Money Saving Tips for a Family

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Seeing the current economical climate and the fact that I am lone parent with no money....come on ladies and gents lets share some money saving and money making tips.

Here are a few of the more obvious

Turn heating down
Line dry clothes rather than tumble dry
Energy saving lightbulbs
Shower
Full loads of laundry
Bulk buy

Any more.....any more....

Ooo and here is one, making banana loaf with the bananas that go too brown and mushy.

And I'm growing some veggies....come on there must be more

Hurrah!! Someone has mentioned Morrisons. You know Tescos don't do many 'everyday' things in their own value brand anymore... Morrisons are great.

I cook only 2 or 3 nights a week but cook in bulk when I do. I find that one butter/marg tub is a good portion and they tesselate perfectly in my freezer. Either make whole meals to heat in microwave [using less time and money] or do basics like mince, beany mix, dahl etc.

Love reduced sections in Morrisons. Most of what we buy has yellow reduced labels on. Certainly all meat, fish and treats are reduced and frozen. Got huge pork joint last week reduced from £6.39 to £2.00 - had roast, made many meals for work/freezer, had cooked meat for sarnies, stock and lots of baby food. Found Morrisons good at helping me reduced cost by suggesting good cheap cuts and teaching me how to cook them.

Freecycle ROCKS!!!! This wek I received little toy keyboard, baby clothes and computer stuff, gave away stuff too that was picked up without me having to travel.

Use reusable nappies and wipes. ANy time we need a wipe we use wipes I made from pre-pregnancy weight clothes [still get to enjoy the pretty colours!] and shove them straight in wash. They take up no space. Tonight I counted my cloth wipes and found that I haven;t used nearly 30 paper wipes in last few days. Use cheap terry napies that I dyed purple and have collected second hand wraps. Love them - easy to wash [and washing them is cheaper than buying cheap disposables] Also reuse liners. Have spent about £4 on diposable nappies since last August.

All dds clothes are second/third/fourth hand or birthday gifts and she looks fab. Stuff she gets proba hasn;t bee worn that much before pervious owner grew out of them.

Stock pot - all veg waste gets boiled as stock before composting. I like to strangle the nutrients from them!

Am finding washing soda doesn;t effect our sensitive skin - works well with 'sure' tablets and use half as many.

Don't use much cosmetics and have given up dying my hair. Quite like its colour now....
Have invented lovely exfoliating sugar scrub:

Get a pot - preferable pretty and water tight

Fill 3/4 pot with sugar - dissolves so you don;t get a crunchy bath and is relatively very cheap.
Add approx 1/8 of thepot with an oil [olive oil or veg oil is good] - moistrurises
Add dollop of favourite showergel or bubble bath - smells nice and helps the scrub clean you.

DO NOT USE ON YOUR FEET IF IN SHOWER You'll fall like I did and feel a tit....

My most money saving tip is accept help and have no pride. My grandma and I have a ritual of giving each other little treats that we find as bargains. Today we ate goose eggs that a friend of hers gives her each week [her easter present to use - she knows us well!0 and she's just called to ask if we'd like 4 sticks of rhuarb - yippee! I have made her some thai curry and some pickled onions......

That was far too long - sorry. I get excited at saving money

If you can stand the medicinal smell aqueous cream comes in a really big jar for £2.99 you can use all over your body and on your face too. Makes your skin really soft and evens out cellulite and stretch marks.

Tesco do a basic range of make up in plain packaging 3 items for £5 including lipstick, foundation, nail varnish. I have sensitive skin and have come out in rash from Avon cosmetics but this is fine.

Basics soaps - I have tried from sainsbury but asda and tesco also do are 3 for 13p. Again the smell is a little medicinal but they wash fine and I have had no adverse reaction.

Haircuts - I have mine done by mobile hairdresser who also puts on my colour, a better look than if I did it myself but half the price of a salon. She also does DS for free whilst my colour takes. I do DH's with a clipper/strimmer thing.

If I make just a little too much food e.g. stew, cottage pie I put in a small plastic tub and freeze so I have a single portion ready meal for the times DH and I eat separately or to take to work for lunch.

This has been said before but do make your own soup - more nutritious and loads cheaper than buying if you buy the fresh stuff.

Mumblecrumble - I think Tesco cut down what they do in their own Value brand when they started stocking the discount brands. probably the same stuff with a different label!

Don't forget the other side of the coin, earning little bits of extra money.

My mum had some clutter that she was going to Freecycle or throw out but I told her to let me try sticking it on eBay. I've made her about 500 quid so far, from things like broken surfboards (was honest about the damage in the listing, obviously) and other junk that was lying around. People will buy anything

We don't use our garage, and I have noticed that most people in the block of very small flats across the road have stuff stored on their balconies under tarpaulins. I am thinking of leafleting the block offering to store their stuff in our garage so they can use their balconies again

These tips are fantastic, keep them coming!

I went to Sainsburys yesterday and they had containers full of reduced fruit and veg in the veg section - had a good rummage through and got strawberries, rasberries, organic potatoes all for a ridiculously cheaper price and still 2 days before Best Before Date!

Here's a tip I heard from an elderly lady who was rummaging through the blueberries - she freezes them and then when she needed them, would get them out of the freezer and pour boiling water over them - et voila!

mumblebrumb - yep, Morrisons is brilliant. I get quite excited when I see a yellow reduced sticker! I also like the sound of that sugar scrub, will give it a go.

