Looking for savvy budgeting ideas - please suggest as many as you can

[steffers34]

When will it end? all us families out here, working so many hours, missing out on time with our kids, to be living like a lot of us are.

How are you mums being savvy? I would love some tips! 3 Kids, single working mum, just trying my best and failing miserably so hoping some mums on here can give me some savvy ideas and tips.

Trying to be positive but its hard as i imagine it us for a lot of us on here. Sitting with nothing in bank, no help and working wondering how il get thro tomorrow never mind the days after. The mum guilt is rife and i cant sleep from the panic and anxiety of it all.

Please ladies, whats your budget hacks? Meal Hacks? Il take all suggestions!! :)

Batch cook and pad everything out with beans and lentils.

Food is so expensive. Start there.

what about cheap teas like jacket pots and beans, tomato pasta, eggs on toast.

food cost’s take a lot of our outgoings. 3 teenagers here and they eat a lot!!

Draft proofing and energy saving is something you can't get over 5s involved in. Do you have a smart meter or OWL display?

Get the Moneysavingexpert newsletter every week, read it and do everything that is relevant to you. It will completely change your mindset about money and make it go so much further.

Also do their money makeover to review your incomings and outgoings, question the amount and necessity of every expense. If you shave a bit off a few expenses it can really start to add up to a noticeable amount extra spare money.

With the school holidays coming up - have a look on FB and google for free activities going on in your area to get the kids out and about. Take a picnic and just have fun in the nearest park or green space. Have a look here kidsactivitiesblog.com/category/kids-activities/ for loads of fun ideas and activities to do with the kids.
Do you have any Community grocery clubs near you? There are plenty around - you can shop with a fiver and and come out with a decent haul of food for the family.
Finally - you are doing your best so don't beat yourself up about it.

Cash stuffing. It's changed my life.

This is really good advice.

I second the money saving expert newsletter. I used the site and forums too whilst getting out of debt.

If you don't have a budget then make one. Track all income and expenditure, you can pay for an app, but many banks offer this for free on their apps. This way you can see which areas you could target.

Meal plan and make best use of your freezer. If chicken breasts are on offer then buy a months worth and freeze them. Meal plan around what you already have in. Inventories are good, especially if you have a chest freezer.

Buy clothes second hand, buy less of them, and buy the best quality you can afford (for adults not children). A decent quality capsule wardrobe with bits that match and compliment each other is far nicer than tons of crappy fashion. And take care of the clothes you have, I love my tumble dryer but it's expensive to run and it destroys clothing.

Buy presents over the year in sales and secondhand. Some of the toys and gift sets on vinted are new in box and cost very little.

Use your library if you can. Ours if amazing and has groups for older children as well as babies.

Make everyday stuff fun. Movie nights with a shop bought pizza, microwave pizza and fizzy drinks. Games night with board games or a pack of cards.

Bulk buy rice, pulses, grains etc at Asian Supermarkets
Join Olio for freebies
Shop late evening for reduced bargains
Batch cook from scratch

What is this?

Invest time in your career development, gain promotion, earn more money and pay into your pension and set a positive example to your DCs.

All of the above, plus if you have a local coop they mark the baked goods down in the early evening, a 50p bag of doughnuts can bring joy.

But increasing your income is going to be key, can you train for a higher paid job or start a side hustle? With a bit of determination and some ideas from mumsnet I'm sure you could.

Join Jam Doughnut and buy vouchers for food shopping

Sign up to airtime rewards and top cashback to earn cash back on every day spending

Set up a budget and put in place a system to manage actual spend vs budget

Shop around for the best deal on all outgoings, be aware of contract end dates and renew at best prices available

Eat more dishes without meat/fish substitute for beans/lentils

Proper budgeting. Start putting money away for Christmas/ insurances/ school uniforms etc whatever bills you have. First year you won't have too much saved but next year you won't have big money to find. I used to put cash in envelopes. Now I do it virtually into one bank account but with everything logged in a book ( bit old school me)
When I first started I had about 12 separate envelopes 🤣
Now my kids are older I have reduced it a bit.
You have to be really deliberate about your money.

Monzo pots...

I'm going to Google this.

I've just added a post about the Pantry Partnership which operates near us and saves us loads. They give you £25 worth of food for £5 and you can go weekly, which I do. For example this week we have done a pasta bake completely using pantry items, another tuna pasta night and tonight we are having fish, potatoes and broccoli using just pantry goods other than the fish. I get cereal from them for the kids, occasional treats like biscuits and snacks plus a bit of dog and cat food which all really helps.

