Where do I start saving money??

ClaireLR

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone can give some advice as I don't know where to start with this money saving malarkey!!

Basically to cut a long story short I'm doing a DMP with Payplan which is going fine, I pay £89.50 a month and all my bills are allocated for. What I want to know is what can I do to cut down on shopping bills/utilities etc to increase the amount I pay back to my creditors, and reduce the time I will spend paying my debts back? The things I already do are cook my own meals and freeze them instead of buying ready meals, buy cheaper cleaning products, buy my friut/veg from markets as i find this cheaper than supermarkets, my gas and electricity are on a prepayment meter which I have been told is more expensive so am now looking into changing this.

This site is so huge that I don't know where to begin looking!!

Does anyone have any tips for a newbie please??

mollyjak

Go to MoneySaving Old Style as you will find lots of meal ideas and general tips. Gas and electric are on another thread but can't remember exact name but would be easy to find.
Other than that it is worth the time to explore.
Freebies is good as well to email for samples etc.
I've only just discovered deals with Tesco which I found out about recently.
Hope that helps and good luck

frugalpam

ClaireLR wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone can give some advice as I don't know where to start with this money saving malarkey!!

Basically to cut a long story short I'm doing a DMP with Payplan which is going fine, I pay £89.50 a month and all my bills are allocated for. What I want to know is what can I do to cut down on shopping bills/utilities etc to increase the amount I pay back to my creditors, and reduce the time I will spend paying my debts back? The things I already do are cook my own meals and freeze them instead of buying ready meals, buy cheaper cleaning products, buy my friut/veg from markets as i find this cheaper than supermarkets, my gas and electricity are on a prepayment meter which I have been told is more expensive so am now looking into changing this.

This site is so huge that I don't know where to begin looking!!

Does anyone have any tips for a newbie please??

Have a look here - there are loads of ideas and links to get better deals on utilities etc. Also, you could look at the Home, Work and Play board - tons more ideas there too!

Good luck,
Pam

PS you'll soon get addicted to money saving, like the rest of us!!

*zippy*

Hi Claire

I think the best thing to do rather than get bogged down with it all is do one thing at a time.

Have you posted a SOA? If you post one you will get lots of advice on areas you may be able to cut back. There is a sticky at the top of the page by southernscouser that shows you how to lay it out and what to include.

If you are not ready to post one, write out your monthly budget, make sure you include everything, its worth keeping a spending diary to see where your money is really going. You can then see areas where perhaps you are over spending and Martin has articles in the menu on the left for saving money on utilities, phones etc.

I think Ebico are worth looking at if you are on prepayment as they don't charge extra for it, but do compare with others to make sure you get the best deal

http://www.ebico.co.uk/

The old style board is great for saving money on food and definately worth a read. Sounds like you are already doing well, but you may pick up some tips.

I also found Martins book very useful. Your local library may have it.

zippy x

ClaireLR

Hi,

Thanks for the replies so far I am currently working on an SOA to post here, sometimes you just get so used to spending a set amount on certain things that it becomes the norm and its always to have another pair (or a few hundred!) look over your outgoings to see if any changes can be made. I am certainly going to borrow Martin's thrifty book that seems like just the thing I'm looking for, and will start ploughing through the site to see what tips I can find!

One thing that I find with this site is that its full of useful information and set out really well but for a newbie like me its just knowing where to start!!

Thanks guys x x

*zippy*

Its worth getting both books if you can borrow them, the Money Diet and Thrifty Ways.

zippy x

D&DD

Hi Claire one thing a lot of us do for starters and many of us persevere with is to start a spending diary..list every penny you spend in it and keep your reciepts too and its surprising (and often a little scary) to see where some of the pennies go :eek: speaking of scary I've just seen the time!!:eek: What am I doing still up :rotfl:

lynzpower

a really good place to look is the "great eways to cut back sticky" at the top of the page"