find a penny pick it up....find 99 more you got yourself a pound!!!!! (Saving tips)

Member Name: finnsmummy

Product:	Saving tips
Date:	21/06/09 (35 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: saves money and can make you feel good

Disadvantages: its not allways that easy

Since my husband left the army a few years back so we could spend more time together as a family we have had to make massive cut backs.
Not only big cut backs but also paying of 5 years worth of debts ,only making minimum payments each month really is the worse thing you can do ,infact using credit is almost certainly the worse thing to do.

I have cut back our shopping spend from £150 a week (just for two adults and a baby!!!! crazy ) to £50 , we would be quite happy in the past to spend over a hundred pounds at Tesco's and not even think twice about getting two or three take outs a week and then popping back in to Tesco's a few more times to get the odd thing. Food, clothes, baby toys, presents, holidays, random ''treats'' and looking back we were complete and utter loony's.
I can't blame the credit cards it was our doing and we knew what we were doing but it was a little bit of plastic and it could buy you what you wanted when you wanted it.

So on to my money saving ideas ,most have probley already been posted on here but hay I will see if there's any you haven't seen ......hopefully....

* Use only a quarter of your washing up liquid by dispensing a small amount (say two washes worth) in to a nice glass bottle and fill the rest with water, it lasts a lot longer and looks nice on the window sill better then plastic bottle.
Also the cheaper washing up liquids are just as good as the higher priced ones.

* Use very cheap biological washing powders to clean ,you can buy a huge box of it in Tesco's for just over £1.60 and is great for doing floors ,toilets baths ect and also this is really not bad for washing your clobber in, I sneaky but it in to a Persil box and my husband is none the wiser.

* The old favourite, old shirts/clothes to make cleaning cloths for again cleaning toilets floors ect, and then you can just throw them away.

* Peoples birthdays, I always make a home made card its surprising if you get a few bits in ,card, glue ect for a few pounds how long it lasts and how many cards you get out of it and who doesn't like the home made touch ,also I have a large supply of tiny cupcake cases about the size of a 50p each and you can buy large pack for really cheap in pound land ,just make simple sponges (or use Tesco value sponge mix cheap and tasty) and blob some chocolate on top (again Tesco value cooking chocolate) or a sweet and people love it.

* Jelly (one for the kids or the inner child) I buy tesco value jelly at 7p and make up a whole batch ,I put it in individual Tupperware's and they last the whole week in the fridge great for my son as a snack or after dinner and you can add small bits of fruit too. Yummy and cheap.

* Make do and mend ,I love making old tired objects in to something I am proud to show of , surprising what a lick of paint can do to things and give them a new life.

* Charity shops ,you either love them or hate them, myself I love them always have done and you will be surprised at the bargins you can get. Just last week I got a brand new pair of quicksilver trousers for a £1 and a roxy top for 50p BARGIN!!!

Once washed and rid of the trade mark charity smell they looked great, and who knows where there from?? No one it's your little secret.

* Good old eBay need I say more? Get rid of that old junk because one mans junk is another mans treasure , I know the listing fees can be a bit of a bummer but I sold a whole bunch of my sons baby items just sitting in the back of his wardrobe and got over a hundred pounds of 5 items.

I hope these have helped someone out there I have many many more which I will write up another evening , good luck with your money saving
Finns mummy
:)

Summary: make do and mend,fix paint,save