30 Ways To Save £1.

Alerted by Sarah and Iona, I have tuned into MoneySupermarket's celebration of the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the £1 coin.  They are offering £30 to every blogger who posts 30 ways t save a pound/money.

Here goes.  My ideas are:

1. Sit boiling - boil food stuffs like pasta and rice for half the time it says on the packet.  Then turn the heat off and let them continue to cook in their own ambient heat for the second half of the time.
2. House swap for holidays.  Five years ago I swapped my house and car with a Spanish family and had 3 fantastic weeks in La Manga.  Accommodation and car hire TOTALLY FREE.
3. Save bread bags, cereal packet innards etc to re-use as freezer/sandwich bags.
4. Use voucher code sites to actively search for vouchers to reduce he cost of a whole manner of things.
5. Put 'wanted' posts of Freecycle.  I usually get what I want.
6. Get rid/sell your tumble dryer.
7. Buy supermarket value/everyday etc products.  The family usually cannot discern the difference.
8. Bulk buy when there are genuine reductions on products you actually need.  For example, last week Tesco were selling my usual bath foam [normal cost 59p] for 17p, so I bought 6.
9. If you have savings, but credit card debt, use your savings to pay off your debt.  Martin Lewis draws an important distinction between'good debt' and 'bad debt'.  He considers 'good debt' to be things like a mortgage and education.
10. Use both sides of printer paper.  At school we are now issued with our own termly supply of paper.  In order to make mine go further, I now re-use and print on both sides.  Moreover, I have started to apply this principle at home too.
11. Leave purse/wallet at home.  I now only take my purse with me if I know that I will need to fill up with fuel or have something very specific to buy that day.  This principle is proving highly effective.
12. Don't go window shopping.
13. If you can, buy what you can online, if free delivery applies.  For example, both my children needed new school shoes.  We knew their sizing and the style they wanted, so I bought them online, with free delivery.  If we had gone into town, I would have had to pay to park, been pestered for a Starbucks etc.
14. Batch cook.  Last night I cooked a wonderful butternut and bacon risotto.  There is now masses to freeze.  Similarly, I have loads of lentil and carrot curry to freeze, sitting in my slow cooker.
15. Use a slow cooker.  They provide delicious hot meals when you come in after a busy day and run on tiny amounts of electricity.  Plus you can make large batches of food, using cuts that take a long to time to cook.
16. However, on the subject of meat - reduce the amount you eat.  Meat is expensive and it is healthier to eat less.  Substitute for lentils, chickpeas etc.
17. Read frugal blogs.  I have found out so many new ways to save money through the blogging community.
18. Shower rather than bath.  This saves money on your water bill, if you are on a meter.  That said, when we do have baths, 3 of us use the water, one after the other.
19. Car share.  A colleague and I plan to do this, as soon as our schedules coincide.  In know others who do already.
20. Get things repaired - don't just default buy new.  For example, the hoze on my Dyson recently split.  I had had it for over a year and assumed it would be out of guarantee   Someone told me to check.  It turned out, it had a 2 year guarantee and they replaced it free of charge.
21. Use Youtube to watch videos on how to repair things.  You will find almost everything is on there.  For example, my son's braces came slightly unhinged at the back.  We found a video on how to re-thread.  This saved the fuel on a journey to the orthodontist.
22. Shop around for tariffs.  I used Bill Monitor to track my actual mobile phone usage prior to re-newing my contract.  I now pay almost £30 a month less for the contract, because I am on the correct contract for my needs.
23. Don't go food shopping with children, if you can avoid it.  Seriously, pester power is real and powerful.  My bill is ALWAYS much cheaper when I shop alone.
24. Take packed lunches, snacks and drinks to work - so much cheaper.
25. If you need to travel by train, and you know you are going somewhere well ahead of time, book in advance.  Superscout and the teenager's dad now lives in London.  They book their tickets online, well ahead of the date of travel.  I have been v pleasantly surprised at how inexpensive the tickets are.
26. Don't pay TV licence by quarterly direct debit.  If you do, you pay a £1.25 per quarter premium [£5 per year].  If you pay monthly, you don't.
27. Grow some vegetables, even if only a small amount.  I have a metre square raised bed and will plant 3 to 4 courgette plants in there.  When the courgettes get going, they will save me real money.  [The bed  itself is made from the sides of my old pine bed!]
28. Don't leave electrical items on standby.  Turn off lights in empty rooms.
29. Use half the recommended soap and conditioner when washing clothes.  I have been doing this for years and no-one has ever noticed.
30. Get to know trusted local tradesmen.  I now use a mobile mechanic to look after my car.  He is so much cheaper than a garage [I have actively compared prices]

So there you have it!  Let me know my frugal friends, what you think.

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