Saving Money

Former Member

Has anyone got any money saving tips?

My only debt is my student loan but I tend to spend all my money each month and am trying to save a bit.

Just wondered what money saving tips we could come up with together?

Former Member

I think that before you can start to save money you need to know where you're spending your money. You've said before that you aren't sure where the money goes, I think it would be worth you writing a spending diary and keeping tracks of things.

Once you know where your money is going, you can look at ways of cutting down or changing your spending habits.

Other than that, it's difficult to be more than generic. Think about how many teas and cakes you have when you're out; if you spend £5 twice a week that's nearly fifty quid a month just on teashops. Same with magazines and other consumables. They might all only be £3 but those £3s quickly mount up.

I like Martin Lewis' money mantra: Do I need it? Can I afford it? Can I buy it somewhere else cheaper? Always walk away before impulse buying something.

Former Member

Do you end up spending all your money each month because you've got it?

If your monthly available cash went down by £30 each month, would you notice the impact?

Like Arctic says, to save money, you first need to have a reasonably good idea of where you're spending it - and once you've got a handle on that, I find that transferring some money straight into a savings account immediately after you get it can help. If you've never had it available as cash/current account then it's easier to not spend.

Former Member

I tend to keep a sum of roughly £100 to £200 in my current account (the one i use for everything) then as soon as my balance goes over this figure i whack it in the savings

Former Member

Draw out some money each week and this is all you can use.

Don't go shopping hungry. Plan meals and only buy what you need.

Former Member

I budget weekly - starting on a saturday. (It works for me better than mon-sunday... because its harder to keep within budget when I've run out of money at the weekend....)

Former Member

If you buy your lunch each day then stop doing that and make sandwhiches/pasta/salad to take with you instead. It soon adds up.

i.e. £3.30 (say Boots meal deal price) x 5 days a week = £16.50

A six pack of crisps = £1.50
A loaf of bread = £1.30
A pack of bananas / cake/ yoghurt = ~£2
Plus a couple of pounds extra for sandwhich fillings, totals about £7 for all these items. That alone saves you almost £10 each week.

Former Member

Look at the sizes of packets that you buy stuff in. Sometimes bigger ones work out cheaper (but not always).

Also, there's sometimes a big difference in price for the 'value' version and the branded version and very little difference if any in the product that's inside the packaging.

Like Arctic said though - coffee and magazines are big hitters that don't tend to get noticed.

Former Member

Scary Monster wrote: »

Also, there's sometimes a big difference in price for the 'value' version and the branded version and very little difference if any in the product that's inside the packaging.

This is true. When I was at uni, I used to buy (because I liked them; not the cost) basics tea bags - 80 for 28p.

You can freeze milk.

Former Member

You can freeze milk, but it comes out fricking horrible unless you leave it standing for a long time out of the fridge, which defeats the idea.

I dont mind UHT milk at all, keep a case of it and open a new one as and when I need it.

Former Member

G-Raffe wrote: »

You can freeze milk, but it comes out fricking horrible unless you leave it standing for a long time out of the fridge, which defeats the idea.

I dont mind UHT milk at all, keep a case of it and open a new one as and when I need it.

If you put the bottle in some water (as we do) it doesn't take quite as long.

Former Member

I save £250 at the begininng of the month and don't touch it. And I leave my debit card at home usually and take a packed lunch to work.

Former Member

G-Raffe wrote: »

I dont mind UHT milk at all, keep a case of it and open a new one as and when I need it.

we do this too. i didnt used to like it, but now i cant tell the difference. its good because you never end up going to the shop for milk, and coming back with a tenners worth of stuff or more.

I have also saved a lot of money by shopping at Aldi. I have cut my weekly shopping bill down from £130 a week, to around £70 (for 5 of us) with no drop in standard of living at all compared to when i shopped at asda

Former Member

I'm sure Knee High Stripy Socks will be along in a minute to laugh at me, but that's the sort of thing we do too. We haven't shopped properly at Tesco or Asda for years, I get fresh veg and meat from the market and the rest from either Aldi or Costco. Costco memberships aren't available to everyone though, and not everyone has a shed that can store 188 cans of beans.

