The Potting Shed

Lizzie · 5 Star Club Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2956

I'm not quite sure where to put this, so here seems good Smile

I don't know about the rest of you, but we're feeling the pinch a bit after the festivities and I think it's a good time to use any money saving strategies we may have. I have a couple of ideas that I'd like to share, and it'd be great to hear everyone else's tricks and tips for saving mo ney and making what there is stretch as far as possible.

So for starters, OH was telling me a while back about a lady he'd heard interviewed on the radio who had amassed nearly £3000 in a year by putting aside any money she saved buying Buy-One-Get-One-Free things in the supermarket. Sounds like a plan to me, so that's what I'm doing - whenever I buy something that's reduced, or free, I put the saved money into a pot at home. So far, I think there's about £25.00 in there.

I'm trying very hard to put a tenner in the pot every Saturday, to start saving for next Christmas. We try this most years and most years, we spend it way before Christmas on 'emergencies' Laughing

I'm keeping a spending diary. I'm really not sure where all our money goes, so this will help me find out what I'm actually spending on what and where I can cut back.

Finally, for now, I'm making a bigger effort than I have been doing recently to make sure we don't waste anything, especially food. Listening to the Food Programme on radio 4 on Sunday, I heard some boffin or other (can't remember who) explaining that the CO2 emitted in the production/transportation and rotting of the one third of the food we buy that's thrown away, is the equivalent to the emissions from twenty percent of the cars in the UK. I don't think I've ever thrown away a third of what I've bought, but now I'm aiming for not throwing any food into the dustbin (except bones - unless anyone can tell me a use for them?!).

I seem to have rambled on a bit Laughing

So, let's have your useful hints and ploys for saving/stretching the pennies Very Happy

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Aqui · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:13 am Post subject:

http://www.frugal.org.uk/

i do some stuff suggested on here. turn off the kettle before it's boiled, buy from chaity shops/ebay, sell on ebay/amazon, try not to waste food, cook things from scratch, fill the oven when i'm using it, turn lights off, turn the tv and dvd off at the mains when not in use (ie - most of the time)... um....
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Lizzie · 5 Star Club Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2956

Fab site Aqui - thanks for posting that.

I can see I'm not going to get a lot of work done today.... Laughing

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mc55 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:17 pm Post subject:

we've started to do shopping lists, instead of wandering aimlessly around supermarkets and we've listed the contents of our freezer so we can plan meals a little better.
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Kathy · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:50 pm Post subject:

I try to avoid any food waste by making burgers or soup from left overs. Stale bread gets whizzed into crumbs and frozen. Everything is cooked from scratch and the only tins I buy are tomatoes and occasionally Whole Earth bake beans.

Most of our clothes, including offsprings, comes from charity shops and "hand me downs" from friends and family.

The heating is used minimally, extra jumpers and socks are used if it gets cold.

Presents are made, as are cards. We use old cards to make new and are also lucky to have a friend that works for a HUGE card company so we get freebies of old stock (which are supposed to go in the bin).

Our biggest expense are the cars of which we have 2. One is going to have to go in exchange for a smaller one, we'll save on everything there.

We grew some food last year but should be much better this year as we'll get the whole season in.

I don't use soap, I wash my hair then use the lather to wash the rest of me!!

I'm obsessive about switching off plugs at the wall, led lights run away with a fair amount of money over time.

The electric kettle is used to fill up the large one which sits on the stove ready for instant use. How many times do you boil the kettle then go away and forget you wanted tea then come back and boil it again? I've heard that storm kettles are great things too.

I'm sure there's more we could do so I'll check that website out!

Cabbagepatch · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:24 pm Post subject:

Some really good tips there, I think we all know lots of them but its good to have a bit of a kick up the wotsit!

I try to be very frugal with leftovers but think I could do better. However, anything we don't eat either goes in the dogs, cats or chickens so nothing to the landfill.

Kathy, I have a storm kettle which I used to use everyday, seem to have got out of the habit the last year or so ( Confused

). It is great, a few bits of paper and one or two twigs and within minutes, boiling water.

Libby · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:41 am Post subject:

I too want to make my housekeeping money go further, it seems to run out sooner and sooner!
Out of my housekeeping I transfer £50 a month into a building society in a town I very rarely go to, and there it stays till Christmas, and yes it did cover ALL of Christmas expenditure food booze, pressies the lot. I had no overdraft or credit card bill this year!! Well chuffed. Very Happy

I want to buy better food, meat and veg etc. My veg garden was very poor this year, and I sadly admit I have not watched Hughs programme, why? Because my youngests main food is Chicken, she is very fussy due to Aspegers mainly chicken, potatoes, cauli, bacon, white bread, eggs (mine Very Happy

) sweetcorn and some salad leaves, no tomatoes or onions only raw carrot. I think thats it. Oh yes and tuna! As you can see it is very hard to make a menu!

But I shall follow this thread with interest and open mind Very Happy

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Lizzie · 5 Star Club Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2956

Agreed mc55, meal plans and a proper shopping list make the shopping loads cheaper I find. I write a meal plan for a fortnight at a time (so I don't have to do the dreaded supermarket shop very often!) and I find that as well as saving money, it also makes it a whole lot easier to make sure we're eating a good, balanced diet.

Our vegetable garden wasn't particularly productive last year (not for us anyway - the resident rabbits seem to have had a field day Rolling Eyes

) but it should be better this year. We still have plenty of leeks and beetroot in there, which I'll have to think of a way of using....

Libby, we're aiming for the same sort of Christmas savings as you this year, but it's a tenner a week in a pot - I might transfer it to a building society when there's enough in there, but I daren't set up a DD for it at the moment....!

Another small tip - add a bit of water to the end of shampoo/shower gel etc. bottles and make sure you get the last drop of 'stuff' out - my OH is dreadful for saying a bottle's empty when there's two or three more 'servings' in it!

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When I married Mr. Right, I didn't realise his first name was Always ...