Rule no 1)Don't buy anything you don't need. Sounds simple but it's amazing when you start to break it down, how much we buy that is of no use to us at all :-Biscuits, sweets and cakes, fizzy pop,etc. are all completely useless to your body, there are no nutrients in them and they can have costly effects, such as needing dentist work or medicine. Cleaning products, apart from washing powder, washing up liquid, soap and vinegar, which you can get most things clean with.  fabric conditioner, hair conditioner, shower gel, bath salts etc. Soap and basic shampoo are enough to keep a body clean. Kitchen towels, disposable cloths. Rip up old clothes or buy cheap dish cloths, which can be washed and reused.

Rule2) Cook most of your food yourself, buy each days food for that day...if you bulk buy, you bulk eat! (Don't lets go over old ground re storing toilet rolls!). If you make your own sauces for foods like curry, chille, bolognaise etc. you save a fortune and you eat more healthily. same with puds...a few scrumped apples and some pastry costs next to nothing and will give you some of your daily requirements, and a full belly. A supermarket freezer dessert will be full of air, e. numbers,and sugar , will cost twice as much as anything you can make at home and contain nothing your body can use. If you buy bulk in terms of health food items, which are often cheaper bought this way,  go halves with a friend so that you don't bulk eat, or have storage problems.

Rule 3) Walk wherever you can to save on bus fares and petrol. This also benefits your health. if you are out on a walk, bring back fir cones and kindling wood, to save on fire lighters. Get even more exercise by shopping around, never buy anything costly in the first shop you go into. Remember the price and challenge yourself to find it cheaper. This is even easier on line. Even in the same store, this can work. Deadly and the kids and i were in B&Q or somewhere like it and we needed a loo brush (items like this need only be bog standard!) i challenged everyone to find the cheapest, kids came back with one very reasonably priced, deadly triumphantly under cut them with a cheaper model, and just before we went to the check out i found one even lower priced still. So look around!

Rule 4) House swap or visit friends for holidays.

i lived like this for years, it's only in the last ten or so I have been able to have a few luxuries. there are loads of more drastic things i used to do, like drying tea bags, making jam from blackberries, cooking mince then splitting the amount in half and bulking one lot out with veg and mushrooms to make bolognaise, and the other lot out with beans and pepprs to make chille, so you had two days meals instead of one. if you are serving salad don't give each person a whole tomato cut them up and spead one between two or three people, the colour in the salad is just as good and people don't miss a bit of tomato. If you are grating chedder to have in sandwiches, grate some carrot in it and leave together overnight in the fridge. the carrot takes on the flavour of the cheese and makes it go further and the sandwhich more healthy.....

Crikey and I thought I was a puritan! If I tried to go without hair conditioner I'd look like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz!

I have a few tips:

Wait as long as possible before having the heating on come the colder seasons - it's cheaper to put on a sweater and slippers for a few weeks either side of Winter when the weather is relatively mild.

Use energy saving lightbulbs in every room, lamps and all. Don't leave anything on standby. Make sure you switch lights off when leaving rooms. Use solar lights in gardens.

I second the recommednation for bulking out mince to make chillis and bolognaises - you can freeze them in portions too - I used to do this a lot when I was on a very low wage. However, I do suggest getting the best quality mince you can afford, preferably from the supermarket 'reduced' shelves in the chiller compartment or from a local butcher. Frozen meat stew or simple savoury mince is also a winner.

I've never been able to buy food on the day to eat that day as I have always worked from the day I left Uni and it's simply not been practical. You can supermarket shop without going crazy though - write a strict list and stick to it while doing the rounds rather than randomly being attracted to bargains. Also I do feel that the BOGOF offers that you can get are often worth investigating if they involve essentials - even now I often stock up on washing liquid etc. through these kinds of offers. However, NEVER shop when hungry!!

Never be too proud to shop in Pound Shops, Home Bargains or Poundstretchers.

Buy a freezer. It will stand you in good stead if you buy knock-down price veg or meat.

Pickle and preserve veg and fruits and if you can find wild fruit in the hedgerows you can make jam, too.

Vee

You are all doing SO well.

Belle....you bowled me over completely! (now there is some-one who knows how to save a pound. I was very amused by the toilet brush buying mission!)

I would question the "shopping each day" lark though. We only shop once a week.....we buy everything to get us through the week. Don't usually even have to pop to the shop for some bread mid week.....though....having said THAT....our latest house resident goes through annoying fads and this week will eat all the cheese by Tuesday and next week won't eat cheese at all, but drinks Orange Juice by the gallon, hence we run out of it.

We shop on Saturday mornings....so Friday night's tea is based around all the veg left in the fridge, usually with rice.

Cally......leave your wallet at home when you go to the pub with friends? I like it! Did you learn that from having a few too many (a few too many times) and kicking yourself the next day for thinking all these folk in the bar were your friends....and accordingly shouting them drinkies?

I would have to say, that probably my most valuable contribution to saving money is yelling at people and giving them the 'evil eye'. I am talking about yelling at people to "turn those lights off' and " turn that TV off if you aren't watching it" and "turn that heater off and put a jumper on" and "turn off that air conditioner....it's not THAT hot". Of course, the whole family think I am a real tight ****!

A serious bit of advice related to this is DON'T get wrapped up in round-buying if you drink less than everyone else.  It was a rare night even at my most bibulous that I could manage more than 4 pints of draught cider, (and sometimes I would be on soft drinks) and yet I was often out with people who would go to 6 or 7 pints of their favourite tipple. I soon learned that staying out of round-buying and tending to my own needs was a lot smarter as I never got back what I spent.

I agree with your last tip wholeheartedly. (Though I have been known to consume more than 4 pints on the odd occasion...)

I prefer to describe my careful spending habits as 'parsimonious' which sounds much better than 'tight-wad' or other such terms.

Well but I don't think it's tight if you're not letting other folks buy for you - it would be tight if you were letting folks do that and never getting a round in yourself.

If I'm among folks who drink about the same as me I'm not bothered, I just used to spend a lot of time in mainly male groups who could take a lot more booze than me (mind you they were on p*ss-weak lager in the main!

I shop once a week, if we run out - unless it is milk or bread - then we have to wait until I shop again the next week.  I find I spend more if I take Mick or the girls shopping with me so I go on my own.

I buy my washing powder in bulk as it saves me quite a lot of money.

If I could "sell or give the girls away" I would be rich.........only joking dad......would I do that to your grandchildren...........