Uncommon money saving tips

[Clarelita]

I'm wondering if anyone has any not so common money saving tips that you don't hear about that often. Things have always been tight for us and since COVID I must have read a hundred different articles and threads about saving money but it just seems to be the same tips that get brought out over and over again.

Here are a couple of mine:

I haven't had a haircut in years. When it gets too long I just cut it myself following videos on YouTube. And I always wear my hair up now so if it's a bit wonky no one will notice. Got some ideas for easy up Dos off YouTube too.

I turned down the boiler temperature and keep the showers as cold as I can tolerate to reduce the gas bill. My showers aren't cold but are warm rather than hot and I noticed a significant drop in gas consumption.

By my sums it's significantly cheaper

Mid range tescos loo roll 9 pack is 20p/100 sheets, at 6 sheets a wipe, that's 1.2p/wipe.

Yorkshire water is 1.76/cubic metre - so 0.0018p/litre - if you use a litre to wash, you're still a factor of 1000 cheaper. Actually half that - since you also have to pay to have that water taken away, so only 500x cheaper.

If you are near an FE college with a catering course they usually run a restaurant, some are good, some not so good but worth checking a cheap meal out. SOme colleges also have students studying hair, beauty, massage so it can be a cheap place to get your nails done.

I used to go to an FE college one day a week, the day they made bread so I could fill the freezer with cheap bread.

I use my local community shop too.

The FE colleges are also good for hair cuts, hair colouring and beauty treatments at a fraction of the cost of a salon,

From the dishwasher repair engineer:

always remove the melt away plastic from dishwasher tablets. It actually clogs drains in the long run

only use 1/2 the tablet per cycle, again it is enough and avoid clogging

If you need regular prescription medication and are not entitled to free prescriptions make sure you have a prepayment certificate. It's about £10 a month or £19 a year if you o

nly need it for HRT. Its surprising how many people don't know about this.

Also get the Moneysavingexpert newsletter for weekly money saving tips.

Not uncommon but I've switched to doing my food shop completely online. When I started I was saving about €40 per week.

I meal plan, usually on a Monday, I check the fridge/ freezer/ presses. Pick 7 dinners for the week, then only order what I need. We also make lunch every day so I get a whole ham or chicken to make sandwiches/ salads. I put an extra bread and milk in the freezer and they can be taken out on Sat if needed. I do not do a top up shop, because I cannot be trusted to just go in and get those one or two bits 😂

I'm in an EU country which is big on glass/plastic bottles with a deposit. I regularly go to the couple of locations in the village where teenagers drink and pick up the empty bottles to take back to the shop. You get 27 cents a bottle.

I only have one string of fairy lights on at night.

It made a huge difference when I swapped to bar soap. Much cheaper than shower gels etc. Lasts ages. And I feel much cleaner.

I pick up the fruit and veg box from the local supermarket for €4 a couple of times a week. This is where they put stuff that is past its best. As long as I eat it or prepare it and freeze within a couple of days it's fine.

I dumped Netflix and swapped to Prime and then I dumped that as well. Instead of that I occasionally buy used DVDs from an online second-hand site (I also get books from them). DVDs aren't popular these days so you can pick up things really cheaply and it has ended up costing me much less than the prime subscription each month.

Some of these are really sad. Only eating one meal a day and going to bed early doesn't sound like a money saving tip, it sounds like someone living in abject poverty.

To be fair we're pretty well off, but we were skint for a long long time. I try and keep up some of those habits - for example, one week a month we'll just eat from the cupboard apart from the fresh stuff we really need. My family like shower gel (I like soap) but if we've run out in that week then we all use soap. For a family of five tbh I think we're pretty frugal when it comes to groceries as our regular shop is about £120-150 a week, but on that week it's closer to about £60.

Boots recycle app.

Accepts clean empty lotions and positions containers , all types plus toothbrushes and electric toothbrush heads. Also medicine blister packs.

Once you have x 5 empties(10 BPs) scan a code on a participating store and drop the off. Currenty you get 500 extra points on a £10 spend code but you only have an hour I think to use it. Which is fine because you do a drop off when you need to do a boots run. I've never had a problem with qualifying products but worth checking, in machine the usual suspects will be excluded

If you can time this with No7 3 for 2 and their £5 off spend vouchers it's especially helpful! Oh and works with all coupons too.

It's so good I can't believe it's more widely
used!

> Give up alcohol
> Make your own cleaning sprays - 75% water, 20% cheap bleach, 5% Zoflora
> Batch cook
> Cut washing powder with soda crystals - 50% of each
> Use bar soap
> Shorter showers
> Subscription cycling
> 'New' clothes only from Vinted or charity shops

you water your plants with soapy water?

