Small things you do to save money

[House-Saver]

Couple of tips for keeping cool in this hot weather without having to spend money on fans or air conditioning.

- During the day - Go to the shops! Most shopping centres are air-conditioned. Obviously try not to spend money!
- At night - Place your pillows in plastic bags and store in your freezer for an hour before bedtime.

I'm actually just about to pop our pillows in the freezer so that they are ready for bedtime.

David
http://www.house-saver.co.uk/

 

[Jon]

Couple of tips for keeping cool in this hot weather without having to spend money on fans or air conditioning.

- During the day - Go to the shops! Most shopping centres are air-conditioned. Obviously try not to spend money!
- At night - Place your pillows in plastic bags and store in your freezer for an hour before bedtime.

I'm actually just about to pop our pillows in the freezer so that they are ready for bedtime.

David
http://www.house-saver.co.uk/

The Cool side of the pillow!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOHEvkHZ71k




Hi David btw

 

[House-Saver]

brilliant ;D
I slept very well last night btw

 

[RedAlix]

I check my bank accounts every day without fail. Two or three times a week, I 'round down' and transfer money to my savings account.

So if my balance is £54.32, I'll send £4.32 over. I've done pennies and pounds but it all adds up without you really noticing

I do this too.. it really adds up. I'm hoping I will have enough to cover Christmas by the time December comes

 

[queen81]

Brilliant tips!

I don't know if this counts because you're not directly saving money, but if you're planning on a holiday abroad next year, it's worth collecting Virgin Air Miles. You can get some if you shop online via the links on their Shops Away page, lots of well-known retailers (Apple, John Lewis, Debenhams, Feel Unique, etc) and get air miles for stuff you would've bought anyway. And trading in your Tesco Clubcard points for air miles is great value too - I've got my family to do most of their shopping and petrol filling at Tesco and I have more than enough clubcard points over just 3 months to get a free upgrade to Premium Economy when I (hopefully) go away to the US later this year. Or I've collected enough since last October via both these methods to get a 'free' (still have to pay tax I believe, good deal nonetheless) flight to Orlando.

Definitely a brilliant way to save a chunk of money if you need to upgrade for the legroom on a long flight, if you're taller/older/etc and would've spent the money on it anyway!

I went to Florida with Virgin a couple of years ago - tbh I thought the bog standard economy was spot on - free drinks, plenty of films to watch, free activity bag for the kids, cabin crew constantly offering you things to eat. In a nutshell, don't waste your money/vouchers/whatever upgrading; economy class in a long haul flight is totally different to a shot haul.

 

[queen81]

I don't scrimp on the central heating - this needs to change.

I also won't put my washing machine on whilst I'm in bed - they are the worst causes of house fires & I'm not prepared to leave it running whilst I'm asleep - this will not change.

I try to budget for our weekly shop by doing meal plans - sometimes I struggle as my kids have suddenly started to be fussy, but I'm working on this. I use Adsa smartprice for quite a bit of my shopping; there are some things I won't scrimp on though - bread & washing powder are two. I will buy Asda's own make though. I make a lot of biscuits/cakes myself - it probably doesn't work out cheaper, but it's definitely nicer, lol.

I use money-off coupons whenever I can. I mend (well, my mam does) clothes. I make my kids/oh packed lunches.
I'm not the best money-saving lass out there - I need guidance

 

[malihat]

I save up my pennies and use them in self checkout machines at supermarkets. Better than leaving small change lying around and letting it get lost.

 

[Dorual]

When I'm cooking, I always do too many potatoes so I can use half of them to make potato salad for the next day's carb element of dinner. Or I mash it and make fishcakes and freeze. Or slice the boiled potatoes and use it the next day for topping a vegetable bake. It means only using the hob once for two dinners.

Also batch cook, and waste not want not. If I have leftover peas and sweetcorn for example, I put them in the fridge and give as a snack to my children the next day, with lunch. Leftover chilli can be used on jacket potatoes the following day.

Buy Christmas gifts throughout the year when you see good offers on. Write lists of of gift ideas for certain people so you have lots of ideas ready when you need them, and a good selection so you have more chance of a bargain.

Pickle your own eggs. Buy reduced fresh herbs and chop them up, put in food bags and freeze, so you have fresh but frozen herbs ready to throw in any meals.

 

[stellajose]

I do buy Christmas gifts throughout the year but as the children get older it's becoming more obvious that what they're obsessed with in August, they will be "much too grown up for that mummy" by November, so this isn't as amazing an idea as I thought last year.

