Please tell me crazy things you've done to cut back cost of living

[Moneyschploney]

I'll go first and share some of the lengths I've gone to.

Cut own hair.
Gone days without eating a main meal.
Stay home every weekend and make zero plans for weeks on end.
No birthday or Christmas presents for anyone, except DC.

I'm in £7k debt and need to pay this off by halfway through this year. Single income/parent household.

I’ve only ever used bar soap and I’m in my late 60’s. The liquid stuff just never appealed to me.

@Moneyschploney Do you have free time where you are just sitting watching tv? I play games on my phone and make money, obviously you are not going to get rich lol but extra pennies to spend might help?

I did two jobs when I was short of money as a single parent. I bought very cheap bread and cheap tins of baked beans to feed us. I just heated one room.

I tried a shower gel, years ago, it was on special offer, and found that it did not leave me feeling as clean, as using a soap bar would, and the gel left some sort of weird film on my skin.

Some good ideas already.
Are you able to do any baby or pet sitting to make some extra money?
I do cat sitting, got clients via the Cat in a Flat app (they take a % cut) but some are just direct now. It won't clear £7k but it will be some extra £s which could help.
Free museums and galleries are good as it's warm and dry. If you want to make a donation, you could just drop a coin in. I did that as it's cheaper than the cafe!

Be careful if you decide to take on an extra job - it would reduce your UC and might not be worth it. I know it shouldn’t be like that but that’s the way it works. If you’re already feeling run down and stressed, taking on an extra job isn’t a great idea right now.

Community Fridge schemes look great, definitely look into them.

Things I’ve done to save money when I’ve been struggling:
Stopped eating chocolate and crisps - the cost is extortionate now!
Eat mainly pasta and soup
Buy yellow sticker food - I never pay full price for bread - I eat loads of bread as it’s filling.
Only buy clothes on Vinted and buy fewer of them - I bought my teen branded clothes for Christmas all with tags on for a small fraction of the price.
Applied for Discretionary Housing Payments to cover the shortfall between rent and the local housing allowance rate - it’s only temporary, I got it for 6 months but it really helped
I think there is a similar thing for council tax, it’s worth looking into if you’re a single parent with debts.
Applied for grants on Turn2Us website.

Agree with this. Are you able to invite friends round for a coffee and a cake from the supermarket? Having friends over for a simple/cheap easy meal or going over to theirs is one of my favourite things to do. I've learnt to keep hosting really simple nowadays and found that it means I I do more of it. Social connections are really important for mental and emotional wellbeing.

Hope things improve for you @Moneyschploney

Building on these ideas vouchers and signing up to every loyalty scheme under the sun is great - Tesco vouchers, nectar card, airtime rewards credit cards with air-miles or cash back. Sell on Vinted and buy your teens clothes on Vinted with the credit you make. Get discounted vouchers (£90 for £100 voucher) for supermarkets to do your shop. I worked as an extra on films for fun - or other low commitment paid work. I play about with where I put money too to get the best monthly rates - Tesco credit card is 0% interest for a year so better than a short term loan for example. Do surveys with vouchers or a bit of copywriting.

Eating and keeping yourself healthy is actually more important than paying off debt. Have you spoken to the companies that you have debt with, to negotiate a payment plan? Paying off £3500 in a few months seems unreasonable!
Buy own brand everything - not just food but toiletries, washing powder, toilet roll, etc. Except some toiletries are cheaper in Poundland/B&M!
Yellow sticker items - freeze them if you won't use them within 24hrs.
Cancel as many subscriptions as possible e.g. Amazon, Netflix, Spotify. It's not forever. Make sure any phone contracts are cheap £5-10 per month ones. I've only ever paid £5-10 per person per month for myself and partner/kids.

I was in alot of utility debt. I applied to the providor to get the debt wiped out.
I also had my blood work checked at the gp. I had low vitamin d.

Wow! Thank you so much for all the supportive replies and some really useful advice. I've been eating a bit better over the last few days. I am also looking to spread out my debt repayments longer than originally planned.

To answer a PP's question, I owe £5690 on a personal loan. £1700 on cc with 0% period running out in December. £115 on a store card than I have to pay off by February before interest is charged. Last, £76 on a BNPL for which I got a £30 off promotional code (so originally £106) and it will need to paid off by June.

Don’t forget that if you pay your council tax over 10 months we have two free months coming up. I use one to go into an emergency fund and the other to bulk buy non perishables for the year.

