Money saving tips!

[Princess x 2]

I am constantly trying to think of ways to save some pennies. Every little is a bit more to my WDW trip

Anyone have some tips on cutting grocery shopping? I spend way too much and some of my friends seem to manage on £50 a week for the family!

Also maybe some cheap and cheerful recipes and ideas for dinner ect?

I have decided its time to become more thrifty as i would like to be able to return to the magic often. C'mon guys give your best tips and recipes

 

[natalielongstaff]

have a look at how many branded products you buy and see if you can switch to own brand stuff

 

[Astrid]

moneysavingexpert.com has some great tips on how to save money on shopping and the like. I'm always looking on there for hints and tips.

Try doing basic shopping at Lidl or Aldi, I've found some brilliant bargains there and taste wise there's no difference, some things I've bought are even better than at Tesco and the like.

 

[T16GEM]

moneysavingexpert.com has some great tips on how to save money on shopping and the like. I'm always looking on there for hints and tips.

Try doing basic shopping at Lidl or Aldi, I've found some brilliant bargains there and taste wise there's no difference, some things I've bought are even better than at Tesco and the like.

I was going to say that - there are a lot of discount codes on there too that you can use when ordering your shopping online. My Mom gets a lot of stuff from Aldi and you are right there is no difference. The way I look at it it's the same stuff that you would buy if you were on hols in the Med or something so whats the problem? Much Cheapness too!

 

[Booknut]

My sister is a stay at home mum and she has given me lots of tips. Firstly, I never, but never, buy anything anymore without consulting www.hotukdeals.co.uk

I usually order groceries online as it saves temptation in the store, plus I usually get tesco deals like £10 off an £80 shop using discount vouchers from hotukdeals. They have discounts for almost every place you can think of (sadly not Disney though!). People also post in store deals there to so its a good way to save money.

Also, register at www.quidco.co.uk. It's a shopping portal, again I never shop without going through there first. You get back anywhere from 3% to 10% if you shop through them. So if you want to buy something at John Lewis you would search for John Lewis on quidco and go to their website from quidco (once you've logged in) and it will keep a record of how much you spent and John Lewis will give back a percentage of what you spent. I made over £120 last year through quidco. Got over £45 for switching gas/elec providers!

It's not much but these little bits help I'm also a fan of ebay for buying and selling and have done well there as well with saving bits and bobs.

As for recipes, all I can say is that cooking things from scratch is much cheaper than buying ready made stuff (and tastes better too).

Lastly, if you can get membership Costco is good for lots of things. We go 2-3 times a year and buy things we use a lot like detergents and baked beans etc, cheaper to buy in bulk. Their cd's/dvd's are usually a good price too.

Food wise, to save on take-away's, we like having pizza so I usually make up some healthy pizza bases and freeze them, then once a week we have pizza and we each put on what we want. It's fun and much cheaper than ordering in.

 

[DisneyJo]

One tip I use all the time is collect any coupons you see in newspapers , magazines etc as Tesco and Asda will redeem them even if you haven't bought the product. You can only hand in 5 coupons per shop and they must all be different also they can't say Tesco on them. Today I used 3 coupons that were printed on the inside of the coco pops box, saved me 90p, I know it doesn't sound much but it's better than nothing

 

[arieljasmine]

Some great tips here. I like Morrisons because they have so many buy one get one free offers, you can stock up on things cheaply. I also like their own brand stuff which is so much cheaper than the famous brands (Frosted Flakes, yum!) Good luck with your saving

Laur's

 

[T16GEM]

Tesco will also accept vouchers from other supermarkets, i.e you can use Sainsbury vouchers there and they will give you discount.
Every little helps!

 

[Princess x 2]

Great tips everyone. What about some recipes?

 

[wideeyes]

If you go to the supermarket at the end of the day before closing you can sometimes get meat cheaper for use the next day.

 

[DisneyJo]

For recipes albeit American ones but I'm sure it would give you ideas Disboards Recipe link

 

[Maza]

For recipes albeit American ones but I'm sure it would give you ideas Disboards Recipe link

so of the recipes on the US DISboards are bizarre....thay seem to live on cheap processed food. Lidl and Aldi sell shed loads of veg and fruit for a lot less than the other supermarkets...it wont last for a week but is good for a few days of for cooking and freezing.

 

[DisneyJo]

so of the recipes on the US DISboards are bizarre....thay seem to live on cheap processed food. Lidl and Aldi sell shed loads of veg and fruit for a lot less than the other supermarkets...it wont last for a week but is good for a few days of for cooking and freezing.