Another tip - make your own birthday cards and wrapping paper - they are ridiculously expensive to buy and sometimes end up being more than the gift! People often prefer the homemade stuff, especially if dd has had a hand in the design process.

It's probably been said already but the best tip I have been given is don't carry your cards, aim to use cash only. I take £50 a week out of the cash machine and try to make that get us through the week. That does one big shop (around £35) and is often enough for other day to day expenses.

I belong to this site freestuff, and have received loads of random great stuff through my door for the past couple of years.

This site, Lightspeed if you had the odd bit of time, it pays in pay pal, I make about twenty quid a month from it.

We had to make drastic changes to our lifestyle four years ago and everyone started calling us Tom and Barbara, now everyone asks for tips!

I saw this tip on Mn a few weeks ago and it is really good.

If you have an older child who is a bed wetter or have just taken a toddler out of night time nappies instead of buying the pampers bed mats or washing wet bedding everyday go to the pet section in argos and they sell 40 puppy training mats for 10.00 .

Just put them on top of the sheet and throw away in the morning really does work and is a lot cheaper than buying exactly the same product from pampers at 10.00 for 8 mats.

I'm with you luckymummy - I save rollover my tesco clubcard points all year and use them to buy our RAC cover £275 squids worth every year. Plus this year I had enough points left over to make £60 squids worth of 'deal' vouchers - which took us out to Pizza Experess one day. All for doing nothing that I wouldn't be doing anyway: the online shop.

That's a good idea for the puppy training mats. If you really want to go for it, you can bulk-buy incontinence sheets- the ones they use in hospitals. It is also far cheaper if you're a real cheapskate, to line the mattress with a bin bag. It's a bit crinkly, but it does the job!

We try to avoid the supermarket for fresh food. Much cheaper from the market or greengrocer. The butcher or fishmonger will sell you what you want and give you advice.

This is a great thread!

And tesco petrol is double points - try to fill up there if you can.

Investigate cheaper cuts of meat - lamb shoulder is so cheap, but seriously under rated. I hadn't thought of gammon but am adopting that strategy myself. Pork Belly is also very cheap and if you can face the slow cookimg

agree about lamb shoulder bling its delicious and generally very cheap.

This lightspeed thing - how do you join, can;t find anything on the site

Hi mumble, its so long since I joined I cannot remember how it came about. I have looked at their Q@A and it says you need an invite, I guess they recruit more members when they need to. Try this site

online paid surveys

Link to how you join Link a saurus

I've just seen thsi one on Oprah (I'm sick, and very pg., forgive me!)...

Althought the amounts are in dollars, and I dont' know what she otherwise used her electricity for, there was a woman on there who used to have a bill of $260+ a month for electricity. She now makes sure that EVERYTHING is turned off and UNPLUGGED at the wall, and presumably is being careful with other things (oven/tumble dryger etc...?) and now her bill is as little as $60+ a month. In sterling that's 100pounds a month saving for not actually doing anything.

Worth a go?

I've taped the rest so will see if there is anything else on there to pass on when I've had a sleep

J

I have stopped getting my hair cut every 6 weeks and gone to every 8 weeks instead. At £25 a time I'll save over £50 a year!

ok so my problem is I've always been thrifty (or mean as my dp puts it)!

Always kept an eye on outgoings and incomings. Always used reusable nappies, dp always cooked bulk stews etc, plan meals (he's fab!), never had tumble dryer, always made lunch for work, always got second, third hand for dd, always ebayed (tho' it does take time!). Never had the heating on high, hardly ever holidayed abroad. Always used low-energy lightbulbs blah blah.

So now there's a credit crunch what's my next step - how can I reduce even more?

And don't suggest growing veg - I have the opposite of green-fingers despite being a botanist!

Always check out stores at the VERY end of the sales - I always find something. M&S usually have a small stand of things for very little. And check out their menswear to buy for yourself too (for some reason, menswear is often cheaper in all clothes store than ww. In Gap the other day I saw a great cardigan in mw, and the exact same one in their ww collection but it was £7 more!). If you get small or xs in menswear (depending on your size, obviously) trousers, cardis and jumpers can look great - I recently got a pair of mens trousers for just £5 at M&S - winter ones, nice and slouchy. Also got a pair of very on trend womens trousers from The Limited Collection for £5.

Regarding sewing machines - saw a great little on in John Lewis yesterday for just £49!

Oh, and Simple products are great value - their Derma moisturiser is the best I've used - great for sensitive skin. I think it's about £3 for a tube, and lasts for a while. Their face wipes are also excellent - I always get 2 for 1 deals from Boots.

if you have a "home bargains" store near you, use it.
everything is so cheap in there and branded goods too, not all cheap makes.

applepudding chuckling away imagining you cutting your DH's hair with a strimmer...

Check your local charity shops. You can get some fantastic bargains

EG For me I've got a pair of Betty Barclay cords £1, an M&S lined skirt,1 a BHS suit £2 and a BHS wool overcoat £4
DS has Gap and Next clothes and a Rocha John Rocha winter coat costing £3.60
I've got lots of books and games for DS at them too for very little.