Trading down a supermarket often does work out cheaper. Aldi are good providing you stay out of the aladdin's cave that is the gadget aisle.

Former Member

Also http://www.moneysavingexpert.com < great ideas on this site for moving saving.

Happy saving. :thumb:

Former Member

I know this is a bit of an old thread now but I thought I'd update.

Thank you for all your suggestions. I have taken many of them on board.

I have just finished doing a short course with the charity Christians Against Poverty in money management skills, how to budget etc and it was really good and I would recommend it. It's free and they gave us free food so saved so money that way as well. www.capmoney.org if anyone is interested (it is open to everyone not just Christians by the way).

I have also implemented many of the tips in this thread. For example I now by 4 litre milk cartons - I thought I would have to freeze some of it but I actually get through it in just a few days despite living alone (I drink a lot of tea). And the money saving expert site is great.

I am now going to live off cash and leave my credit card at home. One of the things the course recommended was, after building a budget to stick to, use only cash as much as possible and take the amount of cash you have budgeted for the week out of the bank on the same day each week. It sounded really weird at first but I did it last week and it went really well and I know that in a few weeks time I won't be getting a big credit card bill which is very liberating.

Thanks for your responses to the thread, sorry I didn't reply sooner.

Former Member

Hey RandomGirl,

That is great news! Really glad you found a course that worked for you and that you are now implementing changes that I'm sure you will benefit from in the future.

Former Member

I use yodlee moneycentre as a tool to monitor my cash, and rely on sensible budgeting to control what I spend.

My targets are:
£100 a month on food+drink
£80 a month on entertainment
£100 a month on petrol (this is the hardest one)
and a couple of other ones. I shop at Aldi and am generally a fantastic cook, so I spend next to nothing and make amazing food that can last a while in freezerbags. The main problem I have is trying to have a variety without overloading the freezer.

Former Member

I find money tends to trickle away rather than jump away in big chunks. It's difficult to immediately identify where it goes.

I think, as AR said at the start of the thread, that the best thing to do is keep track of it for a while and see where it goes. Then you're in a position to make adjustments. Booze for me is the big outgoing. Brighton's £4 a pint ensures that!

Former Member

I'm writing everything down again that I spend. I find I buy things in the middle of the night on Amazon that I don't need. I also keep buying quite expensive things for my garden at the moment but soon that will have to stop as there won't be anymore room! My reclining garden chair is arriving tomorrow but I have already put the cash aside to pay for it.

I find that I'm generally quite good with money when I'm doing alright, then I get mentally unwell and go on a big spend buying all kinds of things I don't need, often spending about £1,000 in a couple of weeks on stuff. I think using the weekly cash system will help with this as I won't (in theory) spend money I don't have.

I don't spend much on alcohol as I usually drink at home and since becoming single again last year I rarely go to the pub for drinking now.

Former Member

I find living in the centre of town and not having a car makes supermarket shopping really expencive. We do have a poorly stocked Lidl around the corner but we used to do all our shopping at aldi (which now I've moved is right out of town from me and more than 30 min bus ride. My housemate works at M&S in the food dept so we get a fair bit on reduction and with her 20% discount, and we get all our fruit and veg for about £12 a week from the local greengrocers. We've still spending a lot on food though!

I find getting the balance with saving and being a total scrooge (especially towards myself) is really difficult. Any tips on that one?

Former Member

£12 a week to me sounds like a lot to be spending on just fruit & veg - although I suppose it depends on how much of your total diet it makes up.

My best budgeting on food comes from being careful with what I spend my money on, and not letting things go to waste. As a quick guess, when I make vegetable lasagne it comes out at about 90p a person for the meal; Steak ciabatta & salad about £1.50. So if you spend your money wisely and are an adequate cook then you can eat nicely on a tight budget. It does depend slightly on having a freezer, or being happy to have the same or similar meals for a couple of days running though.

