Anyone want to tighten their belts and join me for some serios money saving tips ?

[fakeblondie]

I need to save big time so i`ll start off .

Ive stopped using tumble drier and theres washing everywhere.
Sandwiches for dc x 3 instead of dinner money .

Jumper on before heating !

Meal plan rather than tesco every bloody day !

No wine (pregnant so thats a bonus ! )

Will spend whole day going thro utilities and have a financial clean up !

Phew - any more ideas ! x

Oh and ebay a few bits !

Well, there is this thread here that I saved for this very reason and also this one too

A couple that I also do are:
Write lists for shopping.
Only take cash to the shp so you can't overspend

boiling kettle/heating tap water is expensive if you do it a lot, every time you boil a kettle pour the extra in a big flask and use to wash in /boil veg/wash up

make sure your house insulation is up to scratch. switch any heating off at least an hour or so before going to bed, have warm beds rather than an unneccessarily warm house with high tog duvets and hot water bottles

don't have more than one fridge (guilty)

buy big boxes of mushrooms when they are on offer, slice and freeze

buy veg in bulk and freeze soups/sauces

If possible don't only meal plan but batch bake/cook as well to freeze. Saves time and money. I try to plan out the weeks meals and cook extra carrots, potatoes whatever... and freeze the rest for meals later in the week.
Other tips - I've stopped buying newspapers and magazines and reading them on-line.

I've given up my gym membership and using the councils facilities especially now our council is providing free gym, exercise classes,swimming,badminton and squash courts,athletic tracks etc.

I still use Tesco though, I get my points. This year we used them on a McDonald Hotel in Scotland for the 4 of us which was nice.

Use Orange Wednesday for cinema tickets. You only need to have a sim card if you are with another provider.

I tend to book my holidays independently and go and come back on differnt days. EG Last year me DH and 2 DS flew to Poland and went backpacking on a Friday and came back on a Saturday. It saved over £200!!
I'm sure I've got more that I could bore you with!

Eat out of the freezer for a month and only buy veg, fruit, milk, and pack lunch stuff. Stop buying wine and drink the off licence in the cellar.

Stop browsing Amazon.

stop carrying around your debit card, just take enough cash when you go out- this is something I am trying v hard to do. Your less likely to impulse buy. Agree with batch cooking. Try to cut down on wastage. Only buy what you need.

before you go shopping, check what is already in the fridge/cupboard.

try moneysavingexpert for lots of tips.

Eat in season, stock up on bargains in Lidl (be careful; not everything is!), keep throws/a duvet in the sitting room for watching TV, if you have a wood burner investigate sources of free wood (I put a request on freecycle), clothes and toys for all the family from charity shops, books and dvds from the library ....