The Money Diet

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Highmileagereindeer

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Do you have any money saving tips to share, now that prices seem to be on the rise again? Any area, not just horses.
I have cancelled Virgin Media and started using a router with a SIM card. Gone from £30 per month to £12, and it plugs into the TV just fine.
Have also gone round the house stopping up draughts and installing secondary glazing film on the windows. Big difference noticed.
Reduced Old Dobbin's Graze On, and bulked out with oat chaff. Graze On now lasts two weeks instead of four days.
Switched from Speedibeet to beet pellets. One bag now lasts five weeks instead of two. Same stubbs scoop of dry to five of water per day.
 
Highmileagecob said:
Do you have any money saving tips to share, now that prices seem to be on the rise again? Any area, not just horses.
I have cancelled Virgin Media and started using a router with a SIM card. Gone from £30 per month to £12, and it plugs into the TV just fine.
Have also gone round the house stopping up draughts and installing secondary glazing film on the windows. Big difference noticed.
Reduced Old Dobbin's Graze On, and bulked out with oat chaff. Graze On now lasts two weeks instead of four days.
Switched from Speedibeet to beet pellets. One bag now lasts five weeks instead of two. Same stubbs scoop of dry to five of water per day.
Click to expand...

Speedibeet has got really expensive, hasn't it? Over £20 a sack I think. One of my local feed shops sells Omega quick soak, looks identical to Speedi but only £12 or £13 a sack.
 
Get the silver reflective insulation to pop behind your radiators to reflect heat back in the house rather than absorbed through the outer wall. I buy my meat from butchers as although it seems more expensive, it is actually cheaper as you get more meat once cooked as IME the supermarket meat shrivels up far more.
 
Highmileagecob said:
Do you have any money saving tips to share, now that prices seem to be on the rise again? Any area, not just horses.
I have cancelled Virgin Media and started using a router with a SIM card. Gone from £30 per month to £12, and it plugs into the TV just fine.
Have also gone round the house stopping up draughts and installing secondary glazing film on the windows. Big difference noticed.
Reduced Old Dobbin's Graze On, and bulked out with oat chaff. Graze On now lasts two weeks instead of four days.
Switched from Speedibeet to beet pellets. One bag now lasts five weeks instead of two. Same stubbs scoop of dry to five of water per day.
Click to expand...
Buy items like shampoo etc when on offer, and stock pile to last until they come back on offer. Freeze fresh veg, saves it going off before can use it all. Buy bars of soap as last much longer than liquid soap.
 
I’ve been making soups for the freezer. So far I’ve got some broccoli and Stilton lentil and tomato and butternut squash and sweet potato in there. Feeding ponio grass nuts to give him a small treat while the others get feed. He loves it! Loves anything to be fair!
My resolution is to get into selling on eBay. Really need to raise some cash to pay for my share ponies. If I ride two days it’s £45! Cheap of course compared to buying a horse but still needs to be found.
 
It's also worth having a clearout to see if you can sell some stuff you no longer need or want. It might not raise a lot, but every bit helps.

If you eat meat, you can also save a bit by going veggie 1 or 2 nights a week, and/or bulking out meat dishes with much cheaper pulses to make them go further (lentils to bulk out mince dishes works really well).

Also, early to bed with an electric blanket can allow the heating to go off earlier.

I've also turned the shower down to as cool as I can comfortably bear (still warm, but not hot). Done the same with the heating when it's on, just wearing extra layers and have cosy blankets.

If you're on a water meter, turn the tap off while brushing teeth, and flush the loo every 2nd time you go instead of every time (except when it's a number 2).
 
