What are your thrifty money-saving tips? Share with Scottish Friendly to win a £300 voucher NOW CLOSED

[AmeliaMumsnet]

Scottish Friendly are launching the Great British Savings Challenge to encourage people to think about their saving habits and financial security. For young people in the future, saving for a financially secure family is going to get tougher, so Scottish Friendly want to encourage a positive discussion on the subject, by asking you for your top thrifty money-saving tips.

Here’s what Scottish Friendly have to say: ‘The Great British Savings Challenge will follow 2 families from across the UK spanning a range of family and financial circumstances. Each family will take on a series of challenges; ranging from only using cash for a month to see if they keep track of expenditure more closely, to swapping the brand they buy at the supermarket.

Each family will produce blogs and vlogs each month to be hosted on the Scottish Friendly website. Readers will able to keep track of their progress, the problems each family faces along the way and how they work through these.’

So, whether you put aside percentage of your wages, or just rifle around the sofa cushions every few months for small change.. Maybe you plan all of your lunchtime packed lunches to avoid expensive coffee shop sandwiches or have a cheaper home-made alternative to branded cleaning products.. Share your top thrifty tips for saving money on the thread below and you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

For another chance to win, add your money saving tips to Scottish Friendly's Facebook post to be entered into a prize draw for a £10 gift card.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

I shop around for the big things, only buy my clothes on sale and buy what is on offer in the supermarket.

Must admit I buy a lot of my daughter's clothes on eBay for the savings

Buy things when they are on offer, and then stock up on them. Always use a shops loyalty card - it's the only way we can afford meals out and days out.

I stick to a list when shopping and I make sure that this follows a weekly meal planner. All meals are planned around ones that can be switched or swapped with leftovers etc so that we don't have wastage, just leftovers that can be used the next day or frozen as a meal

Make your home nice. I know that sounds weird but since we spent money decorating a bit, we don't feel quite so fed up in the house and actually spend time here. We've just spent £200 on the conservatory to declutter etc and not spent £200 on going out to get away from it.

We have a household budget, menu plan, shop extremely savvily whilst not compromising on quality (cooking from scratch with meat from local butcher, buying loose fruit and veg, using offers, cashback, many own brands, & coupons) and very much enjoy doing so!!

It's fun to bargain buy if you make time. Sales and special offers are around all the time I save the extra off the bargain then we have a bargain hunt! Coupons are fun to use come on even we off people like to save

i buy charity shop clothing, use voucher codes , do energy comparisons and switch when necessary

I don't need to be careful so much now, but when the children were small and money was tight, I used to think of all the things we loved to do that cost nothing or next to nothing. And there were loads of them. We'd spend a lot of time outdoors - building dens and dams across streams, watching frogs and beetles. Playing ball in the park costs nothing, nor do make believe games or library visits. Pund stores are great for craft activities.
And people mock it, but even though we're much better off now, I still can't resist a Mumsnet chicken. £3.50 for a Sunday roast, a risotto and a chicken noodle soup for four people. Can't beat that for a bargain.

by own brND OR CHEAPER PRODUCTS.it might taste odd at first but give it two weeks for your taste buds to change.never just try and throw back,it will always be different.but cheaper can then turn into must your norm and nice.we,if we try branded now think this tastes odd :)
turn lights off when not in a room.major saving and something you don't think of.
try supermarket clothing,excent. tu from ainsburys often has gorgeous stuff.
if you are on the tariff that does this:wash through the night and put dishwasher on through the night in the cost sving times.
cook batch dishes.
make big pasta salad for lunches throughout the week.

using cashback sites is a great tip!

We used to save all our £2 coins in a jar, if we were given one in change we'd have to keep it and stick it in the jar when we came home. We when we first moved in we managed to save £300 to buy our first marital bed.

We became a bit too poor to do that- if we had a £2 coin we had to spend it! We started finding the best ways to make cheap meals, shopping at supermarkets when they'd reduced items, buying bucket loads of veg. A stew, a full of veg stew can go a long way. Left overs are used the next day for lunch so we save on the money we'd spend on lunch and there is no waste too!

We never pay on card, we only use the money we have on us and if you're needing to go to the cash point- why have you picked up so much, do we really need it? These are the questions we ask ourselves.

You'd be amazed at what you can find in pound shops and places like b & m- branded items at the fraction of the price!

We also have a £5 cash machine nearby so if we are getting money out to have on us, we try to use that machine so that we're less inclined to 'break into' another note!

