I thought it might be useful to have a thread where we can share money saving tips and ideas with each other. Given the cost of living crisis and how difficult things are financially for many people let’s share any good ideas.
Use the thread however you like.
Remember there is the Rainy Day Fund if you’re in financial crisis.
I definitely recommend the ‘Too Good to Go’ app. Local restaurants, cafes, grocery shops etc sign up and they post when they have unsold items that need to be eaten. They charge a fraction of the price and whatever you get depends on what hasn’t sold that day. As you would expect, larger towns and cities will have more participating businesses but it is worth looking into.
A friend told me about a local ‘food club’ where she got nearly a week’s worth of shopping for £10 including steaks and all sorts of things, donated by shops/supermarkets. Everything was close to its use by date but can of course be frozen. It is worth googling your local area and ‘food club’ to see if you have something similar. I searched for Brighton and found this huge list. Some are for people on low incomes and/or benefits but others are open to anyone. This one is for Brighton and Hove but provides an overview of what may be available in your area: Low-cost and free community shopping – Brighton and Hove Food Partnership
Good thread idea
Just linking my food waste thread as that has some food-specific ideas
Although I am quite bad for buying/making new clothes I don’t need, I also like mending worn out or damaged clothes/other textiles. There are a lot of tutorials etc online for mending all sorts of things. You can also use stuff like Sugru or Fixits (moldable rubber type stuff) to mend shoes or household items.
People shouldn’t have to do this sort of thing, but when I’ve gone through spells of it being tight I’ve noticed that turning the immersion heater off saves a fair chunk of the leccy bill. I only used hot water to wash pots once a day, but reckoned it was costing £30 a month just for it to blast up early doors.
A bit grim, but still worth knowing. Guess you need an electric shower for this to be feasible.
Would boiling a kettle cost more than the immersion for dishes? Slightly shitting myself as our oil heating means during the summer the immersion is the only way to wash dishes with hot water
This is more for general spending and not so much for cutting bills etc (but is useful to see it one place) but I always recommend a log of what you spend. I created a spreadsheet 6 years ago now and update it daily as much as possible. It takes a bit of time upfront but if you stick to it then it can really be useful to see what blindspots you might have.
I’m sure there are plenty of apps now that do this but I still prefer my manual way, so just find a way that suits you. Surprising to see how many people think they don’t spend much on bits here and there but if you are honest and track it truthfully it will really shows up.
It actually makes you think twice about purchasing things you don’t need either.
Also some breweries!
A mate of mine tried a groceries app called Gorillas and said he got £20 off his first £25 order. I’ve not tried it. Just wanted to let others know and see if anyone else had tried it…?
Lots of stuff on there seems very pricey, but other stuff seems fairly priced, so you’ll have to dig about. I think you have to pay a delivery fee on top, but Google says its about £2, so you could conceivably get a load of basics for about £7 I think. Looks like there might be a voucher code to get two deliveries at that.
Dunno who’s behind it. Looks like the food comes from TESCOS. Apologies if there’s some sort of catch.
Yes food comes from Tesco, they even have their own section in the Tesco stores warehouse.
My sister used it, I think they have a big discount on the first four shops and delivery was cheap.
They deliver in 10 minutes or something daft. I’m not sure I completely agree with it, it must be high pressure for the gig workers on bikes, and I can’t imagine they get paid much.
this was a big one for me. had no idea how much i was actually spending on takeaways
I guess the way around that is to tip the driver some of the money you save.
Ours just arrived. Left Tesco within five minutes and was here ten minutes later. The voucher code (LEGEND40) worked, without the tip it would have cost £7. Gave the driver £3 and he said they keep 100%.
Some caveats I’d add:
Overall - dunno/10. Could be a lifesaver if you’re very short until payday, or if you’re ill and can’t get out, etc. I’m against this sort of gig economy stuff generally, but couldn’t have bought that amount of food for a tenner anywhere else, and while I have the choice, maybe others don’t and as a one off it could help.
Weirdly, they sell fags and booze as well. Not sure if they have any limits on what you can spend the coupons on, but you could probably just get forty Marlboro Lights delivered half-price, idk.
i think gorillas and gopuff* pay an hourly wage. there’s probably something else rubbish about it but that’s better than deliveroo and ubereats
*also seem to be doing something like 40% off the first few orders at the moment
actually, quick google and can’t find anything in the uk about how gopuff pay other than the words 
delivery partner
oh god, this too good to go app is mainly showing me bread and other baked goods from the millions of bakeries around me. this could be dangerous. 
Just discovered this whole benefits part of my job I didn’t know about where you get discounts off…everything pretty much, mostly shopping but also things like life insurance and that. It’s not much and some of the big wanker places like sainsbury’s have small print that’s like well you can have 5% off £250 shop in store but online you can only use £50 of that allowance for some reason and must still pay some of the bill with a card not just the discount voucher.
Anyway, all it amounted to today in that case was getting £50 of my shopping for £47.50 then the rest was full price but £2.50 off is £2.50 less for sainsbos and more for me. Other shops seems to be less restrictive though.
If anyone wants any of the vouchers let me know, you just get a code for them, or similarly, if you need to buy gift vouchers for a birthday present etc then you can save a few quid doing it via this system (it’s called BHive).
The deal of the week is 13% off at adidas, but looking at others there’s like 10% off at Ethical Superstore, 7% M&S, 4% ASDA, £8 cashback Abel and Cole veg boxes, 25% cashback on just eat orders, 20% off Samsung monitors. Loads of stuff like that.
TL;DR - if you’re buying anything feel free to DM me and I can see if I can get you a couple of quid off or some cashback or whatever.
One of the offers i can get through work at the minute is 6% off at airbnb (upto max of £500 per time).
Posting this to remind myself to use it before i have to settle an outstanding balance but if anyone else is booking anything through them happy to hook you up!
when i lived in a flat on less than 12k a year i just washed things in cold water and it was fine…yes to electric shower though
I heard a doc about these recently and they’re pretty wild. I think they (and other similar companies) began in America as start ups funded by venture capitalists who are essentially throwing money at a risky prospect.
They have their own stock in ‘dark stores’ and as soon as the order comes in the staff race around this tightly packed unit filling your order in weight order. All these companies are making big losses at the moment though because of the big discount offers like the one you describe to try and elbow their way in to a tough market.
For example, in the US at least, they don’t have a liquour licence, so if anyone orders beer etc then they pack everything else and then the delivery driver/rider has to call via an off licence after leaving with yer groceries, buy the alcohol from there (presumably at retail price?) and then re-pack the entire order mid delivery so that as a heavy item it’s at the bottom of the order.
Seems like a massive gamble whether these companies will still be around in a couple of years - they’re banking entirely on creating a demand for this level of convenience… and for full orders, not just a four pack of Heinekin and a few snacks.
Lidl have started selling boxes of ‘imperfect’ fruit and veg for £1.50. I saw some last week and they looked very good.
Karma is another app similar to Too Good to Go but you can see what food is available.