Any other money saving tips? Have just come to the conclusion that we're BROKE!

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Help! We've just come very close to arguing, big time, about money but then realised that it was better to sit down and talk about it I reckon we've spent over £2.5k in the last month due to computer packing up, lots of people here, Christmas presents etc. So we're trying to work out how to cut our expenditure. I know people have just put a lot of money saving tips on the Wanting the best vs affording it thread but I thought I'd start a new thread for any others anyone has got. So far we've got:

Make gloop instead of washing powder (thanks PamT, we're going to try it)
Give up smoking (me)
Stop buying bin liners, re-use carriers instead
Stop buying magazines/newspapers
Turn off lights/TV when not used
Grow some veg (yeah right, but we did manage 2 carrots last year!)
Shop once a week only and stick to a strict list
Give up meat and fish, be veggie for a while (might help with my weight loss too)
Use less olive oil (ditto)
No going out
No huge invitations or offering to feed lots of people (have done this soooo often in past 6 months)
Shop around for fruit
No extras like yoga classes etc - have a video and will do at home
Wine only at weekends (weight also)
Change our mobile phone contracts (currently have a bill of £150+ a month)
No video rentals
Lidl for basics
Take food in car don?t buy at service stations
Try to sell some stuff on Ukparents or ebay.

Any others? I'm also going to put my credit cards away and pay off more than the minimum every month to try to reduce the enormous balances. We don't have a mortgage as we rent, so that's not an option. No-one's about to sue us or anything, so it's not that desperate but we have been living beyond our means for ages and it's got to stop NOW! Any and all ideas welcome. TIA.

How about buying stuff on Ebay instead of new.

There were some ideas on another thread recently weren't there? Turning down heating by 1 degree and that sort of thing.

Can you switch your credit card balances to one which is offering an interest free/reduced interest period as an incentive?

Use own brand 'value' tinned stuff, the nutritional value is often as good as the expensive. Protien doesn't have to be expensive, mince is fine if cooked well, and liver is ofter very reasonable, and packed full of iron. But stuff that is in season, not shipped in from Kenya etc. Make sandwitches rather than buy them. porrige is great in the cold weather and value brand can be very reasonable. Value bags of dried pasta rather than the expensive fresh stuff. Own brand over the counter medicines are often hald the price and have to be made to the same standard. Boots own ibuprofen is made in the same factory as Neurofen and is half the price!

Do what a friend did and freeze the credit card in a block of ice.....that way you have it for when you must use it, but can't use it on impulse!

i don't know about you but i spend money sometimes because i am bored, i go to the supermarket to buy a few things and come out having spent twenty quid on bits i really don't need. since my car packed up and i can't get to the shops as easy i have more money at the end of each month.

Hi WWW, we save loads of money when we shop at Lidl & Aldi and stick to the list.They have very cheep exvirgin olive oil.The food suits dh and I as we are both of foreign parents.I bought trainers for ds's only £3.99 each and best of all a case of red wine only just over £12.00.
We over spent by loads in the run up to christmas, as we went to Tescos, Asda etc.

If you rent this may not be within your control - but do you have the best deal on gas/electricity suppliers? We've just changed simply becasue the new provider uses renewable energy sources only to find theat the moral high ground comes £70 a year cheaper!

One rather drastic measure, but one which a friend of mine resorted to when she felt overwhelmed with debt, is to cut up at least one credit card until you have paid off the balance. (I liked hmb's tip about freezing it in a block of ice for emergencies, as they are invaluable for large purchases where you need a guarantee should anything go wrong). The golden rule is to pay off your credit card bill in full every month and then you find you have to control how often you use it. I've always done this as I have a horror of being out of my depth when it comes to money.

My other suggestion is always to by vegetables and fruit at a greengrocers if possible as it's so much cheaper than the supermarkets, and I feel very strongly that I should support the small local shops and not let greedy supermarkets take all the profit.

