew and pattern draft simple clothes, knitting, crocheting,car maintenance, electronics (to fix kettles, toasters etc by replacing fuses and compacitors), decorating.
Be creative and it doesn't have to be all drudgery and denial.