What are your 3 best top money saving tips?

Cut plastic tubes of hand cream etc in half when you can't squeeze any more out. The bottom half will fit into the top half and you will be amazed at how much is left that you can use. It's clever of the manufacturers to design these tubes so you can't use all the contents unless you perform surgery.

My favourite economies are:

1 Only eat out with a voucher eg 2 for 1, when a friend and I split the bill

2 Grow whatever you can - herbs and salad on a windowsill, veg in containers. I grow a lot of soft fruit, which I love, andwhich is very low maintenance in the garden. The surplus is fuss free to freeze.

3 Don't go shopping for entertainment, even to bookshops - my personal downfall

4 For any big spend - that's anything over £20 in my book - always have a cooling off period before splashing out

I always hover around the reduced section in the Supermarket - why pay full price when you can get it for less - put excess in freezer. I don't get tempted by BOGOF's unless I really think I need 2 cauliflowers!
I buy some clothes/household goods in TKMaxx - really nice stuff at a good price.
Since J died, I tend to live in the kitchen which has independent heating, and leave the rest of the house on a very low temperature.
I intend to educate myself in 'selling' on eBay - I have so much excess 'stuff' which I could mke a bit of money on and use towards my visits to Oz.

I started keeping my bath water and using it (with a bucket) to flush the lavatory - not primarily to save money but for environmental reasons.
We don't have any problems with shortage of water here in the mountains, but it might be a good idea where some of you are living!

1. Subscribe (free) to Martin Lewis's website: www.moneysavingexpert.com for useful tips and sometimes access to vouchers for restaurants etc.

2. Use Ebay (sparingly) for presents. You can find pretty jewellery that doesn't look cheap but is. My favourite is dichroic glass. Ebay is good for toys as well - my DiL trawls through and sends me the links to things the children would like for Christmas and birthdays.

3. Don't click 'one click' immediately on Amazon. Use your wish list until you are really sure you want the book. The price may go down - and always check the Kindle Daily Deal - the book you want might come up for 99p!

Anagram - !!

1. buying children's toys in charity shops and car boots, in order to build up a stash for the GC at our house

2 trawling round different supermarkets of bogoffs and reduced prices on all the staples

3 managing ISAs and savings accounts properly and moving them as soon as introductory savings interest rates drop

the corrolary (sp?) of course is what do we WASTE money on:

Well, - lettuce (we never use it after the first few leaves), bacon - I buy it and then remember how much indigestion it gives me, then it ends up going past sell by, way past sell by, and a dongle, it costs me £5 a month, I really must cancel it.

Thanks glassortwo tried for the year but they get snapped up so quickly. Used freecycle in both directions for years. Can't access at moment as my new email is incompabtable with their system.

But it seems these days so much is dependant on them, the net etc. that anyone who does have all these mod cons is limited.

My tip is these living lettuce which are only £1 and give you salad greens for couple of weeks.

green I misread your post and thought you'd said you'd got rid of your cat 8 months ago!

I think mine would be

1. stay in bed
2.stay at home
3.if I do venture out leave purse at home

am feeling very chastened as I felt I managed my finances quite well

Cook and split up the mince for Chilli and Rissoles = 4 main meals
Do my own pastry and cake baking
Ask for gift vouchers for xmas/birthdays so I can buy my favourite shampoo's/toiletries.
Plus loads of others but I would be here all night.

A bit pathetic I know but I used to throw away lettuce, coleslaw and fruit juice all the time.

Now I wrap lettuce in tin foil and honestly it lasts for ages, try it.

I make coleslaw as and when now I have the right equipment.

Fruit juice makes fantastic ice lollies for the GD.

Simples.

1. Get rid of the car and use the bus (especially if you have a bus pass).

2. Buy good quality clothes from charity shops and ebay. Sell unwanted items on ebay. (Donating to charity shop those things you can't sell).

3. Always cook from scratch using slow-cooker when possible, and freezing left-overs.

We got rid of our car 8 months ago. We have reaped the benefits so much.

You are right, glass. It was lovely to be able to buy my own home again, having had to rent for nearly five years because I had lent my daughter all the proceeds of the sale of my first house in France. I looked at lots of flats before I decided but I just knew this was the one when I walked into the living room and saw the sun streaming in through the French windows.
When I have been away, it feels as if it is welcoming me back!

use a shopping list but loiter around the reduced section-Monday afternoon is a good time to pick up weekend reductions in supermarkets

1. Grow vegetables

2. Keep chickens

3. Keep careful accounts to track where the money is going and therefore where savings might be made

Think that last one is actually the one that matters the most.

margaretx
Bidets also make great footbaths.

Haven't got enough to worry about the saving of...so no problem.

great your flat is your little piece of heaven

I couldn't live in my flat if I did not have the French windows opening onto my south facing balcony, and lovely views.
I have had big houses, with land and stables, when my girls were at home, but now I want to be able to close the shutters, turn off the electricity and swan off to NZ for six weeks at a time. My daughter has about two acres out there and I will eventually be buying a mobile cottage to put in her garden.
I had a house with a pool and a garden when I first moved to France, but I found there was always something that needed doing, and I am no gardener.

Not just horses for courses, but different needs at different stages of your life. I can now walk straight from my door up to the ski slopes with their fabulous views so I never feel claustrophobic (although I have always felt uneasy in enclosed spaces and always sit at the very end of the back row in the cinema so that I feel I can make a quick exit. The one time I really am trapped is in a plane, sometimes for 14 hours, and for some reason that never bothers me!)

I make home made bread and soup, will only go to the shops if I need milk, as I can live out of the freezer when fresh and cupboard items run low, and I never buy newspapers but read everything on line, including Jamaican and Washington Times, Al Jazeera, UK papers and anything else that takes my fancy.

Oh Greatnan I'd rather stay at home all year than live in 24 sq Metres. The price of that travelling is too high.
Different lives different, different propriorities! But you are much admired here on GN and I am much too ordinary and also claustrophobic.

I save money on clothes. for example I buy over- large reduced linen trousers, cut the sides and sew them up to my size. Designer clothing for 10 Euros.

We only shower twice a week as we have a bidet. ( best decision I ever made in this house)
We eat lentils and offal and all those things that tase so good and that no one eats anymore. The cat likes liver as well.

I am too old to care!

I like Greatnan's top tips, but I couldn't stop spending on makeup completely, or I wouldn't be able to face anyone on my travels....