Saving money...any tips?

[Ellewood]

I only buy meat when it's marked down, and cook it straight away (that night). There's 3 supermarkets within a 5k radius from here and a fruit & veg market and there's always marked down meat in one of them. Plus I don't eat meat every night anymore, only 3-4 nights per week so I'm buying far less.

rather than plan meals ahead, wait until you're at the supermarket to see what's on special and plan around that.i also plan meals around what I grow in my veg garden.

Think about what appliances you can live without. I don't own a drier, I hate the things. Easing goes on the line and if it rains on clothes racks indoors. The BOM is pretty accurate with weather so plan ahead if space is an issue. Don't leave things on charge longer than necessary (phones/laptop etc)

Don't go to the Easter show - I know it's hard and unfair, but it will save you hundreds.

only drive when you absolutely have to.

theres no way to save money on wine... It's a must have and the $5 bottles are ****e.

Think about stuff you waste. Do you throw food out? I rarely throw food out, granted its only DS and I here though so it's easy to plan meals, but if you're regularly throwing a lot of food out think about cutting down meal sizes. They can get a snack after dinner if they're still hungry.

Sell old toys if the kids no longer play with them. DS gets good toys, but it also means I get a decent price for them when I sell them online later!

Will update when I think of more...

[Pandamonium]

We switched to shopping at Aldi and changed our car insurance to youi - it was nearly half the price! We also ditched our home phone as we rarely used it and got rid of my gym membership. We plan all meals for the week so that we only buy what we need. Also, a little random, but I found an online supplier of our dogs flea tablets that were so much cheaper than the vet! I wrote down all of our expenses and then went through each and considered if we could get rid of it or if we could reduce how much we were spending somehow.

Me - 30, Dh - 38 ttc #1 since June 2011
natural bfp June 2012 - mc 5.5 weeks; 5 cycles clomid; 2 unsuccessful ivf.

It also often works out cheaper to get a script from the vet and buy your pets meds from a chemist if they are on long term medication

We keep a bowl in the fridge and anything dog safe that doesn't get eaten goes into the bowl. Then they get the bowl plus kibble for dinner each night. They love it and it means we don't throw out food and also save on how much dog food they eat.

We go to Coles at 5.30 most nights and buy up the meat that expires that day, it's usually 40-80% off, then freeze it. All other meat we buy in bulk and freeze

I only buy 3-4 types of fruits each week depending on what is on sale, this week it's grapes, mandarins and red apples

We eat a fair bit of pasta because it's cheaper too

[amyd]

It also often works out cheaper to get a script from the vet and buy your pets meds from a chemist if they are on long term medication

The only problem with this is that the majority of pet medication doesn't have a human equivalent made in the same strengthes. And because you don't get the pbs discount it isn't as cheap as what you would pay for yourself.

[#Mama]

Aldi shopping for general groceries. We go to Coles every now and then if I'm being lazy
We buy things like toilet paper etc from Costco. So we bought one bulk lot for $24 and it lasted DH and I just over six months before we had to get more. Same with paper towel. We bought big tubs of fabric softener ($12ish) and laundry detergent (about $15-20 i think?) at the same time (late last July) and its still going strong.
Some weeks i have lots of veggies left at the end of the week, so I chop them up, and freeze mixed in bags for me to use in the slow cooker through the week. I just have to grab a bag of veggies, dump them in the slow cooker with the meat and stock or sauce. Done. Saves me a lot of wasted food AND time through the week with dinner prep.
We are using our heating already here, so we keep the temp set at about 19-20.

[muzzy]

Wow!! So many awesome ideas!!! How do u set ur washing machines to go at 2am? So many things I will start doing!!!

[amyd]

I buy washing powder in a 20kg bucket from my local stock and station agent - it works out cheaper and I get a free storage container that is awesome for dry goods in the pantry.

[Pinkblue]

Write down everything you spend money on...it's a surprising and eye-opening exercise!

I buy dishwasher powder at Aldi (much cheaper), buy Omo in huge bottles at Coles (cheaper than anywhere else), dog food and advantix online (much cheaper), get meat at a wholesaler, grow herbs, batch cook meals suitable for freezing and have instead of takeaway, come up with recipes from what's in the fridge rather than in my head. I freeze bread for toast. I bake from scratch big batches of cookies & freeze etc instead of buying treats.

Sometimes I'll set the washing machine to start in the middle of the night.

[teenie]

When DH and I are in saving mode we have a rule that if you are going to spend $10 or more on something ( other than petrol or groceries) you have to ring the other person up and tell them. It's amazing how it makes you realise what you don't need. Most of the time I never rang - I just didn't buy.

[kim85]

Put a load of washing to come on at 2am each morning same with dishwasher. Huge saving for us.

How does that save money? I dont get it?

I will start doing it now tho but would like to know how it saves

[bel2466]

How does that save money? I dont get it?

I will start doing it now tho but would like to know how it saves

Off peak energy use?