Can I have your best frugal living tips please?

[MushroomTree]

I'm nearly back on my feet after leaving an abusive relationship and I'm looking to move into my own flat with DD (13 months).

I can afford it but money is going to be tight so could I please have your best frugal living tips? TIA

I only use for cleaning: Washing up liquid, bleach, window cleaner, dettol.

Onions, lentils/pulses and frozen veggies, baked potatoes.
Breakfast: Overnight soaked oats with frozen fruit and yoghust in a far in the fridge with grated apple etc.. cinnamon. Amazing, so heathy, cheap and no added crap.

Being poor taught me how to cook without cheating, don't buy ready made things, they are full of crap- people do it for convenience and that might be useful, but we've also forgotten how to do so many things.

The other day friends were whipping coconut oil up, which thickened it, and put in some essential oil _ so cheap, and really good. Add some salt in and it's an exfoliator.

I am a vegetarian, I buy all my clothes in charity shops, my underwear is ex M and S online- so cheap. I live minimalist, so I tend to not have stocks of stuff. People have so much stuff and it doesn't help them. I also think in our age of waste, that living frugally makes sense. It makes you into a more conscious consumer as you ask yourself do i really need this, and avoid those tiny purchases just because you can......

Get a library card, you don't know that your library has heaps of stuff- like access cards to all sorts of places, magazines, lots of games.... you can still have all those things for you DC.

Premake food and freeze.

Careful FreeMantle you may be entering the twilight zone of the MUMSNET CHICKEN!
However I agree that baking is actually more expensive than buying mass produced cake.

Well, proper baking is!

But if you've got the oven on anyway for something else, & you whizz up all the manky leftover fruit you have plus flour, sugar, an egg, a glug of oil & enough milk to make a batter, you can shove it in the oven & come out with a rather boring but ok cake which you can then slice up for lunch boxes or serve with custard as a pudding.

It's a good hack if you like to buy fruit for lunchboxes or as snacks, & then get fed up with endless waste as it comes back from school looking slightly bruised.

Turkish lentil soup is filling, delicious, nutritious and very cheap!

Finely chop 2 good sized onions and fry in some vegetable oil and a little butter. Add a good sized carrot and potato. Sweat until onions are soft. Add a small cup of lentils and a few litres of water. Add 3 tablespoons of flour plus a stock cube and salt and pepper. Some dried mint is also nice. Simmer for half an hour then blitz with a hand blender. This freezes very well.

Kuru Fasulye ( Dry beans in a tomato sauce)

Soak 3 cups of beans Borlotto, haricot etc in water overnight. Rinse and gently boil until soft but not squidgy! Drain beans and save liquor.
Fry an onion and 2 chopped fresh tomatoes. Add liquor. Add a stock cube and salt and pepper plus 2 tablespoons of tomato purée. Adding a left over beef or lamb meat bone also adds flavour. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add beans and serve with rice. Cheap but delicious!

OP You sound as if you are doing a brilliant job. Welldone!

Don’t eat meat or fish. You don’t need it.

Charity shops/boot fairs. Get friendly with the volunteers in your local charity shops - tell them you are looking out for some brown winter boots or a school coat or a piece of furniture and leave them with your contact number. This is how I got my kitchen table and chairs, my wardrobes and storage shelves.

Share clothes/books/music with friends.

Share hoover/lawn mower/tools etc with friend or neighbour. Why does every house need this stuff?

Beg, steal or borrow a tent/sleeping bags etc for a cheap, relaxing holiday.

Make packed lunches for work/picnics and take tap water in bottles. Eating out is hugely wasteful and expensive.

Exchange hairdresser services for childcare. She cuts your hair for free. You provide her with a stress-free night out.

If you are on medication, see if a pre-payment card will save you money.

Batch cook. You can buy special offers/reduced etc and save on cooking costs by making 1 vast pot of stuff into many nutritious meals.

If you live near a market, shop at the end of trading on a Saturday - they often sell off fruit and veg really cheaply.

Soap bars rather than shower gels/handwashes. My skin is a million times better for it too.

Minimise and simplify cleaning products. A few things will do everything.

Do not leave taps running.

Layer up instead of central heating.

Don’t give house room to a tumble dryer. Horrible things.

If your workplace has a shower, be a CF and save water/heating and use their facilities. (Naughty but useful!)

Make money by changing bank accounts/insurances regularly to take advantage of cashback offers.

Always check you are on the best tariffs for utilities and services.

Simplify your pampering regime. Do you really need those creams and stuff? Aldi skincare stuff is amazing, by the way.

