20+ Ways to Save Money on a Tight Budget

Changes to Family Finances

Our family finances will be reducing for a little while as my husband is about to start a new job.  As he starts as a trainee we will have less money coming in and need to find ways to save money on a tight budget.  To help prepare myself for this I’ve started looking at our monthly spends and finding ways to reduce our living costs.  I’ve asked other bloggers to let me know their tips for saving money and was impressed with all the great ideas!  We already manage quite a few of these frugal activities, mainly as they are also environmentally friendly.  However it’s interesting to see what everyone else recommends when reducing their monthly spend.

Meal Planning

We have always meal planned as it makes it so much easier to make dinners for the family!  Organisation is key, especially with kids!  However, if you have never meal planned, Laura Light says that it can save her family up to £100 a month by getting just what they need.

The key to a good meal plan is to ensure if you have a plan for the next 7 days.  However you also need alternatives for the kids and an extra frozen meal for when you are too tired to cook anything properly, but need to avoid takeaways!

Receipt Scanning Apps

I had no idea that receipt scanning apps were a thing until very recently!  Depending on which app you use they can give you discounts on food or drink or points to be converted vouchers or cash.  Plus you can use the same receipt for multiple apps, gaining you various discounts and cash.  You can read more about the different receipt scanning apps here.

Try Supermarket Own Brand

Supermarket own brand products are often a good deal cheaper than branded products.  Nicola from My Savings Journal thinks this is key to a cheaper supermarket shop and that you may not even notice the difference!

Even if you’re unsure it may be good to just try the own brand food and products.  If they are not right for you then you can simply switch back to your branded product next time.  But you may find that they are practically the same!

Take a List and go to a Cheap Supermarket

We always, always write a shopping list and take it to the supermarket.  It’s a big one for us and without a list you tend to just buy things randomly and don’t even buy many meals!  Laura at The Breastest News always recommends a shopping list to reduce big spends and also has the top of going to cheaper supermarkets where possible.

Laura also suggests finding out when the supermarkets reduce their prices, reduced fresh items can often be frozen for later use.

Or Go Online

Some people prefer to shop online, like Catherine suggests.  This stops any impulse buys whilst browsing shelves and helps you get your shopping to the correct budget.  She says that they spend 10-20% less on the shop when buying online.

The other bonus of online shopping is that you don’t need the car.  With some careful planning and booking cheap slots in advance the delivery charge can be less than the use of your car and fuel.

Eat Out Less

This is a no brainer and of course you will no why this saves money.  It might surprise you how many times you do eat out or get takeaways each month.  It’s a good plan to record every meal out, coffees and cake or takeaways to get an idea of how much you spend on this.

Think of other ways to enjoy a ‘meal out’ at home instead.  Making fakeaways or baking with the kids for an afternoon tea could be good alternative options?

Batch Cooking

Batch cooking is Gemma’s suggestion, she says it can be a great option if you have plenty of freezer space.  It can be cheaper to bulk buy and cook several meals in one go.  This way you always have an easy and delicious meal to eat, even when you are tired to make it from scratch.  It can save on money when reach into the freezer for a quick meal rather than getting a takeaway.

Organise Your Food Cupboards

Find out what you have and make an inventory of all the items.  You may be surprised of just what you have in your cupboards!  Try and make meals to incorporate tins and packets that have been sitting in the back of the cupboard.

Once you’ve used up the number of tins and packets keep a list of all your food items.  Refer to it each time you write a shopping list so you don’t keep buying extras of the same items.

This also goes for any other cupboards of ‘stuff’ you have.  I know I have a huge amount of craft things!  Regularly go through the cupboard, write a list and make the items easy to access.  This will stop you buying duplicates and remind of you what you have.

Grow Your Own

It’s amazing what you can grow in just a small space.  Even if you just have space for pots in your outdoor space you will still be able to grow a fair amount of fresh vegetables.

With a little more space you can grow plenty of vegetables to save you money throughout the year.  Growing from seed takes time, but you do get a good crop when you look after the plants.  Try easy growing vegetables to start with, such as potatoes, courgette, beetroot and peas.

Buy Reusable – Ways to Save Money

Jo at a Rose Tinted World believes that buying reusable items or making things can save money on weekly disposable items.  Things such as reusable cloth sanitary pads, reusable baby wipes and reusable kitchen roll can really save you money in the long run.  The one-off cost can be expensive to start, but this could easily be offset  by making them yourself.

Buy Second-hand

Another brilliant option is to buy second-hand.  You can do this via charity shops or online via sites like Facebook marketplace, Gumtree and Ebay.  With most of these options you need to see the item before you buy, so it’s easy to check the condition.  For Ebay it’s slightly different, but you can open complaints to be refunded if you are sent something that’s not up to scratch.

For the majority of household items and clothes, you can easily buy them second-hand, or even free if you have a local free group (search on Facebook).  You may even find you can get better quality items buying second-hand than brand new.  It’s definitely worth looking into, especially for kids items, when they will soon outgrow the item.

Switch and Save

Switching companies to save money is a common practice, you will often find incentives for this too.  Companies offer cashback or other extras to get you to switch to them. Miss Many Pennies recommends that you go through all your subscriptions and services regularly to check if you can switch to a cheaper deal.  This is easily done on price comparison websites.

