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

[WideWebWitch]

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.

I went to Lidl again this afternoon and spent £69 (boasting again...!)

Lots of fruit juice ("cloudy apple", the only juice DS2 will drink, 65p per litre), tissues/napkins/bog rolls/stationery, shampoo and conditioner, frozen stuff (excellent oven chips, 44p for 1kg), assorted tins and produce, a nice jersey duvet cover set for a tenner, a bottle of fake Clearwater (£3.99) for DD2 and, sml, a bottle of Rioja for £2.89!!! (A bit thin but drinkable.)

Next week's bargain is a laptop for only £999. Think I might pass on that though...

Thanks janh! Coulda done that myself. Derr!

um...haven't got the hang of these links ...so I'll try again..savings

ok so I'll do the cut and paste...
www.saveonyourbills.co.uk

Janh,
If the wine isn't that good, do what we did the other night, add some let over fruit,a splash of something from the drinks cabinet, lemonade and ice, and Hay presto Sangria.

Good idea, jac34 - 2 problems though - I'd already drunk it by the time you posted (wine has to be really really bad for me not to drink it anyway) and the only thing in our drinks cupboard was a drop of fake Baileys...I don't think that would create the sangria feeling!

Yes, a bit on the cloudy side !!

Just received the following tips, so passing them on:

Stamps: Safeway has a 10% in-store discount on first and second-class stamps for the rest of this week. As stamps are worth their face value and don?t date ? go along and snap up as many as you need for the year. Stamps are rarely discounted.

Harry Potter: If you want to pre-order the new Harry Potter book that launches next week then www.tesco.co.uk is the cheapest place to order it at just over £10 including delivery ? six pounds less than face value.

How is the money-saving drive going anyway Wickedwaterwitch?

Emwi, thanks for asking! It's off and on. I was evangelical and extremely unreasonable to start with and bollocked dp for buying mange tout one night just after our money saving kicked in. Poor bloke didn't know what was going on Oooh, indulge me for a moment, while I think about it. Some things have gone well, like:

giving up smoking and drinking has made a massive* difference (I'm pregnant so had to)

• I only buy one magazine a month and stick to just a Sunday paper (this is down from a serious mag/paper habit)
• We buy soap powder instead of tablets, cheap basics
• Don't buy food out if pos
• Cook from scratch (did this mostly anyway)
• Sold quite a bit on Amazon, have stopped buying books, use library (although £10 fine the other day defeated the object somewhat, I did slap myself)
• Swapped 1 card to 0%, must sort out others
• Have managed not to use credit cards except in dire emergency (car blowing up)
• Mobile bill was lowest ever at £30 last month, still room for improvement though But the main thing that's working is that I am thinking like a poor person now and don't just spend money without thinking about it. Maybe next year when I go back to a proper job things will improve but for now, we are managing better than we were. This is a great thread and I still refer to it sometimes for ideas. Thanks for listening! (Bk, feel free to take the p* now!)

nah-nah-nah-NAH-nah!

Since reading this thread I've saved loads of money by only using half a dishwasher tablet at a time (thanks Janus!). Now it's summer I've gone a bundle on making elderflower cordial (for drinks, lollies, and fruit salads) and jam from pick-your-own farms. A great investment was a lolly maker from Lakeland as ds and his friends get through loads of fruit juice/pureed strawberry frozen lollies.
However birthday party season seems to be upon us - does anyone have any ideas for great but inexpensive birthday presents?

I have saved loads of money this year by taking a a packed lunch to work, instead of buying sandwiches. I have also got my contact lenses by mail order which is 2/3 of the price, except the optician gets a bit frosty when you explain why you need a copy of your prescription! Ds has at least 100 books, so I have stopped buying them all the time and started going to the local library instead, where there is a huge choice. But I have probably spent all I saved on babysitting and new clothes which made me feel good

Bettys, I always try to buy things in sales etc and have a 'present drawer' of things to use for gifts. Another idea for children which is suitable for a wide age range is a pack of craft materials. You could bulk buy different paper, card, glue/gluesticks, glitter, feathers, pompoms etc. and divide them up into special gift bags/boxes.

Also, I have just made a present for Father's Day with 2yr old ds. I bought a big, plain white cup and did ds hand prints on it with ceramic paint. I wrote 'my dad's cup' on it and put the date on the bottom. A nice personal gift and very cheap.

battys I use the book people, you often get their catalogues or can go online to thebookpeople.co.uk They have packs of kids books for £5 ish and other really nice ones for £3 - £4. We also have an unwritten rule around here that £5 is the max spend. I find nice things from ASDA, it depends on the age of the child, but they have some great toys at around £4.

Bettys - not presents but I always make the cards now, or at least the kids do. We cut up old cards that we've been given and try to put together a suitable collage, but it could be painting etc. We did hand prints for all our christmas cards one year. You could also print a personal photo from your PC. I had to buy a card the other day and it cost £3 - this way people get something really personal and the kids love writing in them.

I bought a 'wash ball' from Lakeland and haven't bought washing up powder for months. It's a small plastic ball filled with smaller balls. Most of our washing is about freshening clothes up rather than stain removal so it is ideal.

It is supposed to last up to 60 washes but I reckon I must have done that already and there's still life in it! It costs about £8. My DH and kids have sensitive skin and it is much better than adding detergent all of the time. I make an exception for work and school shirts if they are grimy but then only use half the recommended dose.

Great ideas for presents, particularly like the presents drawer idea . Would have to be a secret though - from dp as well as ds!

Serafina, I was just looking at that in the catalogue ... it was recommended, but things are never THAT good unless Mumsnet recommended! Thanks!

Message withdrawn

Hope everyone is doing well with their money saving schemes - thought I would mention that if anyone is looking to switch their credit card balance to a 0% interest one, RBS Advanta are offering a whopping 10 months 0% interest (if you go to their site you need the RBS U Create Your Own Card option), but this is dropping to 9 months shortly.
Found this out from www.moneysavingexpert.com, great site.

I 2nd Jodees recommendation, I first heard about the site on this morning, so many money saving hints, this tip really is interesting about major savings on internet costs for starters , it is worth having a good old browse throughout the whole of his site and also registering for his newsletter.

this is the link, I am still crap at doing them or : o

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=news;action=display;num=1045142038