Activities for your child can be free. Picnics, building dens in the woods, collecting leaves, cones, acorns and making pictures, painting with water on the pavement, making things from boxes and packaging and toilet roll tubes (my DCs spent and entire half term building a pirate ship this way - they were the envy of the street!)

You don’t need a TV. No-one does. I promise you.

Make play dough.

Do you really need the fancy phone you have or would a more basic model do what you need?

Waterbutt for gardening and washing your car (if you have either).

Don’t be pressured to give expensive gifts. Be honest with people. “Thank you so much for the beautiful scarf. Your friendship is so precious to me. I hope you will understand that I won’t be able to be so generous on your birthday, but would love to share a cuppa with you and bring some cookies I’ve made as a gift. Perhaps we could make that “our thing” from now on?”

I have been there. Can you tell?

Phone..if you are on contract, move to giffgaff when your contract runs out .£10 a month and no contract will give you shed loads of data/texts /calls.

But also negotiate with your current provider, I have a contract for £10.09 a month which gives unlimited calls and texts and a fairly generous data allowance.

Also have a look at the 'delicious but cheap' thread on te cooking board.

Thrift Lesley also does good cheap meal ideas
Feed yourself for a pound a day on FB has "recipe vault" with ideas and menu plans

Congratulations on start of your new life

Ah, but @elephantoverthehill those as have tried the Mumsnet chicken are all converts. Same with Zoflora. The Mumsnet chicken feeds a family of four for three days for £3.50 and Zoflora cleans your house for a month for £1. Tis myth but tis also true.

Invest in a sholley (shopping bag on wheels). Sometimes charity shops sell them new for around £12. It really helps with bulk buys. I walked to my local car boot yesterday and bought 5 pots for the garden for £1 each and shollied them home. No way could I have carried them.

Haven't RTFT but some random tips:

I agree with bulking out lasagne/Bolognese with lentils but also, for lasagne, try roasted vegetable especially as most are coming into season (tomatoes, peppers, courgette, aubergine, etc) add marscapone to the cheese sauce. It's glorious. Me and my 15m old wolf it down and it freezes well. Instead of Bolognese, try sausage meat ragu. I only buy good quality ones from the butcher but can still work out cheaper then mince again, my little boy loves it.

Eat seasonably. It's cheaper and far more delicious.

Frozen fruit. We buy lots and just pull out what we need. DS has raspberries every single morning. We pull out a handful and leave to defrost in fridge overnight.

Oats. Super food, healthy and cheap. Also versatile. I've started experimenting with my own muesli and granola, and things like oat pancakes. We had the latter this morning with (frozen) berries, banana and maple syrup. We've frozen the rest. They are delicious and very filling!

Charity shops for books etc for kids.

Check out local library, lots of free activities. We go to Rhyme time when we can, and then get some books out.

More long term, next year we are getting seeds to grow our own veg, salad, etc. We were lucky enough to get some tomato plants etc on sale this year but seeds are definitely cheaper option (to late to do it now) and your DD will be a great age to 'help' next year. I can't wait to get DS involved next year. Also things like strawberry plants, off cuts will produce more for the year after, double again year after that etc. I'm hoping eventually to have enough when I can make jam, yoghurt flavouring etc.

Also one thing I've tried doing recently is making my own wipes. We use reusables but have Water Wipes for messy situations, etc but they add up. Can't use normal wipes even sensitive ones on DS.

Basically, cut a roll of decent quality kitchen roll in half. In a bowl add a drop of baby's body wash/shampoo, a small blob of coconut oil, cool boiled water then pour over. Leave for a minute then take out the cardboard roll. Not quite as good as water wipes but does the job when needed :)

Do you live near a market? Ours sells huge amounts for £1 - eg 10 peppers, 10 lemons, 4 aubergines, a box of mushrooms, 2 small boxes of blueberries or strawberries, 10
Oranges, tomatoes, 5lbs potatoes.

I find if you fry onions until they are brown, starting to burn slightly, before adding the meat it makes a stew/spag bols/curry more savoury. One stock cube is prob enough then.

Sounds silly but I ask my mum to do he reduced shop for me.
She knows the sort of things I like for the kids and me, but mine are both in bed too early for me to go out.
Plus there is always a rugby scrum round the reduced section near me, where as near my mum's it's less of a fight.

She does this the evening before she is due to come over, but also she often turns up with packets of toaster pancakes/hot cross buns/bread or sausages/burgers/meat joints that she has bought and frozen until she can bring them.

Really makes all the difference. Pack of 6 pancakes for 8p instead £1!!

