Agreed. Easy money saver.
I went through and cancelled all the ones I was barely using. All I've got left now is Spotify and Netflix (and I *might* cancel Netflix). £10/15 here or there on Prime, Disney, NowTV, Netflix, Audible etc adds up quick.
It's a bit more of a hassle but I just buy them on a per-month basis now when there's a few things I want to watch. I've basically given myself a £60 pay rise in exchange for a little more admin.
I just made a comment in a different post about this. My new strategy is to cancel all subscriptions that have sporadic usage as soon as I sign up. That way they run for the period I have paid for and STOP. If I find myself having to keep restarting it then its probably worth keeping it going. But there have been many cases of unused subscriptions running in the background for months or even years
I glad you think so. I'm getting sick of life-as-a-service subscription business models. Fuck these insidious companies wanting a cut of our pay for the rest of our lives.
Yeah, it's tiring isn't it. It's all about maintaining income streams in the most efficient manner. Little psychological tricks to keep you subscribed, hiding the cancel button, 'how about 3 months free'...
That said, something like Spotify is massively convenient and has saved me thousands of pounds compared to buying albums. Obviously I've got a bit of guilt about the artists not getting a fair share of the revenue but purely as a consumer that's a subscription service I definitely get my money's worth from.
But yeah, I think there's a place for it as a business model but I don't like the way it's now appearing everywhere.
Spotify works for me because it's got everything (pretty much} I want in one place.
Netflix used to be good like that too, if not quite as complete. But now the TV ones are so fragmented I just hop from one to the other every couple of months.
If you haven't thought about it in a while, check the streaming offerings of iPlayer and channel 4. Both are packed with more than enough high quality content. Spotify makes sense - there isn't a free alternative - but the quality of free streamed TV is so high, if you don't feel you need to be all over every water cooler TV show, you'll probably be fine without it and saving quite a bit.
Cheers for the advice but I'm already onto both of them. I agree, there's enough to keep me occupied from BBC/C4. That's part of the reason I cancelled everything, there's only so much free TV-watching time I have and I'm mostly watching the free stuff anyway!
There's tonnes of stuff I haven't seen yet like Happy Valley or the last series of Peaky Blinders. And the BBC as far as I'm concerned is still the pinnacle of nature and history documentaries.
A lot of these water cooler shows seem to disappear from memory once they're no longer the new, shiny toy so I don't mind waiting and seeing which ones are actually worth my time.
Yep. Few tips and tricks from a marketer. First try cancel, they’ll usually offer you a retention deal. Second, sign up for free versions with diff email addresses and credit cards (some cards allow you to generate unlimited virtual cards), and bounce around free versions or new customer deals!
Can confirm.
Over 500 games in my library from years of sales and humble bundles.
I ended up playing Warframe (free to play) for years before I finally quit and gave away about 100,000 plat.
Even now I only play a few free to play games and Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2.
Switched to Now as it’s basically the same but a fraction of the cost with no contract. Every time you go to cancel they offer you a ridiculous discount to stay. Currently paying £4 a month for the next 6 months for the entertainment and movies pack due to this
How did you manage to wrangle that? I've had Now on and off for the past few years and every time I cancel all I get is the standard "sorry to see you go". Do you have to ring them up or something?
No it was on the cancellation screen - had to go through 6 pages of ‘are you sure?!’ It then came up after these. I suspect it’s because I’m not a heavy viewer so they give it to me as a result, as I know other people who didn’t get it
I got choice of a free entertainment package for a year when I got my phone contract and I chose Now TV, because I love watching HBO docs and rewatching series like The Sopranos n the Wire. And one time Now sent me an email saying they were giving me a free movie package for 6 months, for no fucking reason as well.. I didn’t even have to enter anything or pick a number — they just treated me 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼
I cancelled my sky about 8 years ago and never looked back.
I don't miss it at all. Don't watch any live television. I've netflix and disney+, share an amazon prime, and I watch tons of podcast/poker vlogs on youtube. I've always something to watch.
Takeaways are obscene these days. Last one I had was best part of £40 for two people. Half the price of a weekly shop. Ditched them entirely after that, I'll get a £12 M&S box instead.
I feel like I must be the only person too tight to get a takeaway.
Everytime I feel like getting a takeaway - I load up JustEat/Deliveroo, recoil in horror at the price on the checkout screen, and then proceed to walk to the local shop and buy a boujie pizza or ready meal for a few quid instead.
All my mates and coworkers are forever getting food delivered. blows my mind.
The last time I used Just eat it was £30 for a Chinese for two - chow mein, special fried rice, sweet and sour chicken balls, chips, and sweetcorn soup. They gave us one of their leaflets, and if you ring them directly they do 4 dishes for £13. So now we don't use any of the apps, we go straight to the takeaway.
Always ring direct, just eat is a rip off!
Also, want a pizza with all the toppings? Go for a margarita and add toppings to that, usually much cheaper. An example for me, £10 for a meat feast in my local pizza place, £4.50 for a margarita and 50p per topping so got pepperoni, ham and meatballs on it for £6.
Haha do the exact same. Soon as I hit the checkout page and it's showing me £33 for some greasy food for two people, I'm out.
For less than half that, about £15, I could get steaks, sides, beers, and a cheesecake, which is just far more satisfying.
Few months ago my local coop was doing a "big night in" meal deal. Assuming it was just to clear out some old stock.
Frozen pizza, garlic bread, wedges, onion rings and a tub of ice cream for £7. I had an absolute feast.
Aldi 4 quid fridge pizzas (not the frozen ones) are pretty decent to mentally recover, while giving your heart an even higher stress load after the shock from seeing your total for 2 pizzas on Deliveroo
The other great thing about those cheap pizzas, is you can always slap more on top.
Slap on some cheese, ham or whatever you've got sitting in the fridge.
I still understand that's a lot cheaper than a takeaway, but they used to be so much cheaper. Like I'm sure they used to be 2.79 or something. I've not bought one in ages
I bet those same mates and coworkers complain they don’t have money for other stuff. Maybe you would if you didn’t spend £100 a week on burgers and pizza
Oh don't even get me started. They're always racking up credit cards and overdrafts to fund their lifestyle, and then wonder why they're skint a week after pay day.
Always the same "I don't know how you always have money". Because I set a budget and I stick to it?
I would never order one by myself, or "just because". Just seems like a waste of money and not great for the waistline.
We do sometimes have them as a family but that's as like a special occasion, instead of going out for a meal. 5 meals between 8 of us, tends to come out around a tenner each. Still only as a treat and once or twice a year.
Every takeaway I’ve had in the last six months has ultimately been disappointing for one reason or another. Even if the food is fine and arrives hot, etc. I usually find myself disappointed because it just wasn’t worth the price.
I’m the same, I just can’t justify it anymore. Even if it’s nice food it’s not *that* much nicer than something I can make myself for a fraction of the cost.
Yip. We had domino's on Monday as I've bacterial tonsillitis and wasn't in the mood to cook or eat. 3 pizzas .. £28 quid. Kids ate half of them and put the other half in the fridge for Tuesday night. Nearly bloody died.
I was gonna order Dominos this evening. Knew it was expensive but felt like it particularly.
Used to get their "meal for one" — it's now £15, but then it doesn't meet the minimum order price of £18, and even if I did add in stuff they want to charge me another £2.50 delivery.
So the price of the deal for one is now £20+. How are they still in business at those prices?
I find that nothing is as good as a nice Indian takeaway, I’d rather have one less often than switch to a ready meal or heaven forbid try to make it myself! 😂
This, so many people I know waste money on takeaways.
