What do you not buy anymore to save money?

[heartbroken22]

What's the alternative?

packets of ham

I cannot justify €10 for a sandwich when out and about, usually end up buying a meal deal or going without. I would have probably had lunch out twice a week and not given it a second thought.
Same with takeaways - gone up by €15 so now we only do it every 4 to 6 weeks. It just seems too expensive for the quality and dinner out is a no no unless a celebration.

I'm also conscious of driving and how much fuel I am using and try and group trips together.

I don't know when I last bought clothes for myself - I've got plenty in the wardrobe.

And actually I don't really miss any of it.

It really is miserable right now.

We used to go to a local cafe maybe once a month for breakfast. Just beans on toast and eggs and that sort of thing. Not been this entire year, and just saw yesterday they are having to close their doors for good because of everyone else that is also no longer going. One of the few non-chain places in our High street and been operating for decades.

@AnareticDegree curious as to why you do not buy frozen peas, do you grow them or have a cheaper alternative? We eat a lot of frozen peas 😀

We don't go out for meals anymore and I don't buy coffees out at all

I generally make my lunch for work or I buy a sandwich deal on the odd occasion

We've also stopped drinking almost completely

We are buying slightly nicer food because of all the savings above but we're not spending more than we've saved from the above things

Coffees (was spending £40 a month in Starbucks!), ready meals, high end make up and basically any stuff I don't actually need.

Meals and drinks out for special occasions only.

I budget so we can do anything we want but once the money has gone it has gone. We eat out a lot less as it is so expensive now to go somewhere casual so we either go somewhere nice for an occasion or a bakery for something cheap and cheerful.

@heartbroken22 when downgrading brands, the way to do it is to go for the most basic - the simply or whatever - try it - if its a no, next time move up a grade.

I buy own brands, lidl usually , and Im blown away with the quality of their simply tinned tomatoes, but I dont like their simply beans so I buy their Newgate label beans

The only branded products which I can not escape are Fairy Original and Head and Shoulders

We dumped the pay for view services. There is a mountain of good tv to be found on the free to view channels. C4 has a great catalogue of programming

We have cut going to the pub to once every couple of weeks. Living rural the pub really is the centre of the community so we do like to pop in now and then but its now two drinks and away

Meals out - couldn't be bothered now. We used to take advantage of the winter months where restaurants would put on great lunch time deals to keep open out of season, but they have down graded the quality so much now I begrudge the money. The only decent reasonably priced places sell the fare that we would cook at home anyways so its not a treat

Because we live so rural, I have had to learn to cook Indian and Chinese because theres no option to ring and have one delivered.

I went grey last year. It was costing a fortune to keep it coloured. I get a cut every 2-3 months. Eyebrows I get threaded every few months in a shopping mall . I clipper DH's hair every few weeks

Over the past few years I have invested in things that save me money. I got myself a decent espresso machine ( prime deal so heavily discounted ) and thats my daily treat - a decent cappuccino for pennies rather then ££££

I also invested in gels and do my own nails.

And I invested in a multi cooker, saves me a fortune in Yoghurt alone

Clothes, I went on a diet and have a huge back wardrobe to wear . Anything else is sales or second hand

Fuel is a huge expense so given up leisure driving. That I do miss because I live in the most beautiful part of the country with a wonderful coast line and lovely wee villages but I have to make a tank last as long as possible. Ive even changed jobs recently to one locally , not as well paid but less fuel and no parking charges so Im actually up money

We try to spend what we have to spend locally to support our high street. We are fortunate that ours is thriving, lots of independents and its still possible to get a proper meal and a cuppa for less then £10 - not fine dining but good home cooked food

Put half a dish washer tablet in at a time. Use bars of soap instead of liquid hand wash. Shop at Aldi not Tesco. Clothes from charity shop. Sell more on vinted. Sell more at carboots. Put this money to one side for uk break.

We cut back on tv subscriptions - aiming for one at once, not all at the same time.

We are in the well off category and have still found the we have economised - so we know some are truly suffering.

We cook at home rather than get take out, go to the theatre only if we can get the ‘£10’ cheap seats, avoid buying new clothes (and get them from Shein/charity etc if they are needed), grow and store our own food where we can, look for freebies - annually our bank account gives us a certain number of free cinema tickets - and we use compare the market and octopus discounts to get discounted food/free coffee.

I repair our clothes when they break including shoes if possible.

The bit I miss most is books. I love books and being in bookshops, but it’s a birthday/christmas event now.

