Great Isn’t it Obvious MoneySaving Hunt: Tell us the secrets you didn't know you had

louby_lou

Alikay wrote: »

Have a secret hidey-hole in which to deposit all those B.O.G.O.F. packets of biscuits, Doritos and soft drinks bottles etc rather than just put the extras in the cupboard where 2 packs will disappear at the same speed as a single one! Then I "shop" from it a couple of weeks later. Mine is in the empty cool box in the garage...no-one ever looks there!

i have to say that is ABSOLUTE GENIUS haha i will def be doing that for christmas stockpiling also

Princess_Jane

My latest money saver is to send my fella food shopping instead of making it a joint effort.

He goes at 3am after work so it's not busy, he doesn't get distracted and end up spending hours in George/the makeup aisle and he isn't sucked in by manfucturers' blurb - "Look, this yoghurt will make me happy and is fat free. Can we take it home?"

Our monthly shop is now well under £100 and he always gives me an emergency £10 incase he's forgotten anything.

It was his idea, BTW..Princess Towers is a democracy.

LoveToSave_3

Loving this thread...it's very addictive!
:T
You've all given me some fantastic tips and got me thinking, so thought I'd share a few of my ideas as well:

1. I save any small empty boxes, bottle caps/lids, cardboard tubes inside loo rolls, etc in a big container and when doing crafts with my toddler I take these out and we stick & paint them to make loads of interesting things and providing some great fun - much cheaper than buying craft supplies at the store. Even use the cardboard tubes in the loo rolls to make my own Christmas crackers or fun kids party packets!

2. Also save any scrap paper, wool, string, ribbon, used (even tore) wrapping paper, etc and together with a tube of Pritt give it to the kids to make their own cards for special occations (like Father's Day) or just some interesting crafts - can provide loads of excitement and much cheaper than buying special cards at the store.

3. Instead of using wrapping paper for presents I buy brown paper which comes in big rolls and much cheaper. Then just decorate with some autumn leaves, flowers or flower pedals - basically anything nature provides us. Or alternatively just write a special message or poem on the front. Ideas can be endless when it comes to this...

4. We keep a money tin at home where we always put our small change (anything under 20p or 50p goes in there!) Then end of the year we take it to ASDA and convert the coins to vouchers which we can then use to do our Christmas grocery shopping with! Great way of saving!!!

That's it for now!
My first ever post on a forum - how exciting!
:hello:

retrocircles

LoveToSave wrote: »

4. We keep a money tin at home where we always put our small change (anything under 20p or 50p goes in there!) Then end of the year we take it to ASDA and convert the coins to vouchers which we can then use to do our Christmas grocery shopping with! Great way of saving!!!

That's it for now!
My first ever post on a forum - how exciting!
:hello:

the only thing with that is asda take 7p from every £1 in the coinstar, which is an awful lot!
would be best to save throughout the year, then bag up into coin bags & take them to the bank & turn it into notes. go straight to asda to spend & enjoy your money you didn't lose out on!

JimmyTheWig

retrocircles wrote: »

the only thing with that is asda take 7p from every £1 in the coinstar, which is an awful lot!

Yeah, I can never work out what the deal is with those machines. Do they not pay out full value in vouchers to be used in the store where the machine is?

would be best to save throughout the year, then bag up into coin bags & take them to the bank & turn it into notes.

Which has its own problems, as banks will normally only take a limited number of bags in one go. (Excluding charity and children's accounts.)

SAV3R

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Which has its own problems, as banks will normally only take a limited number of bags in one go. (Excluding charity and children's accounts.)

I have never had a problem paying coin bags in at the bank, providing you bank with them. Could you possibly exchange them at schools etc who need the change for fete days etc.

originalkat

Love the tips, thanks everyone. Not sure if these have been mentioned but I hope they are useful.

We eat a lot of cheese(big family, some of us are veggie) and I find a large block of cheese is considered to be just a few slices by some in our house -who shall remain nameless! So when I unpack the shopping I grate the cheese into a plastic container and it lasts much longer.

I was interested to see I am not the only one with a ' secret stash' of BOGOFs. As my children got older it was increasingly difficult to find a good hiding place so I started using the car boot to store non perishable stuff. No one else drives my car so it is quite safe.

Also am I the only person who finds the idea of BUYING blackberries to be very strange? I have seen a small box of probably only 150g for nearly £2 .Don't weed your garden too much and I can virtually guarantee a fine crop of blackberries will appear for free!! Alternatively go blackberry picking, it's good fun and children love doing it.

This is my first proper post, hope it's ok

BigMummaF

Hehe...at the moment, I have:-

3x weetabix
2x shredded wheat
1x cornflakes
3x 9pk loo rolls in the boot of my car...:p

Around crimbo, when you have an exceptional strain on fridge space, store things like milk, cans/bottles of drink, opened jars of cranberry/mint/horseradish sauce etc, in buckets of water or a kiddies paddling pool in the garden. The offspring invested in a huge garden trug thingie for cooling liquid refreshments with their pals in the garden so we use that:D

JimmyTheWig

Ooh, I know a MoneySaving tip...

"Know what you pay for stuff."


I'll explain...

People have said about stocking up when things are on offer, but how do you know if it's a good price? One store could have an offer on that actually still doesn't make it any better value than another store with no offer.
So for stuff like this you need to know what price you want to pay for stuff. As long as you don't let your stocks run dry, don't buy when the price is above this level.

For example, we aim to buy at...
Nice loo roll - £1 for pack of 4
Nappies - 10p each (haven't actually achieved this for some time, normally pay 11p or 12p)
Branded AA batteries - £1 for a pack of 4
Cartoned concentrated orange juice or apple juice - 58p / litre
Fruit and Barley squash - 60p
Meat - anything approaching £1 / lb is good value

The trouble is remembering this stuff. I think you've just got to love numbers

nel68

Son wrote: »

my mobile chargers are plugged in but not switched on, like my kettle and toaster, are they all still using my electricity?!

Yes, it's true!

I find one good way to illustrate it is to feel the surface of the plug. My mobile phone charger feels warm to the touch, even when the phone isn't plugged in to it.

Check any other gadgets too. Any that include a power transformer in the plug are likely culprits.