Money-saving hints that aren't...

[TheFifthKey]

I've been looking through momey saving blogs etc and the same things come up that annoy me every time because they're either not good hints or just unhelpful.

Firstly, the "if you stop buying lunch/coffees/magazines" tip - maybe there's the odd person who hasn't noticed that £5 a day at Costa adds up but it's irritating when you never really buy these things anyway - funnily enough if I had a £100/month black hole in my budget like that I'd notice!

And the second is "use lemons for cleaning" - they don't bloody work and a bottle of Flash is £1 and lasts aaaaaages for me - I don't use loads and it's fine. A net of lemons is at least 50p and would last one cleaning session - this is not a saving in any form!

I buy 8 or 12 packs of small bottles of water when they’re on offer and keep one at home and one in the boot of the car. Of course in an idea world I wouldn’t ever buy bottled water at all but this way there are spares if you’re on a day out and forgot to refill kids bottles, if someone has forgotten theirs on a school morning, you need to top your screen washer up...and then I always take a couple of empty bottles to work with me and fill them from the water cooler throughout the day. Costs a bit to start with but, as pointed out above, paying £1 a time for bottled water is just painful! At least these are more like 25p each (for the exact same thing).

I went with receipt hog but there were so many rejects and no pay out, i deleted it.

I joined a facebook group about saving money but it was simply people showing their yellow sticker buys, and asking for recipes, i deleted that too

There is a very well known website where you can go for advice and support on a range of money saving issues (which is great btw). There is a section on their forum about getting out of debt and people are encouraged to list their income and outgoings so others can make suggestions.

It irritates me beyone belief when people post up their statement, and at the bottom it shows a surplus of £800 a month - but they are in massive debt and struggling to make ends meet. Clearly the statement is wrong then, what a waste of time. And then people take the time to say oh you could save £100 a month by cooking from scratch or whatever.

I am guilty of being in denial about my finances at times but the only way to get out of debt, or to save, is to be brutally honest with yourself about your income and expenditure.

And yeah, buying lemons instead of cleaning products, or using white vinegar instead of fabric conditioner isnt going to make a huge difference without other big changes too!

Dont ever try the eat well for less book as a whole. Added about 20-30 quid on our foodbill (although some or the recipes make awesome "treat meals")

Cooking on a bootstrap has taken about £20 off our food ,i dont have to food plan much as many of the recipes either make good use of frozen and tinned or contain a sensibly limited collection of fresh ingredients. Much less waste

I haven't read all the thread but I just learned this week about Everyday offers on my Lloyds current account. It's on the front page of the app and you just need to click to activate it then earns you cashback from named retailers.
My friend earned £50 last year, most of the stuff on there at the moment is eating out so unnecessary expense but if you can afford the treat of eating out at least you are getting something back.

The thing is there are two kinds of money-saving. One is seriously about how to stretch a low income and you will already know where to buy the cheapest baked beans but need to make sure that big bills like utilities aren't robbing you either.

The other is how to live a nice life style more cheaply and is to some extent a bit of a hobby and thus is where all the breadmaking /veg growing/cashback comes in, you have to spend to save here.

My tips are very basic:
-Know where your money goes and challenge anything that looks too expensive for what it is
-Budget and don't impulse spend
-Know how to mend things

• buy second hand for anything feasible

I’ve been on a frugal journey for years from the point of thinking we needed to declare bankruptcy (we didn’t but only just) to now as a single parent keeping a mortgage going on my own and servicing what’s left of a massive unsecured joint debt (still a substantial amount). There is definitely always something new to learn or to recommit to.

The things that have really made a difference over the last year as a lone parent have been a proper annual budget worked out to the penny and religiously putting money into the pots for those things first before spending anything.

Making sure that I actually use my Quidco, ClickSnap and discount/membership cards and always looking online for a voucher code. It’s so easy to forget to use them and you may only be missing out on pennies by not doing but it all adds up.

As a family some of the simple things were being in the discipline of taking drinks and snacks on day trips. How often do kids say “I’m thirsty” when the only available option is something expensive.

Transferring any debt to the lowest interest rate available to you (making sure that you assess the impact of any transfer fees) and trying to overpay or plan to pay before the end of 0% interest if you can. There have been times when there’s been a gap when a 0% or low interest rate has ended and a new one hasn’t been available that made things very very difficult and there have been times I’ve been lucky because of a good credit rating that I’ve got a better deal. I accept that may not be possible for everyone

The thing about Cooking on a Bootstrap is that Jack Munroe was really in that situation. I heard her once defending the use of tinned potatoes. She rightly said that it’s a good way of buying potatoes that will keep with a small initial out lay.

No one really wants to eat tinned potatoes but they are cost effective.

