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.

Just sold another one!!! (I'm up to £20 now)
They were dh's - Stalingrad and the Fall of Berlin - both beefy hard backs. Mine would be trashy fiction - and I haven't tried selling any yet - tho I do intend to put some videos on when I have a moment.

Rhiannon, I've sold I don't know how she does it by Alison Pearson in hardback which I bought, read, didn't like much and know I won't read again; a Sex & the City box set which I know I'll never watch again since I don't even watch S&TC repeats on TV and This is your life by John O'Farrell which I struggled through the first time so know I won't re-read. It's a shame, I loved Things can only get better and The best a man can get by him (& wouldn't sell as I may re-read) but thought this latest was really disappointing. Rhiannon, I laughed at your post where you asked your daughter where something was and she asked "why? What are you going to do with it?" suspiciously! Bayleaf, well done! Did you tell your DH you were selling them?
Was tempted to sell dp's new PS2 game The Getaway since it was sold out everywhere before Christmas but he won't let me...

Does anyone know if you can buy a mooncup anywhere other than the website? Don't recall ever seeing in shops but am definitely interested.

Wow, these are all great tips, I am going to go through them again and make a proper note.

My tips - we live in London with dh's relatives in Swansea. If ever the car is due for a service we tie it in with a trip to Wales and save about £100 (rip off London garages!).

We were in Swansea earlier this week and I got a recommendation there for a hair salon - I saved over £20 for highlights, cut and blowdry!

Glad to see you making the most of your trips to Wales, jodee .
I've been reading this thread with interest, as we are in much the same sort of situation (ie spending more than we earn ). The only tip I can come up with is only good if you have a dh/ds with short hair - don't let him go and pay £5 for the barber to cut it, do it yourself. Clippers cost about £7 - £10, so you've made a saving after the first 2 cuts. My SIL has a set, and demonstrated for me on BIL, can't go wrong, really.

If you're going abroad in the foreseeable future and you like the 'luxury' skincare products buy them on the way back. I bought my Clinique, Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder and Lancaster at greatly reduced prices at Alicante and Malaga Airports. Even the shops in Spain worked out cheaper. For eg the 8 hour cream was only £11 compared to £18 I'm expected to pay here.

The haircutting one is a great one. We have a pair of clippers and I cut dh's hair all the time, I also trim dd's hair and my own frings (don't have time/money to go to the hairdresser, and think that dd probably couldn't sit still for long enough). Ds doesn't have enough hair yet to bother with! But dh reckons that, at about 6 haircuts a year for him, and he hasn't had his hair cut in a barbers since he graduated, we have saved about £250, and the clippers were a gift. Mind you, he's not too fussy about what his hair looks like, which helped a lot in the early days!

on the subjects of hairdressers - find a mobile one. Before ours got pregnant she charge £20 for a c&b for me, cut for dh and 3 x fringe for dds

Have a SIL who is a hairdresser so none of us pay for cuts anyway - phew.

I did go to a trendy salon in town for a while -well twice - but felt sick handing over the money.

Another tip passed on to me by my brother - about tips. DOn't be afraid to ask for your tip back!

They had a takeaway on Friday night from a new Indian they'd never used before. His wife had ordered and he took the food off the delivery man , paid for it and tipped him a couple of quid.

They'd just opened the packets when there was a knock on the door - 'I gave you the wrong order. You haven't eaten it have you?'

Their order was actually 2 quid cheaper so my brother got his change. The guy was just about to leave when DB said 'I gave you a tip didn't I?' 'Yes.' 'Well I want it back. I've changed m mind - I'm not impressed by the service'.

Quite right too IMO.

WWW, well I'd have bought the Getaway from you as my order which was supposed to have been dispatched on 18th December has yet to arrive!!

I've just made my own babywipes! And they're great! and I can chuck them in to wash with the nappies!

www, I'll buy it off you when hes finished with it - dp really wants it!

Anais is fresh from the kitchen having just made her first batch of gloop!

Quick question, though. Most people said they use it half and half with normal washing powder, for the whiteness. WHat about dark coloured washing? If I'm using fabric softener in the wash for the smell, could I just use gloop, as the whole 'brightness' issue wouldn't really matter?

anais, what was it like making it? I think I've decided that I can't quite face making gloop. I can economise in all other areas but I'm going to just buy cheap powder in boxes instead. Enid and sis, The Getaway and dp are extremely hard to part it has to be said! It was sold out everywhere I tried before Christmas but he managed to buy one for himself from play.com if anyone's interested. I have to say that when I had a go the driving around London bit and graphics were very impressive even if the extreme violence wasn't!

Anais, I think it is trial and error with gloop, you either like it or you don't. I used it exclusively to begin with but dh complained that his clothes didn't smell the same so I eventually went onto half and half. You can actually use Ecover laundry bleach every so often to whiten your whites if you want to stay more environmentally friendly.

WWW it really isn't difficult to make gloop, you don't have to stand over it for hours or anything and if you can't be bothered grating soap you can use soap flakes instead (substitute the weight of a bar of soap).

not so much a money-saving as a money collecting exercise! My dh like many men leaves drawers, pockets, any nearby receptacle full of loose change. I go so fed up that I collected it all together and sorted into bank cash envelopes - just took it to the bank and made £35....

Hi Emsiewill, it was good to have 2 hours away from the in-laws!

SueW, I've never tipped the takeaway delivery boy, is that the done thing then? Never occurred to me!

grommit, we did a similar exercise a few weeks ago - 164.35 pence!!! Admittedly some of it was in a place that we empty our purses or pockets into to be used for those odd times you need cash, like when the window cleaner pops up.

Worth checking down the backs of sofas etc too - it's surprising how much slips down there and never gets noticed.

When DH and I first met(me, single and loaded), I always had my hair cut at Vidal Sasoon. Now,a larger house,X2 boys and X2 part time wages later, I cut my own hair. Only the fringe though, as I wear it long, and I do have the sides shaped, to wear loose in Winter(too hot in summer), and that only costs £10.
Do I look as attractive ?? I'd like to think so, but proberbly not !!!
DH used to comment if my fringe was not straight, but I always brought up Vidal so he stoped. Anyway, he can't comment, his receptionist did his with a clippers, and he looked like a convict until it grew !!!!

www, guess where my order for 'the f***g Getaway' (as I will forever think of it!) is? Yep, Play.com aaaaaaarh!!!!

I like to look at the free stuff websites - it's amazing what you can get for nothing - little mini shampoo bottles, washing powder, tea bags - well, if they're giving it away...and the little bottles come in handy for playing shops with the kids.

My hairdresser is mobile and charges £10 for a cut and blow dry or £17 for a colour/cut & blow dry - and that includes DS thrown in for free. Its a social event because I get together with a couple of friends and we all get it done at once so there's someone there to keep an eye on DS while I've got my head over the sink having the bleach rinsed off.

Just thought of this as I opened a shepherd's pie packet mix... don't use unnecessary convenience jars/packets! I could have quite easily just added some gravy to the mince, onions, carrots, peas and mash, would have been just as quick and it would have made a very nice shepherd's pie and would have saved me the cost of a packet mix. Oh well!

Also, the tins of creamed mushrooms you can get in the supermarkets are very cheap and make just a good a pasta topping as the more expensive mushroom sauce pasta sauce jars you can buy.