Give me your best money saving tip for around the home :)

I am trying to save the $$$ as much as possible at the moment, so I thought - what is your best money saving tip for around the home. It couold be a recipe for your own laundry powder, or howto reduce the power bill etc.

Seal around all your doors and windows with products like weather-strips and selly's all-clear. Use a door snake. :)

Never go shopping without a shopping list - I spend a lot less money and throw out a lot less stuff if I go plan our meals for the week and shop with a list of ingredients I need for those meals and just general snacks, toiletries and cleaning products that we are running low on. I also don't get to the shops and wonder whether I need something or not and end up buying it just in case.

As things run out we put them on a list on our fridge so I know to buy new things when I go shopping. If it's not on the list, we just go without for a week.

We go through our pantry, fridge and freezer and see if there are ingredients there that we can make meals out of before we go shopping and try to plan meals around things we already have.

Use energy saving light globes and cut your electricity bill down heaps. We only pay 10% of what we used to with normal globes. :)

Eat a full meal before you go shopping - so you're not tempted when you're hungry. Meal plan so that you only shop weekly or fortnightly - then you don't impulse buy when you are in the shop all the time.

Take lunch to work instead of buying it

Turn applicances not in use off at the powerpoint - they still draw power if switch is still on. Products on "standby" use even more.

Get all your tinned and dry stuff out of the pantry and commit to using it all over the next two weeks - you will probably cut your food bill right down for awhile.

So much great advice. I went around and turned a whole lot of stuff off at the wall.
I am goin g to try to use all our tinned goods.
Also I am going to try and meal plan.

use bi-carb, lemons and white vinegar instead of fancy cleaning products :)

do the grocery shopping with cash. I did this recently and found it particularly helpful. I am a sucker for buy 2 and save...even thought I don't really need it :redface: It helped me to stay away from things I didn't really need.
Also shopping at Aldi saves us quite a bit. As does the fruit shop rather than the supermarket :)

I buy meat at butchers.

Fruit and veg at green grocers.

and always seem to get more for money and better quality products.

i have started to smarten up around the house-

-ive been turning off appliances at the wall.
-using vinegar for cleaning! (i posted about this not long ago, i wrote down all the tips the ladies gave me and stuck it to the laundry wall and it has helped me so much!)
-go through your pantry/fridge/freezer before you make a meal plan & shopping list! i do this the night before i go shopping when dd is in bed.
- go through kids toys & books.. is there anything you can sell on ebay? and then use that money to buy replacement 2nd hand toys/books. i was doing this till dd #2 was on the way.. now i just pack away the things dd#1 is too big for to use again, but i will sell again when dd#1 no longer uses stuff.

hmm thats all i can think of at the moment!

I shop online. It's $9 for delivery but I'd easily spend more than that in impulse buys.
When I did go in person, I used to have a limit of allowed impulse buys - 3 or so. That allowed for the thing I knew I needed but had forgotten to put on the list.

With hobbies like video games (probably can be applied to other things) - you can't buy something without selling something. If you want a video game, you have to sell one you already have to offset the cost.

Budget in pocket money for everyone. For everything. Even a clothes budget separate to personal pocket money. When we have pocket money, we think 'okay only 2 more weeks til I can get that', as opposed to thinking 'hmm haven't gotten anything in awhile, I think I'm due for something', but losing track of what you've bought in the past. Works really well.

Use vinegar instead of fabric softener. It works really well on towels and nappies, and I use it for everything. Add a couple of drops of Eucalyptus oil or Lavendar oil to the wash for scent.

Wash bigger loads less often than washing every day. Put a bucket or the plug in the tub when you shower and use the water to put on the garden, or save it for the loo (but don't do what my ex did and have 8 buckets in the ensuite).

Open the curtains on the west side of the house to make use of the warm sun.

Iron as you need rather than doing it all at once, clothes can crease in the wardrobe.

Use a plug in heater only when its really cold, use blankets more often than a reverse cycle AC. Close up all the rooms you aren't in to keep one room warmest.

Make sure the vacuum is always empty when you use it, it uses less power than when full.

Buy when on special - especially loo paper, washing powder, tissues. Look out for good specials and buy several - never pay full price for these consumables.
Put change into a 'rainy day' money box. This adds up really quickly - and you can use it for special treats or unexpected smaller bills. I saved $60 in only a couple of months in coins.

I second the change jar! We used it to buy phone credit or get pizza. Its amazing how much it adds up, when its just silver coins, throw in gold coins too if you can spare it (I use the golds on bus fares.)

When boiling the kettle, only put in as much as you need at that time (many people over fill - which takes longer to boil and uses a lot more electricity). Kettles/jugs are very high power consumers. So are sewing machines!

If you buy coffee from a cafe, consider getting a coffee machine for your home insted. You can get an adequate one for under $200, and it pays for itself in little time if you are big coffee drinkers. You are also less likely to buy a sweet treat to go with the coffee, saving you some more $$. Well, this was something that worked for us anyway ;)

Thanks everyone for all the great advice. Def some things I will be taking up.

We are pretty good. We don't have a dryer, so that is one fairly big running cost that I don't have. I am now unplugging everything at the wall, and have just done my first week of meal planning. I went to the shops and didn't impulse buy!! I have started turning off the TV or radio while on the comp instead of leaving it on as background noise. Nelle as great as home delivery sound, it is not an option as I live in a town that has a very small Coles and they do not offer the service.

Yeah I didn't think you would, but I thought it was worth mentioning anyway. :p

On the cheapskates wesite there is a recipe for homemade washing powder...
http://www.cheapskates.com.au/docs/washing_po.pdf
it is mean't to be GREAT and CHEAP!

Thought of another one - charge your phones/run your dishwasher/washing machine overnight when it will be charged as offpeak power (cheaper than daytime power). You need to have an offpeak meter for this to work.