Money saving tips

[Emmamb]

Thought this would be a good thread to start cos maternity pay is rubbish and everyones feeling the pinch at the moment so what are ur money saving tips?

I'm sure between us we can save a small fortune!!

 

[Emmamb]

My top tip is always write a shopping list b4 goin in a supermarket.
Shop online so ur not tempted by things that r on offer but not really needed.
Stay away from supermarkets if possible-I decided to go to the butcher and fruit and veg shop instead of venturin to tesco and although it cost a little more the quality is better,food fresher and I wasn't tempted to buy a tenners worth of stuff I didn't need.

 

[charliebear]

Take shopping bags with you to re-use. Especially as now a lot of shops are charging for bags.
Use old shopping bags as bin liners (saves a few pennies)

 

[flexilexi394]

Change jar by the front door or where you are going to spend time, put your change in it from your outing and don't use it until the jar is full. Then cash it in to your savings account that's what i do

 

[pinkymum]

Change jar by the front door or where you are going to spend time, put your change in it from your outing and don't use it until the jar is full. Then cash it in to your savings account that's what i do

I do this too, although I'll use it for things I need. Join your local freecycle group, I think most places have them. Some of the stuff is really good. Also if you have stuff you need to clear out but you don't want to sell its handy for that

 

[FebMum2Be]

Take advantage of special offers, when Asda or Sainsburys have Odhráns nappies/food/wipes reduced I buy as much as I can so in the long run it's saving a good few £

 

[Lander]

http://www.pregnancyforum.co.uk/home-life-finances/130913-everybodies-money-saving-tips.html

We managed three pages worth back before Xmas

 

[flexilexi394]

oh yeah i forgot about that thread!

 

[tinselcat]

My OH loves money saving sooo much, I am rubbish but shall try to remember some of the things he's tried to imprint in my brain:

Supermarkets:
- Tesco (and probably other supermarkets) have a sale of branded goods every 3 months, this is a good time to stock up on your favourite shampoos etc
- look out for offers and then make sure these go through at the till. I got told off yesterday as I thought I'd got a "2 for the price of 1" deal - on reflection it looked like the advertising was in front of the wrong product which I didn't check so I paid full price for 2!!
- supermarkets like to be sneaky - compare the best before dates for the things you're after - quite often the fresher stuff has been put further back on the shelves.
- sneaky supermarkets: today I noticed that the red label (that you mentally associate with a sale item) had been stuck on an item, but that its cost was the normal price(!)
- sneaky supermarkets - compare the price per item you're buying, e.g. as people have cottoned on that it is cheaper to buy in bulk, some large chains have raised the prices for say 4 tins of things making it actually cheaper to buy individual tins

Travel
- if you're going to go by train, book tickets at least 2 months in advance, thereby getting really cheap deals
- train: if your journey sounds expensive, see if you can split it into 2 tickets mid-way and if this adds up to be cheaper (has saved me £££ before)
- calculate whether you're better off getting a travelcard & for how long, based on the expected amount of trips you plan to make in that timeframe - it's all about the planning!

Around the home
- wait til you're on the cheap electricity period before doing things like heating water or running the washing machine etc
- if you need to tumble dry, get some cheap spiky rubber dryer balls off ebay (about £4 there compared with something like £15 in John Lewis), these dramatically cut down on the amount of time you need to run the dryer
- if you're not using something, keep it switched off at the wall
- when you go on holiday, use up all the stuff in your fridge & freezer beforehand and then turn it off while you're away
- turn off lights if you're not in that room
- close doors in the house if you're heating up that particular room
- if you buy something (e.g. veg or whatever), make sure you use it! check your fridge regularly to make sure nothing is going off without you realising it.

Savings
- try to pay off debts including mortgages asap, overpay if you can, altho check that any charge for overpaying doesn't wipe out the interest saved by paying early
- if you have no debts then check out savings accounts and hunt around for the best rates
- when you're approaching the end of a deal on say a saving account (often you get a bonus for the first year), start hunting around for a new account and then transfer your money into it before the interest rate drops

Other
- don't buy books, rent them out from a library
- when buying 'things', see how much they costs via google or on ebay first
- haggling is fine
- don't buy DVDs, sign up to lovefilm - but only for as many as you want to watch, be sharp about returning things & cancelling your subscription when you've seen enough
- sell anything you don't need any more (like mobile phones) e.g. on ebay

I'm still learning... but gradually getting less inefficient!

 

[cosmicgirl]

Ooh thanks hun, some great tips there, I'll be trying some of those xx

 

[xxbeckyxx]

Not really a tip, but I've gotta recommend gumtree.com, I've found loads of bargains on there and you can search locally so you don't pay postage! I also sold my car on there after weeks of paying fees to autotrader

 

[Alexandra84]

We found that you can save a lot of money on meat if you buy larger quantities, especially if you have a large freezer (we've got ours in the garage). So, for example, when our local tesco was selling whole salmon for £14 each last year we bought three whole fish and asked them to fillet them for us. Salmon fillets are incredibly expensive compared to getting the whole fish and having it filleted, and we got to keep the offcuts and head for a really lovely fish soup (which I also froze some of for later).

