money saving

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

Well what with the country the way it is I decided at midnight last night that my health and my family should finally come before work and handed my notice in. I am now sat at home feeling relaxed and happy, although I do think that the whole situation hasn't quiet sunk in yet, and although I've applied for a couple of jobs, there really isn't that much around, so tonight is going to be spent making lists of things that I can do to save money, I have the added incentive of the more money we save the less I need to work, therefore the more time I can spend at home with the kids, so come on what are your top tips???

Oh please don't say get rid of one of the cars, we both work shift work, or will do when I'm back working added to the fact that we have a set arrangement of transporting the eldest boys to their dads, with only one car I would have to get them up ready to leave the house about 6amwhich I am really not willing to do, but we do work eveywhere we can so they aren;t used that much.

[Thomzo]

Hi
Good for you. I'm sure you'll see the benefits.

I rarely use my car but just can't give it up completely. I use it as little as possible so I spend the minimum on petrol. Look for an insurance policy that is calculated on the miles that you travel. If you don't use the car much, this can save you a few pennies.

I have had a few periods of between-contracts when I've not been working. I find you can really save a lot of money. Work out when your local supermarket marks stuff down. The other great thing is that you can get to the shops when they are quiet.

Take time to search out bargains in charity shops, mend or remake, cook from scratch, make your own presents, jams, chutneys etc.

I finish my current contract in March and I can't wait.

Cheers
Zoe

[Flo]

A couple of little things that are easy, everyday things which will help:

Firstly:
If you can work out a menu for the week that includes recipes based around the many and varied beans and lentils available in the supermarket you will find that it eases the cost of meals. I speak as a 90% vegan and know that it saves me money. I'm not suggesting that you should join me full time but I am saying that there are many wonderful soups and savouries that are a cost effective way of making good meals without using meat but still providing protein and that these can save you money.

Secondly:
I also use washing soda (also known as soda crystals from DP) which come in 1 kg packets at somewhere between 65p and 70p and the moment for cleaning the house and for laundry. At a couple of tablespoons for a full load of dirty washing - well you can imagine how far this goes. It's also a handy cleaning agent round the house. This is a great saving on cleaning materials.

I think that it's often a lot of little steps that save you money rather than one or two big items.

[Flo]

Have you checked your tariff for electricity and/or gas recently and are you on the best possible rate? Do you/can you pay on-line by direct debit which will give you the biggest possible discount. You get your bill by email and also usually can put in meter readings so that your bill is correct.

[Milims]

Find your nearest chinese supermarket. They sell very large bags of things like lentils and the cost works out much cheaper than the smaller bags from the supermarket. They also sell herbs and spices much cheaper and things like bi-carb in large quantities at a fraction of the cost.
Flo's right about the difference in electricity costs etc - we changed to on-line billing and the cost of our electricity has gone from around 14 pence per unit to around 9 pence per unit! Quite a saving!
Also check out war time cookery - they were quite inventive with limited resources.
I do think that saving money this way can be a bit time consuming but you are in an ideal position - you have the time - you lucky lady!

[Annpan]

Check out the money saving expert website. It is full of hints, best buys, cheapest credit card and best bank account, etc, etc, etc.

Good luck

[Flo]

Don't believe all the special offers in the supermarket. Take time to weigh price and size of different goods. I did a price comparison before doing an on-line shop for staples this week. It's no good saying that a price is rolled back Mr Asda if you charge me 31p for a 215 gram tin of own brand baked beans where 36p gets me a 227gram tin of own brand down the road.

If you can do your basic shopping on line - all the tins, packets, tea bags, cleaning goods which are regular items - you can avoid the temptation to buy extra items but you have to weigh the delivery charge against the savings.

Don't believe that it can be cheaper in the Pound shop. You need to know the supermarket price to know whether it is worth picking it up and whether the quality is as good as normal. For instance, once I tried 2 x 750 bottles of bath foam from the Pound Shop and I would have been better off buying one of the supermarket own brand at 89p - the two bottles didn't go as far as the one would have done. Sometimes a little more can be money saved. However, I did pick up Timotei shampoo at £1 because the labelling was in French and not because the product was different. A saving on £1.89 at the time.

And there's nowt saved by buying cheap clothes. It's the old story that if you are poor or wanting to save money you need to buy the better goods that will last longer.

