Less obvious money-saving tips and frugal ideas that actually help

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Can you give me your best money saving tips? Not the most obvious ones but ones that people might not think of. Ingenious ways to be frugal and save money

Might sound strange, but mine is NOT bulkbuying. I find when I bulkbuy things, such as washing up liquid, soap powder, food, I become liberal with how much I use. When I buy as and when I need, I'm more careful to eke out things. I appreciate it may not work for everyone.

Not hugely frugal but handy. When I buy washing up liquid I buy a green one and a red one, and use the green one first. When I move onto the red one I know it’s time to buy more, and so on. It means I never run out, I’m not overbuying, and I’m not rummaging in the cupboard to see how much I have left because I can tell by the colour of the one I’m currently using.

Probably too near obvious but we made significant reductions in gas/leccy usage with a few tweaks:

A pot of tea for two is a tad over 500ml of water; don't boil more.

Running the gas boiler for hot water for an hour in the morning and the same in the evening keeps the tank warm enough.

The hot tap in the kitchen takes ages to run warm and a lot of hot water goes cold in the pipes. Stuff that won't go in the dishwasher can be saved and done once a day.

We're home all day. However the house is well insulated and, outwith really cold weather, heating can be off for 2 hours in the morning and again in the afternoon.

Get solar panels if you can - look out for grants.

Before doing any clothes shopping, have a look at Pinterest, then work out what you currently have which fits the look of the day, especially if you haven’t worn it for a while.

Making cheaper meals eg Dahl - it’s really cheap to buy dried split peas and they store well. As I am vegetarian I spend far less on food but eat really really well. So we eat a lot of bean chilli, mushroom curries etc. Beans come from cans and can be stored so there is less wastage of protein. Frozen veg are also actually better for you in some ways.

Careful meal planning to avoid waste

Ensuring that any surplus eg bread etc is immediately frozen

I also avoid going to shops that often as then there is no temptation to buy things that I don’t need. I try to avoid clothes that are very much of the minute or get a few pieces to interweave. I also ensure that I do my cleaning or dog walking in old clothes so that I don’t mind about wear and tear

We also have always had National Trust memberships so have rarely needed to go to other attractions which are expensive. This ensured that my kids had a lovely day out and also ongoing education.

We have now taken up walking and take sandwiches and coffee on a flask. This is a great hobby with the only cost being the cost of electricity / petrol to get there. I feel like a king on some of these walks looking at the wonderful countryside.

For health reasons I can’t drink so that saves a fortune - I get my fizzy water out of a tap and the tap was a good investment as I used to buy lots of bottles .

Would a soda stream have been an even better investment? I was just wondering if they work out cheaper than the tap as those taps are eye watering!

Probably obvious ones but weekly online shop.
Sunday - see what leftovers are in the fridge and make soup or cook the veg and use in packed lunches.
Packed lunches!
Buy nice cards in bulk from Whistlefish.

Buy a decent coffee machine. You'll never want to buy takeaway coffee again. I calculated that my Sage paid for itself in a few months.

Price check things, breakdown cover/car insurance are the big ones, you can save hundreds on that. I need a new pair of boots and I have just price checked that on Google- £159 at John Lewis, same boots on Carvela website are £69 in the sale.

Anything you need to buy apart from groceries, check on Facebook marketplace or similar. I have bought shoes, kitchen appliances, sports equipment, etc. on there, most of it brand new. I got my favourite jacket that way, unworn and with the label still on, for 40% of the original price. It's unbelievable how much unused stuff people sell.

Slightly tongue in cheek, but in the spirit of the thread, become a fancy tea drinker instead of a fancy coffee drinker. No expensive machine needed and you can still buy nice bags or leaves, which are cheaper than coffee. Is also cheaper from cafes and you can ask for 'anything from Bird & Blend' for Christmas/birthdays etc.

Walk or run for exercise and use the equipment in parks for strength training. I have two that are about half an hour run/walk away so can run there, use the equipment and walk back. You can also keep an eye out for the things people leave on their front wall to give away. I've had a few things like that.

Buy normal broccoli instead of sprouting, it's about a quarter the price by weight and tastes similar enough.

If you can get to them easily, look in Heron, Home Bargains, Farm Foods etc for anything that's cheap (I pass the first two on the way home from work). Best bargains for me are the proper Spanish allioli in the yellow tub that's about half the price of the supermarket in HB and Spice Tailor kits in Heron that are usually about 80 p instead of £3 ish.

Become a Stoozer. I earn around £500-1000 a year by borrowing money from credit cards interest and charge free and putting it in a savings account.

My dh says the same.

Also, he has a Yeti thermal
mug. The mug is expensive but it keeps the coffee hot for ages so he doesn’t buy another one when out. We can return to the car and it’s still hot.

I use gift cards for buying anything I'm not going to return, such as grocery shopping, or if I'm buying from somewhere that I know I regularly shop. EverUp and Jam Doughnut sell discounted gift cards that take seconds to purchase and save me about £500 a year

Here are my referral codes https://everup.onelink.me/9lgD/kcapmsl3 and

JamDoughnut&afad=Refer a Friend&pid=Userinvite&afxp=referral&afadset=Referral. link.jamdoughnut.com/vv6d/referrals?&deep_link_sub10=YYFB.

I would also suggest checking FB before going anywhere, round here there are offers for bowling, mini golf etc on FB that are not on the website.

