In these times of austerity, let's stop WASTING money!

[5129frederick]

Now I'm a pensioner, I've become very much aware of how one wastes money on an almost daily basis, and how, with a little bit of forethought and careful planning real savings can be made almost effortlessly.  

Let's start with a newspaper.  We buy three papers - the super, sensational, soaraway "Stun" - more of a comic actually, The E**ress, and the Daily "Wail", both of which carry virtually identical stories.  Once I've read the Wail, it'll take me no more than ten minutes to skim through the other paper, because they're virtually identical in content.  The Sunday papers are about £1.50 on average, so by cutting out just one paper a day, I'm actually saving a PHENOMINAL £288.80 PER YEAR - MORE than enough to cover the car tax and leave a bit more for petrol, ON JUST ONE ITEM!  I'll be putting that money aside so it'll be there, ready for when the tax comes in.  Same goes for cans of Coke - a real killer for diabetics like me.  Even buying multipacks, I go through about £7.00 per week.  The only reason I drink it is because it there, in the fridge.  From now on, I'll have a cup of tea.  We've all got computers - that's obvious, but how many of us write out a shopping list and Google the items for sale in different supermarkets?  I reckon on saving at least £40.00 p.c.m. by being frugal and still live healthily.  I'm going to enjoy shopping, because I'll have time to diagnose how much I'm saving.  Fred Victor Mildrew     

[bitsnknots]

We have a fruit shop in town - our one and only fruit shop which charges the princely sum of £1.54 per kilo for bananas.  Go a few yards further down to M & S and bananas are £0.68 per kilo.  Needless to say, I don't get bananas from the furit shop.  We go to A*di once a week and get quite a few items in the Super Six and the cost of them is around £0.69 which I think is good.  

[ilove2patch]

Don't buy newspapers. They are full of lies & rubbish. Any news you are interested in is on line for free!

[leoleoleo123]

Newspapers are yesterdays stories.. i read online for free..

I buy reduced foods and freeze them for another day.

I use all of the food i buy... if, by any chance there is any left , the birds have it, or the dogs!

I use soap and water or some home made potion for cleaning, unless i find a product on offer somewhere..

i could go on...

[chickengrandma-2008]

Did you know you can order on line from the pound shop and it's free delivery for £20 or more.  I got some TGel shampoo on here for about a fiver, I got four bottles exactly the same one for (obviously )£4.  I ordered the £20 worth and it was delivered in about 2 days.  I was well pleased with everything I got!

[ilove2patch]

Well I didn't know that! I wonder if they deliver around here?

[5129frederick]

DO go on!  We're all in the same boat.  This could be an interesting thread.  Today's front page news was dedicated to Mick Jagger's girlfriend, somebody not many people outside the fashion world had even heard of.  Owed £M5.6.  That's nothing to the likes of Mick Jagger or Paul Mcartney.  There must have been some other reason behind it, but why waste six pages on the item?  Saturday's papers are even worse - they're just full of essays and women's stories.  As you say - anything noteworthy is in the main page anyway.  All yesterday's news.  

You're talking to the converted when it comes to buying freezer food.  I love nothing more than making up lambs neck stew with split peas, lentils, pearl barley etc. in a pressure cooker and putting it into freezer for a rainy day.  I always make sure I mark and date the items.  Chicken pieces are another source of goodness.  The only things that don't freeze well are potatoes and carrots.  Being tubors, they're full of water by the time you've cooked them and so when they freeze they kind of disintigrate once thawed out.  Carrots fare slightly better.  And I just love a gammon knuckle. 

[guardpig]

Over 3 years ago we had a holiday in the wilds of mid wales.  Papers were a good few miles away down some very narrow trcks.  We didn't buy a paper.  Internet? - get real.  We didn't miss the papers and haven't bought one regularly ever since.  

Now since last January I have been checking insurance prices.  So this year I double checked the house insurance.  Spread over the year the dearer quote of the 2 cheapest came out cheaper!.

[fishpieface]

I have no idea how The Sun can be classified as a newspaper!  It is a collection of

the most inane drivel and does nothing whatsoever to inform readers of what is really

news, complete and utter nonsence, often offensive too.  Goodness knows who its

target market is, as you say Fred, more of a comic and not a very nice one at that!

I rarely buy a paper, as many have said, if I want to know something that's news I

look it up on the internet or watch bbc news.

[bitsnknots]

We get the Express but my mum reads it from cover to cover but I very rarely read it.  I can't stand the likes of the Sun and I agree, it is more like a comic.

[captainbovine]

I can't remember the ;last time I bought a newspaper, can't stand the things.

we buy food on reduced if we get to it on time, so many others are after it now! and of course it goes in the freezer. sometimes we don't need to do a weekly shop so we save about £50 that week.

[xtf70]

If you really feel the need to buy a newspaper (or specifically, an oldspaper) why not read the i - it's only 20p a copy

The few times I buy papers is when my stock for lighting the fire is getting low and I can't blag yesterday's copy from the local cafe...