Agree to switching to own brand stuff, some stuff is worth paying for more, check the actual quantity you get
(Ie tinned toms - I buy napolina when on offer at 50p each because you get more toms and less water)

Also agree with all the heat saving advice. I let this go in the winter just gone and it cost me dearly.
Check your windows for rubbish seals and cover these with gaffer tape for the winter, or blu tac.
Not just frugal but environmentally friendly as less energy waste.
Old towels rolled up and bound with ribbon make good straight excluders at the bottom of doors. Unsightly sure but they serve the purpose.

You should be so proud of yourself.
I escaped my abusive husband almost 2 years ago and whilst it's been something of an emotional nightmare for various reasons, it's also been the best time of my life, and my kids lives.
Well done you 💐💜

Read your free local newspapers! The ones that many of us only read the front page of. Because (a) They're the sort of publications to report on local projects and schemes that help people, and (b) They sometimes have competitions on page 15 that hardly anyone reads. The sort of competitions like win cinema tickets, or a voucher for a local shop. The competitions you're most likely to win are the ones with low numbers of competitors - and how many people are actually reading their free papers in their entirety?

Now I've stared thinking!

I buy ahead a lot. For the likes for summer hols and days out. There's always lots of snacks needed. So I'll add a box of whatever is on offer to my shopping each week and it goes in the cupboard and isn't opened.

I cook rice in a massive pan and then portion it into food bags, spread it out so it's thin inside the bag as freeze. Like a little sheet of rice. Takes up less space and defrosts quickly. More economical to cook it like this.

I fill empty freezer space with bottles of water. Works better then cardboard as it helps the freezer stay colder therefore reducing how hard it has to work.

Thanks again everyone. There are some great tips here and it's so inspiring.

To the poster that asked, I do have a car. It was the one thing I was determined to keep and I got a new job last month so now need it for that.

I live within a national park and near a major city so I'm sure there are plenty of free or cheap activities we can occupy ourselves with.

Hopefully this thread has helped other people too

TBH if there is just you and your DD you don't need to use a dishwasher, even if you have one. When my DH is away I can't fill mine for a couple of days with 2 DC.

Have a look at all the things you have already. I bet you have excess makeup, toiletries and other stuff. Have a look and then make a note that you don't need any X, Y and Z when out shopping.

Aldi's 4-ply toilet paper is better than any from a flashy supermarket. I know as we have done the test and my family picked the Aldi one.

Double up when you make something and put it in the fridge (lasts a few days) or freezer. I freeze everything left over. I buy a slab of ginger, cut it up and freeze it and put any left over herbs in the freezer. Make a batch of tomato sauce with blended veg in it and freeze it in ice cube trays or bags. It will last 3 months and is a good and nutritious sauce for you and DD.

Helpful thread.
When yr tempted to spend, I love the Martin Lewis advice - ask yourself
Do I need it?
Can I afford it?
Can I get it cheaper somewhere else?

It’s hard work but I’ve found that keeping a healthy cynicism toward all your spending helps. Be aware that all products and services are doing their best to convince you to spend more than you need to. And most of the budget versions of things are just as good. It’s mostly packaging and marketing.

eBay / gumtree great for kids Christmas and birthday presents. Loads of nearly new big things.

It’s worth having some ‘rainy day’ kit (wellies and waterproof trousers) for you and kids otherwise it’s tempting to spend more on activities when the weather is bad.

Get your haircut at your local college - £3 at mine. They do all sorts of other colours, waxing etc as well.

Don't buy expensive shower gel. I buy the big bottles of own brand bath foam. Does the same job and lasts ages.

• Borrow student and vegetarian cookbooks from the library to plan basic but versatile meals.

• Own brand baby shampoo and soap.

• Superdrug Extracts conditioner is cheap - it is often recommended on these forums.

• Free events in the park and at the local library. If you have a car, and therefore can get further afield, you might be able to visit the grounds of some stately homes without paying. TripAdvisor is worth looking at to see what is free.

• Primark scarves and adult leggings are great.

Don't buy expensive shower gel. I buy the big bottles of own brand bath foam

Me too. I also use the bath foam to refill the hand soap. So much cheaper

Well I just did a small Lidl shop to bulk out the things I've got in the freezer. It came to £16 and the most expensive thing I bought were 84 nappies for £4.49!

At the moment my nearest Lidl is 30 minutes away but with those kinds of savings it's worth the drive because I'm certainly not using that much extra petrol to get there.

PurpleCrowbar, would you mind posting your recipe for cake, please? I have never cooked with oil instead of butter etc. so don't know the amount of flour and sugar etc.