Op I just want to reiterate what others have said. Put your own oxygen mask on first and eat properly.

Im a fan of Dave Ramsey Baby Steps. He says to first make sure your four walls are paid, food, housing, heat and transport. Debt can wait till after those things are sorted.

Can you get into something in your community to fill those weekends? Church? Volunteer litter pick? Your soul needs sustenance as much as your body needs food

I owe £5690 on a personal loan.

What's the interest rate? Guessing it's above 0% but below what a credit card would be?

£1700 on cc with 0% period running out in December.

Make minimum payments on this this month. What are the minimum payments? What will the APR be from December?

£115 on a store card than I have to pay off by February before interest is charged.

Prioritise this this month. What's the APR from next month?

Last, £76 on a BNPL for which I got a £30 off promotional code (so originally £106) and it will need to paid off by June.

0% interest? Make minimum payments. The balance can wait until April or May.

There are two approaches you can take: debt snowball and debt avalanche. Which will be cheaper for you needs a spreadsheet or a special online tool to calculate, hence the questions.

Don't starve yourself to repay this. You risk making yourself ill and you don't need to. A baked potato
(if you buy big bags of potatoes) and half a tin of beans is cheap, contains protein, and is one of your five fruit and veg servings per day. If you are pushed for time, microwave the potato. Just don't buy Aldi own-brand beans unless you really like sugar 🤮

Have a watch of Weary Wolf Adventure and Atomic Shrimp on you tube. The both do 'food challenges' things like living on £2 a day.

Although they are doing the challenges just for their own amusement they have some really good tips.

It's also something you could challenge your children to do.

If you do a weekly shop pick up a tin of something you like, it could be beans, soup, meatballs, sardines, tuna, sausage and beans. Then at the end of the month you will have a few 'meals' that you just need a slice of toast or bread with.

Treat yourself. It doesn't have to be a huge expense, just something so you can say, "I paid off X debt this week so I deserve a kit kat".

Contact who ever you owe money to and see what they can do to help.

Go on to a 'social tariff' for all utilities.

If you cook from scratch every day with fresh produce think about swapping one or more ingredient for tinned, dried or frozen.

Build in left overs in your meal planning, I always bake more baked potatoes than I need and the following day I make gnocchi with the 'left over' potato.

@Everythingeverythingeverything has given some great tips. Hair can be grown out but I have also been known to get my hair cut at the local FE college. It's much cheaper, but slower.

Put your debts in to a spreadsheet that you can watch what you owe go down and down.

OP, could I reassure you that I have been in the same situation as you and got the debts paid off. I'm now in a healthy financial situation but the clever/frugal habits stayed with me. I just can't bear wasting money!

Best thing I did was join the forums on MoneySavingExpert.com, particularly on the debt free wannabe and old style money saving boards. They made me feel normal and I felt like all of us posters were in it together. One thing that made me feel in control was making a payment a day to the debt, even if it was only 50p I achieved something!

I have two bank accounts. One is my 'spends' account, the other my 'bills' account. My money gets paid into 'spends' but a standing order automatically transfers enough into the 'bills' account the same day. That way, I know I have enough money for the bills. It gets more complex as I keep the bare minimum in the spends and drip feed into it when needed from a 4% earning easy access savings account to maximise every penny.

Absolutely agree with everyone who said add lentils to everything! My kids never noticed. At the end of the month I even had to add a few spoonfuls of porridge oats to chillis and pasta sauces to pad things out. Even as teenagers they would get stuck into a bit of baking with me.

I use Asian supermarkets for herbs, spices and frozen veg. The one by me does excellent frozen spinach which I use in curries. If I make a creamy pasta sauce I use own brand Philadelphia style cheese as it has such a long date on it, unlike cream.

Just keep going. It's not forever.

One thing no one has said is ask your family for help. I wish I'd told mine how bad things were.

Just to add, my kids are now so good with money. They were taught how to budget, how to check the price per 100g on food rather than ticket price. DD buys most of her clothes on Vinted and has worked part time to get herself through uni.

Working 5 days + 3 evenings a week and considering adding another 2 evenings for a while. I'm thinking if I can get into the right mindset and just plough through for a few months it will be worth it when the paychecks come in.

How do you grow 60% of your own food if you live in a flat? Do you have a large allotment and lots of time to tend it?