The other thing I've done is change to a different electricity contract and load shift my energy usage. I was on economy 7 which gives a cheap rate overnight which was fine for the water heater and washing machine but not much help for cooking and heating during the day. However I'm now on one that splits the cheap rate over 3 blocks, has a standard rate for most of the rest and one peak block. I turn the heating on and use the cooker at these times. There is a peak rate between 4 and 7pm that you have to be careful to keep consumption low at that time but with timers I can do It. My bill is down on cold snaps last year and I'm actually using the oven more
 
Buy cheap heavy curtains and hang infront of every door you want to keep heat on your side. I have one in hall at bottom of stairs and bathroom, so downstairs warm, stairs cold, bathroom warm. Before I bought curtains I used wool blankets, I hung them on cheap expanding shower rails, and attached with metal rings and clips from IKEA. I also stapled fleece blankets inside existing curtains in the bedrooms to make them heavier and more draft proof.
Fitting TVRs to every radiator in house and only heating the living room and bathroom has cut my heating bill by half.
Swear by my new electric furry throw for the living room, toasty warm under it for hours and costs pennies to run.
To good to go app is excellent you really can eat well for very little if you can collect in time.
 
Brilliant tips, thank you! I have spent the weekend blocking up draughts, and fitting secondary glazing film over the tired double glazing. I just need to work out a way of insulating the loft hatch - the ladder slides over it, so I might have to staple some reflective stuff to the hatch.
 
Kunoichi73 said:
Check offers in the supermarket. Normally big boxes of things are better value for money than small ones, but if they've got special offers on the small boxes it can be worth buying them. Just work out price per 100g or 100ml.
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In the big shops price per unit/volume/weight is printed in teeny tiny print on the shelf label to save you the arithmetic.

Aldi 240 tea bags are currently more expensive per bag than the 160s.

Buy everything you can in Aldi. Tomato soup is as good as (some think better than) Heinz and half the price. Everything is cheaper except "price matched" items.
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With supermarkets you need to know what is cheap where and sign up to the loyaltye fabric softener programmes. Sainsbury's and Waitrose are good at giving you personalised savings on what you regularly buy. Lidl does to a point but tends to give me a discount the week after I've bought something like fabric softener when I don't need more for a few months.

Tomato soup - I saw one of those comparisons recently and the one from Morrisons basics/essentials range came out top and was the cheapest. Haven't tried it as don't really buy tinned soup.
 
If you know that your wellies only last about a year then buy in the summer when they are cheaper and don't use until needed.

Similarly buy fly rugs in the autumn and winter rugs in the spring. Similarly with other seasonal stuff - buy out of season. I've just bought a couple of bottles of the fly spray I use in the summer as they are 25% off.

I also know exactly how many bottles of non-champagne fizz I use per year to cover b'days, xmas and NY and I stock up during january when the bottles not purchased during the xmas period go on sale.

An alternative to hot water bottle (and safer) is a wheat bag that heats up for 1 minute or so in the 800W microwave which is cheaper than the number of minutes of leccy used to boil an electric kettle. Also as mentioned above if you have a gas hob it is cheaper to boil a kettle on a gas hob (or woodburner as mentioned already) than it is to use a leccy kettle.
 
Sealine said:
M&S have an electric hooded blanket (Oodie) reduced from £79 to £17

www.marksandspencer.com

Electric Blankets at M&S

Cosy up at night with a modern electric blanket from our bedding collection. We've got super-warm mattress toppers equipped with handy dual controls at M&S
www.marksandspencer.com www.marksandspencer.com
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That looks lovely, does the cable unplug from the blanket?
 
If you want to buy something that is not a first necessity, wait for a week and then reconsider if you sill want/need it.

If you have a tendency to get take aways, have some easy food like frozen pizza that you can pop on when you are tired/don't have time and would normally get the take away.
On frozen food, frozen veg is usually not very expensive and has very good levels of nutrient if it was frozen directly after harvesting, so can be a good choice on a budget.
 
When making a mince meat based meal, sub it in 50/50 with a tin of lentils - cheaper and no taste difference
Download Airtime Rewards, its cashback linked to your debit card and it takes money off of your phone bill - albeit my phone bill is only £13pm, I haven't had to pay it a single month in the last 12.
My vet offers 7% discount if you call and pay over the phone the day after the visit
Buy everything you can out of season eg: turnout rugs, fly masks, fly spray, show prep stuff
Rather than spend twice for summer/winter jods, just wear a pair of long johns under your summer ones.
 
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