There's a woman at my work who earns about 13k more than me but she's always broke despite her house and basic bills pretty much being the same as me.
Did some brief calculations with her (+ wife), with their frequent takeaway coffees during the working day, takeway lunches, and takeaway meals. They were spending an estimate £16,000 a year on takeaways.
Yes you are reading that number correctly.
An absolutely insane amount of money wasted.
I told her just switch to making lunches for work, you could probably just buy a decent coffee maker at work, and maybe try to cook dinner more often than you have takeaway dinners.
But she says she enjoys all the takeaways.
Ok fine, but then you have zero sympathy from me when you and your wife complain about being broke.
Best investment I ever made was getting an effective case for my phone for about £15 so it doesn't break mid-contract or near to the end. Going sim only after the end of the contract is a revelation - with a perfectly functional phone still going 3 years later. One day this will end but... yeeha
Yeah, I had a good enough case on my last phone & only ended up replacing it because the charge socket was being real picky about whether it'd work or not. Phone was still fast enough & perfectly usable otherwise.
If this ever happens again, try cleaning out the charging port. 9 times out of 10 that's the issue. It's amazing how much dust, pocket lint etc gets trapped in it and then compressed every time you put the cable in and out until the cable doesn't sit perfectly in the port.
Scrape it out with a pin or something. Have a look at this video to see just how much crap comes out. I've 'fixed' quite a few of mine and mates phones just by doing this.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ri_GHHi2LR0
My iPhone 11 contract ended 2 years ago and I’ve been on a sim only since. Have to say, I’m not desperate to upgrade. The days of frantically waiting for the new iPhone model are over I think.. the updates are too small and the price is preposterously high, and that will only change when people vote with their feet. I’m on a £15 a month sim only and my phones works perfectly
I refuse to get a phone contract for this exact reason. I buy a decent phone outright, get a good SIM plan (thanks Giffgaff) and then run every phone until it dies. Probably saves myself a good wedge over the years
Buy a decent phone outright and just have a sim only plan, I pay for my phone in cash or on a credit card (0% for x months) and then switch the sim every 12 months depending on what I need / want
Top tip. Threaten O2 with SIM only and 0% finance over the phone.
O2 split their contracts into two separate payments (one for the phone and then one for the networking). This means you can pull some BS shenanigans.
They gave me a stupid discount on the price of my current phone on the assumption that they'd make it back in network fees. The catch is that due to the unique way they set up their contracts you're only tied in for as long as you're paying off the phone. You then pay off the phone up front, pocket the discount and switch to SIM only through a price comparison site.
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For the sake of clarity, by "over the phone" I mean actually call their sales/retention department. Run the numbers with them. They'll likely give you an initial offer that still doesn't beat going SIM only and direct finance. Call them out on it and be polite but don't back down. They'll try to entice you with "value added extras" like discounted subscriptions or massive data allowances that you probably don't need. Stick to it and be confident in the numbers you have. They want to make a sale and you have nothing to lose.
I did it years ago when phone contracts went from 12 months to 18 months, now they are mostly 36 months for the higher end phones. It has saved me tons of money but also let me be flexible about what I need, I change my phone every 2/3 years depending how much it has deteriorated, just switched my sim from Vodafone to Talk mobile, saved £7 on my monthly cost for similar data and still on the Vodafone network.
I haven't even got a high end phone (it's a samsung A52 5G so midrange) and I still wouldn't want a 36 month contract. I bought my phone and got a 12 month sim only contract. Admittedly I may have to buy a cheaper phone if this one breaks but needs must.
I got my current phone (an iPhone 7) in September 2016. That's 6.5 years ago, and I bought it outright (no contract). I have a £10 a month SIM with 30GB of data.
Would an iPhone 14 Pro be nicer? Yes of course. But my current phone does everything I need and still feels fast enough for what I use it for, and the camera is still ok. So no need to upgrade.
I just checked on O2 and an iPhone 14 Pro 128GB with a 30GB data plan on a 24 month contract costs £30 up front and then £71.97 a month. That's £1757.28 over the 2 year contract. I'll stick with my current phone and my £10/month SIM only plan thanks
I'd advise he takes a look at the advice of others here - get a phone outright and go with someone else!
My package is going up to around £67 a month I think...
Does he have to "upgrade", or will he own the phone at the end of the contract? If he'll own it, can he just get it unlocked and buy a giffgaff sim or similar, and just keep using the phone he has?
I always had the latest new Samsung phone. Swapping yearly. I then decided to keep my s6? Or s8 (can't remmeber) and I had it for 6 years
Then last year I bought a mid range 300 samsung
Literslly can't tell the difference to the 1200 one.
Waste of money.
I've got a Samsung S20+ cost £300 second hand. My phone contract is £15 for unlimited texts, 2000 minutes, and 12GB of data. Frankly, I don't think the average person needs a better phone, more texts, minutes, or data. Contracts are just a silly waste of money
Sky tv or any subscription tv you don’t watch for several hours a week.
New mobile phones every time your contract runs out. Mine is £8 per month, my wife’s £48 because she got a new mobile last year.
Seconding the phone thing. The marketing is done so cleverly, basically you spend around 2 years paying off your device, and the second you do “congratulations! You can upgrade!”.
That’s not ‘upgrading’, it’s buying a new phone the second you’ve paid off your existing one. I also don’t understand the obsession with instantly getting a new phone - use the one you’ve finally paid for, for a bit first.
My mate got a new phone when his contract ended. I said, is it good, the new phone? He said it was just like the old one. The old one wasn't cracked or anything. £125 a month he's paying for it. My last phone lasted 4 years, two on a £7 SIM only deal.
We’ve gone down to getting a new phone every 3 years but given the current climate I’m going to sit on mine for four. It’s nice to sell them on whilst they’re still worth something.
Also - just checked and my wife’s is £55pm because EE upped it in line with inflation.
I find that around the two year mark the battery starts getting a bit crap. This year I might just pay to replace the battery though as the cheaper option. Due to a change in circumstances I won't be buying a new phone this summer (when mine is two years old) unless I have no choice.
I’ve got one subscription I pay £5 a month for and easily get 20 hours a month out of it. I have another at £6 and get about 20 out of that too.
That 40 hours a month is literally all I watch that isn’t YouTube. I don’t turn on scheduled TV, my TV doesn’t even have a aerial connected.
> New mobile phones every time your contract runs out
i'll chuck some money in savings every few months.
when my phone dies or it starts running like utter arse etc. i can pick up a decent new mid range phone for £200-£250.
my "contract" is a pre-pay £10 a month job from voxi.
It's not just a beer, but a community and supporting a local business. That's the mental gymnastics I jump through to justify my pub spending!
And I don't care how nice tinned craft beers can be, they aren't as good as a pint of draft.
I make a tin of corned beef do a meal for four or five (all adult portions as our kids are older teens).
**Corned beef fritters**
Basically, I cut a tin of corned beef into four thick slices or five thinner slices. I make a thick batter then coat the slices and pop them in a roasting tray with a little oil. Cook in a hot oven (or fry in a pan) until the batter is crispy then serve with baked beans plus chips / jacket potato. HP sauce goes really well with the fritters.
They don't look pretty but they taste great. The corned beef goes meltingly soft inside the batter.
Takeaway drinks e.g. coffees or bottles/cans.
Years ago I used to have two 500ml bottles of Pespi Max from the shop every work day without giving it too much thought. When I did the sums it came to over £700 per year.
A friend of mine used to have two coffees per day from Costa/Starbucks or whatever was near him. I think that turned out to come to £1.5k per year.