The same thing works well with chicken. We buy a couple of whole chickens and I'll cut them up into legs, wings, breasts etc. It's much cheaper than buying it all separately, lasts for many meals and, as far as I can tell, they don't inject water & protein into whole chickens, just into precut breasts and legs. So you get more 'chicken' for your money. You can also use the offcuts and carcass for a really lovely soup!

Once I've got all the pieces I just wrap them up into meal sized portions and freeze. The salmon lasted us for a very long time and was delicious...

 

[MummytoC]

I always but things from the whoopsie section (food that goes off on that day) and freeze them x

 

[Me, My Girls & I]

do your shopping online! i get most my food from ocado, which makes me feel dead posh, but its all waitrose quality and branded products are pricematched to tesco! and you dont have the temptation of walking round the shops and just picking things up!

use carrier bags for nappies, they're stronger too, i always find the nappy sacks snap! bulk buy when things are on offer! i've got about a million packs of flash wipes and 5 bottles of detol spray under my fridge

 

[LilyMac]

use carrier bags for nappies

Really thought you meant use them as an actual nappy! Was thinking EH?! Shes fully lost the plot now!

Hmmmm my favourite place in the world is POUNDLAND! Seriously the amount of decent brands they have in there now is ridiculous, I get all my shampoo, creams, bath products etc from there and I save a small fortune. They do a lot of Tommee Tippee baby stuff as well now and C&G baby foods that I think are 3 for £1 or something stupid like that.

Pampering - If you HAVE to have your hair done at a salon, get a trainee to do it, its a hell of a lot cheaper and if they mess it up (9/10 times they wont) a senior stylist will fix it for free.
Same with nails, waxing etc anything in the hair and beauty trade can be done by a junior and fixed by a senior for free if it goes wrong.

Food - I go to Asda and literally buy everything in their smart price range, my cupboards are completely green and white inside! Saves a fortune and tastes just as good.

I cant think of any more at the minute!

 

[titch]

do your shopping online! i get most my food from ocado, which makes me feel dead posh, but its all waitrose quality and branded products are pricematched to tesco! and you dont have the temptation of walking round the shops and just picking things up!

use carrier bags for nappies, they're stronger too, i always find the nappy sacks snap! bulk buy when things are on offer! i've got about a million packs of flash wipes and 5 bottles of detol spray under my fridge

pricematched to tesco?! bloody expensive these days tesco is. I used to use mysupermarket all the time but since hte asda guarantee i always shop at asda. the next day put the receipt in online and you print off a voucher for 10% difference if its cheaper (or not 10% more expensive) anywhere else (incl ocado!) Ive made £6 so far in vouchers.

My shameful confession is that if I see a receipt dropped or left in a trolley in asda I pick it up and type it in. One left in my trolley a few weeks ago was worth £3.61

Aldi and Lidl are amazing too to stock up on herbs, tins, cupboard stuff. I got a huge trolley the other day and I was having mild palpitations looking at it all on the conveyor belt thinking Id spent too much and it came to £25

Also to keep food shops cheap I plan meals for hte week, make a list of ingredients I need, go through the cupboards ticking them off then whatevers not ticked is the shopping list.

I make stews in the slow cooker, I stretched one stewing steak (cheapest cut) to 4 people with nice veg n dumplings. In the slow cooker the beef is so tender its yum.

Dont buy chicken breasts buy a whole chicken, that does 3 meals for us. I cut off the breasts and use them to make a curry. The legs, thighs & wings get roasted (only works if youre feeding 2!) for a roast dinner. The rest of the carcass get boiled for a few hours, strained, bits of meat pulled off and saved and bones chucked out, throw in veg and you got chicken stew.

SO actually if you buy a whole chicken, and one stewing steak (always buy from the butcher counter in the supermarket so you only buy what you need, not a pack of 2) does 4 dinners.

I get my veg from the food cooperative in my local community centre. Bag of fresh local veg for £2.50. I buy a sack of potatoes from a local farm and keep them in the garage. I always have rice in the cupboard and a big bag of pasta. Thats carbs pretty much sorted too.

Ive gone on, well done if youve read down this far!!

 

[Me, My Girls & I]

i dont like asda round here, its full of skanks and i get wound up every time i go in be careful with the receipts tho, people did it with tesco clubcard points and got caught and banned from every tesco store in the country

i find aldi and lidl a false economy, cos i go in and see so much else i want to buy

 

[titch]

know what you mean about lidl and aldi. I have to be really strict and follow the list. Impossible when OH and I go together.

Christ, I might have to think twice about my receipt nicking habit, I used to do it with clubcard points too

 

[titch]

If I got banned from asda I dunno what Id do, I cant bear to buy something knowing its cheaper somewhere else!!!

 

[Me, My Girls & I]

i know staff that got caught doing it too, they just got a warning i think! i live down the road to aldi, i have to be really really careful! i usually avoid at all costs! unless i need cheap alcohol