Hello Ladies

I'm not the only one who is WTT because of money. I need to save £4k! This is how much savings we need to have to cover our 2 mortgages for the time I'll be off work on maternity leave. So every penny counts when a baby is my prize at the end! Ha ha! How do you save money?

I am going to:
a) stop buying my lunch at work! 3 days per week at almost £5 per day soon adds up!
b) stop sending hubby to the shop for chocolate! Again £1-2 per day!
c) Drive more economically! No more pedal to the metal for me
d) Drive less! Walk more! It can help with my weight loss, as well as save me some pennies!

These I think are my main money saving tips to myself! So what are yours!

My DH has taught me a lot about saving money since we got married. He's amazing. Things I've learned:

1. When you know you will probably need something like new work shoes in the near future, start shopping sales in advance and don't buy until you find an amazing price.
2. When you find clothing staples that you might need within a year or so on sale pick them up. Then save them until what you have is worn out. Between 1 & 2 you should rarely to never have to buy any clothes full price.
3. Keep an idea in your mind of what groceries are a good price where and shop the circulars. When you are near whatever grocery store has the best price on some item like milk, stock up if you can!
4. Favor free/inexpensive fun things to spending money - picnics in the park, hiking, free museum exhibits, etc.
5. "Make do, make it work, or do without!" wherever possible
6. Avoid impulse buys. If you really want/need something take time to research the best deal first. By the time you're done all that work you'll have an idea if you really need or want it.
7. If you've bought something you end up not needing, return it, no matter how inexpensive it was.

Obviously different things work for different people, but these tips help us have more savings!

My saving tips
- plan your meals before going good shopping and only buy the things you need ( I halved my food cost doing this)
- buy most things online ( I find you can buy s lot of things cheaper online amazon etc
- if buying online buy through a cash back website
- change utility suppliers for better deals (although this is hard work)
- pay bills in advance to save is telephone offer discount for paying 12 months up front
- visit martins money saving expert website - lots of ideas in there
- get in some craft stuff and make birthday cards ( cards are so expensive these days)
- try to have less outings/ swap for walks and free stuff

Ermm that's it for now I'll keep thinking

I REALLY like this one! My shopping has probably doubled in the last few months! At one point we were spending £40 - £50 per week, and now it's over £70 every time! I've made a note of what we have on the freezer (mince, sausage, chicken breast + processed foods) so this week I'm just gonna buy potatoes & veg, and use what we already have! Even if we just have 1 cheap week, it's still gonna be money in my pocket! Shopping day on Friday so I'll let you know how I get on!

And I'm gonna buy things in the sale! I need some new boots for the winter, so I'm gonna go out at the weekend and get some and put them away! Will save me paying £80 or so in November!

Thank you ladies some great advice there!

I dont have much advise apart from, if you make the changes to save the money, make sure you put away the extra you save. Without keeping tabs on where your money goes, you'll soon spend it on something else, and then you'll have saved hardly anything.

Hope that made sense

Things we're doing:

1) Trying to cut back immensely on eating out. I make a weekly menu on Thursdays for the next week, we buy only the groceries we'll need to make our meals as listed, and that saves us grocery money. Then we try to stick to the menu 100% and not cheat by eating out if we can help it.

2) I've cut back on eating out for lunch. Ugh, adds up so quickly!

3) No more candy bars or chocolate at the convenience store. Again, adds up over time.

4) I put myself on an 'allowance' for every month. I get a certain amount of money for 'play' and I can use it to buy anything I want, and hubby won't question it. It's a modest amount of money. Necessities like hygiene related, BCP, etc weren't covered under that, just getting nails done, highlights, music, Coach bags, whatever. lol. This has helped a lot, since we leave near the outlets I was spending a LOT on unnecessary items. Having an allowance has taught me to be cautious.

5) I've been selling things on ebay and craigslist - things we don't need or use. I don't ask for a lot, but every little bit helps!

doing online food shop and stick to the list, cant be distracted by the offers then

I've really been cutting down on impulse shopping and buying unnecessary treats (ie Starbucks, chocolate, cookies, eating out).

- Make sure you're throwing some money into a savings account monthly, some place where you can't access it easily and spend it.
I've made accounts for House savings, baby fund, christmas fund and I try to throw a little in each every paycheque.

I saved £20 on my shopping this week! I'm really pleased with myself for doing that! I'm going to put away £25 per week into a savings account, and add to it whatever is left at the end of the week.

try mysupermarket.com too, I've not used it but my neighbour has and you add stuff to your trolly and then mysupermarket.com finds the best deals between the major player & then from what I understand of it, mysupermarket.com sends your shopping list to whichever store is cheapest, ie tesco