Erica Knight says that you can check your insurance renewals against competitors and see if your insurer will price match, most years she can save a £100 on her car insurance renewal.

Get Rid of Useless Subscriptions

Do you use all your subscriptions?  Check through all the subscriptions you pay for and get rid of any you don’t use.  If you definitely do need them look for cheaper options.  For example Jen says that many people pay for gym memberships that rarely use, when instead they could just pay for sessions when they actually go.  This works out a lot cheaper than a full membership!

Nikki also suggests checking if you are getting full value from subscriptions.  She suggests checking similar subscriptions for cheaper options, such as using Freeview with Netflix or Amazon Prime rather than a Sky subscription.  Also, don’t forget to check monthly outgoings and app subscriptions on your phone for those that you no longer use.

Cashback and Loyalty Cards

Always, always check for cashback whenever shopping online.  It’s something especially important for bigger purchases such as insurance or expensive items. Victoria says she manages to get a few hundred pounds back every year from cashback on regular spending.  You can also check if your bank has reward cards, some offer a percentage back each month as a reward.

Loyalty cards are also a good way of saving up points to spend on gifts, days out and other purchases.  Tesco clubcard is well known, but most shops have their own versions.

Use Those Library Cards

Books are expensive and as much as I love owning lots of them it can be expensive.  Instead use your library card and get several books out at a time for free, saving hundreds on book purchases a year if you have a book loving family like ours!  You can also request books from other libraries in your area or even ask if your library would purchase books that they don’t have.  I’ve done this often in the past when new authors books are released, particularly non-fiction books.

Many libraries also offer free e-books, check your local library website for more information on how to access these.

Turn Down The Heating

A very obvious one for most!  Heating is expensive, although I do not recommend turning it down very low, that can lead to health problems.  But before you reach for the heating make sure you are fully dressed, add a jumper and slippers, or wrap yourself in a blanket. Then decide if it’s still cold.  If it’s still too cold turn the heating up, but usually a few more layers can keep you more than warm enough.

Create a Spreadsheet

According to Ben, spreadsheets are the best way to organise your finances.  He suggests creating a spreadsheet of all your outgoings and arrange them in order of importance.  Then separate the must-haves from the not necessary purchases to find out which you can consider removing.

For example Ben has stopped watching BBC so they no longer need to pay for a tv licence.  He’s also set car, holiday and general saving goals based on the money saved from subscriptions and outgoings that were considered luxury spends. considered luxury spends.

Make Your Own

Sometimes making your own is cheaper than buying new, especially for big items.  I saw beautiful shelving made from old wood in a shop, but as it was out of our price range we decided to make our own.  Using thicker pieces of pallet wood my husband managed to make a similar shelf for a fraction of the price. The shelving is much admired and certainly a cheaper option in the long run.

Gemma from Mummy’s Waisted suggests making your own cake and coffee at home instead of going out for cake.  It’s much cheaper and can be a fun family thing to do, you could make mini cakes, scones and sandwiches for a cheap afternoon tea at home together.  It’s much more fun and a great family activity.

Don’t stop at making food at home, think about homemade gifts, reusable items and even cleaning products. Pinterest has tons of great ideas for all these options.

Take Packed Lunches on Days Out

Buying lunch out can really build up costs, so always try and take a packed lunch with you.  Of course treats are great and are fine every so often if you plan them into your budget, but packed lunches are much cheaper.  Plus you can put items into a packed lunch that you know the kids are going to eat, meaning less wastage!

We tend to take pack lunches whenever we’re out, which means we have a little more money for treat items like an ice cream. It’s amazing how much money you can save just by making your own sandwiches!

De-Clutter – Ways to Save Money

Raimonda thinks that decluttering and selling items you don’t use any more can help budgets.  First you have some extra money coming in and second the house will be a lot tidier and calming.

You can easily sell items on Ebay, Gumtree or local Facebook groups.  If selling on sites that you need to post the item out, make sure you check the weight and size of the items for true postage costs.  Also ensure you take clear photos of any damage on the items, otherwise buyers may not be pleased and ask for a refund!

Change of Mindset

Sometimes just a change of mindset is useful.  Laura says that you should stop and think before you make a purchase, is it something you want or something you need?  If it’s not necessary then save the money for something you do need.

I think this may well be one of the most important ways to save money.  If you can’t justify spending the money on it then don’t buy it.

Diy Travel Vs Package Holidays

Make Extra Cash

Making extra cash isn’t exactly one of the ways to save money, but it does give you a few more pounds to spend.  There are the usual online selling sites like Ebay, Gumtree and Facebook to sell items, but there are other options too.  Car Quids is recommended by Robbie from Paternal Damnation as a potential way to make money from having an advert on your car. Many people recommend using survey sites to earn money and vouchers from, I’ve used a few in the past including Valued Opinions and Pinecone Research.  However, there are tons more newer paid survey sites available.  You do need patience as surveys can sometimes take longer than expected and the questions can be tedious.  This is a great way to make money when you’re not busy doing anything else.

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