I’m considering investing in a good TV though to give us more entertainment options.

same
but just got caught out, still with disney plus for another month, so Netflix will have to wait

Just discovered a local home-based hairdresser does hair colour alot cheaper than my regular salon, so will be using her (I’ll dye the whole bathroom if I do it myself).

My Dh brought a coffee machine. Reckons it saves him money as he’s not buying fancy coffees out anymore .

Don’t used vinted, but do use Next clearance site on website, and buy new clothes at a fraction of the cost.

Fresh fish - Iceland frozen fish is acceptable.

Meat from the butcher. We make do on supermarket meats (usually lidl!).

Asparagus and other "special occasion" veg, corn on cob, pak choi etc

Vegolino chocolate - the best dairy free chocolate but has just got too expensive

Blueberries and grapes - significantly limited.

Used to eat out monthly, now occasionally. The magazine subscriptions went. Clothes mostly vinted. I already shop in Lidl have done for 30 years,so can't cut back on brands at all. I've bought a ", coverless", duvet (completely misnomered of course) polyester sheets, pillow cases, to save having to use the tumble dryer in winter (I did need new bedding, the IKEA 4.5 tog was is as old as noah. Curtains, over £400 in Dunelm, second hand on eBay.

I think that’s really clever, especially when it’s things like rice and chips

Probably are McVities in M and S packaging.

Meat. I'm not vegetarian but very rarely eat meat these days, unless I'm in a restaurant.

I reviewed my Christmas online shopping order earlier. Ditched the delicious Baileys double cream for ordinary double cream. Only £1.50 saved, but it’s a saving.

Dh and I don’t buy each other presents for birthday, x mas, valentines etc all commercialism and we don’t need it

we don’t buy special food for Xmas.

homemake 90% of things

bring lunch to work.

no coffees out

last minute holidays (easy savings of at least £1k)

kids don’t really have birthday parties. We do a family day out with a friend. And then a family ‘party’ of a cake and presents. They’re young so they like it just as much

go for one big one medium and one be small present for all celebrations for kids.

send kids to an early years centre that’s part of a trust (lower fees)

bulk buy meat according to specials on offer

reviewed all protection policies cancelled all policies and amped up heavily subsidised cover through work

don’t watch broadcast tv so no tv licence. Use prime (get through work) Netflix, and Disney+ (free with bank account)

buy quality pieces of timeless clothing second hand, or on sale / at outlets

all kids clothes, either bought in outlets, on sales or multipacks

so many things we have learned to do without - big things not just manicures,
chocolate and coffees out
ie car! luckily in a market town with bus to Oxford /London. tv/licence,
house in France with all attendant costs, travel to France,
Memberships to V&A, Ashmoleon, Tate,
shopping in Waitrose, their reduced price the same as others regular
online at Tesco minimum amount is now £50, so for anything heavy or bulky
we use Morrisons, minimum £25, pm delivery £2
shopping on our Tuesday market, the
fish van, no prices displayed, adds up in his head, had to bin mackerel
bread/cake stall, not too fresh and so expensive
flower stall after the second time we spent £10 on lillies which never opened,
turned brown in 2 days! and last week, tulips
this is annoying no matter how wealthy one is, throwing money away.
biscuits including biscuits for cheese, than we have to buy cheeses, grapes,
figs, red wine etc so this is going to be a Christmas indulgence
alcohol (red wine mostly).
books! not even as gifts unless cookery books from our excellent Oxfam Bookshop
expensive cards, often from Museums ^
first class stamps
sending expensive cards to the Caribbean at 2.80£ postage, arrive weeks later
haunting charity shops looking for bargains, Hah!
hairdressers - we have a relatively new one in this small town of 7 ladies hairdressers, 70£ cut and blowdry.

There are more grey/white/silver heads since lockdown, look fabulous mostly
takeaways including fish and chips and kebab van -( last one was disgusting
so an easy decision there)
going out for breakfast/brunch with staying over visitors, when we have everything at home, the service is slow, cups are brought to the table with servers fingers inside them, also an easy decision!
Pedicures, as my OH will attest - he said, why have you come to bed with woolly scratchy socks on? I said, I havn’t.

^oh and also get my hair done balayage so growth isn’t too apparent and then go to a cheaper salon in between for a trim and shape

Ooh sorry I have more…

self drive European holidays. So much cheaper and really fantastic if you’ve young kids. Really recommend centre parcs eu too. 1/3 of the price of here and so so much better