[Green Aura]

My advice is similar to others - since we've been up here we've more than halved our income and are still running 2 houses.

1) I do a big supermarket shop once a month, and have now got this down to a fine art. I only shop at the Spar for milk, veg and coal. We did try for a month to just shop at the Spar (I'd really like to give up T£sco!) but found, even with the petrol costs, it was much more expensive and we couldn't get a lot of the things we like (the spar is geared up to tourists so is crammed full of packets and tins of stuff we wouldn't touch).

2) We have a full pantry, we get pulses and large sacks of flour, fresh coffee, yeast pates, and similar stuff from a wholefood wholesaler in Inverness (we buy with other members of the village so get bulk discount and free delivery). But we make sure we've nearly used it all before buying more - I'm getting quite good at stock rotation!

3) We have got rid of one car, but in truth we don't need the other one now. The only time it's a problem is if I'm away, but I make sure we're stocked up before I go. And we only use the car 1-2 a week, but as we both work from home it's easier of course.

4) Anything we want to eat, I make. No more takeaways - there are none - and we think twice about cakes and things, if we have to make it. That also includes things like muesli. I don't know the exact costs offhand but a small packet of luxury muesli is about £3, which would last us less than a week. I make enough for a month, and we prefer it, for less than that. We also get the most out of everything - I've learned to get many meals out of a chicken - I don't buy drumsticks or breasts anymore - and any leftovers are frozen in portions, or incorporated into something else.

5) We can't get terrestrial TV here, so have a Sky subscription, but we keep it to the basic package, and it's possible that once we've done our year we may cancel it and go to freesat.

6) We've stopped buying clothes - we had enough anyway and we don't need to be smart now, so everything's getting used until it falls apart.

I've discovered it's the little things that waste most money - late night runs to asda for chocolate and throwing away uneaten food because we'd done a full weeks shop but had 2-3 takeaways instead of eating it.

[Flo]

Ain't it just the chocolate, cakes and eating out/takeaways that unbalance the housekeeping

[Green Aura]

Too right Flo - a chocolate run rarely costs less than £30 by the time you got the dvd and a couple of bits you couldn't possibly manage without!

[JulieSherris]

One of the biggest money saving ideas I use, is the 'never-ending stew'.
I'm lucky because hubby loves his all in one pots & bread for dipping.

I usually start with mince meat & veg & top up each day - it doesn't have to be a massive top-up - a couple of carrots is often enough - but for those weeks when the mortgage has just been paid & the bank is low, you can have good warming comfort food every night... well, my never-enders rarely last longer than 4 or 5 days, but just as cheap as beans on toast - but more filling & definitely more scrummy!

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

Thanks for those everyone, I'll look into the insurance Zoe, it would be possible to use one for main journeys and the other as a run around so hopefully we could cut the insurance costs down on that one.
The problem with charity shops is that Mr Luvpie always seems to come out with 15 records and nothing else when he goes in them, I'll just have to leave him at home when I go shopping! We are currently eating more veggie stuff, but thats mainly started due to my diet, but so far the kids haven't complained and I've found that I buy far less from the shop since I've been walking there with George on my back, there is a limit to what I can physically carry which makes planning meals out of the cupboard far more attractive each day. We also cook just about everything from scratch including cakes which are our friday night treat.

Washing wise we are currently using soap nuts, but were planning to start using soda crystals after they ran out, was nice to hear Flo say that they work as I'm always alittle doubtful about these things.

Clothes wise I think I need to stop feeding the three kids as they are growing far to fast, luckily I am shrinking so have found a whole wardrobe full of clothes that I haven't worn for 8 yrs that now fit again and Mr Luvpie is accepting the patches on his allotment clothes, Although currently the sewing machine has broken so we've got to get that fixed so I can start sewing properly as I used to do alot of that.

[invisiblepiper]

Too right Flo - a chocolate run rarely costs less than £30 by the time you got the dvd and a couple of bits you couldn't possibly manage without!

I'm soooo glad someone else has those kinds of chocolate runs! - made a HUGE mistake and visited T3sco on Tuesday with teenage daughter - bad idea - don't do it! ( Too much temptation food)
Now need to last till next Wedneday with the consequences!