I've never actually looked there just knew of it so linked it

 

[Minniespal]

Some excellent tips there

 

[queenarmadillo]

First off I would look at your receipts over a couple of weeks and see what your big ticket items are--the items that cost most per unit. For meateaters, that tends to be a big one. Pre-prepared food also (readymeals, sliced veg etc.) hits hard. My personal big ones are drinks and cheese and chocolate(and fresh veg, but I dont count that cos its healthy and necessary).

You also want to work out where you used all those items--did you buy 3 bags of spinach only to throw out 1.5? Did you cook 4 chicken breasts but have 2 family members leave half of that meal? Did half a block of cheese get used up for snacking?

Having identified your big costs (and assuming you think your current dietary plan is fairly healthy), work out how those meals can be replaced with something cheaper (such as non-namebrands, doing more of the prep yourself to eliminate prepackaging costs). Some meals (e.g. steak in bluecheese sauce with fries) are never going to be cheap, and in the interests of cost cutting can be removed from the menu entirely unless the ingredients happen to be on special offer one week or it is a special occasion. Replace these with cheap easy recipes.

My recipe recommendations:
Stir fry: Noodles are cheap (dried, not precooked straight to wok nonsense), and veg tends to be leftover. Dont buy pre-packaged stirfry mix. If you want to use 3/4 of an onion in a meal, do so and put the remainder in the fridge rather than using it to finish it off. Same with all the other veg you use through the week. Buy a pepper or a pack of beansprouts to supplement if you dont have enough leftover veg. Fry veg then mix in sauce from a jar or even just soy-sauce. Very good for getting your 5 a day, and eliminates waste.

Pasta: Is a cheap way to bulk up your diet. My current cheap recipe is penne with arribiata sauce and brocolli. Boil brocolli and pasta in pan together. In seperate saucepan, fry garlic and chillis (the stuff pre-chopped in oil often tends to work out cheaper than fresh, but isnt as nice so up to you...) with a finely chopped onion. Add 2 tins chopped tomatoes and simmer to reduce. Fresh basil good to add if you have a herb garden *(and if you dont and are trying to save money then maybe you should have) but not necessary. I left out quantities for garlic etc because is very much a matter of personal taste.

Final tips--if youre cutting back on meat to save money and concerned about protein, lentils (and other legumes) are brilliant for that. A simple dal with naan bred is a quick, cheap nutritious meal (plus lentils freeze better than pasta etc. if you want to batch cook). Drink water or squash rather than juice/pepsi. If you snack between meals, look at cutting that out or changing it to something cheaper. Once every so often (whatever works for you) have a clearout week where you dont go grocery shopping, and plan your meals using items you already have in the cupboard / fridge / freezer. If you buy sandwiches / lunchables etc. for lunch, stop it. Make your own the night before.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Another good website for money saving tips while shopping is

paidtoshop.co.uk

this site is particularly good if you are into collecting Tesco points which can be converted into 4 times their value in deals and these can be used for days out, holidays etc.

Another good one is

pigsback.co.uk

basically you get "piggypoints" for clicking on ads and quiz questions, plus if you shop through pigsback with any of the listed retailers then you get points. The points add up and can be exchanged for vouchers etc. I have made about £50 in vouchers for Pizza Hut during the past year through pigsback.

There are lots of these types of sites out there which give you money back for shopping at certain places. You can have a look at these but they are all very similar.

quidco.co.uk
mutualpoints.com
freefivers.co.uk
topcashback.co.uk
cashback-rewards.co.uk

etc etc.

There are also sites such as yougov.com which pay you to complete surveys from time to time.

You can sell your unwanted stuff on Ebay or on Amazon, or do a car boot sale.

Shop around for your energy suppliers, insurance suppliers, mobile phone suppliers etc - some of the cashback sites pay you for just getting a quote.
Always do a comparison if you are planning on buying something - check out kelkoo.com which compares the price of the same item at lots of different retailers. I did this for my camera and saved about £80.

Have a look at moneysavingexpert.com for loads of tips on saving money!

Good luck with your money saving.

 

[luchamouse]

We were real cinema addicts (how expensive is a trip to the cinema these days? OMG!) We've really scaled that back, and if we do go we go during 'kids club' hours for half the price and we also smuggle in our own snacks. I've had it with paying €5 for popcorn that cost 30c to make.