Tips and Quick Questions on “How To Start Being Old Style”

Butterfly_Brain

Lists will be your greatest asset..........

• List what your monthly bills are plus factor in petrol, car tax and insurance costs. You will see what you have left to spend each month.
• List what you already have in the freezer and larder use it but replace like with like every time you have used the item, if you can stock up on meat, because that is going to rise hugely in price.
• Menu Planning is a must on a tight budget.
• Write a shopping list and stick to it.
• Take cash when you shop, this way you will see where your money is being spent, it will also stop you going overdrawn, which is a huge hit if you haven't got an arranged one.
• Shop around for phone, broadband, gas and electric.
• Cancel anything that is not necessary, we got rid of sky years ago and tbh we don't miss it, we use our sky box as a freeview box.
• Try sistercass's £1 a day Christmas fund, it will give you £365 at the end of the year for presents and food.
• Look on Supermarket websites to see who have the cheapest prices on what you buy.
• Only go shopping once a week, this saves on impulse buys
• If you have an Aldi or LIdl nearby try their products. It is now our main supermarket.
• CamNolliesmummy is right about only using half of the soap powders etc.

camNolliesMUMMY

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Lists will be your greatest asset..........

• List what your monthly bills are plus factor in petrol, car tax and insurance costs. You will see what you have left to spend each month.
• List what you already have in the freezer and larder use it but replace like with like every time you have used the item, if you can stock up on meat, because that is going to rise hugely in price.
• Menu Planning is a must on a tight budget.
• Write a shopping list and stick to it.
• Take cash when you shop, this way you will see where your money is being spent, it will also stop you going overdrawn, which is a huge hit if you haven't got an arranged one.
• Shop around for phone, broadband, gas and electric.
• Cancel anything that is not necessary, we got rid of sky years ago and tbh we don't miss it, we use our sky box as a freeview box.
• Try sistercass's £1 a day Christmas fund, it will give you £365 at the end of the year for presents and food.
• Look on Supermarket websites to see who have the cheapest prices on what you buy.
• Only go shopping once a week, this saves on impulse buys
• If you have an Aldi or LIdl nearby try their products. It is now our main supermarket.
• CamNolliesmummy is right about only using half of the soap powders etc.

Love the Xmas fund idea, will be doing this for next year but £7 a week.

Cheers for that one x :T:T

winniepooh

hi and welcome to the forum, im pretty new to the o/s boards but ive got plenty of good tips even tho you can spends weeks reading all the old posts but is worth every minute.

sonastin

1) work out how much you currently spend, where and what on
2) work out what your household income is going to be
3) look for the quick-wins - the frivolous spending that you could easily afford be easily live without too
4) start to think about the changes to your lifestyle that will help generate some of the longer term savings...

- meal planning so you only buy what you need
- shopping around - as others have said, Aldi Lidl Home Bargains B&M etc are all good for getting some things cheaper than the major supermarkets. You can rarely get everything in one place but switching to shopping in a number of different stores can yield big money savings (but not necessarily time savings)
- have a think about what gadgets you have or could acquire which help money saving. Things like breadmakers, slow cookers, etc can help long term but only if you are likely to use them

5) prioritise the things that are going to work for you and your family. No point investing in a sewing machine if you'll never have time to make clothes, for instance.


this site is full of great ideas and lots of useful suggestions. Not all will be useful for you. You need to work out what you are going to need to do and what you can do to meet your new budget. No need to go into extreme money-saving mode and make yourselves miserable if you only need to cut back a little but no need to get into debt if just a little bit more work gets you to live within your means! Pick the ones that fit into your lifestyle easily first and go for the tougher challenges when needs must.

PlutoinCapricorn

You need to fight the war on many fronts. You can make drastic spending cuts at one end and at the other extreme save pennies that add up over the years. For example, people get rid of one of their cars in favour of a bicycle and start buying 'value' products. Being thrifty is not the same as being miserly, and it makes you feel very good not deprived!

