frugal mums,help to re-educate me, i need to start economising

[milkgoddessmakesthefinestmilk]

hi now we hav dd and we are about to go down to one wage, we really need to start economising, we have never been careful with money, but we need to start.

do you have any tips to help at all wise MNetters?

any particuar shops or anything you recomend for either food, household stuff

and anywhere good for baby toys and clothes?

I'm trying to economise on food as I was spending about the same as you with a very similar family to feed.

I now only buy toiletries and cleaning products when they are on 3 for 2 or BOGOF.

I now never buy fresh fruit and veg on BOGOF as I found that we would buy too much of one item and it would get wasted so this wasn't a money saver at all.

I try to get my online delivery every 8 days rather than every week, this helps we to use my storecupboard/freezer stuff up. I always use a free delivery code.

I have an ASDA delivery coming today and I have spent £65. I will probably need to buy some more milk and I know that I forget to buy houmos and ham but this has still cut my total weekly spend from £100 to £70. I'm really pleased with this as this is including buying 3 bottles of wine this week (3 for £10, would have been over £19), two fridge packs of coke zero (to take into work as I'm a cola addict at work but cans there are 50p compared with 30p each if I buy on a multisave at ASDA. I also take lunch into work everyday and dp does this sometimes too. If you are not working and your dp is I would definitely get him to take a packed lunch.

yep, packed lunches are vital - and actually it's a lot less painful if you make a packed lunch that you really like. The easiest is to make a bit more for dinner and chuck the rest into a tupperware thing in the fridge for the following day - grab in the morning with a slice of bread and a couple of pieces of fruit and wahey! Most stews, curries, sauces etc are actually much better the day after, so your lunch is fantastic!

Aim for 3 meals per joint of meat - roast, sandwiches, pasta thing, for example.

MAKE STOCK. Any bones? chuck in large pan with some bits of carrot peel, fill pan with water, simmer for 2 hours, chuck in tupperware, freeze.

Consider getting an economical cookery book. My best one is my grandmother's 1950s Good Housekeeping - considerably cheaper than chips. Anything by Marguerite Patten is usually quite a good approach too.

The Good Housekeeping book, a blast from my childhood. I worked my way through much of the cakes section throughout my childhood weekends

mysupermarket.com gives you the cheapest supermarket for your trolley

if you like magazines there are plenty of offers 6 for £6 and the like, you just have to remember to cancel them after the promo period.

aign up to moneysavingexpert.com

check out houseswap site geenee.com if you want a cheap holiday.

Hi,
So many good tips here--a good approach too is to try to plan ahead for the things that inevitably go wrong. We put a bit by each month for 'house, wear and tear', 'car, wear and tear', christmas and birthdays and any bills that come irregularly we try to even out over the year by putting sums by. All this eases the pain when you need two new tyres the week before Christmas or all your appliance decide to commit mass suicide in the space of a fortnight (ok, so I am a bit bitter about them going kaput).
i agree that moneysavingexpert is a great website. When we started our big cutback I was worried about the big buys that come along every now and again like eye glasses, but finding out about things like glassesdirect from fellow savers has been a massive help. Good luck with the economising. It becomes a painless habit after a while,
Hope this helps,
Sibh

If you owe money, pay it off as fast as you can, because it will cost you more in interest than you'll get in interest from a savings account.....have enough saved for emergencies, and anything that you must have, but any other 'spare cash' pay off your debts

meal plan and get own brands

Freeze your cetdit cards in a big block of ice. That way you can use them if you have to, but you can't use them for impulse shopping

freecycle! honestly, we have got SO much completely free and good quality stuff from freecycle - it is amazing.

www.freecycle.org/

if you order on-line google the stores name (tesco etc) and discount code, I always get approx £5 off each order. Buy store breakfast cereals and other storecupboard items.

Instead of branded cleaning fluids, just get some diluted washing up liquid into a spray bottle for cleaning work surfaces.

if you order on-line google the stores name (tesco etc) and discount code, I always get approx £5 off each order. Buy store breakfast cereals and other storecupboard items.

