Great 'Quit it and save' Hunt 8 October 2010 at 12:48PM edited 12 October 2010 at 9:38PM in Shop but don't drop 30 replies 17K views

money_saver12

I gave up buying expensive novels..

Just joined the local council library where i dont need to bother about buying and then recycling the books too!

Save a boat load of money without any compromises!

phoenix_dragon

I've given up buying prepared lunches, and have started bringing in my own this month. I've worked it out as saving me £14.15 a week, so about £680 a year.

Wow, writing that down now, I wonder how I kept up that habit for so long!




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frankielou

cards, wrapping paper, tags etc. That's not to say I don't enjoy gifts (and can even be more generous with other people than myself) but all the 'extras' can add up to at least £5, plus they're often just thrown away so not very environmentally friendly.

Keep a box for nice bits of wrapping paper you get, tissue paper, brown paper, bits of ribbon, wool, nice cards, odments etc. As I'm using things regularily they don't take over the house, I just have one box that keeps itself nicely topped up.

If people get a gift I'll just write the birthday greetings on the gift tag - no real need to double up on the card. For people who just get a card I make one...and not with expensive card kits but with things I have around. You don't even need to be an artist, stacked up squares of different colours/textures look nice. Stick their horoscope from a magazine on the front, or a individually wrapped teabag, free-toiletry-sample-sachet or small chocolate bar....whatever. Envelopes are the only thing I really buy. To wrap presents I use recycled maps, brown paper, ribbon, wool, tissue etc. or pop it into a nice paper bag that I've kept from another gift/a shopping trip or a recycled jiffy bag from a recent ebay purchase (who does buy them new??). Gift tags I make by cutting out bits from old greetings cards I recieve.

If I have a quiet evening I try and be organised and make a stash of cards 'just in case' but I also keep an eye out for ready made cards/postcards on offer so I do have a little stash - be realistic - nobody can be handmade-saint and work full time all the time.

I've been doing it for four years now and have never bought wrapping paper, gift tags or any other packaging - so it's easily doable.

Saving? Say 4 birthday cards and one present-card-wrapping combo a month (that's conservative and not including Christmas) and £2.5 for each card and £4 (for wrapping paper, tag and card) and you save £14 a month = £168 a year.




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ThinkingOfLinking

As with other people:

I buy less magazines (There is one I have to buy every month for my uni course and it's an industry one)
I walk more and get the bus less
I buy less chippy meals and go to the pub much less
I buy only what I need foodwise rather than the sometimes false economy of BOGOFs (would I buy it if it wasn't BOGOF? When am I going to eat it; will it go off because I've got too much/got sick of it/forgotten it's there)
I don't bother with the Super Cycle when using the laundrette, saving 50p per load
I don't buy books unless they're reference books I am going to keep and use ie for work/uni, and I also look for free e-Books and I scan relevant bits of books I want from the library instead.

StumpyPumpy

As a voracious reader, I used to spend a fortune at places like Waterstone's buying novels chosen virtually at random. After working my way through the (admittedly small) local library, I now do the same random book buying at the local charity shop every month or so. What is more, I get a feelgood factor too as I take back the books I bought the previous month for them to resell.

toffifee

I used to spend loads of money on fiction books and I now get everything from the library.

I pick books that I'd like to read by looking at books I've enjoyed on Amazon and seeing what other people who read that book have recomended. I then reserve them on line and just wait for the email to say they're ready to collect, if they've needed to be transferred from a different branch.
I've joined three separate libraries (I live near a county border and a large town) and it's rare that I can't get hold of a book I want in one of them.

It's also saving me loads of space at home - I was getting overrun with books I was never going to read again.

Economistress

I gave up shop bought lunches in favour of packed lunches saving just over £2 a day.

I also gave up the bus and drive to work instead - I already owned and maintained a car and have free parking at work. The difference between the bus fare and the cost of diesel is just under £3 (and I save over an hour!) a day.

So a saving of £5 each working day, or, given I work 220 days a year, £1100 a year. :j

Feeling pretty stupid for not making these changes years ago.

Alwaysachoice

I have given up buying baby gifts for newborns. Instead I knit or crochet a jacket or something similar from the stash of yarn I have amassed over the years. Parents prefer a handmade gift and I enjoy giving something I've spent time making.The only cost is my time and a bit of wrapping - tissue and recycled ribbon. I'm always making something so it might as well be a gift, and baby clothes are very quick to do. :T

artybee

I've given up buying a bacon buttie on my way to work. 3 days a week at £1.45 = almost £200 per year (minus the cost of a box of cereal every few weeks instead)

I also used to spend £4 a day in the (subsidiesd) canteen. Now I make my own sarnies and take a tin of 59p Asda food instead. Should save me at something like £300 per year.

runbytheground

I'm addicted to trashy historical romances (my Dad calls them bodice rippers) and can get through half a dozen in a weekend - I invested in an e-reader earlier this year and now have thousands of books (trashy and otherwise ) that I've downloaded for free from various websites. Plug it into my laptop or even my work computer, for a few hours once or twice a fortnight to keep it charged.

Probably used to spend £30-£40 per month on buying these books - it was especially costly when on holiday as I could only take so many with me and would invariably find myself paying through the nose in a foreign bookstore for the literary equivalent of a fish supper!