One thing I have noticed when people post their monthly spending details is that many of them mistake luxuries and treats for necessities - gym membership for example. They often have expensive packages for TV etc. They also never think about how much they spend per year when they bring a bucket sized container of coffee from one of the big chains into work each day, nor how much they could save by bringing their home-made lunch in.

Buying local, seasonable produce is good practice: I only get cherries and strawberries in the summer. The imported ones available all year round in the supermarkets don't usually taste very good anyway.

A lot depends on where you live: big city dwellers usually have more options, but people with gardens can grow their own vegetables or even keep chickens.

scampitandnemo

Great tips guys, hadn't considered about using less washing powder but definitely will now! Always use fab croc conditioner so will knock that on the head too!
We don't have sky/ gym membership so that's good.
We spend over £100 a week on food however so this is my main area to reduce. Don't buy pre packed stuff, have always made my own sauces/ soups etc as adore cooking! My husband insists on meat with every meal so does anyone have any tips on cheaper cuts of meat to use? We never throw food away though, it's all used!
For example tonight it's roast lamb, tomorrow lamb curry, day after lamb fajitas!!
We shop in wAitrose at moment as husband is a bit of a snob but in the new year ill have time to do markets etc.
our main bad habit is "needing" things, so have put a ban on unnessesary spending, Christmas is being funded by boots points, and money I've made selling on eBay!

Fab tip about the nappies! We spend £9.99 a pack on pampers!!

Looking forward to the challenge really!


Where can I get cheap tubs to freeze homemade soup/ meals etc?

camNolliesMUMMY

Hb may sell them cheap?
If not use freeze bags but make sure he food is cold before putting meals in them or you will end up with wet feet lol

But another tip for you is to save jars and margarine tub etc even bread bags for use for something else

Nappies...give them ago if it doesn't work for you try something else like the supermarkets own brand tend to be good also but I've gone lower as you can guarantee when I've changed him he decides to do a poo

madvixen

Welcome to the board.

My OH is a meat man as well but loves the cheaper cuts of meat. We use a lot of beef cheeks, shin and oxtail. They need long, slow cooking but taste amazing. Oxtail curry is one of my favourite things and I hated oxtail as a kid. We also eat a lot of rabbit, I can normally get between 6 and 8 portions from one £2 rabbit.

If you want pricier meat then bulk it out with beans, pulses and root vegetables. If you're buying pricier meat, make sure you get every last piece of it into a meal. We got a joint of beef on Saturday and it did a roast dinner on Saturday, a roast dinner on Sunday and the leftover beef, potatoes and gravy will become stovies tonight. An expensive piece of meat doesn't seem so expensive when you can get 10 meals out of it.

Buy whole chickens, on offer, and joint them yourself rather than buying the chicken portions. Use the carcass for stock and freeze it for making soups.

Make friends with your butcher and ask him for ideas/recommendations - they are usually really helpful.

Above all - enjoy it. Being thrifty is fun, not a chore

drusilla

Sorry to hear about your redundancy.
One of the little things I have learned about money saving is not to spend too much at Christmas. The idea of the ultimate Christmas is a bit of a fantasy. The kids, all learned to be grateful for all their presents and didn't ask for loads of stuff.

Your children are only tiny so will have no expectations of presents yet. They will be happy as long as Santa visits. Let the rest of the family buy the expensive stuff. Your 5 year old will love opening the presents more than what is inside. Your tiny won't even know what is going on.

Set up some cheap traditions now whilst they are young. The computer games and other stuff will come all too soon.


Good luck with your money saving.

bossymoo

I'll second the sainsburys basics nappies. Wish I'd found them sooner. We've used them for a couple of months now.

My littlies are 2 and nearly 4 and we can do quite cheaply in terms of clothing, Xmas presents etc. they don't need much more than your time at the young age.

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