No one really wants to eat tinned potatoes but they are cost effective.

I bloody love tinned potatoes, my mum used to let me have them as a ‘treat’ when I was a kid

Wow @kikipost - I have never heard of that scheme and it sounds amazing - thank you very much for posting.
I thought I was pretty on the ball but that is much better than all the regular savers I do currently.

Not so exciting after all as it is not open to everyone - I should have known as it sounded too good and we never seem to qualify for anything Government related
Here is the link in case it might be of use to someone else.
www.gov.uk/get-help-savings-low-income

I read about the Chip savings app on here and decided to give it ago. It's brilliant Chip. I actually invested when they did a crowd funding.

But what about the cost of running the oven, the hot water and detergent for washing up afterwards, the wear and tear on utensils and kitchen equipment? Not to mention the time you spend baking that you could be either working (earning more than you'd otherwise save) or relaxing/having fun.

The bread goes in the oven when our dinner goes in, so no extra costs there. The bread pans and utensils also get washed up in the same water and detergent as our other washing up, so no extra there either. Wear and tear on utensils I think would be next to nothing.

I find baking really fun, I do it with DD as an activity as she loves it too. We like to come up with new and original recipes for bread and cakes, it's something we talk about a lot. Sometimes I ask DD if she would like to do baking at home or go to the cinema and she always choses baking, so that's more money saved.

Our monthly mortgage went up with interest rates, but when it was reduced, we carried on paying the higher amount so we could pay the mortgage off earlier. We reckoned since we could afford the higher payments before, we could still afford them.

I have found all of the following a good way to save money/ spend less -

switch to Lidl for shopping
eat chicken rather than beef or lamb
buy a larger sized chicken and use it for Sunday lunch, Monday sandwiches and Monday tea in a sir fry or paella
cook double the amount you need and freeze half for another meal
switch energy providers
use giff gaff for phone - no contract and only £5 for all of the calls/ data and text I ever need
use my credit card for all purchases and get the cash back (£60) last year - always pay the amount back in full in each so no fees - I have this automatically set up as a direct debit so I can't forget
pay yourself first - yes I do this - savings go out on direct debit and then what is left over is what I have to spend each month
book all elements of my holiday myself - flights, hotel etc - rather than go through a travel company
switch car insurer every year for a lower premium
try to keep an eye on interest rates and switch to the highest available each year - this is time consuming though!
keep and eye on sales and put away Christmas presents throughout the year.

I agree with a previous poster. I no longer see shopping as a leisure activity. I am frugal, but I intend to have as much saved as I possible can so I can retire early. I love to travel and prefer to spend on that rather than give more to Tesco and co than I need to. I am very lucky, I earn more than I need to live on. I fully appreciate that not everyone is in this position.

Another tip I've seen is 'get rid of your car'

Right, I'll walk the 8 miles round trip to my kids' schools, 3 times a day

I also add lots of vegetables and or pulses to lots of things I cook. It is far healthier and cheaper if you use cheap vegetables such as carrots.

Wear and tear on utensils?? They’re not ornaments! It’s a big waste of money to NOT use them!

Making your own cakes or biscuits is better than buying high quality equivalents. No they are not cheaper than custard creams, but cheaper than equivalent high quality biscuits.

Getting rid of the car isn't possible for some people, but it is for others. Some people never even consider it as an option. Cars are really ex

Getting rid of the car isn't option for some people but it is for others. Lots of people never even consider it. Cars are very expensive, there is no way I will ever be able to afford one. Cycling and walking is better for the environment and better for your own health.

I do think that there are some people, like me, who genuinely need a car but only for relatively infrequent trips, and who might be better off putting their car running budget towards a taxi/hire car annual budget. For people with no adequate public transport/cycle/walking options for their daily commute/school run then it can be dismissed out of hand.

The only tip I found useful was that moneysavingexpert have an energy club, which will email you if you can save money on utilities, or when your fixed rate deal ends. That's great.

DH pays for the broadband and phone, so he didn't realise we were out of contract six months ago and paying £65 a month! Just reordered it with a new company and we're paying £32, including high speed fibre broadband and all calls to any number free 24/7, so that more than halves the bill.

The only really useful tip, to anyone sensible, is to remember to keep tabs on when your utility deals end, because standard rates are heinous.

Also considering switching my bank to First Direct, given everyone raves about them and they currently offer £150 to anyone who switches as long as more than a grand a month is paid in. That seems a good saving, especially as they charge less on overdrafts than just about everyone else, should you have a bad month.

The coffee tip is just nuts though. Same with magazines. But sadly, a lot of people do buy them all the time, and then wonder why they're skint.

I can highly recommend How To Feed Your Whole Family by Gill Holcombe. Proper, realistic, economic recipes.