Dear reader,
I asked you for your money saving ways and the things you do to avoid waste.
You didn't disappoint!
You have some ingenious ideas and I will be publishing these at the weekend.
I have listed some of the things I have stopped below.
I have not been to the hairdresser since last July. I used to have my hair hi lighted blonde in a longish, straight bob.
This cost between £80-£100 every 8 weeks and a lot of conditioning, blow drying and straightening in between. My hair is brown and curly so it was a constant battle.
I got so sick of the reverse skunk look of the roots and my hair never seemed to grow probably due to the bleach. I have now let it grow au natural. I needed a trim recently but just didn't fancy paying £25 for someone to cut a tiny bit off the ends. Big man did it instead and the end result was the same except it was FREE.
I do colour it occasionally due to a couple of greys but only every 2 months or so and just buy a dye from the supermarket.
Eating out is another of my stops to save money. As you know I'm a girl who likes her grub. A big old curry, rice naan and a few vodka and diet cokes is what I like. (Yes, diet coke because you could have an onion bhaji for the saved calories you see.)
A meal out for two as a local curry house with drinks would have been £60 for the two of us.
£60! That's more then my weekly shop now.
We are paying back our debts and have had a couple that have had to be paid now before any fees apply. Both car taxes were due this month as well as the house insurance so we are actually, totally skint this month. The gas is off, except for hot water, we have a few more logs to last us. My car needs fuel so I am driving really slowly. On the good side, we get paid in 2 weeks and the freezer is full for the rest of the month, we just need bread and milk.
Please send me your tips for money saving to go on my list.
Thanks
Sarah x
Hi Sarah
ReplyDeleteI'm in a similar position this month. Two weeks till payday and half a freezer of food. I did an Approved Food shop last night and scored 2.5 kg of tomato paste for 99p which I will freeze in ice cube trays as well as very cheap cous cous and multigrain pasta. I also got some dried milk powder which I use in my bread maker, for custard or if I'm really short of milk I make some up and sneak it into half a bottle of semi skimmed and pass it off as the really thing ! Going to be lots veggie pasta meals on our menu until month end along with leek and potato, cauliflower cheese and carrot and corriander soups. I sometimes serve a small bowl of soup before our main course if we are particularly hungry or cold or both. One of the things I've begun to enjoy is using only 4 or 5 good ingredients in a meal, focusing on flavour and combination. I know what you mean about missing your local Indian meal. It makes no financial sense to be spending huge obscene amounts on a single meal. Once a month we have a take away for one, for £9.95 we get a starter, a main, a side, a naan and a cobra beer. I cook my own rice at home and it feeds the two of us comfortably and doesn't break the bank. I'm still continuing with the hair salon visits as I mentioned earlier. I'm far too grey to stop now but as I also have brown/grey curls and daily battles with drying and straightening I know I'm going to have to give up eventually. Barclaycard and Halifax have good 0% credit deals at the moment for 25 months. I used this method of reducing my debt in the last 18 months by 50% without paying any interest. With this new Barclaycard offer I aim to be debt free in 12 months. You haven't mentioned if you've tried making your own bread yet? I picked up my machine at a car boot for £6.50 and use it every other day. I also make pizza dough and occasionally a fruit or savoury Italian style bread. You can reduce the amount of sugar and salt and make something that tastes special very easy. Not sure if you've tried reducing your laundry powder usage by half and substituting with some cheap soda crystals ? White vinegar is also good at replacing fabric conditioner. I'm looking forward to your published list. I'd be interested if finding out how much most people spending weekly on food per head and also some new lower cost recipes.
Hi Emma,
DeleteI have got a bread maker and we have tried a few times but the bread feels really heavy, sort of cake like but not wet, more stodgy. Any advice. I use a ver small amount of washing liquid but I do use cheap conditioner, just for the smell. I might have a go at making my own clothes washing liquid.
Thanks for commenting, I don't get that many, so get excited when I do!
Sarah x
Sarah
ReplyDeleteHeres my recipe for an everyday loaf. I buy whatever flour is the best deal, sometimes organic and Doves Farm yeast.
Everyday Bread
3 c white flour or 2 + 1brown
1.5 tsp dried yeast
2 tsp dried milk powder
1 or 2 tsp salt
1 or 2 tsp sugar
2 tsp olive oil
1& 1/8 c warm water
Do not put salt and yeast touching in pan
Use basic white setting med crust. Takes 3 hours.
No fuss, no phaffing and good every time.
With just the two of us we usually only get through 2 or three loaves a week. Give it a try and let me know how you get on. I use the same mix for pizza dough too.
You know I'm thinking of starting my own blog soon.
Have a great weekend x
Hi Emma,
DeleteI will try your recipe and let you know. You should start your own blog, it's fun and its a great way of doing a diary to look back on. I love getting comments and reading other people's. I will join you immediately of course. See SFTs blog below, she got me started.
Let me know.
Sarah x
Have you tried shopping from Approved Foods?
ReplyDeleteSft x
Hi SFT,
DeleteNo pressure but I really miss your regular posts. I know we are all busy working and stuff. I have tried AF and have the cous cous to prove it! Thanks for thinking of me and popping in. Am still in awe of you being mortgage free, you've done so well!
Much love
Sarah x
Try to check your utility bills and see if you could make some arrangements to lower the rates every month. You may try energy-saving tips (they are very popular nowadays) so you won't have to shell out the same or more cash for electric or water bills.
ReplyDeleteI just had a look at a number of your older posts about ideas for saving money. I'm sorry I can't implement all of them here...groceries are too expensive here even on sale. But I would recommend making your own laundry soap (I have a post in my archives on how to do it though you would use a different brand of bar soap). It is really simple and works fine unless you can get very inexpensive laundry detergent (which we can here). It is still much cheaper to make it.
ReplyDelete