I use the cheapest cream cheese from Lidl/aldi instead of butter and mayo on my husbands sandwiches for his packed lunch. I also grow microgreens on the window ledge from sunflowers/poppy seeds/lentils instead of biting salad and he thinks it's actually a treat and doesn't even raise its to save money. According to him, my lunch game has gone way up 😂.

I grow my own mushrooms. It's a hobby and I get loads and loads of delicious mushrooms for very little start up cost.

I prorate plants and decorate my entire house with them. Again, a very fulfilling hobby and it looks beautiful and improved air quality. I've got 10 variegated monstera from 2 small original plants that were gifts. I occasionally sell one or two and get £50-80 for them.

If I'm looking to decorate my house I go to the local repurposing place and you can get paint for £10 a tin in a choice of 12 colours and then I just mix in a tester pot to alter it slightly. Extra bobbies is they have a giant charity shop attached to it so I've found gorgeous bargains in there.

@greasypolemonkeyman I WISH I could do this! I've managed to keep herbs alive for a while but generally I fail.

Yes, it makes no difference whatsoever. The plant simply takes in the water. Anyway most of the time the water is from the shower and is practically soap free anyway since the really soapy water dribbles down the body and isn't caught in the jug.

We tend to use the bath water for flushing the loo so again it makes no difference whether the toilet is being flushed with clean water from the cistern or slightly soapy water from the bath.

Airtime rewards app
No broadband just hotspot (and I WFH!)
Not had a haircut in a decade. Scissors were £5 from eBay.
Zoflora diluted lasts ages instead of actual cleaning sprays

Also rinse the sauce of cheap baked beans. They can then be used in anything and cheaper than buying the same beans in water. You are welcome.

Eureka app for surveys (works well if you put a little time into it, much less opaque than other survey sites)

Buy giftcards on topcashback so you get money back and then use them for shopping you'd do anyway - can get several percent of your shopping this way.

Swap banks to collect switching rewards.

Starling bank pays interest (monthly) on its free savings account (keep most of your money in the savings account and transfer to your current account as and when needed).

Charity shops!

PS some of the comments on here are really nasty. You're essentially mocking someone for being cash strapped. Nice.

Olio, Freecycle, 2good2go

It's probably quite common, but I always double a recipe in the slow cooker then freeze portions, we're only two adults and this saves us so much money and time. I only do a big shop every other week, the other week we eat from the freezer, it feels "free"! And add tinned beans/lentils/cheap veg to recipes to make them go further. Make flapjacks, much healthier and cheaper than shop bought snacks. We've really cut back on laundry recently, realised I was washing things out of habit rather than necessity. Apart from underwear, socks and gym wear, DH and I wear the same 'normal' clothes for days sometimes as we WFH.

Made me laugh - sorry 😄

Some of these are really sad. Only eating one meal a day and going to bed early doesn't sound like a money saving tip, it sounds like someone living in abject poverty

@CutthroatDruTheViolent I actually started doing these as part of improving my health, and found they saved money. Similar with using soap instead of handwash and shower gel, I started for eco reasons and was amazed how much money they saved.

I think a lot of money saving tips feel like deprivation if someone feels they have no choice otherwise. For those comfortably well off, if you can see the actual money being saved and there is something to show for the sacrifices/changes made, it becomes a very good incentive. But I am very mindful that in this climate lots of people will be following all the frugal tips they can and still have nothing left over at the end of the month, and that can be depressing.

😂😂

Not sure about unknowns but we're reasonably high earners trying to save and cut back and I've saved more in this last year than ever before due to perhaps frivolous spending before.

• pretty much stopped buying clothes for myself. I have loads. If I do, it's timeless/classic.
• all kids clothes from Vinted. And sell on there too. It's amazing.
• weekly shop by Tesco delivery. I limit it to £70 and meal plan. Only buy exactly what I need. I do need to top up during the week. Maybe another £40-50.
• a take away coffee is a treat. I invested in a nice flask and make one before leaving the house.
• just got rid of Sky. So broadband only.
• haven't upgraded my phone when I normally would have by now.
• started following travel agents on FB for amazing holiday deals. Just booked a 5 star Turkey AI for Oct school hols 25 for less than £3k.
• I budget/spreadsheet religiously. Every £ we have coming in is allocated somewhere.

We're not struggling financially but being able to build savings and watch them grow has been really worthwhile.

I stopped drinking 5 years ago, and have had significantly more holidays since!