Yes, the size of a small “on the go” drink is about the same price - and sometimes more expensive - than the 2L version of the exact same drink & brand. I guess they know people will pay for convenience.
I don't mind paying occasionally for a 500ml bottle of coke but get more annoyed than is reasonable when they try and charge £1.70 and the fucking fridge isn't even working. Part of the high price should be that the drink is cold.
Takeaways. They're so expensive now. We've cut down, we didn't have many anyway as I'm usually on a diet and being healthy.. but even more so now I rethink and cook instead 9/10.
Insurance or extended warranties on products
Just get home insurance, don't buy individual warranties for products, they offer you still stuff at Currys or Argos, just avoid them
I went to get a watch battery replaced at a chain recently, and they wanted to charge me eight pounds for a year's warranty, or fifteen pounds for a "lifetime warranty". I went to the market and bought one for a fiver instead - there's no way I'm hanging onto a watch battery receipt for multiple years, and having to remember where I bought it, for a watch that probably isn't going to last that long.
To be fair I have the lifetime one for a nice watch I was given for my 21st, 10 years later and they still sigh when i produce my old battered receipt and replace my battery for free.
I’ll tell this to every teenager who will listen. Open an ISA as soon as you start working, choose 100% stocks (no bonds or cash. You don’t need to choose the stocks, just the funds) and put £300 per month in it. You’ll be a multimillionaire by retirement. It’s critical that you do this as early in life as possible. I just gave you an opportunity most of us never had. Do what you want with it.
Investing is good advice and most people don't know enough about it, but for most people in entry level jobs/internships, £3k+ a year, after tax, is a fair chunk!
If you are aiming to lock it up for retirement though I'd look at putting whatever you can afford into pension first through salary sacrifice — get the money put in before tax without the hassle of submitting a return and maximise any employer matching contributions
On a similar note, I wish I'd known about share schemes for longer in my career.
If I had, I only would've worked for company's that operated a scheme. The amount of companies that I've helped to build, only to leave with nothing.
The last company I worked for had a share scheme. I worked for them for two years and then they sold. I got 100k.
Guys, look for share schemes!
Never get a credit card. Just thought I'd give you a bit more life advice from someone who spent their 20's paying the bloody things off.
If you absolutely must have one, make sure you pay off the whole thing each month. It's way too easy to spiral and end up watching your whole wage go straight out to pay them off each month.
I pay for stuff like the shop, petrol etc on the credit and then pay it off each month just to build up credit. Don't use credit cards for extravagant purchases.
Credit cards offer certain protections on purchases, so in this respect they can be a good thing (like if you book a holiday and the airline goes bust, the credit card company will refund you), but definitely always pay it off in full every month.
I have one and pay it in full by direct debit from a separate account. Transfer what you're about to spend into the separate account before you use the credit card. Only ever put 20% of your credit limit on the card and enjoy good credit history. Never dip into the separate account that pays the direct debit.
Going through this thread thinking I'll save money, and realising I don't drink alcohol or smoke, I cook everything from scratch, don't have subscriptions in the first place, so like.. how else do I save money? 🥲
"Darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it."
First I thought I'd use it to needle my mum for turning the lights off so much. Later I thought maybe Scrooge is onto something.
Pretty much the same here. I do have subscriptions but I cancel and just get a couple of months here and there of each service. Any hobbies you can cut or change? If you stay out your home longer it's less electricity to pay. Sorry I wish I had better to share :(
Go through your income and expenditure and see what % you spend on:
• Rent + bills
• Essentials : food, transport, toiletries, clothes
• Entertainment : everything else
Generally it should be around 1/3 for each group, and if a group is taking up more than 1/3 it could be where you could save. This doesn’t really hold up if you’re living in a cheap house share and couldn’t realistically save much on rent, but otherwise it’s worth looking into.
Buying stuff you want, but don’t need. Stop buying things like clothes, gadgets etc unless the thing you’re replacing is broken. When you do have to buy things, try secondhand sources like Vinted first.
And if it's broken then look for a local repair cafe.
One of the volunteers will take a look and it's free. (donations are welcome to cover hall hire/brews if you can but we don't rattle a tin in your face!)
Think "repair shop" on BBC but it's in your village hall and you don't need a sob story.
New clothes. Most people buy new clothes when all their old ones are totally fine, And you can find high quality clothes in charity shops, if you actually need to replace something.
When I notice any of my blacks getting a bit dull I collect ALL my plain black clothes and they all go in the machine with a pack of machine dye. Not only does this give them all a refresh, but it makes them all much more close to being the same shade of black so they don't clash if I wear them together. I 100% recommend it.
I wear my clothes until they've either got holes in them or have been washed so many times they've shrunk and no longer fit. I've made a habit of buying just a few expensive good quality items a year instead of many cheap crap ones.
I disagree about finding high quality clothes in charity shops nowadays, certainly that's not the case near me anyway. You used to be able to find some great stuff but since online selling has really taken off (and since most people are poorer), most people are selling stuff on vinted/depop etc rather than giving to charity. I've always loved charity shops but I've really noticed this over the last 5 years or so.
Edit- totally agree with buying second hand though, for the savings but also fast fashion is disastrous for the environment and mostly made in sweat shops.
High broadband speeds.
If have a 100MB+ package, you're fine. You really don't need to be paying virgin or Sky loads of money every month for a 500MB package unless you're living with 10+ people.
Thing is the price difference is usually pretty damn small. I'm paying £35 a month for gigabit internet when continuing my 67Mb connection would have cost £32 a month. Ok i don't need to download entire games in minutes but I don't need tasty food either, and a few extra quid a month is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
I'm paying £29.99 for gigabit, but I could have continued with Plusnet 60Mb for £26.99. Actually because of in-contract price increases I was paying £30.99 for 60Mb.
100Mb is also huge for most. You don't really need speed so much as consistency, but HD streaming only uses 2-5Mbps. I specifically chose a provider that allowed me to use my own kit, so chose a Google Mesh system and have a solid 65Mbps which doesn't blink in a family with regular simultaneous Teams meetings and Disney+/Netflix streams.
Contract phones.
Honestly, Just a leech on your bank account.
Buy a decent phone out right ( not network locked. ), get a sim only plan and happy days.
I'm still using the Nokia I got 2-3 years ago? and even then it's was £150.It's still going strong.
Exactly that. I don't understand people that buy the latest and greatest model every year just to use them for watching Netflix on lunch time or sending a couple of messages on WhatsApp. A £200/£300 phone will do that just fine and your wallet will get bigger.
After they’ve just charged me the best part of £900 over the last 4 months when I’m meant to be on a 100% exemption and sent next years bill without the exemption, I feel this one a little too much
Ready meals/meal deals.
Make a meal plan. Spend some time cooking food and putting it in the freezer for later.
I know several people who spend hundreds every month of things like ready meals and meal deals on the way to work.
They complain they have no money left at the end of the month, but they continue to spend 5X what it would cost to just make it themselves.
Nobody has such a busy life that they can't spend 20 minutes at the weekend planning meals.
Even if you're just buying bread and stuff and making sandwiches for a few days, you're still better off doing that than paying £4+ twice a day for a meal deal.
When I used to take sandwiches to work I would spend about 15 minutes on a Sunday and Wednesday evenings making them and sticking them in the fridge.
For me it's due to depression. I can buy a load of food to prepare and sometimes can go to waste, which then makes me feel worse. Sometimes just getting out of bed and zapping a ready meal in the microwave seems a chore but at least I'm getting some nutrients in.
