money saving ideas

woodbine

Most of us exist on benefits and it can be a struggle so any ideas for saving money should be good ideas.

*unplug everything but the fridge/freezer at night and save £50 a year
*use freegle or gumtree if you need to replace something its amazing what some people give away
*take a look at "hotdealsuk" where people list bargains they have found instore/online.

Over to you and your ideas.

woodbine

nobody got any tips to share?

leeCal

The only tip I can think of is, probably if your male, to buy yourself a pair of good quality hair clippers and cut your own hair, saves a lot as I’ve posted elsewhere today.

Apart from darning your own socks for fun and profit I cant think of anything else at present.

[Deleted User]

Money saving tip, don't spend £12 a week on National Lottery tickets in the vain hope you'll at least break even! OK I won £145 last week, but that was probably a 1 off bit of luck.

woodbine

@MrAllen1976 I have never done the national lottery but we do the postcode lottery and have had a few small wins, also do pick my postcode which is free to enter and pays out £400 a day in prizes.

Holly35

I make stews/soups in the slow cooker most days, saves me a fortune on the groceries. Cheap packs of frozen cauliflower, frozen spinach, fresh tomatoes, leek chuck them all in and leave for 5 hours. It's low carb so healthy for you and v cheap! Slow cookers are very cheap to run. 

woodbine

Holly35 said:

I make stews/soups in the slow cooker most days, saves me a fortune on the groceries. Cheap packs of frozen cauliflower, frozen spinach, fresh tomatoes, leek chuck them all in and leave for 5 hours. It's low carb so healthy for you and v cheap! Slow cookers are very cheap to run. 

great idea be nice to get more money saving tips.

MarkM88

I’m a fan of batch cooking, it helps to reduce food expenditure. 

Don’t go shopping on an empty stomach and make a list and stick to it. 

Shop in charity shops. 

lisathomas50

@MarkN88 your comment made me smile my mum used to say that if you go shopping when you have a full stomach you buy less 

As an adult  I have found it to be true lol 😆 

MarkM88

I do a food plan for the whole week and only buy what I need. Thats way I spend exactly what I need to. 

I’m Type 1 diabetic and was diagnosed as a child so I’ve grown up avoiding all the sweet treats and watching what I eat. 

That way my food bill is very minimal. 

lisathomas50

I havrnt got a sensible tip because I can save in one place but over spend in another 

So realy I am hopless  lol 😆 

Sorry 

Holly35

I read putting aluminium foil behind your radiators stops heat transferring through the walls so can help lower your bills, problem with mine is I can't get foil behind them

Check on comparison websites to see if you can get a cheaper tariff too! 

lisathomas50

I have a lig burner and it gets realy hot in the housr I don't need my heating on 

woodbine

Check if you are using everything you are paying for, I cancelled a sub. to the disney channel last week as senior management wanted it over Christmas but never used it.
Check if you mobile phone contract is up and look for a better deal, same with your landline/internet.
As Holly says check your utility providers see if you're getting the best deal.

66Mustang

Thanks for this thread, I love saving money, in fact I’m a bit obsessed by it.

With the exception of essentials like milk and bread I don’t pay full price for anything. Always looking for the yellow stickers (or whatever colour the offers are in your chosen supermarket). That said I do like quality items so when I am at the supermarket I look at all the brands for a given product and buy the one that is on offer that week. That way you get to try lots of different brands at a portion of the RRP. If there is nothing on offer, I’m not averse to buying the own brand items, though.

I like the tip about cancelling things you are not using. It is really easy these days to subscribe to things and then just stop using them so make sure you are using everything you are paying for.

If you have Amazon Prime make sure you buy enough products a year to justify the cost of it. It costs £80 a year so if you only buy half a dozen products a year it’s probably cheaper to just pay for delivery individually on each item.

Buy fruits and vegetables etc. and make meals for yourself, if you can, instead of having takeaways.

I always make a note of fuel prices whenever I drive past a filling station and when I’m under half a tank or so I’ll always fill up when I pass a station that I know is the cheapest. Often there can be a 10p difference between the cheapest and most expensive station in a relatively small radius so that’s a £2 saving if half full and buying 20 litres. Do not drive to a filling station just because it is cheap however, unless it’s very close, like under 2-3 miles away, usually the cost of driving there outweighs the saving you will make. Just make sure to fill up when you are passing for some other reason.

Sandy_123

Big thing is making sure you get best value on bills, I'm due a haggle with sky soon. My mobile contract is up, instead of a new phone I'm getting SIM deal only, nothing wrong with my phone. 
I also before every thing closed used to buy fruit and veg off a market, way cheaper. Also reduced items in supermarkets. Or on offer.

woodbine

some good ideas @66Mustang and @sandy123

leeCal

I did find that I saved a lot of money, relatively, by buying an artificial Christmas tree some years ago. It’s very realistic and cost about £60 then, I’ve had it for about ten years now and trees are approx £20 plus so I’ve saved over a hundred pounds. Also no needle drop. 🎄