Not An Attention Seeker - Regular Mnetter needs Advice - please!

[twoisenoughmum]

OK, we are in deep financial trouble. Facing the prospect of having to sell our house. Just had a look at the biggest mortgage thread and it makes me feel even worse.

Please, dear Mumsnetter, post your best day to day money saving tips here.

What can we learn to live without?

I have come up with:
Our car
Alcohol
Nights Out
Holidays
Heating (50% less)
Mouth wash
Fabric conditioner
Dishwasher tablets (powder instead)
DH and I shower every day (make it every other - or is this not worth it???)
DCs bath every day (quite happy to make it every other for them)
DH bought sandwiches at work (take home-made instead)
Children's little individual pots of yogurt
Flowers for the house
Plants for the garden
No new clothes except shoes for anyone for a year (charity and what we've got will have to do)
Is it cheaper to buy a bread maker and make our own bread?

How else can we economise?

TIA

Jackie
x

Go to lidl for things like washing powder and dishwasher powder.

Hi TIEM - so sorry you're having to think so drastically and things seem so dire at the moment.

It's a good list! Another good one is planning your meals for the week. So on our weekly shopping list is a list of each day of the week and before we go out we write what meals we're going to have each day, and then write out the ingredients we need to buy for them. If you make a lentil/tomato/veg sauce up that does at least 2 days with rice or pasta - very cheap.

You only buy what you absolutely need and it means I can get our weekly shop down to about £45 if we need to. Obviously go for the supermaket's own brand as much as you can.

Charity shops for clothes is definitely a good idea - and for toys - they've usually got tons of toys for 20p - 50p and our kids love having a good rummage!

Will try to think of more and post later!

twoisenoughmum - you could economise on your food bill in general if you shop carefully. There are a few of us doing this and I have set up a website to pool ideas etc - here

Last year when we were strapped by shopping at lidl I managed to cut my grocery bill by 30 per cent

Good effort. No need to buy a breadmaker IMO. Soda bread only takes an hour start to finish, or depending on your schedules it really isn't hard to make plain old bread bread. The trouble I have is that it's so tasty it DISAPPEARS very fast, so it doesn't save much TBH. Sometimes worth it though. Will post recipes asap

hve you looked into your utility bills.

uswitch have a calculator i think.

same goes for tv,sky,internet,phone packages.

depending on your phone bills it maybe cheaper to buy a £20 pAYG mobile and cut the phone off.

howver may be cheaper to bin the mobiles. for you to work out.

cut off the internet

stuff sky /cable.

Don't buy liquids at the supermarket. you'd be amazed what that cuts out.

Start your shopping week each week at the local market, rather than on Monday or the weekend. How far away is your nearest market?

There was an old good thread, hang on.
Really, don't economise on showering, you'll smell!

buy only own brands - ridiculous the savings that can be made
Jusrt go to the shops less - internet food shop saves me ££££

ancient but useful thread

check out going 'interest only' on the mortgage just for a while

My mother (Who owns and uses a breadmaker) once offered to buy me one for Christmas but admitted that it is really no cheaper to use it than it is to buy bread. So from a financial point of view, don't bother with that.

I am sure that your children generally don't need a daily bath, but would you save by not giving them one? Is your watered metered?

If you are are not too good at keeping a track of what you spend use cash only (draw out what you will need for the week and leave cards at home) App wilkinsons do some good bin bags that are well priced but dont split lol

sell all unwanted bits and bobs on ebay. freeads or car boot sales

Hi,

I agree with custardo re bills.

We've switched our household bills on u switch and have cancelled our sky too but we don't really have a choice.

Is there any way you can get a better deal on your mortgage ?( if you have one)

Also isn't it cheaper to run your dishwasher and washing machine in the night?

Can you sell anything on ebay?

I leave the plug in when I shower and dh has his bath in that water. But we couldn't do without our shower/bath every day.
We bath ds only about every 4-5 days (mind you, he is only 20 months so no issue of coming home sweating from PE/covered in mud).
Energy saving bulbs - initial outlay is soon outstripped by savings.
Do you need a mobile? (We're still refuseniks).
We don't have a tv to save licence fee (but then, German tv is much crapper than UK, so no loss).
If you have a tumble dryer, only use in emergencies.

Snap notanotter and alliebongo. I'm a slow typer!

I find it helps to do positive fun economising things

eg grow some of your own food. its very easy. you can grow your own flowers too. bags of daffodil bulbs are abour £1 for a big bag locally atm. fruit bushes are cheap £2 ea at local garden centre...that will easily pay for itself even in the first year, when the yield is low.

breadmaker...it won't save money on the cheapest bread. BUT it will save money for decent bread. And you can make pizza and stuff in it too. Ours also saves us money cos manky-veg soup plus nice fresh crusty bread is a lot nicer and easier to get the kids to eat than similar with tescos value bread

gloop for washing. or washing soda plus soap flakes. actually dun to make

oh you need a mooncup too.

how old are your kids? washable nappies. terry squares are £2 a square.

have you see martin's money tips?

dust off your library ticket!

try to see it all as a positive thingm if you can. i really enjoyed judith levine's not buying it. made me think on why I sometimes feel the need to buy stuff that i know I don't need.

it might be well worth joining this thread

defo get out as much cash as you can spend for the week and stick to it. buy second hand of mumsnetters

Agree with filly. We planted 2 pots of basil in the spring that are still going strong - makes for very cheap meals for me when I don't eat what dh and ds are eating - pasta, bit of butter, bit of basil - bliss. If we had a garden we'd grow as much of our own veg as possible.

for the yoghurts - get one big tub of natural yoghurt and mix with fruit - much healthier aswell!
i think it is cheaper to buy a breadmaker although i can't say for sure cos never used one.
clothes usually come cheapest in this order : carboot, out of newspaper, charity shop/ebay
what washing powder/tablets do you use - maybe one would be cheaper than the other although i normally find tablets to be cheaper and just use one. also i use the quick wash on the washing machine and never wash above 40 - sometimes only 30.
how old are your dcs?
walk as much as you can to save on petrol.
buy own brand stuff instead of branded.
make meals from scratch instead of using jars and packets.
try and use up any left overs, by incorporating (sp?) into another meal.

yes, i keep meaning to look at that. shop a netto or lidl also

One of the best mobile phones for pay as you go is O2 get a genie sim card (cheap on e-bay) for £10 per month you get 300 text messages or 100 mins anytime cross net work. If you don't top up each month then your £10 balance goes down.

So for £10 you get 300 text messages when your month is up you lose any you haven't used and then start to use your £10 balance.