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hi all,

just wondered if anyone wanted to share any money saving tips they have started to do whilst on a tight budget ie, shopping, cooking, where all the best deals are?

Try shopping fortnightly rather than weekly for your food and genearal household items. I did this myself and saved about 25% on the bill.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

Hi there
When minced beef etc is on offer I buy a lot and make a big pot of spag bol and freeze it in single portions.Saves time, money and tastes the same after freezing, also do the same with shepherds pie, would work with chilli concarne.
I also buy the basics stuff from the supermarket if able, some not nice but things like the washing powder is ok and a huge box is less than a small one of the well known brands.
Buy one get one free on things like teabags and stuff I use a lot.
Iceland tend to have a lot of offers, and also places like home bargains and poundland for some things, also wilkinsons have a lot of reductions so I always have a quick walk round. ( last week got four dinnerplates and dessert bowls total for the lot was £1.90)They were reduced already and then had 75% off. Wilkinsons do this a lot.
I also every so often stop buying freezer stuff until the freezer is nearly empty, gives you a chance to defrost and also finish things off.
The only thing is to be careful not to buy for the sake of it only buy the things you use or need.

Ang

Hi all

Being single I find the biggest problem is throwing stuff past its sell-by date away. Over the last few months I have become an expert at spotting bargains. I stop off at Asda on my way home from work because they put all the reduced products out at about 5.30pm. Even if they are on the sell-by date I can freeze them and this way I get to eat a piece of steak every so often or stock up enough for the next 2 weeks. I always check out the deals in Tesco but dont buy for the sake of it. Perishables like salad and bread are bought in the smallest quantities and I never pay the full price for a bottle of wine these days. I find wine tastes even better when you pay £3.00 for it instead of its normal price of £6. For red wine drinkers I can recommend Don Darius which is Spanish and costs about £2.85 in most supermarkets.
I can buy 4 cans of Strongbow and they will cost me 40p less than a pint in my local pub!!

In the past I always used grooming products such as Lynx but now quite happily use Wilkinsons own brand deoderant etc.

I look forward to hearing other ideas.

Regards

Dave

Would def recommend supermarkets own brand cleaning products! all the same stuff at a 1/4 of the price.

Check out money saving expert .co.uk they havelots of great ideas on the forum!

brill ideas keep em coming. x x x

i love salads but it doesn't last long[:(] which supermarkets have the cheapest ok cleaning products?

would have to agree with the bear.
tesco red wine, quite simple really, red grape, 14%, £2.99 - easy peasy.
what you having.......hic,....oh pardon me!
have also started chucking my odd change into a large whisky bottle, surprising how it mounts up.
tesco own brand is ok for some things, mrs torch cant get on with cheap washing powder etc, false economy she says, who am i to argue!.


Aucto Splendore Resurgo.
(1 down, 59 to go)

our off licence the local do 3 lovely bottles of named wine each week for £9.90 so thats not bad either! i find the asda by me reduces all its meat on a wednesday afternoon at 2.30 and i get lots of bargains we also have a shop called the meat factory and stock up there very cheaply, i can't use the cheaper brands of soaps or washing powder as my kids have sensitive skin and the little one has eczema, but do find the asda has very good deals on named soap powder and stock up well on those, especially having 3 kids, we also have freezer shop called cool trader and they have all the named brands very cheap especially bags of magnum ice lollies 6 for a pound.
kerri

Please view my blog at: http://scaredkez.blogs.iva.co.uk/

I find Sainsbury's cleaning products are about the best own brand ones. I can't have cheap washing powder as it makes me itch and the same with most cheaper toiletries. I bought Tesco value shower gel once and spent the whole day scratching!

Our shopping bill is a bit higher as I can't drink milk, and soya milk is a lot more expensive, especially as I don't like own brand ones! There are a few things that have to be named brands - ketchup, cereal and baked beans especially!

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present - a gift to make the most of.

View my blog at http://skippy13.blogs.iva.co.uk/

Hi
Tesco,s value range is great value and if you can live with walking around a supermarket with your trolley full of value products then you will save a fortune.Cheap tea and coffee is just horrible though.
regards

Andy Davie
IVA.co.uk Spokesperson and site manager
(aka Neverending)

Please check out my blog: http://andydavie.blogs.iva.co.uk

View my profile here:
http://www.iva.co.uk/andy_davie_profile.asp

Hi
Any tips on cheap value holidays?I have a week off in august and thought about trying some cheap accomodation in cornwall.All ideas welcome.
Phil

I'm not sure if you will be able to get cheap accommodation in Cornwall in August, but I don't know about camping. A few of us on here have done (or in my case will be doing!) one of the Sun holidays. I know it's a bit late for this year, but it might be worth thinking about for next year. There is a thread on here somewhere - maybe Admin might be able to post the link?**

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present - a gift to make the most of.

View my blog at http://skippy13.blogs.iva.co.uk/

** http://www.iva.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2545 regards, admin [:)]

I can't comment on the tea and coffee Andy as I don't drink either, but I do know that own brand peppermint tea is nowhere near as nice as Twinings or Tetley!

One thing I must say about Tesco Value - don't ever buy the toilet roll!!!

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present - a gift to make the most of.

View my blog at http://skippy13.blogs.iva.co.uk/

i'll second that with the toilet roll skippy and asda's value one is the same, it costs more to buy them in the long run, especially if you have children who eat it lol, i am sure mine do, we go through that many, of course we won't go there again,lol
kerri

Please view my blog at: http://scaredkez.blogs.iva.co.uk/

Aguise totaly agree about the tea and coffee some things you cant beat the known brands but iceland do a lot of teabags buy one get one free, at the moment yorkshire teabags 100% free and also tetley.Sainsburys gold roast coffee granules are much cheaper than gold blend but taste as good and I am a fussy coffee drinker. Some of these things you just have to give them a try if no good then at least you tried, if they are ok money saved from then on on that product.
Skippy I get told off by the old man for buying sainsburys cheap loo rolls.
Ang