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Recession-busting tips

On 2 Nov 2008 at 10:01pm Earl of Lewes wrote:

I'm completely skint and need some recession-busting top tips to keep the wolves from the door. What are your top money saving tips?

For what it's worth, here are mine:

1. If you have kids, buy an annual season ticket for Paradise Park - 2 adults and up to 3 children for £35

2. If you have a chimney but don't regularly have a fire, get some wool lagging material (7 from B&Q), bung it in a dustbin bag and shove it up the chimney (but don't light a fire when it;'s up there!) . It will stop heat disappearing up the chimney

3. Buy shampoo, toothpaste etc at the pound shops in Brighton or Eastbourne

4. If you have pre-school kids, buy their presents at charity shops and car boot sales - they won't care. Also, the Lewes Toy Library is a brilliant alternative to buying lots of things

5. If you want a day out in London, you can pre-book a ticket on Southern Rail for 10, as long as it's a week in advance

Anyone else have any suggestions?

On 2 Nov 2008 at 11:08pm Lysdexic wrote:

As a single person on minimum wage, I'm permanently skint anyway. The recession hasn't really made any difference to the way I shop.

On 2 Nov 2008 at 11:15pm 10 tips from a HandyMan wrote:

(1) Don't get brainwashed into being a consumerist automaton at Christmas.
(2) Make homebrew beer. It's a winner. Works out about 20-30p per pint depending. Using a kit, 40 pints takes about an hour to make including bottling if you are organised. Use Grolch bottles, as no bottle caps are needed. You do not need to sterilise them, that's a myth. You still need to buy Harveys as well though.
(3) Be really argumentative in a calm articulate way when you get ripped off. We got a big luxury food hamper out of BT, for example.
(4) Always go to meetings at work that offer a free lunch even if you are not invited.
(5) Make sure you get paid for sitting on the loo by waiting until you get to work.
(6) Use your bike
(7) Wear a jumper and thick socks indoors. You won't notice if your house is 5 degrees cooler - this saves £200 pa on the bbc website's figures.
(8) Eat lots before going food shopping.
(9) Darn socks, turn worn collars over, it's easy.
(10) And most important of all - because it saves thousands over the years - employ only the best tradespeople - their work will save you big money in the longer term.

On 2 Nov 2008 at 11:16pm 10 tips from a HandyMan wrote:

On 3 Nov 2008 at 10:27am Ben wrote:

Freecycle...

On 3 Nov 2008 at 11:33am Dave wrote:

Sell everything you don't really need on eBay.
If you're like me that's probably about 80% of your stuff

On 3 Nov 2008 at 11:31pm expat two wrote:

Accept that material wealth has no impact on your personal happiness, laugh at advertising which suggests otherwise and drop out of competetitve consumerism.

On 4 Nov 2008 at 9:57am Joogle wrote:

Use part of your garden to grow soft fruit and vegetables. For example, a couple of courgette plants gives a crop of around 2 courgettes every week all summer. Raspberries are very easy to grow and expensive to buy in the shops. Don't grow things that are cheap already like potatoes.