I find it really interesting where we all personally draw the dividing line between necessity and luxury. I think if there are really desperate times, maybe cancelling all subscriptions (eg gym, meal delivery boxes, switching to sim only phone contract, reducing media subscriptions down to maybe 1), and re: showering, having a decent wash of all relevant areas at a basin means you don’t necessarily need to shower everyday, and when you do shower, have a short shower, and have the water on for bursts of time, instead of continuously. If you have a shower running continuously, it is litres of excess heated water going down the drain unnecessarily. I have a burst of hot water to wet my hair / body, then turn off the water while I shampoo and wash myself (I often just use the shampoo lather to wash my body rather than separate shower gel) then water on to rinse it all off. Then shower off to condition, and on again just to rinse. I also don’t keep the tap running in the sink while I brush my teeth. It is actually litres of water wasted if it is running for 2 mins without being used. (It is something I used to do before I realised, and have noticed that my dh and kids all did it as a habit. So a good habit to break!)

I keep a bucket in the kitchen and in the bathroom and collect the water that runs off while I'm waiting for it to warm up. I use this to flush the loo.
And I have a water butt which also provides loo- flush water.

I reuse cutlery and cups and glasses to save on washing up liquid and water. Plus it’s good for the environment.
I reuse teabags. I can get 2 or 3 uses out of one.

If you're an unpaid carer you may be able to get a grant for an actual spa day from your local carers Centre.

Our gas & electric were the highest bill so we've not had the heating on for 18 months so far and still going... blankets, hot water bottles, we've gone old school.

I get all my e-books from my library's app rather than kindle.

If people ask what you want for Christmas or birthdays, choose things with a monetary value that you'd otherwise have spent on yourself - this year for me this was tickets to a certain gig and a concert. My parents usually get a pair of boots or trainers or coat that I choose - so I'm not spending my money on essentials that last me years.

Kids hobbies & interests all good value - they've got busy lives but it's affordable for us. Scouting is volunteer run and they've had amazing opportunities through their time in scouts which we'd not have afforded otherwise. Rugby and cricket again are volunteer led and the subs are excellent value on a weekly basis, coaches are really understanding if they're asked about payment plans or sometimes they can cover the costs for some of the boys to go to tour or watch a match if finances are a barrier. After school clubs at the school are free so they've done as much of that as possible. Their musical instruments were donated by a local charity on loan. Instrument lessons are free at their school if they're studying music GCSE or on free school meals and massively subsidised by school even if they're not.

Are your kids registered for free school meals? Even if they don't use them, this can give you access to e.g. uniform grants.

I saw mention of Fare Share above, they deliver to a local charity I'm involved in and there are lots of similar community pantries around the country which aren't food banks but where you can get food at a pay-as-you-feel rate or get a hot meal in a warm space. We also have a laundrette at ours.

Citizens Advice Bureau can help.

The Martin Lewis site can help with ideas.

Debt wise, moving credit card debts to 0% interest cards and paying them off as a priority really helped me.

Going through your bank statement and noting EVERYTHING. Cancel any recurring payments that aren't essential. If you don't go to the gym but still have your leisure centre membership going out monthly, cancel it. If you pay for Disney +, netflix, Amazon and Apple - cancel them (or just keep the one you use the most - if it means you enjoy your nights in more that's worth it). Any apps you've signed up for and don't use, cancel it.

Make a spreadsheet and note which debts (including Next or Very catalogue type payments) or credit cards have the highest interest so you can prioritise which need paying off in the largest chunks the soonest. This made such a difference to me, the one credit card was eating such a huge amount of my money on just interest so getting that one sorted first gave me some real breathing room.

Being honest helps. Talk with your bank, they can help with a plan. Talk with any credit cards or other debtors to make sure all your repayments are genuinely affordable.

£7k debt is huge to you or me but it's pennies for some people. You can do this. First step is asking for help. Once you've got it paid off you can start saving and just think of all the amazing things you'll be able to do then and that sweet sweet relief of seeing the numbers go down on your spreadsheet!

I make my own Flash mop wipes by securing a size 3 nappy which fits the head of my Flash mop fine and push the tab parts into the slots to hold it. Then I spray the floor with my kitchen spray, just the Tesco own brand one, and wipe away. I tend to use two nappies for one clean of my kitchen floor which is quite small. A pack of 56 Tesco nappies is £2.85 so a bargain.