Spend a day cooking per month for the freezer. Saves time and money once you get in the swing of it.

Collect whatever loyalty points you can, if you are going to shop there anyway. Use the points for christmas/event of your choice.

make your products last longer:
decant cooking oil into a spray bottle as it goes much further.
slightly water down good quality washing up liquid.
towel dry hair before applying conditioner as you won't need as much.
cut toothpaste (and other tube products) in half to get out the whole product (you'd be surprised as to how much is left).
use a multi cleaning product for all household cleaning. i use stardrops and can pretty much clean my whole house.. it costs under £2 a bottle and lasts months.

i appreciate this may not be an option, but i buy my children's clothes a season ahead in end of season sales. sainsburys regularly does 25 % off clothing, so i stock up on underwear when it's on offer.

my local cinema does childrens showing early in the morning for £2 a ticket and my bowling alley does half price bowling on certain evening per week. it's not the times you'd want to go, but it's good savings.

get yourself onto the Old Style boards on Moneysavingexpert.com. lots of frugal tips on there for everyday living.

to bulk up my children's birthday/christmas presents, i make them hampers eg sweetie hampers, toy hampers etc, with lots of cheap little bits and pieces. if you present it well, can look amazing.

cut back on who you buy for eg random relatives, childrens friends etc for birthdays and christmas. most people will be relieved.

get over to thr christmas boards here as there are bargains throughout the year. i've had lots of good present ideas over the years.

@neveraneasylife @coodawoodashooda

So I'm paid on the 23rd of each month, I leave in the bank the money for direct debits and draw the rest out in cash.
I then write out my budget for the month ie food, fuel, toiletry's/cleaning products, pocket money etc. I then put the cash into each of these using a binder.

Each week I seperate the money for the week. Any money that's left over goes into savings challenges that I do. If you have insta I recommend watching this ladies videos she explains it well. I've saved over £6000 since January.

@neveraneasylife @coodawoodashooda ooops forgot to upload the pic

Don't buy well-known branded products, buy supermarket own brand/products. They're usually near half the price! Buy bigger backs rather than single items. Shop at larger supermarkets rather than convenience stores.

Batch cook, use raw ingredients and bulk up with cheap spice packs or individual spices.

Don't use contracts for phones. Use SIM only providers and pay month by month e.g. Giff gaff and Smartie. Can get deals worth the same value (same data, calls and texts) for as little as £5-£8 pm.

If using public transport, you can buy season tickets or multi flex tickets (e.g. 12 tickets for the cost of 10) which is cheaper in the long run, especially if using public transport regularly. They're usually valid for 3 months.

One question would be whether you miss the £6000 of things that you haven't bought to save this money?

Also do you find dealing only in cash limiting - many places don't take cash, which I suppose helps you not spend it.

I think bank accounts with standing orders to pots/separate bank accounts for saving and spending would be a safer and more practical 21st century solution to a budgeting method that had fallen out of popularity until the TikTok generation discovered you could use it as an excuse to buy pastel coloured wallets and make videos about it.

If you've managed to save over £6k in 6 months whilst still paying all the bills and eating, then you probably weren't exactly struggling in the first place!

CHRISTMAS: Start right now paving the way:

1. Tell everyone that you're only buying presents for your own kids and can we please agree - now, up front, while there's plenty of time and it doesn't feel emotional - that we're ditching present exchanging. I literally only buy for my husband and my own kids.
2. Work out what is a reasonable budget for presents for each kid - plus add a bit for wrapping paper, any cards, extra/treaty food etc, and divide by the remaining six months between now and December. Withdraw this amount in cash every month and keep it safe. This is your Christmas budget.
3. Really think about what you buy for them. Don't impulse-buy stupid crap or novelty items. Take the chance to buy them vests, pants, pyjamas etc - stuff you'd have to buy them anyway.

FOOD:
Sit down and make a two-week Monday to Friday meal plan and have this on rotation. You can amend it further form the line if you get fed up.
Pad out expensive protein with cheaper carbs and veggies so you can buy less protein than you think you need (eg stretch 2 chicken breasts to feed 4):
Eg: chicken with rice and veggies and a bit of curry powder = biriani
Eg: pork with noodles and veggies and a jar of sauce = sweet and sour pork
Eg: basa with leeks in a cheesey sauce topped with lots of mash = fish pie
As others have said, make a big batch of bolognese sauce and pad it out with lots of tinned tomatoes and lentils. Freeze in tupperwares.