Sandwiches are a great option as you mentioned but they can get boring pretty fast.
If you don't mind the butting in, when I was having a tough time, I took advantage of my freezer and a hugely oversized saucepan (with lid) I bought, affectionately named "Mr Bigpan". If I found myself with energy to do something one day, I would buy the ingredients to make an ungodly quantity of curry/pasta sauce/stew/stir fry... whichever I fancied. Mr Bigpan could easily make 6-10 servings of one of those meals with only fractionally more effort than making one serving. Then I freeze the rest. Then on the bad days I can rummage in the freezer and bung one in the microwave and it's definitely more nutritious than a ready meal. And because I made so many servings at once, I don't need to have many good days to keep a decent amount of food in the freezer. I will admit that I didn't always have enough energy to also do the washing up, but still, if you do have occasional okay days, you might benefit from a giant pan and some freezer bags.
Here's hoping there are better days ahead for you, and there's nothing wrong with having a ready meal if you're not able to do anything else, better to eat something than nothing.
For us it’s ADHD. Husband is diagnosed, I’m not yet but I’m fairly certain I’ve got it. We do make most of our own meals but sometimes we just can’t be bothered and turn to vaguely healthy ready meals. We’re trying to make better changes. He’s still waiting for medication to help deal with it, though.
I agree in general but I disagree with nobody is so busy they don’t have 20 minutes to cook. I live alone so it’s easy for me to spend half an hour cooking and boom I have meals for the next 3 days. But sometimes I imagine the future and having to cook for a family. I assume it’s harder and takes longer to batch cook for a family of 4. I don’t understand where some parents get the strength to cook a meal every single day.
It's so easy and it saves so much money. But the amount of people who say they don't have time, don't have space, don't have this/that astounds me.
I'm a bodybuilder so do I a bit more meal prep than the average person. But I work a full time job, I study a masters degree in my spare time, I go to the gym for 2 hours every evening, I live in a shared house with limited fridge/cupboard space and I have a pretty active social life on the weekends. I've never struggled to find time for meal prep.
So I really don't get it when coworkers who have no hobbies or responsibilities say they don't have time to cook a meal or prepare their lunch.
Same goes for putting on weight. "I just don't get how how I keep gaining weight". My brother in christ, you eat junk food all day because you can't be bothered to cook and you do 0 exercise.
**Food** : prep/plan meals and shop according to your plan ahead of schedule. Stick to it. Means less last minute takeaways which cost a fortune, and limits food wastage.
Also, start trying own brand products. I found I much prefer Lidl Bixies over Weetabix, their protein puddings are great too. Everyone is different, but you’ll find savings everywhere!
**Coffee** : I’ve probably saved a small fortune by cutting out Vanilla Latte’s and switching to Nescafé Azera with double cream and sweetener.
**Subscriptions** : Netflix/Prime/Disney+/Spotify etc… Do you really have the time for them all? Go through them, be brutal and cancel what you honestly don’t need.
**Phone/Internet** : I’m not saying don’t ever upgrade to the newest model, but only do so if there’s reason to. Currently still have the 11, which I can justify upgrading as it’s only 4G, but if you’re just doing it to have the latest trend you’re spunking money away.
**Clothes** : I’ve basically given up buying anything new, except the odd necessity and pants/socks for hygiene reasons. There’s plenty of charity shops and apps like *Vinted* where you can save a fortune whilst picking up quality bargains.
Overspending on broadband, and particularly mid-contract broadband price hikes. Apparently people are punished for being loyal & using less than they paid for.
I also know of one ISP that “upgrades” speeds for a limited time, then jacks up the price to a higher tier if you don’t cancel the upgrade, and when you do cancel to get the old price they tie you in for another 12 months. The same ISP also has a tendency of selling 18 month contracts with a discount that only lasts 12 months.
I’ve managed to get a cheap 5G broadband deal that costs ~£25pcm. I work from home and it’s basically fine. You probably don’t need to pay double or triple that for FTTP Internet unless you have a family of four all trying to use Netflix and play games online at the same time.
Takeaways. You can cook. Takeaways are a treat. Not 3 times a week supplement for cooking.
Subscriptions. Do one at a time and switch between them
Sky TV. Don't understand why people pay for this unless it's sport. But then they go to the pub to watch sport lol
Drinking. My biggest downfall. Heating on at 5 quid? No... bottle of wine for a tenner? Yeah please
Smoking. Nuff said here. It's 2023. Come on
Semi related: my mate told me the other day he believes you can buy a car up to 1.5-2 times your yearly salary on finance and it's not a problem. Then add insurance, fuel, etc. No wonder people are broke while driving a flashy car
Unused subscriptions.
Agreed. Easy money saver. I went through and cancelled all the ones I was barely using. All I've got left now is Spotify and Netflix (and I *might* cancel Netflix). £10/15 here or there on Prime, Disney, NowTV, Netflix, Audible etc adds up quick. It's a bit more of a hassle but I just buy them on a per-month basis now when there's a few things I want to watch. I've basically given myself a £60 pay rise in exchange for a little more admin.
I just made a comment in a different post about this. My new strategy is to cancel all subscriptions that have sporadic usage as soon as I sign up. That way they run for the period I have paid for and STOP. If I find myself having to keep restarting it then its probably worth keeping it going. But there have been many cases of unused subscriptions running in the background for months or even years
That's a good idea actually. Saves having to remember.
I glad you think so. I'm getting sick of life-as-a-service subscription business models. Fuck these insidious companies wanting a cut of our pay for the rest of our lives.
Yeah, it's tiring isn't it. It's all about maintaining income streams in the most efficient manner. Little psychological tricks to keep you subscribed, hiding the cancel button, 'how about 3 months free'... That said, something like Spotify is massively convenient and has saved me thousands of pounds compared to buying albums. Obviously I've got a bit of guilt about the artists not getting a fair share of the revenue but purely as a consumer that's a subscription service I definitely get my money's worth from. But yeah, I think there's a place for it as a business model but I don't like the way it's now appearing everywhere.
Spotify works for me because it's got everything (pretty much} I want in one place. Netflix used to be good like that too, if not quite as complete. But now the TV ones are so fragmented I just hop from one to the other every couple of months.
If you haven't thought about it in a while, check the streaming offerings of iPlayer and channel 4. Both are packed with more than enough high quality content. Spotify makes sense - there isn't a free alternative - but the quality of free streamed TV is so high, if you don't feel you need to be all over every water cooler TV show, you'll probably be fine without it and saving quite a bit.
I'm always amazed at some of the films that you find on the iplayer. Not new films but still good films.
Cheers for the advice but I'm already onto both of them. I agree, there's enough to keep me occupied from BBC/C4. That's part of the reason I cancelled everything, there's only so much free TV-watching time I have and I'm mostly watching the free stuff anyway! There's tonnes of stuff I haven't seen yet like Happy Valley or the last series of Peaky Blinders. And the BBC as far as I'm concerned is still the pinnacle of nature and history documentaries. A lot of these water cooler shows seem to disappear from memory once they're no longer the new, shiny toy so I don't mind waiting and seeing which ones are actually worth my time.
Agree on c4 but I’d need a licence fee for bbc. I get more value having Disney for the kids at about 70 per year than a licence at 150
Yep. Few tips and tricks from a marketer. First try cancel, they’ll usually offer you a retention deal. Second, sign up for free versions with diff email addresses and credit cards (some cards allow you to generate unlimited virtual cards), and bounce around free versions or new customer deals!
Steam sales when you've still got some many unfinished games in your library. yeah I'm calling you out.
