Cutting costs - where do you even start?

[charlesr]

LOL @ your custom title.

And the time you open up by not watching SKY could be spent figuring out ways to earn extra money.

There is a fair amount of good advice on moneysavingexpert for cutting costs. Some better than others.
Ones to focus on are: house insurance, breakdown cover (decent cover can be had for ?35 for a couple!!), landline calls especially to mobile phones (dial a code before the number for big savings if you make lots of calls).

[Brad]

What a coincidence. Me and the missus sat down at abut 4 today to discuss how to save money. The instant fix is about 20 items up on eBay lol. Expect to see a bunch of my PS3 games on here shortly too.

The food planning seems like a good one. If I can kick this heroin habit too we should be ok.

[ETC]

You could look at your car costs, I was(am) in that boat my car is a ?110 year to tax, ?350 yr insure, ?100 yr aa(wtf) and 38mpg. I'm changing to a Toyota aygo for ?1k but for that outlay my tax drops to ?30, insurance to ?209 screw the aa and 61mpg maybe a downgrade would help also if you have a cracking blender/food processor you can save a fortune making your own stock, soup, tomato/pasta sauces and (really high end machines only) ice cream, posh coffee etc etc

[EvilBoris]

I wish it oat me ?300 a year to insure my car! Try adding 1k to that!

['Press Start']

Good quality Chicken fillets from the butchers are not pumped with water. The ones I get are nearly 40% thicker and they have the 'mini fillet attached'. Sharpen your knife, put your hand on top of the chicken and then slice the chicken in half so you end up with 2 thinner breasts. You just doubled your breasts! If you can cut the unhealthly stuff out then do, or maybe when planing meals plan a treat night. Veg from the green grocer will also give you more for your money. Cook Stews that last for 2 days, maybe a pasta dish with chrizo, peppers, canned tomatoes etc etc that lasts for 2 days. Have a rotating 3 weekly food plan. I would not want to cut the quality of the food I eat (if you can help it) but you can certainly make it go further with the right dishes.

Cut Sky, never had it, never will. Use 40D, iplayer etc to increase viewing choice, Join Lovefilm for your movie fix.

As Charles says tell family about the situation to hopefully save over Xmas.

Sorry to hear times are hard. As Matt said all it will take is interest rates to rise and quite a few people will be in trouble.

[ETC]

I wish it oat me ?300 a year to insure my car! Try adding 1k to that!

what the hell do you drive a tank?

[ETC]

Buy one of these

http://www.johnlewis.com/Vitamix_c2_ae/Brand.aspx?tmcampid=38&tmad=c&s_kenid=67a2aaff-50f9-2e88-8ac4-00004cf06e77&s_kwcid=40x649888

They are expensive but since I got mine about 8 months ago I must have saved thousands like tonight I put 2 carrots, celery, 16 cashew nuts, a tomato, a chicken stock cube and water in it 6 mins later I had the exact same soup covent garden sells and cost to me was about 30p for 2 people it's also the same machine innocent/Starbucks etc use plus it makes flour, rice milk etc

[Fader209]

Like others have said use the interwebs to get your fix of television, this also works for music with programs like Spotify Free etc. Games wise you can borrow/swap games with friends if you fancy something different to play, you don't even have to sign up to a renting service that way although it is possible to get LoveFilm free for a few months in certain deals.

With the food you could look at how much you are spending especially with stuff like kids cereals (that stuff is crazy expensive at times) so instead of getting the favourites every time instead buy whatever is on offer, that goes for everything when shopping. Make the most of vouchers too and if something is very cheap then buy it up and save it.

[charlesr]

You could look at your car costs, I was(am) in that boat my car is a ?110 year to tax, ?350 yr insure, ?100 yr aa(wtf) and 38mpg.

heheheh and here was me thinking this was the new car you had changed to thus giving savings. I was impressed.
I dream of ?110 tax with ?350 insurance and 38mpg is some sort of unatainable nirvana. I get excited about 26mpg.
Can I have your old car?

[ETC]

heheheh and here was me thinking this was the new car you had changed to thus giving savings. I was impressed.
I dream of ?110 tax with ?350 insurance and 38mpg is some sort of unatainable nirvana. I get excited about 26mpg.
Can I have your old car?

Coming from a scooby I very much doubt you would want it it's only a hyundai plus although made in korea I'm pretty sure mine was made in north Korea as it feels like I have the power of about 3 oxen carrying ploughs when I try to go up any hill

[eastyy]

well i have been soo used to having a reduced pay (long story but helping out my dad ) this is what i have learnt

Food...dont go overboard know loads of people who buy so much stuff and alot of its wasterd...plan out the week with what you will need and buy only that and no more

Insurances would say when there up for renewal shop around around for the best deal possible

Stuff like broadband/sky/phone again try and get the best value package as possible

Electricty dunno how it works in england but here again we try and find the best deal

Credit cards would say go for a 0% interest deal like for money transfers....i have found that a life saver while i was off work due to ill health (of course still have to pay it back but at least can be spread across a year or two)

[JazzFunk]

For food (amongst other stuff) shop at stores like Jack Fulton, B&M and Home Bargains. B&M in particular can be disgustingly cheap. 500ml bottles of Pellegrino for 29p, Purdeys Elixir Vitae for 59p, got a decent-sized bag of KP Marmite cashews for 39p yesterday (!), plus you get tons of weird n' wonderful quality obscure foodstuffs that would cost infinitely more in specialist shops (made some absolutely cracking curries/chillies with ingredients sourced from these places). Plus, HB and B&M are cracking for pop n' sweets n' crisps, and you can often find obscure, champion booze for way below big supermarket prices (B&M seem to like selling Polish lager cheap, for some reason).