Give yourself an allowance each week in actual cash and don't use your cards at all, once its gone, its gone.

There are quite a few credit cards around at the moment which will give you 0% interest for 6 months on balance transfers - so you could use that as a way of reducing the interest you pay (as long as your strong willed enough not to spend more because of it).

As there are a lot of half price Christmas things in the shops at the moment find a roll of non-Christmas specific wrapping paper which would do equally well for Birthdays etc and use that duiring the year - far cheaper than having to buy sheets of paper every time you need some.

'The food suits dh and I as we are both of foreign parents'

I don't understand this comment at all, could you explain, jac34? Sorry if I'm being dim.

Good idea about allowing myself cash and no more for any given week, agree. Have just filled in an online application for an Egg card since they offer 0% on balance transfers til July but the credit limit they've given me is too low to transfer all of it, aaaggghhh! Have emailed them to ask what they can do about it, as if they won't raise it there's no point. I am strong willed enough not to see it as extra money but the balance transfer was the whole reason for applying. Thanks for some great ideas everyone, keep going!

Have just browsed some sort your life out type sites and got useful stuff there. I know the theory re finance management, I'm just useless at the practice but it's all changing. New Year, New shiny, sensible, better off me

Hilary, I took jacs comment to mean that they are from the Med or somewhere and use lots of olive oil, but maybe I'm wrong!

I've just been racking my brains for a while to think of things to add to your already brilliant ideas.I've come up with....
When you see cheap gifts in the sale buy one or two now and again for the enevitable invites to kids parties.
You can also do this throughout the year for gifts for family and friends birthdays.
Buy a staitionary set with notelets which you can find in cheap bookshops v reduced usually and use for birthday cards.
Don't go without treats like magazines but intead look at other ways of aquiring them from friends or ask relatives to ask their friends to save there's for you.
Ask at the local newsagents what they do with their old sweetie jars,I just have and they gave me one as they throw them out.Then save your silver in it if you can for say your holiday.
Look to see about income as well.Could you take in forein students?My neighbour told me all about it.Language schools are usually crying out for people.You can have 2 sharing a room and as well as them being out all day if they are older they go out in the evenings too.
Are you getting all your tax allowances.
Be prudent and check finances eg.Bank statements,shopping receipts.
Take the kids to free things.
When you need to buy things in dept stores and if you haven't already get one of their store cards as some give you 10% off purchases for a week.Then pay the bill off as soon as and cut it up or freeze it.

Have a look at www.homelink.org.uk for houseswap hoidays around the world. It does cost an initial outlay of £105 (including a photo) but the possibilities are endless.

We swapped with a family in Cornwall last year. We had the run of their fabulous home plus the most fantastic seaviews.

Of course they came to our home too and the holiday obviously involves more organisation and cleaning than the usual but we find it well worth it. You can also swap cars so you can avoid rental fees. HTH

www, about offering to feed large amounts of people. Invite people but ask them to bring something to help make up the meal. If each couple/family bring a course and something to drink you'll have a feast.

How about offering to babysit for friends for a fee?

Take back loads of stuff you bought for Xmas or in the sales. You don't usually need a receipt if you're happy to accept vouchers.

Buy and sell on www.ukparents.com!

Yes, tax allowances, star: I read only yesterday that something like only 17% of those eligible are claiming Working Families Tax Credit. Also, you can be on quite a reasonable (well, to me, anyway) income and still be eligible for Children's tax credit, which is worth at least £500 a year (and over £1000 to those lucky enough to have a child under a year old!)
Also, I'd like to ask if anyone has any experience of the credit-card transfer-balance lark. What happens if you do it a few times and end up with loads of credit cards you don't really want/use? Presumably you just cancel them, but surely it's important to remember to do this, otherwise mighten't it be a security risk? (Sorry to sound dim, but I do seem to have an awful lot of plastic in my wallet, which could make a burglar very happy ? and I'm not sure I'm organised enough to be certain I'd notice before it was too late)

stars tips about getting 10% off and then cutting up the cards is a good one if you know you will cut it up, unlike me who have been caught out in the past by keeping then and using them ocassionally and before you know it, your up to your maximum and can't afford the repayments, luckily that was all before i married and had my son.