Former Member

Miss_Riot wrote: »

I find living in the centre of town and not having a car makes supermarket shopping really expencive. We do have a poorly stocked Lidl around the corner but we used to do all our shopping at aldi (which now I've moved is right out of town from me and more than 30 min bus ride. My housemate works at M&S in the food dept so we get a fair bit on reduction and with her 20% discount, and we get all our fruit and veg for about £12 a week from the local greengrocers. We've still spending a lot on food though!

I find getting the balance with saving and being a total scrooge (especially towards myself) is really difficult. Any tips on that one?

I live in a town centre with just those Tesco Metro / Sainsbury's local style shops in walking distance. I find I save quite a bit of money if I do a big online shop occasionally, even when the delivery charge is taken into account. I use Sainsbury's online and find that there are many more offers, basics ranges etc available than in my local store so I more than save £2.75 delivery charge and I can get a few weeks worth at once and just stock up on extra fresh food. Also, not having a car, it is more convenient as they deliver to my kitchen and I like to stock up on heavy things including cat litter etc.

Former Member

Scary how the hell do you get steak ciabatta sandwich for 1.50 a portion?

I mean I have eco-meals that I have which are often way less than £1 a portion, but when I feel like having something nice like steak or roast chicken it does push the per portion price up quite a bit. Steak stands out as being probably the single most expensive food item I buy, other than perhaps alcohol. And I generally get steaks that I think will be good value for money instead of silly crazy nice.

Former Member

Veg makes up a good 2/3 of my diet and that's £12 between 2 people! I'd like to plan meals more so we waste less

Former Member

My veg consists of carrots, beans and peas pretty much which comes in trivially cheap per portion. Sometimes I treat myself to spinach too. If I'm doing something that requires certain veg e.g. peppers / tomatoes / etc. I will get them in though.

Former Member

Being a vegetarian I eat a wide variety of vegetables and spend a fair proportion of my food budget on them. If I go to the fruit and veg stall it is cheaper than the supermarket. Tonight I had lettuce that I grew in my garden, it was lovely

Former Member

Steak ciabatta for £1.50 a portion - packet of the thin frying steaks usually £3-4 for 4 steaks, packet of 4 ciabatta rolls £1-1.50. Lettuce.

Admittely it is using the thin 'sandwich' or frying steak kind of cut rather than the thick ones, but still tastes yummy. And you either need to be feeding 4 people, or be keen to have it or a variation with similar ingredients several times in a few days.

As an example:
Packet of 4 sandwich steaks
Packet of 4 ciabatta
Bag of frozen peppers
Fresh onions
Stir fry sauce sachet/make up sauce if feeling really keen
Lettuce
Dry noodles

With that lot you can make a really nice beef stir fry & steak ciabatta as dinners. Freeze half the ciabatta rolls for use later, keep the bag of frozen peppers in the freezer and just take handfulls as and when required, dry noodles come in big packets and last forever, get dinners for 4 out of the packet of sandwich steaks (2 steak ciabatta, 2 beef stir fry) and either build up the ingredients to make your own stir fry sauce or buy the blue dragon sachets when they're on special offers.

Spagetti & meatballs - this one generally needs portions freezing.
Packet of turkey mince
Onions
Seasoning (Chilli, tumeric, garlic, pepper)
Dry spagetti
Value chopped tomatoes/passata
1 egg

Another substantial meal that comes in well under £1 a portion, and that's without bulking up the meatball sauce with extra vegetables.

Is it time to start a budget gourmet meals thread?

Former Member

It's really interesting what you've all said. I really need to start writing down what i'm spending. For me it can be hard if i do a food shop at Tesco (closest) as i buy food, alcohol and home stuff in one go so it gets confusing.
Also i spend far too much on ebay and beauty websites. How can i budget for these? I suppose i need to know if i really need it or not. I get so tempted!

Former Member

Hi there,

Whilst we appreciate your posts on this site, this thread is a bit old now and we don't like dragging things up that have been dealt with already for the OP (original poster).

Please start a new thread if you have any questions or queries.

BrunetteBarbie I can start a new thread with your post if you'd like me too? Just PM me and I'll sort it out.

I'm going to close this thread now.