Not just that, you can get ridiculously cheap 'basic' stuff like pasta, rice etc. from ASDA and the like but if you get a lovely, cheap, foreign sauce from B&M to go with it, then it can turn out to be dynamite.

Poundland. 90% of the stuff is - granted - tat, but amongst the other 10% you'll often find quality stuff that is vastly marked down, plus milk is a quid, and the Kodak 'Xtralife' batteries are well decent at ?1 for six. Four cans of pop for a quid.

Cut Sky (it's mainly rubbish) and download stuff instead. Don't buy any more games until you get through your backlog, or at least reduce the amount of new games you buy (like, allow yourself one full price game every two months).

Turn off lights that don't need to be kept on. eBay stuff you don't need, Gumtree clutter that gets you down. Got a mate who uses Gumtree to buy broken watches/PSPs/DSes for peanuts, he mends them and flogs them on, he's pretty industrious, plus has a 'jeweller's monocle', which makes him look cool but titty.

Charity shops. Know people have a certain opinion of them but they've been a goldmine for me. I haven't sold any yet 'cos I wear them, but as a hoarder, I've amassed 30+ pairs of jeans, primarily Levis, at least a third of them completely *brand new*, all for ?5 or less. I have seen certain pairs go for ?70+ on teh Bay. Suikoden 2 for a quid. PC games are nearly always ?1-?2. Spent a fiver on the coolest leather coat I've ever owned, not long back.

Also, to echo Speedlolita's Sainsburys suggestion, I'll recommend hanging about around the Morrisons chicken counter around an hour before the shop closes. There'll be lots of Polish people, but you'll be able to snag hot chickens, pork pies, chicken wings, chicken breasts, sausage rolls, all HOT and all for ridiculous prices, like ?1 for a f*cking hot, whole, entire roast chicken! One pound!!!!!!

Trouble is with 'big shops' is, though they're convenient, you'll actually be buying a lot of stuff you don't need, often at higher prices than elsewhere, just because it's all under one roof. If you get the chance, try shopping around.

[Dogg Thang]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the responses and the tips. I need to really scour your posts in detail and write all this stuff down and go through it all suggestion by suggestion. Yeah times are tough for a lot of us, I guess. Don't mean to sound too down about it - I'm optimistic and in a really good position skills-wise, but those skills are in a very narrow field with industry-wise business model flaws so, while I work out if there's a way of applying those skills in a better way (and I think I'll find that eventually), I need to be able to do what I can to improve my spending to income balance.

Some really good suggestions here and, yeah, I definitely need to look hard at the food budget and look at that in advance, as Keiran says, rather than us buying fairly randomly and then working out what we make with it. Flabio, our boiler is pretty old. I'm not sure if we have the same incentives here in Ireland but would an old gas boiler be costing us more? Are the newer ones more efficient? As I've said, we're being slaughtered by the gas bill so, if that's the case, I'll definitely look into that so thanks for that.

FSW, yes, you may need to give up that heroin but I believe there are good methadone schemes these days that won't cost you a penny. In fact, you may be able to sell your excess methadone to supplement your income.

And yes, you guys are right about making people aware of the situation for Christmas because that is definitely a worry. The cost of Christmas can be just insane. Really appreciate all the input. You guys all rock (you know that).

LOL @ your custom title.

Ahem. Not sure how that happened. Although surely I should be receiving a salary worthy of my position? That could be the key to ridding me of all my money worries!

[punio75]

Just cut Virgin myself this morning. My last bill was ?128! Got the basic package of tv,broadband and phone, now paying ?39.50 a month. Gonna save 60-70 quid a month just like that.
No Chelsea v Liverpool for me this afternoon tho.

[Flabio]

Modern boilers are an awful lot more fuel efficient than older stuff. Can be as much as 200 quid less a year on the bills for a bigger place. Problem is without assistance replacing the thing can be quite pricey so most people don't do it. You might find that the issue might be that your boiler just needs servicing though, they do need the innards cleaning every year or so or they start getting less efficient. Burning gas is pretty clean, but burning *anything* builds soot up eventually.

http://www.which.co.uk/home-and-garden/heating-water-and-electricity/guides/boiler-maintenance-tips/boiler-efficiency/

My flat has a cheapo condensing jobby from Wickes I think, but as I rent the flat fixing it is the landlords job anyway. I'm leaning on him to double glaze the place at some point as that'll knock even more off my bills.