[5129frederick]

One morning I picked up a discarded copy of the Sun as I got off the train at Cannon Street.  By the time I got to the barrier, I too had "read" it.  However, I chose to put it where it belonged - in the bin!  

[chips-and-brown-gravy]

I haven't bought a newspaper for years, I don't see the point.  News is on TV and the internet for free, usually more up to date too.

I never buy meat at the supermarket - I buy in bulk at the butchers then portion it up and freeze it.

Veg from Aldi or a local business that supples hotels and also welcomes the public - far cheaper and the variety is unbelieveable, 8 different sorts of potatoes last time I was in, from the usual King Edwards and Reds to pink fir apple, a long banana shaped one and a blue one, they have everything and are very cheap and excellent quality.

I don't think I waste money on much - I was bought up to know the value of things and to shop around.  My only indulgence is my car and while I am working and can afford it I'm going to enjoy it - I smile every time I see it, and get a huge amount of pleasure from it. When I retire it will probably have to go, but not until.

[myraandjim]

Where we live we have a 6 mile journey to the nearest shop so don't often bother to get a newspaper and seem to manage on just one trip a week to replenish stocks - saves a fortune, when I lived in a town I used to shop almost for something to do. I am also fortunate enough to have my own chickens and ducks for eggs and a large veggie patch to grow my own. I find bulk meat from the local farm much cheaper than the supermarket, fish from the local harbour is cheaper and fresher, although I realise how lucky I am to have all this. I also make my own bread and yoghurt which is cheaper and I know what's in it. Now that I am on a pension I am turning into the original scrooge!!

[2017clearout]

Fred, if you're a Mail reader, read it online for free. 

A trick my parents have done since they retired is writing down every single thing they spend in an old diary (they just make sure the date is right): you'll soon identify where you are haemorrhaging cash, and it can be quite scary to realise what you're "wasting" on a weekly basis.  They only have their state pensions (and for reasons lost in the mists of time, my mothers is only £1.21 a week, despite having always worked - presumably something to do with married woman's allowance or something) so they have to be careful- especially living in a very rural area.

Instead of popping into town whenever they need something (nearest one 12 miles each way) they store up errands, so that they're only paying one lot of petrol and one lot of parking tickets - perhaps once or twice a week.  And they try to time filling up the car with when they're on another journey (nearest petrol station also 12 miles away).

They are devotees of the pound shop for things like cleaning products and shampoos (though keep an eye on supermarket prices, as sometimes you get more for a pound in Asda).

Shopping at Asda (when I was a kid, we shopped at Waitrose; when I went to school, we shopped at Sainsburys; when they first retired it was Tesco) - there's no Aldi or Lidl anywhere near them.

Avoiding multi-buy offers unless it's actually the quantity they wanted in the first place - better the money in your pocket than a stockpile of washing up liquid or a waste of fresh food that's not freezable.

Making full use of the freezer for leftovers.

If you need 500g of meat for a recipe, and it comes in 300g packs, just buy one and pad out with vegetables.

Don't buy junk: you don't need crisps or biscuits, and if you buy them, they'll only get eaten - so save your money and your waistline by leaving it on the shelf.

Save up all "found" money (loose change, unexpected lottery win, fiver in a winter coat etc) in a jar, and use for either treats or something you're saving up for: if you stick it straight in there, you don't notice it (according to mum) and avoid temptation by sticking it into a separate bank account every so often.

If you can't afford it now, if the credit isn't interest free, save up if at all possible (clearly a bit difficult if it's the fridge, but if it's a bigger tv, good advice)

Make full use of your OAP status: and don't be afraid to ask where discounts aren't clearly offered.  (And be really chuffed that the cashier hasn't asked you first if you're a pensioner - hot tip from mum!)

Remember to take advantage of no longer having to race to work, and getting home exhausted,  and smell the roses - you get out of the habit of getting pleasure from simple things some times.

That's all I've got for the moment - I had a very long chat with them about money and how it goes nowhere yesterday, as I was so shocked by the cost of my weekly shop: for the first time in ages, I didn't buy any cleaning products or those things that always bulk the bill up but are incidental - and found my typical weekly shop (fresh fruit, fresh veg, a chunk of Cheddar) came to just over thirty quid.  Three and a half years ago (before I moved up here) it was £14.  At a more expensive supermarket.  So they got together to tell me lots of money-saving tips - some of which I knew they did, some of which don't apply to me (sadly, a long time before retirement-  though I'll never be able to afford to stop work :-D) and some of which are handy.  It makes me really sad that my hard-working, elderly parents have, like so many, to bend over backwards like this to make ends meet- ut my father's been ill, and his medication makes him very sensitive to the cold, so cutting back on the (oil-fired) central heating isn't an option.  But I'll be passing on these other tips to them - thanks, all 🙂