What it's worth being frugal about?

Towser

Meal plan, and stick to it so you do not get tempted. Then cook from scratch where possible, always doubling up so you have one for the freezer - cheaper on cooking fuel.

Cook meals which are mostly veg, adding meats in small quantities for flavour. Works well with pasta and risotto dishes.

Write down what you finish each week and use this for the bulk of your shopping.


Do your shopping online if you can. You can do your order at the beginning of the week and order things and amend it up to the day before delivery. You won't be tempted to impulse buy, and if you pick your delivery time cleverly it will cost you £3/4 which is less than the cost of petrol/parking/bus fares.

mysupermarket.com is great, you can do your shopping on there and it compares four supermarkets while you are doing it and you click on the cheapest at the end

Go to M&s after 4.30 and they start marking the food down - lots.

Look at websites such as Love Food, Hate Waste for some ideas. I freeze literally everything.

Try all the 'value' items. Some of them are just as good as branded, others aren't, but the best way to find out is to try once.

Declutter food cupboard - use up things that have been in the cupboard for ages as the basis of a meal.

tuskel

Mistral001 wrote: »

Can you disclose to the rest of us where this apple tree is so that we can all get free apples?

Heh, at the bottom of Wellington Road in Yate, but I doubt it's much help to you

Towser wrote: »

Do your shopping online if you can. You can do your order at the beginning of the week and order things and amend it up to the day before delivery. You won't be tempted to impulse buy, and if you pick your delivery time cleverly it will cost you £3/4 which is less than the cost of petrol/parking/bus fares.

Try all the 'value' items. Some of them are just as good as branded, others aren't, but the best way to find out is to try once.

Declutter food cupboard - use up things that have been in the cupboard for ages as the basis of a meal.

I do agree with the value items - I usually try to sneak one into every food shop, so that I could try it. We already buy lots of own brand things. Most of them come from exactly the same factories as expensive brand items! And I should do that decluttering more, I'm especially bad with the freezer. I think I might have some dodo in there somewhere... Tonight's meal: freezer stew!

However, I do not agree with the online shopping. I do make a shopping list and meal plan, and I stick to it. If other members of my family want treats, they can put one or two things into the trolley. I had to do online shopping few months ago, when OH broke his left foot, so we couldn't drive, and I noticed several things: I can't choose the best before/use by dates on meat, veg or anything else, the packaging on fresh fruit and veg is total overkill, no yellow labels (which I always go through to see whether something is worth it in the shop), generally both meat and (especially) vegetables - not pre-packaged! - are cheaper to buy from the real shop, AND I can actually see (and choose) what I get. So as soon as OH got better, we went back to normal shopping.

tuskel,
sincerely

Towser

Big companies may have lots to learn from the cheap and cheerful improvisation which is commonplace in the developing world, particularly India. I wish they would pass on some of the secrets of what is now being called Frugal Innovation.

Frugal innovation is a way that companies can create high-quality products with limited resources. Once the preserve of firms in poor markets, Western companies are now seeking ways to appeal to cost-conscious and environmentally-aware consumers at home. With an estimated trillion-dollar global market for frugal products, and with potentially huge cost savings to be gained, frugal innovation is revolutionizing business and reshaping management thinking.

Do you have DIY frugal ways to share with us that would be worth it?

tuskel

Towser wrote: »

Do you have DIY frugal ways to share with us that would be worth it?

This should really be a new thread...
But here you are: I recently made some draft excluders for the charity shop (I'm thinking of making one for myself too) from a really funky-looking single quilt cover that looks a bit too washed to sell, and some old bath towels (both from the charity shop rag bag). I rolled the towel up so that the shorter edge is the length of the roll, then sewed a tube out of the quilt cover and stuffed the towel in. Hand-sew shut and voila! A new draft excluder that cost nothing, apart from about 20 minutes of my time.

tuskel,
sincerely

VfM4meplse

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

The best frugality is waiting and finding the good quality item that you would like to have at a good price in a sale or in a charity shop or at a boot fair.

Agreed. I often wait for new titles to appear in the chazzer, the books I want to read always turn up eventually!

Rainy-Days wrote: »

"You spend a bit, you save a bit; you buy cheap and you buy twice, but at the end of it there's no point in being the richest one in the graveyard".

So true, you come into this world with nowt and leave with nowt too, so either spend it on something worthwhile whilst alive, or make sure others benefit from it when you're dead.

I read this book recently, which confirmed a lot of what I knew and made me a great deal happier about my frugal ways :

Towser

Thank-you for the recommendation that was definitely worth it.

Happy Money offers a tour of research on the science of spending, explaining how you can get more happiness for your money. Authors Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton have outlined five principles—from choosing experiences over stuff to spending money on others—to guide not only individuals looking for financial security, but also companies seeking to create happier employees and provide “happier products” to their customers. Dunn and Norton show how companies from Google to Pepsi to Charmin have put these ideas into action.

Along the way, Dunn and Norton explore fascinating research that reveals that luxury cars often provide no more pleasure than economy models, that commercials can actually enhance the enjoyment of watching television, and that residents of many cities frequently miss out on inexpensive pleasures in their hometowns. By the end of this “lively and engaging book” (Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness), you’ll be asking yourself one simple question every time you reach for your wallet: Am I getting the biggest happiness bang for my buck?

I will be looking out for it in the chazzer.

VfM4meplse

Towser wrote: »

I will be looking out for it in the chazzer.

Thats where I got it from (beams proudly)

Towser

What is a reasonable time to spend in your chazzer hunting grounds to buy all your purchases you need?

I usually spend three hours per week for each buying trip. That is for four family members, dog, house - you name it. Anything useful I can get my hands on.

What do you think?

I definitely think it is worth it.

VfM4meplse

Towser wrote: »

What is a reasonable time to spend in your chazzer hunting grounds to buy all your purchases you need?

I usually spend three hours per week for each buying trip. That is for four family members, dog, house - you name it. Anything useful I can get my hands on.

What do you think?

I definitely think it is worth it.

Difficult to say, except my chazzer purchases tend to be wants rather than needs. I allow myself an hour or so every month and in that time go through all the chazzers along a given High Street.

GreyQueen

If I'm passing a chazzer and not in a hurry, I will give it a quick shufti, probably 3-5 minutes. I have a well-established home so there are very few things which are needed, it's more a case of wants.

Such as wanting certain books which aren't in the library system. I got a novel I'd been searching all over the place for in a 20p box outside a chazzer last month, and it made my week.

I guess if you're shopping for multiple household members/ a lot of gear, you need to take longer. I have my chazzering built into my everyday rounds, such as getting a bag of books for £1 on my way to the library this morning. I'm already reading the first of them.:p