Your best money-saving tips!

[ChilliBean]

On a mission to save money for a new home, so let’s share our best money-saving tips!

I’ll start

If you go to cancel your NOWTV subscription they will offer you 6 months half price. I do this every few months and have never paid full price for NOWTV beyond the first month I signed up!

Always have a look in the yellow sticker bin at the supermarket, if you’re not going to eat it immediately you could always freeze it. I’ve heard Too Good To Go is also a good app but I think it’s a bit of a postcode lottery as there’s never anything good where I live!

I also have a budget spreadsheet on my laptop that I update every few days just to make sure I’m keeping on top of my spending

What do you do to save money?

 

[Warpaint]

Got a thing with Lloyds called 'save the change'. Every time I pay for something on my card it rounds it up and puts it directly into my savings account. Basically a virtual copper jar.

 

[Rockin' Robin]

Being a bit of a dinosaur, I periodicaly collect any spare change I have accumulated, and put it into a box or jar. You'd be surprised how much spare change you can collect.

 

[JoeBloggs]

Only buy what you really need/want/can afford. If buying only use cashback sites like topcashback to earn more. Sell unwanted items on eBay/Facebook.

Set a budget and move your savings money out of your current account on payday so it’s not tempting you.

 

[LaurieLaurie]

Move money into savings on payday. It seems obvious but it’s the only sure way for me to save money.

Keep out of supermarkets. They were draining 99% of my money.

 

[Funnifing71]

Meal plan every week and online food shop. Use a supermarket with a monthly smart pass to save on delivery costs. I lost count of the times I went into the supermarket for milk and bread and spent £40!!

 

[Flowergirl14]

Use cash back sites when buying online. e.g. I use Quidco when renewing car and household insurance, and often get £30-£40 back. I use them and then go through gocompare.com or some such site.

Shopping list when shopping, or order food shopping online.

 

[LennyBriscoe]

Don’t have kids!

Only joking. I know you have to spend to earn them but I’m a big fan of the Boots Advantage Card. You get 4 points per £ and they send you coupons to get extra points throughout the year and I use the ones for things I would normally buy. If I don’t need anything like perfume, I’ll save them up throughout the year and ‘buy’ stuff at Christmas

 

[Former_Antelopee]

I put money straight into my savings account when I get paid. I use premium bonds as my savings account, as it means I can’t get the money out straight away if I decide I want to buy something so I usually don’t end up taking it out as I can’t be bothered/by the time it gets into my account I’ll probably change my mind about buying it. I also think I’ve made more from it than if I put it into a savings account - last year I think I won £100 or 125 and this year so far I’ve won £50).
I work out how much everything costs and how much monthly spending I’ll give myself usually around £300. I usually over estimate bills/activities slightly so if I do go a bit over I’ll have spare.
I use plum as well although I usually end up transferring it out often but it often it works as a little extra spending per month if I need it. Like this month I have £10 left in my account until pay day which should be fine but I’ve got £50 in my plum account so if I need it I can use that.
I also save on presents by buying whenever sales are on - I bought all my Christmas presents in April (apart from one) when Debenhams was closing and I saved around half on what is usually spend.

 

[judgejohndeed]

The biggest thing for me is not doing a weekly food shop. I am terrible at meal planning and food shopping - literally never stick to it. So much food waste and it’s expensive. One of us now picks up dinner stuff on the way home, we have all the usual pasta, rice, milk bread etc but we buy the fresh stuff in smaller quantities on the day. Smaller quantities are more expensive than larger ones, but it’s still a lot cheaper than buying larger ones for less when you end up chucking it all out anyway. We are saving a horrific amount of money doing it this way, I dread to think how much we wasted on food before.

 

[lokiofasgard]

I shop at the second hand stores. You get a lot of unique clothes and we have a chain in Estonia called Humana, it has normal prices, then as weeks go by before new stock, everything is 3 euros, then 2 euros, then 1 euro until they get next stock. It is difficult to find things when most of the good stuff has gone, but I have been lucky some times as well.

Most of my money goes on food as well, but I refuse to hold back there, hahhaa.

 

[LaurieLaurie]

The biggest thing for me is not doing a weekly food shop. I am terrible at meal planning and food shopping - literally never stick to it. So much food waste and it’s expensive. One of us now picks up dinner stuff on the way home, we have all the usual pasta, rice, milk bread etc but we buy the fresh stuff in smaller quantities on the day. Smaller quantities are more expensive than larger ones, but it’s still a lot cheaper than buying larger ones for less when you end up chucking it all out anyway. We are saving a horrific amount of money doing it this way, I dread to think how much we wasted on food before.

I drain money doing it this way because I’ll always pick up extra rubbish.

 

[rlouisep9]

Do your food shop using scan as you shop if they have it, that way you can see the total as you go round and don't get a shock at the till

Also on that note if you use Tesco get a clubcard and you get clubcard prices/offers/vouchers

Look at the world food aisles for rice/pasta, it's generally more in bulk and much cheaper. They also reduce stock, I got a 1kg pack of spaghetti for 10p last time I went!

As a few others have mentioned, move money into savings as soon as you get paid so you don't touch it

Google discount codes or ask anyone you know who may have a student or Blue Light card for a discount code whilst online shopping, usually ASOS, Boohoo etc will have codes around

Sign up for newsletters on websites if you've never ordered them before as they usually send a welcome voucher code

If you're saving for your first house open a Lifetime ISA and the government will give you 25% of what you put in, up to 4k bonus a year

Sell clothes on Vinted rather than ebay/depop as they don't take any cuts of what you sell

 

[Melian]

Got a thing with Lloyds called 'save the change'. Every time I pay for something on my card it rounds it up and puts it directly into my savings account. Basically a virtual copper jar.

Nationwide have a thing where you can move spare change (i think you have to do it manually) into your savings account.

 

[Onecandream]

Don’t get sucked into buy one get one free or buy one get second half price unless you definitely need the second!! Look for something on a half price deal

 

[Flowergirl14]

Use Olio app for food.
I donate to it too, so I feel it balances out.

 

[Hope96]

I think moving money into your savings as soon as you're paid is the best thing you can do if possible.

I agree with the Lifetime ISA suggestion - you can download the Moneybox app and open one through that. I have a weekly direct debit leaving my account and you can change the amount depending on your outgoings for a particular week.

I try to have a savings goal for each month and a long time savings goal too. I write it down which helps me but I know it can be difficult especially when you have more pressing priorities. I doing, however, still think it's good to have a savings goal as it makes it more appealing to save.

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

-As soon as I get paid, I move a certain amount of money into each of my savings accounts.

-I make a meal plan each week and cook most meals from scratch.

-I buy high street or supermarket clothes, bags and shoes rather than designer.

 

[Bubblesandflowers]

I work on a zero based budget. This means that every single penny has a purpose. I will make sure every part of my money has a purpose and gets sent to the right place on pay day. Make sure you do budget to have fun because that way you won't feel so guilty and you are less likely to go off the budget rails.
As others have said - pay straight into savings on payday! Pay yourself first.
For me I put money into savings in two points of the month. 1) Payday (22nd) 2) 1st of the next month. I have a lot of regular savers which I fund and rotate so they always get paid on 1st. I will hide the money I'm due to save into a different pot for the week or so.

In terms of saving money I am trying to use more supermarket own brand products.

Cooking from scratch and freezing. I also have some birds eye chicken boxes in the freezer for the busy/lazy nights to help resist a take away.

I will always have left overs the next day for lunch.

 

[laughing]

Order on line food shopping for exactly what you need. If you don't go to the supermarket, you don't end up buying more and spending more.