What do you not buy anymore to save money?

[heartbroken22]

What's the alternative?

Stuff a chicken breast with a cpl, a slice of mozzarella, slick of pesto or bit of fresh basil, wrap in prosciutto and oven bake with a brush of the tomato oil. Also in salads.

We pay £4.50 a month to lebrara for ..
5gb data, 1000 UK mins, 1000 texts and 100 international minutes

i was putting them in salads, along with feta and olives, but failed to lose any weight having salads for lunch, and of course the price, so have stopped!

Cut down drastically on Takeaways/eating out. . No milkman .
DH cuts his own hair , my DD2 cuts mine , she cuts her own, we don't do Christmas cards or Valentine's cards just birthday cards.
Buy from Charity shops a lot instead of buying new .

Sainsbury's tu clothing is good and they have a 50% sale or better every couple of months. I keep an eagle eye because it's great for under garments and children's clothes.

Seeds! I picked up a pack of courgette seeds yesterday in Asda and at 75p, I thought, this is great value. Then I checked the packaging and there were only 5 seeds in it 😂. What the hell!

My greenhouse was £50 off a neighbour. It's beautiful and if I'd bought a new one it would be at least £500.

We are trying to get the most value from things. We are having one holiday abroad this year but our short breaks are those £9.50 deals out of the newspaper. The best ones sell out very quickly so I got up at 3am to book them as soon as they became available.

We decided against pet insurance when we got the dog and cat 16 years ago. So far that's proved the right decision. They have never been ill. Not once. So we just pay for annual check ups and vaccinations and the dog has third party liability insurance through our annual membership of Dogs Trust charity.

@StScholastica agree about seeds. Last spring I used to pick up a packet of seeds at Lidls every shop, because they were so cheap - barely anything grew. I'm a fairly good gardener and I know it was a crap year weather-wise but I'm not bothering this year.

tomato plants
a lot of plants, very few tomatoes

I like your style/ethos!

I always aim to be like this but don't always succeed.

I do have the same coat + jacket that I've had for YEARS. Will keep going until no longer viable...

Also do this with walking shoes - previous pair to present ones lasted 5 years.

@OneRingToRuleThemAll love the username also - recently re-read LOTR - fabulous book

Long haul flights

Hairdressers. £150 for a 30 minute cut, no thanks.

Absolutely!
dry cuts for the win too

Natural hair colour. No more team fitness. The cheapest everything. No spending money.

No holidays, days out, no dinners or evenings out, no takeaways, no perfume, no birthdays ( for grown ups)

No new clothes or shoes unless a dc.

Veggie meals for grown ups.

It all went to shit when mortgage rates went up, along with everything else.

Fucking hate weekends now as going to lovely cheap walks every single weekend because cant afford to do anything else and pretending not hungry is life sapping.

You sound like you are really struggling. Are you okay?

I've lived on a tight budget for years so my spending hasn't really changed a lot. I shop mainly at Aldi with a few things from Sainsbury's. I don't buy takeaways other than the occasional fish and chips. I take homemade lunches and a flask to work. I go on holiday to the coast with my dog twice a year but the cost has become ridiculously high so this year we're going for 2 x 4 nights instead of 2 x 7 nights. Where possible, I buy coats and footwear at end of season reduced prices and put it away for next year.

I used to have a cut and colour every 5 weeks but now I have a dry cut every 4 weeks and a cut and colour every 8 weeks, (a small saving but it all adds up.)

I don't have any pets either , l used to have a dog , hamsters and cats but they have all died and l just feed the birds now because it is so expensive feeding them. Not to mention the vets fees and much as l would love to have another pet it's just too expensive.

Cut back so much this year- top 10% salary too, started with subscriptions, cheaper supermarket- less top up shops, reduced how much I buy, no new clothes unless desperately needed, limited days out and no holidays this year , compared to a few years ago life has changed drastically due to col

I was just thinking about this thread today! Is it me, or are things getting steadily tighter week on week? I have 50p of my overdraft left until next payday, SO

New lows of the last fortnight - things we no longer buy;

• Shoes for the children. Eldest's shoes literally fell to pieces and were unfixable. He's now in wellies all the time.

• Toothpaste for adults. We ran out, so are now using ages 3-5.

• Food. Went to a particular stay-and-play session this week, because I found £1 coin, so could afford to go, and as it's run by the church, there are free snacks when you are there. Have been baking progressively stranger things, depending on what's in the back of the cupboard. Almond flour crackers anyone? Or perhaps you'd prefer a slice of cold, cannelloni bean "meat" loaf?

• Any sort of clothes. The eldest child is now mostly in clothes which are too small. I've resorted to colouring in my knees with black pen when I go to work, underneath the holes in my leggings 🤣🤣🤣.

• Hot water (other than electric shower or that from the kettle). Our heating system broke and we can't afford to fix it.

Mind boggling. Thank God for sertraline is all I can say. It's not even like I can afford to drown my sorrows, although complaining on here is cathartic.

Have you got a local children’s charity or share project near you? Sounds like you need some help, your DCs need shoes and clothes that fit (that aren’t wellies). The charities in my area help with cloths, shoes and also food so might be worth having a search. There’s also usually free kids clothes bundles in community Facebook groups.

I drink less wine, eat out much less, and I buy clothes only to replace. No manicures or hair dye for years now.

Thanks, will take a look tomorrow. I am new at being so poor I can't afford clothes for my children, so hadn't really thought much about what I'd do in the circumstances.

I would happily buy and send some shoes to your children.

@TunipTheVegimal24
plesse go to the church group whether you have a pound or not. They won’t care about the money. If you feel up to it do have a quiet word with the leader to see if there’s any financial help. The two churches I’m involved in have small hardship funds that easily give enough to buy kids shoes or costs etc.

I do an online shop, which helps reduce impulse buys. Especially when i review it at the last minute and take out the 'wants' rather than needs. I think about the cost of each meal and cheapest ways to make this - e.g. four own brand frozen pizzas is £4.79, i can make this at home for £2.56. We eat pizza every week, so this helps. I have always been vegetarian. I also check olio for end of date supermarket food being given away for free at the end of the day.

I don't buy new clothes. Volunteers run a clothes swap local to me, you pay £1 entry and can take away as many items as you bring. I love this as you can take an item away, and if it doesn't suit when you are home then you can take it back to swap again.

I have young kids, so i keep an eye on freecycle and olio sites/apps for items other people are passing on and buy things in charity shops. Our kids clothes are mostly hand me downs from friends, family or colleagues.