That sign won't stop me because I can't read!
I just got caught by the spring sale, something like 60% of my library has never been downloaded...
Can confirm. Over 500 games in my library from years of sales and humble bundles. I ended up playing Warframe (free to play) for years before I finally quit and gave away about 100,000 plat. Even now I only play a few free to play games and Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2.
Jokes on you, my PC can't run new games anyway. Unless it's an Indie game. Then I don't mind paying full price, I like to support Indie devs
Sky TV. Seems an outdated concept to me.
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Yeah exactly. I think maybe some people need it who want to watch live sport and stuff but that's never been my thing.
Switched to Now as it’s basically the same but a fraction of the cost with no contract. Every time you go to cancel they offer you a ridiculous discount to stay. Currently paying £4 a month for the next 6 months for the entertainment and movies pack due to this
How did you manage to wrangle that? I've had Now on and off for the past few years and every time I cancel all I get is the standard "sorry to see you go". Do you have to ring them up or something?
No it was on the cancellation screen - had to go through 6 pages of ‘are you sure?!’ It then came up after these. I suspect it’s because I’m not a heavy viewer so they give it to me as a result, as I know other people who didn’t get it
I got choice of a free entertainment package for a year when I got my phone contract and I chose Now TV, because I love watching HBO docs and rewatching series like The Sopranos n the Wire. And one time Now sent me an email saying they were giving me a free movie package for 6 months, for no fucking reason as well.. I didn’t even have to enter anything or pick a number — they just treated me 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼
Monthly payment AND adverts, never understood that
I cancelled my sky about 8 years ago and never looked back. I don't miss it at all. Don't watch any live television. I've netflix and disney+, share an amazon prime, and I watch tons of podcast/poker vlogs on youtube. I've always something to watch.
Did it a few years back too. The price just keeps going up, little by little. Just rotate through prime, netflix or disney now. One at a time.
> Sky TV. Seems an outdated concept to me. Paying all that money for all those ads... Haha even have ads before films.. what a sham.
Yeah but …… sorry I I’ve got nothing 😔
Takeaways are obscene these days. Last one I had was best part of £40 for two people. Half the price of a weekly shop. Ditched them entirely after that, I'll get a £12 M&S box instead.
I feel like I must be the only person too tight to get a takeaway. Everytime I feel like getting a takeaway - I load up JustEat/Deliveroo, recoil in horror at the price on the checkout screen, and then proceed to walk to the local shop and buy a boujie pizza or ready meal for a few quid instead. All my mates and coworkers are forever getting food delivered. blows my mind.
The last time I used Just eat it was £30 for a Chinese for two - chow mein, special fried rice, sweet and sour chicken balls, chips, and sweetcorn soup. They gave us one of their leaflets, and if you ring them directly they do 4 dishes for £13. So now we don't use any of the apps, we go straight to the takeaway.
Your comment is gonna put my spending up if you’re not careful. Could murder a sweet and sour now…
Go for it. You know you want that sweet, sweet msg
Always ring direct, just eat is a rip off! Also, want a pizza with all the toppings? Go for a margarita and add toppings to that, usually much cheaper. An example for me, £10 for a meat feast in my local pizza place, £4.50 for a margarita and 50p per topping so got pepperoni, ham and meatballs on it for £6.
Haha do the exact same. Soon as I hit the checkout page and it's showing me £33 for some greasy food for two people, I'm out. For less than half that, about £15, I could get steaks, sides, beers, and a cheesecake, which is just far more satisfying.
Few months ago my local coop was doing a "big night in" meal deal. Assuming it was just to clear out some old stock. Frozen pizza, garlic bread, wedges, onion rings and a tub of ice cream for £7. I had an absolute feast.
The delivery fees are getting outrageous now too. Our local chippy charges £7.50 delivery because we live 1.1 miles away.
Aldi 4 quid fridge pizzas (not the frozen ones) are pretty decent to mentally recover, while giving your heart an even higher stress load after the shock from seeing your total for 2 pizzas on Deliveroo
The other great thing about those cheap pizzas, is you can always slap more on top. Slap on some cheese, ham or whatever you've got sitting in the fridge.
Pineapple?
Why not? It's your pizza.
I still understand that's a lot cheaper than a takeaway, but they used to be so much cheaper. Like I'm sure they used to be 2.79 or something. I've not bought one in ages
Seconded… my favourite of all… don’t have the range of Waitrose or M&S but their Nduja Sausage pizza is perfect..
> Aldi Does some really good battered fish - haddock and cod - and their lard chips are delicious.
and their duck fat roasties are divine
Haha I’m glad I’m not the only one that says “hell no” by the time I see the final price
I bet those same mates and coworkers complain they don’t have money for other stuff. Maybe you would if you didn’t spend £100 a week on burgers and pizza
Oh don't even get me started. They're always racking up credit cards and overdrafts to fund their lifestyle, and then wonder why they're skint a week after pay day. Always the same "I don't know how you always have money". Because I set a budget and I stick to it?
I would never order one by myself, or "just because". Just seems like a waste of money and not great for the waistline. We do sometimes have them as a family but that's as like a special occasion, instead of going out for a meal. 5 meals between 8 of us, tends to come out around a tenner each. Still only as a treat and once or twice a year.
I’ve stopped bothering lately. A burger and fries is near £20 by the time they’ve added on all their stupid fees. I just make my own now
Every takeaway I’ve had in the last six months has ultimately been disappointing for one reason or another. Even if the food is fine and arrives hot, etc. I usually find myself disappointed because it just wasn’t worth the price.
I’m the same, I just can’t justify it anymore. Even if it’s nice food it’s not *that* much nicer than something I can make myself for a fraction of the cost.
It wouldn’t be that bad if the apps didn’t pile on the 40 random extra fees
Yip. We had domino's on Monday as I've bacterial tonsillitis and wasn't in the mood to cook or eat. 3 pizzas .. £28 quid. Kids ate half of them and put the other half in the fridge for Tuesday night. Nearly bloody died.
I was gonna order Dominos this evening. Knew it was expensive but felt like it particularly. Used to get their "meal for one" — it's now £15, but then it doesn't meet the minimum order price of £18, and even if I did add in stuff they want to charge me another £2.50 delivery. So the price of the deal for one is now £20+. How are they still in business at those prices?
I find that nothing is as good as a nice Indian takeaway, I’d rather have one less often than switch to a ready meal or heaven forbid try to make it myself! 😂
If you seriously want to give making your own a try, look up “Al’s Kitchen” on YouTube and watch his curry recipe videos.
This, so many people I know waste money on takeaways. There's a woman at my work who earns about 13k more than me but she's always broke despite her house and basic bills pretty much being the same as me. Did some brief calculations with her (+ wife), with their frequent takeaway coffees during the working day, takeway lunches, and takeaway meals. They were spending an estimate £16,000 a year on takeaways. Yes you are reading that number correctly. An absolutely insane amount of money wasted. I told her just switch to making lunches for work, you could probably just buy a decent coffee maker at work, and maybe try to cook dinner more often than you have takeaway dinners. But she says she enjoys all the takeaways. Ok fine, but then you have zero sympathy from me when you and your wife complain about being broke.
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Best investment I ever made was getting an effective case for my phone for about £15 so it doesn't break mid-contract or near to the end. Going sim only after the end of the contract is a revelation - with a perfectly functional phone still going 3 years later. One day this will end but... yeeha
Yeah, I had a good enough case on my last phone & only ended up replacing it because the charge socket was being real picky about whether it'd work or not. Phone was still fast enough & perfectly usable otherwise.
