Money saving new home: where to start?

Sammyantha

Thanks to the the threads by you lovely people on MSE, I am now the proud owner of a breadmaker (morphy richards), slow cooker, steamer, large freezer, and monthly meal planner.

I move in with my boyfriend to our lovely new home (barn conversion on farm) on November the 8th and I want to start off on the right foot right away in terms of money saving.:j

Rent is cheap, water rates included, gas is one of those enormous calor spaceship thingies, shared with flat downstairs, electric is £1 coin meter slot (although we have EDF coming to chat with us to see if savings can be made by switching to normal billing methods).

What are the single best money saving tips you can give me to start off with when we first move in?

Thanks :T:beer:

McKneff

Turn any lights off in any room you are not using.

Only boil enought water in the kettle that you need.

Good luck and have fun, ...................

Sammyantha

Really need ideas to help save money on shopping, cooking, storing food, utilising electricity etc....

Any more tips?

cupkate89

definately plan your meals in advance and only buy the food that you need - set yourself a budget and stick to it!
don't get lured into the 'deals' or 'offers' in the supermarket and end up buying things you dont really need

i go on tesco online and write down all the prices of the things i need to buy, then i go to b&m and home bargains and get anything that is cheaper! i always feel good after doing this.

nicky toilet roll! if you have a homebargains nearby get some of this!

get stardrops for cleaning - this can be used for practically everything, it is really cheap and it does a really great job too

make friends with your freezer! i have only just started doing this but it is great and has saved me loads - cook in bulk and then freeze leftovers where possible cause this works out cheaper so saves you money and it means you can have a quick easy tea one night
if you have veg that you aren't going to use, chop it up and bung it in the freezer. when i first moved into a house with my boyf i ended up throwing LOADS of fruit/veg away, it was such a waste
anything that you buy that you think you are going to end up throwing away or wont get chance to eat - put it in the freezer! nothing lost if it doesn't defrost well if you were going to throw it out anyway, but if it is fine then bingo!
freeze leftover wine into ice cube trays for use in cooking

defo put the effort in in the morning and use your slow cooker - i had one sitting around for months, and now i use it sooo much - it is amazing!

also buy veg from a greengrocer if possible - or grow your own!

when you have used your oven, leave the oven door open rather than shutting it to warm up your house a bit

candles really warm up a room and make it feel cosy - make use of hot water bottles and blankets rather than putting the heating on

water-down things like hand soap to make them go further

and the best tip ever - GET ADDICTED TO THESE FORUMS LIKE I AM! it is the best addiction i have ever had! i love saving money and getting bargains and i spend so much time on here it means i dont end up internet shopping win win!

good luck xxxxx

Sammyantha

Cupkate that is SO helpful, thank you I'm already planning on utilising the freezer and making about a month's worth of food in advance. Is there a home bargains in the UK? If so, I'll definitely check them out. We also have access to one of those warehouse type places that chef's go to buy their food/ ingredients etc in bulk, so hopefully that will save us loads.

Freezing ice cubes? heating the house via the cooker/ candels? Invaluable. Thank you so much :j

phill99

Forage for food!

My neighbour has an apple tree that spills into my Garden so I pick cooking apples in September / October and freeze them down. Within 100 yards of my house I have Cherry Trees and Blackberry bushes. Both give bumper crops. I seem to be the only one that picks the fruit off them and again they can be frozen down for the winter.

Don't be afraid of Value shops - QD, Wilkinsons, Poundstretchers, Pound stores etc. You will be amazed at how much cheaper they are than the main stream supermarkets.

Make use of Freecycle and Freegle. I never ceased to be amazed what other people are getting rid of.

A.Penny.Saved

If your paying for the electricity by a coin meter, it's quite an expensive way to buy electric which isn't cheap at it's lowest price. Getting a regular meter fitted will help a lot and certainly worth doing. Using low energy light bulbs can make a difference and not the ones which are usually recommended. Those are frequently 15 to 20 watt bulbs which although an improvement on the old 60/100 watt filament lamps are still larger than is needed for many things.

I use one 5 or 6 watt wall lamp in my lounge, I have tried an 8 but that was bigger than needed while sitting watching TV or on my PC. It is on for very long periods of time, partly as a security measure but mainly as a background light. It's behind a ceramic semi solid curved segment with open top and small opening on the bottom, if you imaging a sphere cut into four pieces that describes it's shape. So it doesn't allow much light out but more than enough for me, having a frosted glass light shade would emit a lot more light. I did have to change the light fitting in it as it was a screw in bulb type rather than the easier to obtain bayonet fitting. A bayonet fitting allows less expensive and a wider range of bulbs to be fitted.

I have two ceiling lights which can be switched on if more light is needed.

The bulbs last a very long time, certainly over a year with a lot of use and sip electric like it's some horrible tasting medicine.

You probably already use the low energy bulbs, they are the only things on sale now but most are larger sizes and not needed most of the time IMO. So consider a very low powered background light in the lounge.

The 99p store......saves a penny over poundland for the same things :rotfl: But be very careful in those stores because many things are More expensive than supermarkets. That's how they make their money, sell products with a good markup over regular prices and hope people don't realise.

But I prefer the kitchen roll at poundland than the low price stuff at supermarkets because it's better quality. That Sainsbury's basics kitchen roll is terrible stuff and the Aldi version is not much better. The poundland jumbo rolls are much softer and take up less space.

The Aldi toilet rolls are pretty decent, £1.99 for 12 rolls and it's quite soft stuff too, as good as the regular sainsbury toilet roll at half the price.

diable

Post a photo of the barn conversion sounds lovely.

Sammyantha

diable wrote: »

Post a photo of the barn conversion sounds lovely.

Will do next week when we move in. Only tiny, but yes it is very lovely

Thanks for the tips everyone, these are great :beer::j

Sammyantha

What type of food can i use with the slow cooker? I'm veggie, other half is meat eater but doesn't mind majority veggie meals. I'm looking to save money and wanted to organise a monthly meal plan. Can this work with a slow cooker?

old_trout

hi,
if it hasn't been mentioned yet - Sainsbury sell off their fresh food from 7pm onwards. food on the delicounter is usually half price too.
Definately log on to Freecycle, join about 3 or 4 in your area if you can. i have kitted out my house from them, saving so much money and people throw the most amazing things out !
good luck
deb