Cost of Living Ideas
Everywhere you look can be found tips for cheaper meals, smaller packages, lower price spending on essentials.
And there are still more ways to help with the cost of living: see if anything herecan help you or someone you know.
1. Use what you've got. Cutlery, plates, mugs, kettle, toaster - you don't need to buy new ones just because there are new ones in the shop.
2. Seasonally thrifty. Look in the loft for Halloween and Christmas decorations. Use what you used last year. Make ones from what you already have, if that's your thing.
3. Bake off. Look in your baking cupboard. What can you make from what you have in there? Could you make lunch box snacks? Pudding for the family?
4. Over subscribed. How many outfits do you have? Do you need clothing you are never going to wear? Are you ever going to wear those stilettos? Why are you keeping that wedding dress? Sell your over-stocked clothing. If you got £1 per item for 100 things and £150 for one posh item, that's an easy way to get some dosh!
5. Cheap and healthy grub. Cook with veg and smaller amounts of protein. Go back to home cooked older fashioned meals. Roast on Sunday, leftovers on Monday, bubble and squeak with an egg on Tuesday.
6. Don't buy anything without thinking/talking about it first. Write a list. Review it. What can you change for cheaper and better value? Do you really need it? Will you use it?
7. Emergency funds. Save up for your emergency fund and don't touch it unless there is an emergency: sudden vet visit..new boiler needed..washing machine dies...etc. Then work to repay your emergency fund.
8. Gifts for kids. Adults don't need expensive gifts. Kids don't need wads of cash, a new model phone or expensive designer trainers. Use the five gift plan: Something they want, something they need, something to eat, something to read, and a surprise something. For example - a lego set, pyjamas, some chocolate, a David Walliams book, a pair of earrings.
9. Don't go shopping. It is well worth paying for click and collect or delivery for your food shopping, as it stops you browsing and adding to your trolley in the store. Plan your meals and only buy just what you need.
FMxx
We bought dinner crockery from Ikea's 365 range about six years ago, white, the perfect size for us, and it's still in perfect condition.
ReplyDeleteWe still have, and use our Viner's 'King's' cutlery which we received as a wedding present almost 40 years ago.
We eat in what could be called a traditional fashion, if I roast a chicken on Sunday, the breasts are served for dinner/ supper, the drumsticks are for Monday evening's meal, the carcass is picked over, and the meat from that is served in a pasta or fried rice dish on Tuesday evening, and I get a big pan of nourishing, delicious soup from the bones!
I wanted really good, sharp, cooks knives, so I saved up and bought them one at a time, until my set was complete.
If the main oven is on, it's cooking two, three or even four dishes at a time.
My mum was 13 at the start of WWll, and learned how to eat well, but ecenomically, and my Dad's mum was a cook at a private school, so I grew up knowing the importance of good, 'real' food.
We have a large, 'smart' TV which instead of turning, off, is on 'standby' all the time, so that gets switch off and unplugged when not in use.
All our lightbulbs are LED, and turned off using 'Alexa' as we enter and leave rooms.
We wear jumpers around the house when needed, open blinds when the sun is on windows to let the heat in, but close curtains at dusk to keep the warmth in.
We're not exactly 'hard up' but I'm not wasteful, we are destroying this wonderful planet with our stupid, wasteful habits, and I won't be a part of that!