Learn to cook, get your partner to learn to cook, involve the kids (even if you hate cooking or are short of time). Lots of really healthy, quick meals don't involve anything ready made and are so much cheaper. Plus, you can hit the supermarket and take advantage of anything reduced, knowing what you could do with it.

I just discovered gumtree and have been buying household items and furniture from there. You can pick up a bargain if you aren't in a hurry.

ordering my shopping online - that way i can edit it to be exactly what i need, cut down if its over a certain amount, and not buy random things when I'm out.

Buying oil stamps for the heating. buy a few every month and then when the time comes to get oil in, there isn't such a huge bill at once.
have some savings go directly into a savings account each month.

My best tip is to save a set amount every month after pay day into an account. Setting up a standing order means you don't miss the money and you build up savings quite quickly. It's particularly good if you a tendency to spend everything in your account.

I'm a freelancer so every time a client pays an invoice I bung about 75% into Premium Bonds. That way the money isn't sitting in my account at the risk of fraud or spending and I have the very mild excitement of possibly winning a prize every now and then. Plus I can easily pay my tax bill when the time comes.

The other thing I do is have an instant access savings account and every time I'm tempted to blow money on something I don't really need and resist (mostly cosmetics, clothes, wine, take always, coffees, eating out) I pay the money into the savings account. That way I could afford to buy those things if I wanted to because I've budgeted but equally I'm not just making mindless purchases. I've saved about £700 in the last year doing this which will pay for Christmas.

A few years ago we decided to switch to a different supermarket and to switch all the big brand items to cheaper options and found that for the most part we actually prefer the cheaper products. We also stopped buying any pre prepared food and now make everything from scratch. We definitely eat healthier and spend half as much as we were. The extra cash available each month now goes to paying off our mortgage.

Instead of paying a fortune for sugary kids yoghurts with cartoon characters on them I by a big tub of plan yoghurt and the kids get to choose what they stir in, usually strawberry jam or lemon curd or if we have any, chocolate spread. Saves money and cuts down on nasties in commercial yoghurts.

I always check before making any purchases if I can get cashback at Topcashback or Quidco.

I've made over £800 just from Topcashback alone. I haven't spent any extra money because I just get cashback on purchases I was going to make any way. So shop around online, find cheapest options, check Topcashback/Quidco to see if they have cashback or discounts for any of those options, calculate cost minus incentives/discounts and then purchase from whichever is best value overall.

If I'm trying to cut down my spending I leave my purse at home. It's so easy to buy things on your cards. I'll bring an appropriate amount of money for what I'm doing and that's it

shopping savvy, meal planning, shopping for the ingredients and as the recipe serves four, freeze two servings for another time. Saves both time and money, which is equally important when working full time.

Buying things like coffee, tea bags, washing liquid, dishwasher tablets when on offer. Always worth checking my supermarket to see wh has the best deal on these things when you need to stock up.

Either meal planning, or shopping little and often. Basically trying to waste as little as possible. Having an eye on what will need eating up in the next few days and making sure I have a plan for it.

Limiting meat and alcohol intake, and being sensible about both. Mince goes a lot further than steak. More drinks per pound in a bottle of gin than a bottle of wine.

Asking for our favourite consumables (anything from whisky to mascara) for birthdays and Christmas.

For clothes, shoes, toys & books - I love rummaging around at a jumble sale or car boot. You get some real bargains & it's the thrill of the find for me! All this & you're saving things from going to landfill too :)
In terms of budgeting - I write down everything I spend & double-check it against my statements online each week.
I use MySupermarket to price check items & bulk buy larger/more expensive items when on offer - i.e laundry detergent, etc.
I pick up presents for Christmas & birthdays throughout the year - whenever there is a sale on or I see a bargain. I also stock up on card whenever there is a sale so I always have some on hand.
Discount stores are great for tinned food, pasta, etc & also great for snacks & kids treats.

My tip would be to try Aldi's make up and face creams, I have saved loads by using their face serum and face cream, they are very good and only a fraction of some of the creams sold in other supermarkets and chemists. Their foods not back either

I shop online so never get tempted by things on the shelves, I meal plan and it does keep costs down. Also we mainly eat veggie which saves a lot.
I buy a lot of clothes via eBay and sell on there sometimes too.
Don't buy expensive creams and makeup etc. Nivea creme does an amazing job.
When we go to the cinema we sneak our own bags of popcorn or chocolate in, £1 instead of £4.99!
For transport often use split ticketing websites like trainsplit which save us loads.
We keep holidays cheap by going camping/ caravanning.