Hilary, because Lidl and Aldi are both German chains, some of their continental lines, like bratwurst and olive oil, are apparently authentic and good quality - my parents think all their sausages etc are better than any British supermarket's.

Any ideas about cutting the cost of using Mumsnet? I vainly try to use it only in idle moments at work, but as you see, here I am and it's Saturday evening... We don't have broadband, we don't have a special deal with BT (ie we pay for every minute we're online). Am I being daft?

Just time for a quick tip - I find I fritter away money when I go out - either alone or with my sons. Buying drinks and snacks from cafes eats into your money no end.

I always fill up an empty plastic bottle with water and take that along in my rucksack, and have one in the car as well, so if my sons are thirsty, I don't need to stop at a shop or service station. Also, I try and pack some food if poss - even if we are going to the park for an hour, I take a packet of crisps.

Picnics are fun and much cheaper than cafe food for big days out.

I also stop dh buying me surprise christmas and birthday presents and don't buy him any either. Depressing, but that way I only get things I really need.

I go to supermarkets at times when they have lots of nearly-past-sell-by-date-food reduced - our local Tescos used to reduce all their fresh food, especially bread, at 4.00 pm on a Sunday, just prior to closing. I would then freeze it.

Must dash, but if I think of any more tips I will post again.

The only other (rather sad!) thing that I can think of is to analyse your credit card bills - split the total out on a spreadsheet each month into different categories - food, petrol, house etc. When you start to look at where your money is going you'll probably be surprised and it will help you to target areas to cut back on. Plus you can check how you're actually getting on each month.
Good luck - there are loads of brilliant ideas here!

rosiet, we've agreed that we won't cut back on our internet use, simply can't, saddo that I am! But have aol package at £15.99 a month with no call charges so it doesn't matter how long we're online. Can you tell? Brilliant ideas here and loads I wouldn't have thought of.

I always look out for 'money off' coupons in magazines and on the backs' of old packets of food already bought. Some supermarkets (I know Safeways do)accept them when you haven't even bought the item they are for. Great for getting a couple of 50p's off here and there. - Better in my pocket than theres!

Check out

www.priceoffers.co.uk/new/index.php

and

www.kelkoo.co.uk/

For the latest price reductions in most of the high street shop.

Sorry, it took me all that time to work out my links, that the last two messages were posted in that time

Just a few ideas here WWW that I do to save money:

V21 for internet usage - £10 a month to access the Net whenever you like. No strings.

Someone has mentioned charity shops, Scope, Barnardo's and Oxfam are good, dd has loads of Next and Gap clothes that cost a couple of quid.

Get your telephone connection changed to someone like Glow Telecom - we've never had such cheap telephone calls!

DON'T buy from the internet, most goods can be bought cheaper from the high street, although it does mean a bit of shopping around.

Sign up for a part time college course, that way you can get an NUS card which gets you discounts from shops such as TopShop and you get discounted entry into loads of attractions too!

Cut your own kids hair, no-one ever notices and it saves you around £5 each time.

Have a bath with your kids.

Don't use credit cards. That way you only buy within your means, you don't get any nasty bills or interest charges and you know exactly how much you are spending at any one time. Besides, I don't see how anyone can use a credit card now there's Switch.

Don't get kids meals in restaurants for toddlers. There are always leftovers for them to tuck into, and they can never polish off a kids meal anyway!

Make a resolution this year to try to grow your own veg. You don't need a big garden, just a bit of preparation. Potatoes are easiest, as are onions, just plant them a few weeks apart for a steady crop. And grow herbs on your windowsill, so you'll be middle class as well as better in pocket!

HTH!