Instead of branded cleaning fluids, just get some diluted washing up liquid into a spray bottle for cleaning work surfaces.

if you order on-line google the stores name (tesco etc) and discount code, I always get approx £5 off each order. Buy store breakfast cereals and other storecupboard items.

Instead of branded cleaning fluids, just get some diluted washing up liquid into a spray bottle for cleaning work surfaces.

if you order on-line google the stores name (tesco etc) and discount code, I always get approx £5 off each order. Buy store breakfast cereals and other storecupboard items.

Instead of branded cleaning fluids, just get some diluted washing up liquid into a spray bottle for cleaning work surfaces.

If you like food - and I'm guessing you do from the fish pie description - sign up for a veg box. Our family is the same shape as yours - dd is 18 months - and £12.75 gets us our entire week's vegetables and organic too. We perhaps get a bit more salad or something, but that does us - and DH works from home, so I do proper lunches - soup, salads and so on.

i was going to say go through your freezer, but too late

how about farm shops/greengrocers.

eggs from farms, cheaper

yes go to freecycle - you can loads of things for free - as well as getting rid of things you don't want

ththis is a great thread full of fantasic ideas, ive never thought of going to a farm shop for eggs,

i wouldnt mind doing the whole growing vg and having a fwchickens thing, ive got quite a large garden, although im not sure ill could kill the chickens and do you ned permission to keep chickens etc?

well i spent yesteerday pm sorting though my wardrobe and i found a few things id forgotten about, its much more organised too

i think ill try to sort the kitchen cupboards today.

thank you so much for every single tip, they are all inovative, inventive and fecking fantasic !!!

also the freecycle thing people ar giving away allsorts such as xbox 360, i suppos it would be slightly cheeky to take these things then sell them on ebay?

but then again bttr than filling up the landfill sites.
so prhaps ill be going my bit of the planet [and my pocket lol]

Set your online shopping to come in a few days then you have time to amend it when you remember all the things you (inevitably) forgot to add.

Half Fairy Non Bio washing powder (am conditioned to like the smell )/half soda crystals.

www.moneysavingexpert.com is BRILLIANT.

petrolprices.com for cheapest, nearest prices

umellala, i wondered what soda crystals where for!
great site foxy thanks

My tips are to go to moneysavingexpert.com make sure you have the best deals from all your suppliers, banks, mortgage etc.

Do an annual Budget
weekly shopping list and do easy food like sardines on toast, how you cook can make a huge difference to your budget. shepherds pie, the odd vegetarian meal.

Shop at Netto or the like you get the same products sometimes for half the price, it's a fools game paying more than you need to.

If you have a garden grow your own veg.

Get kids stuff clothes etc from ebay, sell on anything they grow out of and anything you don't need to claw back as much as you can.

Get veg from side of the rd stalls and farmers markets if you access to rural areas.

oh and finally don't throw anything away use left over meat in soups, I always use bones and carcass to make stocks and then the cat or dog get anything else. If you make a soup freeze what's left over. make 2 shepheds pies at once and freeze the other one.

Get things that you need like cooking eqpt from car boots and make some cash on the side by buying things at the carboot and selling on ebay.

sorry last one use the old methods, white vinegar I use for cleaning worktops , disinfects, and windows any pongs the pets make, bicarb is good for cleaning two and you can save a fortune with soap nuts and things instead of washing powder. Get the cheapest powder if you do and add an essential oil, it's also good for cleaning floors - infact better than any floor cleaner that I've come accross.

Bleach is your friend and it's only a few p

Lidl.

I love Lidl. 50 nappies for a fiver. Yummy food too. Try their Greek stuffed peppers with cheese in the antipasti section. Sausages £1.29 today (95% meat) and their stewing steak is on offer at £1.49 for 400g. Am very impressed, and I'm a fuss-arse about stuff like that