Saving money....clever tips

[Daygloboo]

As many suggestions as possible please for clever ways to save money / get cheap buys etc etc.....without giving up on quality......and dont say shoplifting. I know some things but every now and then I hear someone come up with something interesting that I've never thought of....anyone got any ideas

Where do you shop?

High street, online

I've got access to sainsburys, M+S, morrisons, lidl, aldi and waitrose ...and depending on how rich or poor I'm.feeling I can go to any of them

It's that i hear people.comr up with thingd about how they saved this or that or did this or that and j never seem to know about any of it

I worked with a woman who'd come in every week and she'd got a bargain somehow. " oh, I ate here for xxxx amount" " oh I got this off such snd such " it's like she had a radar for it

I think knowing what time stores reduce stuff is quite helpful. I always pop to one store if passing at 4 where they always have quite nice bread reduced to 10p. Buy a pile then freeze and use for toast. Co op does decent reductions at 8pm type stuff.

We had quite nice cubed beef reduced, with mash made from a bag of reduced potatoes, reduced brocolli and some full price carrots for tea. It was about £4 to feed five (lots of meat) but about £12 -14 full price.

You can cook things the day you get them and store if fridge if worried they are on the turn.

Lidl has an app and you can see the offers they have coming up each week, often fruit,veg,meat and toiletries. Other shops possibly do similar.
Buy what's in season, freeze extra, cook double and freeze in portions.
The Tesco magazine has loads of recipes for cheap meals. Try them and cut out the recipes.

I have managed to pick up some yellow label stuff. It can be really good.

£4 to feed five is really good

I put that app on my phone and then it wouldn't work on the store 😒 I need ro sort it because I know it saves quute a bit of money

Groupon?

If you’re adventurous you could try the Too Good To Go app. Shops, cafes and restaurants involved advertised a bag of cheap leftover bits for a cheap price. You don’t know what you’ll get before you buy it but I recently bought about £15 of sushi from the Tesco yo sushi counter for about £5.

Or there’s olio. I’ve never done this but I know that some supermarkets give leftover bread to people to give away on olio and in general you can get other free stuff from olio. I’ve given away stuff on olio before.

I follow the martin Lewis mantra even if something is £1 - it all adds up:

https://images6.moneysavingexpert.com/images/attachment/mantracard4.pdf

DO I NEED IT?
WILL I USE IT?
CAN I AFFORD IT?
HAVE YOU CHECKED PRICES ELSEWHERE?

If the answer is no... DON’T BUY IT!

Meal planning and doing an online shop for me. You don’t get tempted by stuff you don’t need as much. Be firm but realistic (i.e. make sure that what you buy is actually enough to feed everyone to avoid expensive top up shops)

It was really nice too. I always pop in when the kids are at an activity of an evening (as I’m close by) and try and snaffle up a bargain. I will bulk buy cheap milk will last in the freezer etc

Have you tried all the cashback options? You can sign up for something like Jam Doughnut app where you buy gift cards for various retailers (including supermarkets) and get instant cashback. You can sometimes then use other cashback sites (I use TopCashback and Quidco) and then click through from the site and use your gift card to pay. It can be a bit tricky but with sign up offers is worth a try - you can then cash out from all the cashback sites with gift cards and use these to shop with (online). Keep an eye on the gift cards you can use in store if that’s your preference.
If you’re doing these things as well as economising with what you buy it does add up a bit!
oh and also there’s Airtime, where you can get cashback off your phone bill, though I haven’t made much on that yet.

• Olio, for free food from the volunteers who collect from the supermarkets. If you're prepared to go out late at night you can get some great stuff. Volunteers have to throw away any 'Use-By' items at midnight.
• Trolley app, which shows you which supermarkets have offers on individual items.
• Blue Light Card (if you're eligible, or ask to use someone else's!) It's £5 for 2 years and can get you incredible discounts. We buy supermarket giftcards through Blue Light which usually have around a 3.5% discount. Then we use those to pay for our shopping. You can also get fuel cards with good discounts.
• Ebay often have returns or seconds on large items. We saw a mattress in Dreams that was £1600, and got an identical one off Ebay for £800. It was brand new, just had one small dirty mark where the packaging had ripped.
• Put some keywords into Instagram and TikTok, e.g "tips for saving money on food shop UK". The apps will then start to show you relevant videos, so your doom scrolling becomes useful!

I know about those but I've often wondered how much of the too good to.go.stuff is available. Sometimes you'd have to go a long way to get it and I imagine it wouldn't snapped up very quickly

Get the Trolley app it shows you where the cheapest prices are ATM .

I’ve just gone on too good to go. In my area you can get quite a lot of stuff - sushi, pizza express, pret, various smaller convenience shops, Aldi, Costa. Obviously a lunch bag from pret for £5 is more expensive than making a sandwich even if it has been reduced from £12 but I did spot £10 worth of groceries available from Aldi for £3.30. I’m tempted to buy a grocery bag from Aldi but tomorrow it has to be done between 3 and 3.30 and I’m out then so I might keep an eye for another one.

Yeah sounds good but it is about being able to get there at the right time

As roses2 said

DO I NEED IT?
WILL I USE IT?
CAN I AFFORD IT?
HAVE YOU CHECKED PRICES ELSEWHERE?
If the answer is no... DON’T BUY IT!

No point in buying stuff just so you can say- "oh look at what a bargain I got."

If you don't need it don't buy it. It doesn't matter if you've missed out on a bargain that you didn't need.

Bragging rights don't count for anything.

I've never understood why you are not allowed to know what you are buying with Too Good to Go. How hard is it for them to tell you?

True. Sometimes things are tempting but you dont need it

Too Good to Go App is great but more for treats. Only use it if you are in the area or live close to shops. We live by incredible deli & get lovely salads etc from it & love it. Nero does really good bags too
Shop at Lidl/Aldi & don’t buy treats!