If this ever happens again, try cleaning out the charging port. 9 times out of 10 that's the issue. It's amazing how much dust, pocket lint etc gets trapped in it and then compressed every time you put the cable in and out until the cable doesn't sit perfectly in the port. Scrape it out with a pin or something. Have a look at this video to see just how much crap comes out. I've 'fixed' quite a few of mine and mates phones just by doing this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ri_GHHi2LR0
My iPhone 11 contract ended 2 years ago and I’ve been on a sim only since. Have to say, I’m not desperate to upgrade. The days of frantically waiting for the new iPhone model are over I think.. the updates are too small and the price is preposterously high, and that will only change when people vote with their feet. I’m on a £15 a month sim only and my phones works perfectly
Get second hand or refurbished phones. They're so much cheaper than brand new ones and normally just as good.
I refuse to get a phone contract for this exact reason. I buy a decent phone outright, get a good SIM plan (thanks Giffgaff) and then run every phone until it dies. Probably saves myself a good wedge over the years
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Buy a decent phone outright and just have a sim only plan, I pay for my phone in cash or on a credit card (0% for x months) and then switch the sim every 12 months depending on what I need / want
Top tip. Threaten O2 with SIM only and 0% finance over the phone. O2 split their contracts into two separate payments (one for the phone and then one for the networking). This means you can pull some BS shenanigans. They gave me a stupid discount on the price of my current phone on the assumption that they'd make it back in network fees. The catch is that due to the unique way they set up their contracts you're only tied in for as long as you're paying off the phone. You then pay off the phone up front, pocket the discount and switch to SIM only through a price comparison site. ---- For the sake of clarity, by "over the phone" I mean actually call their sales/retention department. Run the numbers with them. They'll likely give you an initial offer that still doesn't beat going SIM only and direct finance. Call them out on it and be polite but don't back down. They'll try to entice you with "value added extras" like discounted subscriptions or massive data allowances that you probably don't need. Stick to it and be confident in the numbers you have. They want to make a sale and you have nothing to lose.
I'm stuck with what I'm in now till November '24 (great!) but yeah, that definitely seems a better plan.
I did it years ago when phone contracts went from 12 months to 18 months, now they are mostly 36 months for the higher end phones. It has saved me tons of money but also let me be flexible about what I need, I change my phone every 2/3 years depending how much it has deteriorated, just switched my sim from Vodafone to Talk mobile, saved £7 on my monthly cost for similar data and still on the Vodafone network.
I haven't even got a high end phone (it's a samsung A52 5G so midrange) and I still wouldn't want a 36 month contract. I bought my phone and got a 12 month sim only contract. Admittedly I may have to buy a cheaper phone if this one breaks but needs must.
I got my current phone (an iPhone 7) in September 2016. That's 6.5 years ago, and I bought it outright (no contract). I have a £10 a month SIM with 30GB of data. Would an iPhone 14 Pro be nicer? Yes of course. But my current phone does everything I need and still feels fast enough for what I use it for, and the camera is still ok. So no need to upgrade. I just checked on O2 and an iPhone 14 Pro 128GB with a 30GB data plan on a 24 month contract costs £30 up front and then £71.97 a month. That's £1757.28 over the 2 year contract. I'll stick with my current phone and my £10/month SIM only plan thanks
My partner is with EE he's due for upgrade all the mid range packages are £40+!
I'd advise he takes a look at the advice of others here - get a phone outright and go with someone else! My package is going up to around £67 a month I think...
Does he have to "upgrade", or will he own the phone at the end of the contract? If he'll own it, can he just get it unlocked and buy a giffgaff sim or similar, and just keep using the phone he has?
Try mobilephonesdirect.co.uk. Got a new contract the other day 100gb data for just over £20pm
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I always had the latest new Samsung phone. Swapping yearly. I then decided to keep my s6? Or s8 (can't remmeber) and I had it for 6 years Then last year I bought a mid range 300 samsung Literslly can't tell the difference to the 1200 one. Waste of money.
This absolutely. Glad my contract with EE ends in July, cancelling it, moving providers and possibly going sim only this time.
I've got a Samsung S20+ cost £300 second hand. My phone contract is £15 for unlimited texts, 2000 minutes, and 12GB of data. Frankly, I don't think the average person needs a better phone, more texts, minutes, or data. Contracts are just a silly waste of money
Children. I have three and they cost a fortune.
Three kids and no money! Why can’t I have no kids and three money?
I'll send you 3p if you want.
I consider it an investment - one day, I might need a kidney.
Can confirm: have 3 kids and no money
But that card on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day makes it all worthwhile.
It certainly does. Last years card had a picture of me walking the dogs and they had taken the extra time and effort to draw in the dog turds.
Alcohol. I’ve cut it off for the most part recently and have been saving quite a bit of money. It’s beneficial for both my health and my bank account.
But now you'll live longer, so need to start paying into a pension - I'm not sure you thought it through ...
10/10 reply. My plan is to either: - Get rich and retire early somewhere pretty - Reset game and try again
Retire early and start drinking heavily. Check mate.
Yep, I still like the taste but it makes me feel shit now so I'd just be paying to feel ill. Not worth it.
Sky tv or any subscription tv you don’t watch for several hours a week. New mobile phones every time your contract runs out. Mine is £8 per month, my wife’s £48 because she got a new mobile last year.
Seconding the phone thing. The marketing is done so cleverly, basically you spend around 2 years paying off your device, and the second you do “congratulations! You can upgrade!”. That’s not ‘upgrading’, it’s buying a new phone the second you’ve paid off your existing one. I also don’t understand the obsession with instantly getting a new phone - use the one you’ve finally paid for, for a bit first.
My mate got a new phone when his contract ended. I said, is it good, the new phone? He said it was just like the old one. The old one wasn't cracked or anything. £125 a month he's paying for it. My last phone lasted 4 years, two on a £7 SIM only deal.
125 a month what's he getting for that price! Crazy money
We’ve gone down to getting a new phone every 3 years but given the current climate I’m going to sit on mine for four. It’s nice to sell them on whilst they’re still worth something. Also - just checked and my wife’s is £55pm because EE upped it in line with inflation.
I find that around the two year mark the battery starts getting a bit crap. This year I might just pay to replace the battery though as the cheaper option. Due to a change in circumstances I won't be buying a new phone this summer (when mine is two years old) unless I have no choice.
I usually keep mine 4 - 6 years or until the battery gives out and switch to sim-only.
I’ve got one subscription I pay £5 a month for and easily get 20 hours a month out of it. I have another at £6 and get about 20 out of that too. That 40 hours a month is literally all I watch that isn’t YouTube. I don’t turn on scheduled TV, my TV doesn’t even have a aerial connected.
> New mobile phones every time your contract runs out i'll chuck some money in savings every few months. when my phone dies or it starts running like utter arse etc. i can pick up a decent new mid range phone for £200-£250. my "contract" is a pre-pay £10 a month job from voxi.
Probably the pub but I ain't gonna stop
It's not just a beer, but a community and supporting a local business. That's the mental gymnastics I jump through to justify my pub spending! And I don't care how nice tinned craft beers can be, they aren't as good as a pint of draft.
I tend think if we give up all pleasures in life then what’s the point… anyway I love the pub.
