Cost of living crisis

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Buying in bulk can work out cheaper as well, depending on what you're buying.
Also use less, especially with hair washing, if you really get your hair wet first then you barely need any shampoo to clean it.
Buy secondhand is a great one.
Look at what hobbies you have and think how much they cost, either to do or in electric, can you do them cheaper?
 
Lidl isn't the bargains powerhouse it once was . The bakery and veg is pretty cheap , but it kinda sucks round here . Still got an amazing Christmas selection . If you're really in trouble , you could do a lot worse than a Lidl Christmas .
Really got to do the whole Aldi/Poundland/Farm Foods/B+M/ Family Bargains etc merry-go-round these days.

Eat vegan a few days a week .
These lads are great for budget dining . They do a little bit of everything , shopping , cooking , food gardening .

They like a yellow sticker (reduced) too . I used to a ruthless reduced shopper but with food delivery I don't get the opportunity . I am really not sure which is the better option for economy . I find delivery keeps me to a tight budget and saves me huge on time and travel ...but I miss out on that option to fill the freezer with random .
 
Have a look at too good to go app, probably no good for @Hunga Munga but those living more city/town wise could make use of it, but it's time sensitive. You can get a mystery bag of food for cheap, around here it's mostly places like bakeries and coffee shops that do it with the odd supermarket, and you reserve it and go during a selected time to pick it up.
Another app is olio, which again depends on where you live, but you can get free items on there too.
 
I'm the wrong generation to use foodbanks ...but they're everywhere now and even waged people are using them . I'd pull food out of supermarket skips or beg at the backdoor of restaurants before I'd use a foodbank 😀 .

Dry goods are your friend if you're looking to live on pennies ... all the classic carbs , rice , flour, pasta ,noodle , a few pulses , some soya mince .... I always have these building blocks on hand , even when I'm eating fancy fresh , ready made or out the freezer . You never know what tomorrow brings ...but you know you're likely going to need some food .

I find most bottled sauce/chutney goes off before I use it so I never spend out on brands for that stuff . Just throwing money away if I do .

A lot of these budget 'smartprice' type products are false economies though . Buy the next level up for a nicer product with a higher food value . It works out the same cashwise . Took me years to work that one out 😀 . Better off with 10 good sausages than 20 bad sausages 😛 .
 
Hunga Munga said:
I'm the wrong generation to use foodbanks ...but they're everywhere now and even waged people are using them . I'd pull food out of supermarket skips or beg at the backdoor of restaurants before I'd use a foodbank 😀 .
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Where I am, the supermarkets donate the food that has hit the best before date, and you can go and take what you want. However it's really busy now you used to be able to go down at 10:25, and have only a handful of people in the queue, now you go at 10 and there's people queuing and it doesn't allow anyone in until 10:30. Sometimes they limit how much you can collect as well,but let you rejoin the queue if you want more. Very useful though.
 
Last Watcher
Last Watcher
Got the same sort of thing here. They used to open one day a week & call it Freefood Friday, now it's every other day!
Plasma said:
On the gas point, important to note that some stations offer more efficient fuel than others. I’m sure that it has something to do with the actual chemical compound of the gas, but I’ve always found that Marathon stations offer the best mileage. If you want more bang for your buck, try to avoid places like Speedway.

@Anyanka Bunny Slayer mentioned this, but shopping at places like Aldi or the Dollar Store is a great thing to do right now. I think a lot of people have a negative stigma around things that are cheap, but you can really save some money at those places, especially compared to bigger chains like Walmart or Meijer.

If you want to buy leisure items, buy them secondhand. An item that may be 8.99 on Amazon may be offered for 1.29 in used condition from a third party seller.
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The Dollar Tree has added 25¢ to everything. I still shop there...but it can get CROWDED so I try to go in the mornings. We can just FORGET Ralphs/Kroger because their price gouging is beyond crazy. A few months ago, a brand of steamed rice that I liked cost $2.99; Ralphs raised it to $7.19!!!! WTF??!! My favourite drink, Simply Lemonade, is now watered down. Grrrrr.

I haven't ordered anything from Amazon in awhile, and that's that. Money is so tight, it's insane!
 
Plasma
Plasma
Why call it the friggin dollar store if nothing costs an actual dollar?!?
Save petrol by servicing your car to make sure the ignition system is working the best it can, them learn how to efficiently to save fuel. When you start does it use less fuel if you increase speed fast or slow? The same applies when considering how to slow down. Another consideration is checking your tyre (tire) pressure daily. Of the five tyres in a car, the two that have a newer level of tread should they be used for the steering axle, the driving axle or the primary braking axle.

Does your car have a gauge to tell you how far you can get on the available fuel? You might consider having a Vacuum gauge fitted so you can drive with increased efficiently. (?)
 
If you have a vehicle in the UK , eBay 'collection only' large items can be a right bargain . The auctions don't tend to fly. The larger the item , the better the price , the more motivated the seller . A common theme when you go round to get the gear is people wanting their space back , more than the money 😀

I'm not 100% sure 'secondhand' is a good risk online . I've had some good touches and some 'meh' . I have done pretty well out of customer returns though . Plenty of traders specialize in it and there are big savings to be had ...but still with the option to return . I just spent 63 quid on a 130+ b grade chainsaw .It arrived in brand new condition with a missing tiny bottle of oil from the box .It was waaaay better than the listing suggested .

The seller was having a sale , eBay was having a sale . Munga was lurking in chainsaws for bargains every day for months 😛 . The three collided and I got a killer deal .
 
Don't try Ramen noodles. I know a lot more people who died or got permanent physical disorders over that than I do of people from cigarettes...and I know a lot more smokers than people who eat Ramen noodle on a regular basis.
 
Latest estimates for fuel is a rise of 64% come October, so I'm thinking get all my Christmas shopping done before then so one less cost come winter.
 
We had to go visit Mrs Watcher's Father on Thursday, he's in a home up north so it was a bit of a trek there & back.

Took pretty much a whole tank of diesel & with current prices at £2 a litre it cost me £120 to fill the tank........I've bought a whole damn car for less than that!

Not sure about how the difference of Gallons to litres & the exchange rates works out compared to US/Aus prices but our fuel prices are getting beyond a joke!

And it's even worse for owners of Petrol vehicles as they've not long introduced that lower octane stuff that gives you less MPG for the same (higher) price.
 
If Netflix does rise their prices I will be cancelling.

Might give up Now Tv too and just keep Prime.
 
I've stopped Prime , even though it's got the biggest volume of stuff to watch . Next month it's Netflix . One thing I've noticed is ducking in and out of these streamers ,on a month by month basis ,is easy and reliable . I've got accounts everywhere .

So I'm planning to just pop in and out of all of them , just have one at a time, maybe 2-3 at Christmas if I'm flush . Might do a month or two of of ad based telly . Not watched Freevee yet to see how many ads there are for non-Prime subscribers but there are a lot of free channels for the UK .
 
PlutoTV
Freevee(formerly IMDB) (lots of great stuff on there)
All4
5ondemand
Youtube( lots but finding it is fiendishly tricky . Youtube doesn't give up its bounty lightly)

I was using Daily Motion a lot recently but it's riddled with spam now . Used it for years no problem ...but it changed overnight .
 
In years gone by folk would read books and allow their imagination to take flight.


Last Watcher, I bet you are glad your diesel guzzler isn't anywhere near as bad as A.B.S.'s gas guzzler!
 
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