Walk everywhere

Make sure there's no food waste. Broccoli stalks can be chopped into a stir-fry or frozen until you have a few for a cheese and broccoli soup. Freeze any leftovers, might make some odd meals in the future but saves a fortune

Give DC a little pocket money. They can buy their own treats with it. This makes it easier for you to say no to buying stuff and encourages money management in them- in theory!

I had got out of the habit of making my lunches for work, but am restarting again. It both saves money and helps a lot with my dreadful diet, as my packed lunch is a big bowl of salad veggies (2 carrots, half a pepper, half an avocado, handful each of cherry tomatoes and black olives, some salad leaves, handful of sugar snap peas etc)…which I eat until I am full. Some days it’s the full tub, others just half and I use the rest as the top of tomorrow’s bowl.

I know it’s not the cheapest bowl of salad with those ingredients, but it is cheaper doing at home than buying and it is a good mix of veg which really helps boost my health. I don’t bother with dressing on that bowl (I very occasionally do a Caesar salad bowl which does get dressed).

I have a Nespresso insulated cup for my coffee, which stays hot a long time and seals fully (I can carry it in a coat pocket without fear to get a decent coffee on flights…I buy it in the airport after security). Or a coffee I make at home can be sipped all the way on a 3 hour drive and still be hot at the end.

I must add the obligatory warning not to do this for anything that you may later require consumer protection on. DP learned this the hard way with a faulty smart watch. He used discounted gift cards but when it failed just over a couple of years later, he didn't have the protection he would have had if it had been paid for with a credit card.

I wouldn't go as far as gift cards for every purchase - isn't it very faffy to be always buying cards and having to work out the amount needed?

But I do take my Quidco cashback in M&S gift cards as we buy a reasonable amount of groceries there and the value is increased by 5% - to add that buying groceries at M&S could also be seen as a less obvious frugal tip because people will assume it's expensive but many of the basics are well priced compared with other shops, the quality is good and there are often plenty of yellow sticker deals. So as long as you don't buy too many of the expensive things, it's a good money saving tip.

Which brings me on to another one - doing a regular weekly shop buying the same things from the same supermarket each week is likely to be an expensive way to shop, unless you buy everything from Lidl or Aldi, so to be avoided if at all possible. It doesn't have to take any more time and can save a significant amount of money by rotating round supermarkets, stocking up on offers, buying some things from Home Bargains etc, varying frequency etc. I'd estimate you could save 20-30% so £1k+ per year or more for an average family.

I love a no spend day. It's easy to get competitive trying to have several a week/month. What it does is to encourage me to meal plan, take packed lunch, no top up shops, no frivolous spending and waiting for something I want.

Learn or refresh basic sewing skills.

Machines are often available free or cheap second hand.
Curtains, tablecloths, napkins, duvet covers, pillowcases, cushion covers, cotton shopping bags are all a variation on a rectangle, and soooo expensive. If you can sew a straight line you can make them. Buy a couple of super king flat sheets on sale and your soft furnishings are made.

Hand sew trouser hems and make repairs. Shorten and lengthen growing kids’ trousers with a simple line of stitching at the knees so they don’t have thick hems getting wet in puddles.
I’m about to re-sew some ties on 2 garden cushions so the set of 4 can be used again this summer. Previously I might have bought all new.

Thrifted clothes (and new) can be reworked to suit you better.

Use cash back sites if you are ordering online.

Take a flask with you to work / on outings.

I'm signed up to The Origin Panel, I got it via some website that gave me £75 to sign up.

https://www.theoriginpanel.uk/

It's not for everyone but they basically monitor adverts on your TV and internet, you earn points every month that can be exchanged for goods or vouchers.

I get about £10 a month, I convert it to Argos vouchers which are donated to my local community centre, they run food bank and support families in difficult circumstances.

If you don't know how learn to darn and sew. If you know how start using those skills.

Someone I worked with years ago was the same size as her sister. They didn't live near each other but they would meet up every 6 months, each with a suitcase full of clothes that they exchanged.

When we moved into this house the bathroom had a triple dispenser in the shower for showergel, shampoo and conditioner. Because each 'pump' is quite small you dont end up with the kids using a whole handful of product so it does last longer!

If you use body lotion in a pump bottle don’t throw it out when you think it’s empty.
Cut the bottle in half (with a serrated knife) and use a spatula to decant what’s left into a clean container.
I got 100 mls from a supposedly empty bottle this morning.

Bulk buying and buying extra to avoid the postage charge has been a downfall for me. It’s a very difficult to resist buying a 6 x pack when that makes the cost of each individual item less, but when I look at what I’ve bought, what I have to store and what I’ve saved, it most definitely was not worth it. I don’t use more because I have it. I just find my house becoming a warehouse.

Learn to repair your clothes/hem them.

Use Groupon and Quidco when planning outings/big purchases.

See if your employer has access to a benefit scheme (ours lets me load gift cards at a 3-7% discount, which adds up).

Meal plan and freeze portions.

Don’t take your wallet out With you.

Not renew my Next account. I recently renewed it for convenience, to order a birthday present, and find it tempting to order more clothes for myself.

Not just pumps, pretty much anything liquid in a container.

In my estimation, there's 10-20% of the product left when a container starts to feel empty and some appear to be designed to retain as much product as possible, almost deliberately.

Might seem petty and a small amount to be bothered over but I think its pretty disgusting that they do this, so really try to make sure bottles etc are a empty as possible before throwing them away.