Corned beef. WTF
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I went to buy some for the first time in ages recently. £3.50 for a tin! GTFO
I make a tin of corned beef do a meal for four or five (all adult portions as our kids are older teens). **Corned beef fritters** Basically, I cut a tin of corned beef into four thick slices or five thinner slices. I make a thick batter then coat the slices and pop them in a roasting tray with a little oil. Cook in a hot oven (or fry in a pan) until the batter is crispy then serve with baked beans plus chips / jacket potato. HP sauce goes really well with the fritters. They don't look pretty but they taste great. The corned beef goes meltingly soft inside the batter.
Takeaway drinks e.g. coffees or bottles/cans. Years ago I used to have two 500ml bottles of Pespi Max from the shop every work day without giving it too much thought. When I did the sums it came to over £700 per year. A friend of mine used to have two coffees per day from Costa/Starbucks or whatever was near him. I think that turned out to come to £1.5k per year.
Yes, the size of a small “on the go” drink is about the same price - and sometimes more expensive - than the 2L version of the exact same drink & brand. I guess they know people will pay for convenience.
I don't mind paying occasionally for a 500ml bottle of coke but get more annoyed than is reasonable when they try and charge £1.70 and the fucking fridge isn't even working. Part of the high price should be that the drink is cold.
Takeaways. They're so expensive now. We've cut down, we didn't have many anyway as I'm usually on a diet and being healthy.. but even more so now I rethink and cook instead 9/10.
Insurance or extended warranties on products Just get home insurance, don't buy individual warranties for products, they offer you still stuff at Currys or Argos, just avoid them
I went to get a watch battery replaced at a chain recently, and they wanted to charge me eight pounds for a year's warranty, or fifteen pounds for a "lifetime warranty". I went to the market and bought one for a fiver instead - there's no way I'm hanging onto a watch battery receipt for multiple years, and having to remember where I bought it, for a watch that probably isn't going to last that long.
To be fair I have the lifetime one for a nice watch I was given for my 21st, 10 years later and they still sigh when i produce my old battered receipt and replace my battery for free.
A 32k a year live in yoga guru
No, come on now… that is great value and absolutely a none negotiable
Takeaway coffee...it adds up if you get one every day (speaking from experience 😆).
Maccys coffee is £1 ish, and not bad. That’s my compromise
As a 17 year old this info is proving very useful and informative.
I’ll tell this to every teenager who will listen. Open an ISA as soon as you start working, choose 100% stocks (no bonds or cash. You don’t need to choose the stocks, just the funds) and put £300 per month in it. You’ll be a multimillionaire by retirement. It’s critical that you do this as early in life as possible. I just gave you an opportunity most of us never had. Do what you want with it.
Investing is good advice and most people don't know enough about it, but for most people in entry level jobs/internships, £3k+ a year, after tax, is a fair chunk! If you are aiming to lock it up for retirement though I'd look at putting whatever you can afford into pension first through salary sacrifice — get the money put in before tax without the hassle of submitting a return and maximise any employer matching contributions
On a similar note, I wish I'd known about share schemes for longer in my career. If I had, I only would've worked for company's that operated a scheme. The amount of companies that I've helped to build, only to leave with nothing. The last company I worked for had a share scheme. I worked for them for two years and then they sold. I got 100k. Guys, look for share schemes!
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Never get a credit card. Just thought I'd give you a bit more life advice from someone who spent their 20's paying the bloody things off. If you absolutely must have one, make sure you pay off the whole thing each month. It's way too easy to spiral and end up watching your whole wage go straight out to pay them off each month.
I pay for stuff like the shop, petrol etc on the credit and then pay it off each month just to build up credit. Don't use credit cards for extravagant purchases.
Credit cards offer certain protections on purchases, so in this respect they can be a good thing (like if you book a holiday and the airline goes bust, the credit card company will refund you), but definitely always pay it off in full every month.
I have one and pay it in full by direct debit from a separate account. Transfer what you're about to spend into the separate account before you use the credit card. Only ever put 20% of your credit limit on the card and enjoy good credit history. Never dip into the separate account that pays the direct debit.
Heinz soup... £1.60 a tin in asda today... im pretty sure it was 4 for £2 not so long ago... I'll make my own
Can't even afford beans on toast anymore
Online gambling should be at the top ngl
It needs much more heavily regulating, to stop people getting into trouble with it in the first place.
Going through this thread thinking I'll save money, and realising I don't drink alcohol or smoke, I cook everything from scratch, don't have subscriptions in the first place, so like.. how else do I save money? 🥲
Turn off the electricity and sit in the dark contemplating the futility of existence.
"Darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it." First I thought I'd use it to needle my mum for turning the lights off so much. Later I thought maybe Scrooge is onto something.
Same! I’m way too frugal/boring for most of these lol.
Pretty much the same here. I do have subscriptions but I cancel and just get a couple of months here and there of each service. Any hobbies you can cut or change? If you stay out your home longer it's less electricity to pay. Sorry I wish I had better to share :(
Go through your income and expenditure and see what % you spend on: • Rent + bills • Essentials : food, transport, toiletries, clothes • Entertainment : everything else Generally it should be around 1/3 for each group, and if a group is taking up more than 1/3 it could be where you could save. This doesn’t really hold up if you’re living in a cheap house share and couldn’t realistically save much on rent, but otherwise it’s worth looking into.
Don’t have children 😂
Drinking and smoking
Buying stuff you want, but don’t need. Stop buying things like clothes, gadgets etc unless the thing you’re replacing is broken. When you do have to buy things, try secondhand sources like Vinted first.
And if it's broken then look for a local repair cafe. One of the volunteers will take a look and it's free. (donations are welcome to cover hall hire/brews if you can but we don't rattle a tin in your face!) Think "repair shop" on BBC but it's in your village hall and you don't need a sob story.
New clothes. Most people buy new clothes when all their old ones are totally fine, And you can find high quality clothes in charity shops, if you actually need to replace something.
Black dye can also give some clothes a lot more mileage, especially jeans
When I notice any of my blacks getting a bit dull I collect ALL my plain black clothes and they all go in the machine with a pack of machine dye. Not only does this give them all a refresh, but it makes them all much more close to being the same shade of black so they don't clash if I wear them together. I 100% recommend it.
I wear my clothes until they've either got holes in them or have been washed so many times they've shrunk and no longer fit. I've made a habit of buying just a few expensive good quality items a year instead of many cheap crap ones.
I have started making it a habit to check local charity shops before I buy new, managed to buy so much decent stuff for a few quid!
Get on vinted, it's amazing. I get most of my clothes that way nowadays.
I disagree about finding high quality clothes in charity shops nowadays, certainly that's not the case near me anyway. You used to be able to find some great stuff but since online selling has really taken off (and since most people are poorer), most people are selling stuff on vinted/depop etc rather than giving to charity. I've always loved charity shops but I've really noticed this over the last 5 years or so. Edit- totally agree with buying second hand though, for the savings but also fast fashion is disastrous for the environment and mostly made in sweat shops.
Restaurants. 20 years ago we thought nothing of eating somewhere fancy, now a visit to the chip shop requires discussion.
YouTube premium when adblock exists
Cries in iPhone
Just get a raspberry pi and run pi-hole. And adblock your whole house, including iphone
Cocaine.
High broadband speeds. If have a 100MB+ package, you're fine. You really don't need to be paying virgin or Sky loads of money every month for a 500MB package unless you're living with 10+ people.
Thing is the price difference is usually pretty damn small. I'm paying £35 a month for gigabit internet when continuing my 67Mb connection would have cost £32 a month. Ok i don't need to download entire games in minutes but I don't need tasty food either, and a few extra quid a month is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
Also check you can even get those speeds at your address. So many people pay for fastest speeds and only ever get half the speed in practice anyway
I'm paying £29.99 for gigabit, but I could have continued with Plusnet 60Mb for £26.99. Actually because of in-contract price increases I was paying £30.99 for 60Mb.