I save Quidco and Topcashback for Christmas and used to do Tesco clubcard, but now use those throughout the year on cinema and days out. I also save £2 coins, it's amazing how quickly they add up.

 

[Dorual]

As well, this is not really relevant now, but in the summer we siphon the bath water out of the window to water the lawn, or use a bucket at our feet in the shower and use it to water plants. Use boiled vegetable water to water plants - it's really good for them! (We have a water meter).

We pretty much waste no food. If we've leftover veg at the end of the week I make up a soup - whether it's just spinach, carrot, a green pepper - you can throw any veg in, fresh or frozen. Add a tin or two of lentils and passata or chopped tomatoes - any herbs and spices, and freeze in lunch sized portions.

When roasting vegetables, roast a whole extra tray at the same time and blitz it up afterwards and freeze - it makes a tasty pasta sauce.

Sorry about all the food ones - you can tell I adore my food.

 

[CaramelLatte]

There are some great ideas in here!
I have clubcards for most of the supermarkets; all the main ones are on my doorstep, so I shop about for the best deals and collect points for the lot!
I bulk cook as much as possible in my slow cooker. I live alone, so get my dinner out of it and freeze the rest in individual portions for 'ready meals' when I'm too lazy or busy to cook.
Loose change goes in an old fishbowl. I do raid it occasionally for things like buying milk when I'm really short, but it gets saved up until full, then dragged to the nearest Coinstar machine. I usually get £50-£60 out of it.

 

[missyrose]

goodness, there are some fantastic ideas here!

I've been meal planning and that saves me a fortune.
Restricted use of the heating
Solar panels for hot water - only turned it on once or twice during the summer
Coupons but only use if it was something I was going to buy anyway
Stock up on meat when I get the £5 off a shop voucher, £40 worth of meat can last us two months as we do not eat it every day.
Do surveys for amazon gift cards for xmas
Slow cooker meals

Thanks for all the additional ideas.

 

[finditforless]

One thing I have noticed a big difference is making sandwiches for work. I used to spend £5 - £6 every other day on junk I didn't need. By the end of the month I have noticed an extra £150 or so in my bank

 

[kajama]

I keep all my spare change in an old plastic bottle from a water cooler. It takes ages to fill - I've been going for over 2 years and it's only about an inch full! But I'm determined to keep going with it. I would never use one of those Coinstar machines at the supermarket because they take a percentage. I actually quite enjoy counting it and bagging it!

 

[toastking]

We do quite a few things but could easily do better as things often slip

- buy fairy liquid to wash up, its not worth scrimping as you end up spending more. We wait till its on offer and buy a couple!
- I bought a novelty Coca-Cola bottle which is about 3 ft tall and that takes all our coins that collect in wallet/oh purse
- Foodplans
- Cooking 2 nights worth of meals at once
- Having 'pots' within accounts. For example General Spends. Deposit Saving. Holiday Saving. My work expenses which doubles as the car saving fund to save up the 4.5k needed to pay off next April.
- Clubcards, credit card with points system (always paid off in full as soon as in front of a computer), I'll even look up petrol prices in my area, but its tesco every time and sometimes due to clubcard you get money off, got 8p a litre off on Tuesday!
- I am sure I could think of more

 

[kajama]

I like to leave my purse at home for the day so I can't pop out and buy something during the day even if I wanted to. It's really liberating!

 

[kajama]

I find it really helps me to save money and make my tank go further to think of the accelerator pedal in my car as the 'money pump'. Knowing that putting my foot on the 'money pump' spends money really helps me keep my foot off it and not push it down as far.

 

[RickyRaj]

I try not to throw food away and freeze any excess food that can be eaten another time.

 

[queen81]

I find it really helps me to save money and make my tank go further to think of the accelerator pedal in my car as the 'money pump'. Knowing that putting my foot on the 'money pump' spends money really helps me keep my foot off it and not push it down as far.

Jesus - I think you could go on the UK version of Extreme Cheapskates

It would take me 3 hours to do the school run if I thought like that ;D

 

[kajama]

I find it really helps me to save money and make my tank go further to think of the accelerator pedal in my car as the 'money pump'. Knowing that putting my foot on the 'money pump' spends money really helps me keep my foot off it and not push it down as far.

Jesus - I think you could go on the UK version of Extreme Cheapskates

It would take me 3 hours to do the school run if I thought like that ;D

Oh don't, I'm not that bad! I do have a tendency to put my foot down and my car is pretty thirsty (it's my only vice) so something that helps me reign it in a bit really helps.