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

Hi CF! Oh dear, the bl**dy GEZ - hate 'em. Need any help with official-letter-writing?
(Thank you again for the book, btw! A big favourite with S all through the 12 days! )

oh ... also how about getting a water butt?

and buy as much fruit/meat/veg etc at the local market instead of the supermarket.

Phillips engery saving bulbs at netto are 49p

This is off the Sainsbury's strong white flour packet - from memory I'm afraid as I've run out. Check the packet for amount of water as I think i may have this wrong.

Depending on age of kids you can do this early in the morning (i.e. if you have small ones that wake at 5) or around teatime for supper. I would imagine you can stick it in the fridge at * and bake it in the morning, but haven't tried this.

Buy: Strong white bread flour 1.5kg, strong wholemeal bread flour 1.5kg, easy instant yeast 8 sachets - total (Sains) just over 2 pounds for 3 loaves plus. Also need pinch salt and 25g butter or veg oil (seems fine with either) plus warm water.

Also loaf tin. Prestige one must be more expensive than some but I find i don't need to grease it. Obviously a good idea to bake more than one loaf at a time, but then you need more tins!

Mix 500g of white flour with 500g wholemeal flour. Add 1 sachet instant yeast and mix. Add salt if you want, plus 25g oil or butter and mix or rub in. Make a well in the bowl and add 250ml handhot water CHECK THIS AMOUNT ON PACKET OR TRY BIT BY BIT. Mix into dough, turn out onto floured surface and knead through 2 entire songs on the radio. Bung back into bowl, cover and put in warm draught-free place (sometimes I turn on the oven at 50 degrees for a few minutes if the house is freezing - must eliminate most cost savings!) Leave to rise for 1 hour.* Punch down dough and knead again for a few minutes. Put into tin and bake at 200 degrees (I think) for 30 minutes (depending on oven).

Ask for a large amount of tupperware for your birthday. It will pay for itself ten times over.

Also always have foil, greaseproof paper in the house. Channel your inner grandma and put every leftover pea on a saucer in the fridge.

I buy smartprice dishwasher tabs and cut them in half. I make my own cleaning products largely.

Try not using wipes - they run out very expensive.

I've not got around to doing it myself, but have always fancied doing a car boot/table top sale. You might have lots of stuff in the house post-Christmas that you could sell?

Not sure what jobs you've got but is there a possibility of getting a part-time evening job if your dh is home in the evenings? Or weekend work?

Wash up by hand - save powder and electricity (and water if you're on a meter).

Yes, every little scrap that is edible, foil it and put it in the fridge. Then after a few days, have "Guess what curry"

And keep a jar for loose change which you can spend on mini treats - everyone needs treats from time to time, even if it's a twix or something - we've got a couple of jars in the house that we put bits of change in and then it's fab when there's enough to get chocolate/treats!

If you and dh have got birthdays coming up and relatives who usually buy for you, ask for practical things - or things you won't feel able to buy. I got a new mascara from my Mum this Christmas - couldn't justify buying it for myself! So, work clothes, or essential luxuries (like mascara for me!) need to stay on the list but maybe be bought for you as presents?

Um. I'm not really helping now with the cost cutting am I..? Will keep thinking!

Dotty Dot good idea about the eve job - depending on situation of course - or if you are a sahm what about looking into childminding. I guess you still need some quality time with your dp at a time like this esp when giving up nights out etc.

On the subject of quality time if you end up giving sky or equivalent aswell as nights out you could look into internet film rental for about £7 a month usually with a free trial period and have a homecooked Pizza say, getting a diff dvd in the post each week is something to look forward to and a lot cheaper than cinema or blockbusters - if you like watching films that is!

You're sure to find some useful tips here on the Money Saving Expert website.

I found this cookbook, The Goode Kitchen very useful when we were on a tight budget.

snap dotty we are going off the point of cutting back! Difficult cos on the one hand treats are spending extra money so not helpful but if they are small might prevent unplanned spending splurge! I do think if you ever have a £ or 2 left from your weekly grocery budget it cant hurt to put it to one side with intention of only spending it on something fun if you need a lift as a family.

I love this....made me LOL

"Channel your inner grandma and put every leftover pea on a saucer in the fridge"!

Waste not want not!!! Too true

Sign up to get e-mails from Aldi and Netto so you'll be the first to know of any good offers on. (they often have branded makes)

LIZS actually you should NOT wash up by hand!

"There is a misconception that washing up by hand always uses less water than a dishwasher, this is not true anymore.

Hand-washing can be very efficient if you use a bowl and watch how much you use. But daily handwashing typically uses about 63 litres and if dishes are rinsed off under a running tap the total water used can be 150 litres. A modern dishwasher can use as little as 10 litres of water per cycle. But make sure you fill the dishwasher or you?ll be wasting even more than if you were to wash up by hand.

The rise in dishwasher ownership and the efficiency of dishwashers has lead to a reduction in the amount of water used for washing up."

from here

Increased ownership of dishwashers in the future in the future will have a positive impact on water use.

Yes, definitely keep all leftovers and have them for lunch the next day - I can do a live demonstration of this at lunch time today when I'll be tucking into a sausage sandwich! Dp and I tend to have fewer sausages/whatever at tea time to make sure there's something left over for lunch for us the next day.

If you want/need to do trips, this is fab

Rooms for £15 all over the country. I know it's not cutting back, but we took the kids down to London for 2 days last year - family railcard and we managed to get a good price for the seats, and a night in the Docklands travelodge for £15! The experience was great for the boys and we'd had a trip which didn't cost the earth - took packed lunch, all we could to make it cheaper, etc.

Another thing (which I wish I did myself) is to buy toys/gifts - particularly now in the sale - and put them in a drawer for next Christmas or birthdays throughout the year. Do a deal with whoever you can about not buying presents - e.g. grown up friends who won't mind - and buy the kids little things as and when you see them. Saves the horrendous December panic/depression (which I went through this year).

If you've got a good market near you you'll hopefully be able to get cheap fruit, veg, bread, maybe household stuff and maybe even wool - if you can knit you can do winter stuff for your children and presents maybe for next Christmas?! (the boys grandparents are now used to getting knitted scarves and hats for Christmas each year..!).

What a lot of clever and sensible people you Mumsnetters are! I did post a big thank you last night, but it seems to have disappeared into the ether. Probably ended up on another thread and confused everybody.

So, I won't be buying a breadmaker but I will have a go at that recipe choosy, I always used to enjoy making bread, so thanks for that.

I won't be washing up by hand - that's a big relief, tbh.

I will be continuing to shower every day, there are some economies that are too grim to contemplate.

I will be saving my sausages for lunch tomorrow Dotty - wish I could see the live demonstration LOL! - and every stray pea will not be wasted as per my dear G'ma (RIP Nanny x).

Am SAHM but not for much longer ... Am supposed to be doing my CV instead of sitting here on Mumsnet.

I will be trawling through WWW's old thread for more ideas later today. And visiting the Miaou family website - such enterprise!

Meanwhile, thank you all - keep em coming if anyone has anything else to add.