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 never do anything without searching for a voucher code first!

We write a grocery shopping list and stick to it. We check the cupboards and freezer first and plan your meals for the week.
We all have packed lunches for school / work, except for one day a week due to busy evening commitments meaning we cannot all gather for an evening meal. This saves us over £200 per month!
We all love charity shops - even my kids realise how much more they can get for their pocket money. Charity shops sometimes have sales and I recently bought two lovely dresses for £1 each.
In school holidays, make sure you have several days when you don't go out and therefore don't end up frittering away money. We watch a DVD, make our own popcorn and make a proper pot of tea. My two love it, despite being a teen and a tween :)

Buy frozen sliced peppers and store them in the freezer and use as necessary for whatever recipe you are making. Better than buying fresh peppers and leaving them to wither and go off in the fridge

I meal plan to try and avoid waste (and save time thinking and shopping each day), buy things like washing powder when they're on offer and generally try not to do too much impulse buying. For bigger purchases my husband is great at deciding what he wants then watching until it comes up at a price he's happy with, rather than needing to have it there and then. It does mean we always end up with rubbish coloured cars though!

Staying out of coffee shops which sounds ridiculous but these purchases are costing me about £1500 a year. Buying a decent thermal mug saved me a fortune in coffees to travel with as I don't buy either the coffee (and the biscuit) out now. Keeping a Tupperware box in my handbag of nuts and raisins that I top up at home has saved us on the need for impromptu snacks. I try and look at clothes online and will add them to my basket but don't buy them unless they are still niggling at me to do so a few days later. Recognising that we don't need a full dinner every night and that once a weeks smorgasbord of bits from the fridge and leftovers is acceptable to all. I've recently looked around the house and decided actually we have enough of everything really, and that being in the shops is more of a habit than a necessity, so to try and stay away from those. What gets me the most though is the amount I've spent on cards, I've just found somewhere that sells ten for £1 and they're fine. I've a stash now that'll see me for some time now at a fraction of what I would have spent over the year ahead.

Batch cooking and meal planning has helped cut my weekly grocery bill. Making a large pot of curry/bolognaise sauce/soup and freezing portions has meant we are wasting less (not overbuying on veg that doesn't get used, etc). It also means less last minute buying of 'fast food' such as pizza, etc when we don't have time to cook.. Now we have a freezer full of home cooked meals we can reheat.

Other things such as splitting packs of wraps and freezing separately to avoid waste... In fact I now freeze all baked goods.. Crumpets/muffins/croissants/ etc..

Do a weekly mealplan from the food you have in your freezer and cupboards and just buy what is needed to make those meals. Do your shopping online if you cannot go to the cheaper german shops, I find doing an online shops, stops me impulse buying all the offers on the end of the aisles which I don't really need. if you buy branded goods, take a step down and try the shops own luxury brand.

If something (non-perishable) is on offer at the supermarket then I'll buy as many as I can afford. The last time Oatly was reduced I bought 16 of them.
If something fresh is on offer I'll still buy a few extra then make a few meals for the freezer.
Most meals are doubled up to put a portion in the freezer, especially casseroles and curries. It means you are only reheating for 15 minutes instead of cooking for 2 hours every time.
I have an account in my son's name that we use to save for our annual bills and treats/holidays as it pays decent interest.
We overpay the mortgage by £100 per month.
I only pay for parking if I'm going somewhere unfamiliar. I'll happily walk for half an hour from a space into town .

Our weekly shop has a certain weighting towards the special offers that are on.
Things like toilet roll or washing powder, I generally will buy when they are on offer.
We buy gifts in advance if possible as well.
I generally keep a close eye on accounts through the month.

I delay shopping day by a day or two and make myself use up stuff I already have in the fridge, freezer, cupboards. etc.

When things are on a good offer I stock up, but from experience not sweet stuff as it just gets eaten quickly and we get through twice as much!
Don't pay to park - most times you can park for free 5 minutes away and the walk is good for you!

Be wary of 'three for two' type offers - if you only meant to buy one in the first place, is it really a saving?

Check the 'price per [weight/volume]' in the small print on supermarket shelf labels - sometimes two smaller sizes can be cheaper than one large one.

I collect tokens from cereal packs or chocolate packs. Save these and use them towards days out which saves me a lot of money on tickets.
I also shop on EBay for unwanted coupons that can be used in supermarkets or retail stores. This saves me money on the tills and I get to buy what I want at a good discount.

As children outgrow clothes so quickly always buy for sale and pre empt clothes for all the seasons to comes, i always top up when i find a good bargain saves me paying what would have been full price

Being cheeky enough to ask for a discount - we have twins so often doubling up on items. I asked in one shop to match a price on a piece of clothing to another store as it was identical (apart from colour and obviously price) and they did!
I've also successfully got discounts for a party, membership to a children's weekly activity, birthday cakes and a few years back a new buggy.
If you don't ask you don't get!

I pop in on certain supermarkets on my way home to get the reduced price goods which I can freeze ( I sometimes buy the reduced sandwiches / wraps for the next day ) When we have fish and chips I only buy the chips from the chippy and we cook the fish from frozen in the oven as it's not a cheap meal in this country. I'm not loyal to a particular supermarket and stock up on things like quilted loo rolls when they are on special offer.
I shop at jumble sales, fetes and charity shops for clothes and shoes as I like to get good quality clothes at cheaper prices. I also find a brand I like like Mistral and buy on eBay. I also buy skincare from eBay as I like elemis and I couldn't afford it otherwise.
I take packed lunches / cupasoup to work.

I make sure I shop around for the best price and use topcashback too for everything, I also look on hotukdeals for bargains and buy presents in the sale and save them for birthdays and Christmas

For our monthly treat of eating out, I always look and use vouchers.

one teabag between two mugs..we drink masses of tea and i like it weak

Go through party bags a few weeks after the kids come back from a party and remove any bit of plastic tat they haven't played with. Keep them in a drawer or bag and use them for the prizes in between Pass the Parcel layers or to fill emergency party bags when extra guests turn up at parties.

We buy fruit and veg from a local greengrocer, they are much cheaper (though appreciate this probably varies according to where you live) than the major supermarkets and have a much larger variety of weird and wonderful fruit!

I take care of the products I buy for the DCs - especially baby items. By keeping the original packaging, you can sell them on more easily once they are outgrown.

We purchased an annual pass for a local attraction that we like to go to regularly in the January sales. This means we can now have regular free days out if we take a picnic and it paid for itself in a couple of visits.

We meal plan and cook from scratch often.

Always check out apps like Checkoutsmart being going to the supermarket to see if there are any freebies available.

We always plan out the weeks meals and often eat leftovers for lunches. I take out a certain amount of cash each week and when it's gone then it's gone. I find I'm more careful when spending cash rather than using a card. We stock up on special offers especially bigger ticket items like washing powder and dishwasher tablets. If I buy anything online or if we are going out for a meal for instance I will always look for a voucher code. We regularly declutter and sell unwanted things at boot sales. We try to mend things as much as possible like darning socks rather than throwing things away. We enjoy gardening and grow some of our own veg.

I buy all my clothes, shoes and bags at everything5pounds.com. High street brands for £5... I'll never buy clothes elsewhere again.

I grow quite a bit of my own food, which can save lots of money (I have an allotment now, but used to just have a few squares in the garden). The biggest savings I find are from salad leaves, herbs & soft fruits. Fruit trees can offer excellent savings, as you get crops year after year, and if you're handy in the kitchen, you can make all of your jams, pickles, chutneys, etc. from your own produce.