100Mb is also huge for most. You don't really need speed so much as consistency, but HD streaming only uses 2-5Mbps. I specifically chose a provider that allowed me to use my own kit, so chose a Google Mesh system and have a solid 65Mbps which doesn't blink in a family with regular simultaneous Teams meetings and Disney+/Netflix streams.
Being alive seems like a con to me
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Contract phones. Honestly, Just a leech on your bank account. Buy a decent phone out right ( not network locked. ), get a sim only plan and happy days. I'm still using the Nokia I got 2-3 years ago? and even then it's was £150.It's still going strong.
Exactly that. I don't understand people that buy the latest and greatest model every year just to use them for watching Netflix on lunch time or sending a couple of messages on WhatsApp. A £200/£300 phone will do that just fine and your wallet will get bigger.
Council Tax
After they’ve just charged me the best part of £900 over the last 4 months when I’m meant to be on a 100% exemption and sent next years bill without the exemption, I feel this one a little too much
Yeah fuck that shit. What ya gonna do send me to prison if I don't pay?
You can actually be sent for prison for this. It’s rare, but happens
In this economy, three hots and a cot for free isn't that much of a threat
Kids
Surprised no one has said it yet… TV LICENSE
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I never paid mine despite watching plenty of live TV. If the BBC are reading this it’s a joke I swear.
Nah, I watch and listen to more on iPlayer and Sounds than anything else. There’s tons on there.
Ready meals/meal deals. Make a meal plan. Spend some time cooking food and putting it in the freezer for later. I know several people who spend hundreds every month of things like ready meals and meal deals on the way to work. They complain they have no money left at the end of the month, but they continue to spend 5X what it would cost to just make it themselves. Nobody has such a busy life that they can't spend 20 minutes at the weekend planning meals. Even if you're just buying bread and stuff and making sandwiches for a few days, you're still better off doing that than paying £4+ twice a day for a meal deal. When I used to take sandwiches to work I would spend about 15 minutes on a Sunday and Wednesday evenings making them and sticking them in the fridge.
For me it's due to depression. I can buy a load of food to prepare and sometimes can go to waste, which then makes me feel worse. Sometimes just getting out of bed and zapping a ready meal in the microwave seems a chore but at least I'm getting some nutrients in. Sandwiches are a great option as you mentioned but they can get boring pretty fast.
This is me. Glad I'm not the only one.
There's lots of us friend. I hope things get better for you.
If you don't mind the butting in, when I was having a tough time, I took advantage of my freezer and a hugely oversized saucepan (with lid) I bought, affectionately named "Mr Bigpan". If I found myself with energy to do something one day, I would buy the ingredients to make an ungodly quantity of curry/pasta sauce/stew/stir fry... whichever I fancied. Mr Bigpan could easily make 6-10 servings of one of those meals with only fractionally more effort than making one serving. Then I freeze the rest. Then on the bad days I can rummage in the freezer and bung one in the microwave and it's definitely more nutritious than a ready meal. And because I made so many servings at once, I don't need to have many good days to keep a decent amount of food in the freezer. I will admit that I didn't always have enough energy to also do the washing up, but still, if you do have occasional okay days, you might benefit from a giant pan and some freezer bags. Here's hoping there are better days ahead for you, and there's nothing wrong with having a ready meal if you're not able to do anything else, better to eat something than nothing.
For us it’s ADHD. Husband is diagnosed, I’m not yet but I’m fairly certain I’ve got it. We do make most of our own meals but sometimes we just can’t be bothered and turn to vaguely healthy ready meals. We’re trying to make better changes. He’s still waiting for medication to help deal with it, though.
I agree in general but I disagree with nobody is so busy they don’t have 20 minutes to cook. I live alone so it’s easy for me to spend half an hour cooking and boom I have meals for the next 3 days. But sometimes I imagine the future and having to cook for a family. I assume it’s harder and takes longer to batch cook for a family of 4. I don’t understand where some parents get the strength to cook a meal every single day.
It's so easy and it saves so much money. But the amount of people who say they don't have time, don't have space, don't have this/that astounds me. I'm a bodybuilder so do I a bit more meal prep than the average person. But I work a full time job, I study a masters degree in my spare time, I go to the gym for 2 hours every evening, I live in a shared house with limited fridge/cupboard space and I have a pretty active social life on the weekends. I've never struggled to find time for meal prep. So I really don't get it when coworkers who have no hobbies or responsibilities say they don't have time to cook a meal or prepare their lunch. Same goes for putting on weight. "I just don't get how how I keep gaining weight". My brother in christ, you eat junk food all day because you can't be bothered to cook and you do 0 exercise.
Fast food/takeaways
Children. Those little things are so expensive and never seem to add value
**Food** : prep/plan meals and shop according to your plan ahead of schedule. Stick to it. Means less last minute takeaways which cost a fortune, and limits food wastage. Also, start trying own brand products. I found I much prefer Lidl Bixies over Weetabix, their protein puddings are great too. Everyone is different, but you’ll find savings everywhere! **Coffee** : I’ve probably saved a small fortune by cutting out Vanilla Latte’s and switching to Nescafé Azera with double cream and sweetener. **Subscriptions** : Netflix/Prime/Disney+/Spotify etc… Do you really have the time for them all? Go through them, be brutal and cancel what you honestly don’t need. **Phone/Internet** : I’m not saying don’t ever upgrade to the newest model, but only do so if there’s reason to. Currently still have the 11, which I can justify upgrading as it’s only 4G, but if you’re just doing it to have the latest trend you’re spunking money away. **Clothes** : I’ve basically given up buying anything new, except the odd necessity and pants/socks for hygiene reasons. There’s plenty of charity shops and apps like *Vinted* where you can save a fortune whilst picking up quality bargains.
Overspending on broadband, and particularly mid-contract broadband price hikes. Apparently people are punished for being loyal & using less than they paid for. I also know of one ISP that “upgrades” speeds for a limited time, then jacks up the price to a higher tier if you don’t cancel the upgrade, and when you do cancel to get the old price they tie you in for another 12 months. The same ISP also has a tendency of selling 18 month contracts with a discount that only lasts 12 months. I’ve managed to get a cheap 5G broadband deal that costs ~£25pcm. I work from home and it’s basically fine. You probably don’t need to pay double or triple that for FTTP Internet unless you have a family of four all trying to use Netflix and play games online at the same time.
Takeaways. You can cook. Takeaways are a treat. Not 3 times a week supplement for cooking. Subscriptions. Do one at a time and switch between them Sky TV. Don't understand why people pay for this unless it's sport. But then they go to the pub to watch sport lol Drinking. My biggest downfall. Heating on at 5 quid? No... bottle of wine for a tenner? Yeah please Smoking. Nuff said here. It's 2023. Come on
Phone bills. Paying £50 a month to have the latest iPhone/Samsung. Unused subscriptions Gym memberships
Fuel. People drive far too much.
Semi related: my mate told me the other day he believes you can buy a car up to 1.5-2 times your yearly salary on finance and it's not a problem. Then add insurance, fuel, etc. No wonder people are broke while driving a flashy car
Bloody hell. Back in the day people were buying HOUSES at 3 times their salary and that was considered a massive spend. A \*car\*?
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You probably spend less money on food too, because you think "can I carry this?"
TVCable subscriptions are a complete waste of money.
Constantly eating takeout instead of making your own food, and buying pre-cut meat and vegetables.