First tip is to enter competitions with large cash or voucher prizes like this one.
My second tip is the one I use most frequently and it is all to do with food. In fact I have so many money saving tips when it comes to food and shopping that this is actually where I save the most money.
In our house we have to shop weekly to keep up with the constant demand for fresh fruit and vegetables, milk and bread. We don’t however need to do a big shop very frequently and you can pretty much eat from my freezer and cupboards for at least a month even just before I do my big shop. In fact we proved this point when Elizabeth was initially diagnosed last year and I had to spend over a month in the hospital with her. Hubby and Alison managed to eat quiet well from the freezers and cupboards and there was still a lot left over when we finally got out.
The weekly shop is done by Hubby. There is a reason for this and it is not laziness. You see I impulse spend and I will buy offers and extra bits even when we don’t need them. Mostly because it is nice to have nice things but I can quickly spend an extra £20 on stuff we didn’t need. Hubby takes a list and apart from when he forgets something on that list there is never much deviation and he doesn’t even look at other things that are not written down.
My big shop is done online and I tend to do it every six weeks or so. The first thing I do is go to Google and search for discount codes from the supermarket. £10 off a £50 spend can be a godsend especially if you can find two supermarkets offering that sort of deal. My big shop can cost anything from £100 to £150 depending on how empty the freezer is getting so if I can find a few shops offering a big discount to new customers then I will split the shopping between them.
New customer deals are based on your email address so make sure you register a new account every time you shop using these vouchers. If you have your own domain name just make up an email address. Yesterday I used money@zoecorkhill.co.uk but I have also used admin, sales, suckers and even Katsuma which is the name of one of our kittens. You don’t actually have to create the email address just remember which ones you have used on what site (a spreadsheet comes in handy for this)
Your next step is to only order what you need. The easiest way to do this is to Meal Plan, just roughly what you will be eating over the next month. Take out any products you already have in your cupboard/freezer and work out what you need. Don’t forget toilet roll, cleaning products and hygiene products which will usually be available at a discount if you are not bothered about which brand you buy. As I wrote in a previous post using a site like mysupermarket.co.uk can help you find out which supermarket would be the cheapest for big items like toilet roll and washing powder.
You can also save money by using local fruit and vegetable retailers either at a market or a deliver to door service. Supermarket prices for fruit are ridiculous and you can always buy them cheaper elsewhere. I have also found that Aldi and Lidl also do cheaper fruit and vegetables if you don’t have an independent retailer close by.
Moving away from food there are so many ways to save money from ensuring that if you do use credit that it is interest free, making sure your savings account has the best interest rating you can get and that all of your utilities are on the best price plan that is available. If you are getting on a bit like me you also need to start thinking about your pension.