30 ways to save £1

Moving out at 18 and straight into the life of mortgages I've learnt how to be frugal. It was really hard at first but now its second nature. Now we are a family of five our money needs to stretch further and work harder. I actually get such a buzz when I have picked something up and I know its a bargain. I feel like I'm on the ball with our finances and keep up to date with the latest good deal! So here's 30 ways to save a £1 or more in most points! 

1. Have a no car day. We have every Thursday where we don't use the car. If we want to go somewhere we walk. This is a great way to save money on petrol.

2. Use coupons. Cut them out from magazines, off leaflets through the door etc. A great way to collect them is by emailing companies you use often and complement their products. I do this every 6 months or so and usually end up with about £10 worth of vouchers. Companies really like to hear how good their products are and send them out to thank you!

3. Downshift when shopping. Recently we have downshifted to the supermarket own brand cereals. Small changes like this make a big difference to your shopping bill.

4. If you have time go shopping near to closing time. I know Marks and Spencer reduce their prices alot in the food section on a Sunday afternoon.

5.Take advantage of buy one get one free. This might seem really obvious but when they are buy one get one free if the use by date has a good date on buy 2 and get 2 free. Same goes when products are half price- buy 2 instead.

6. Having 3 children there are 3 special birthdays every year, make your own cake. They will definately taste nicer, be an awful lot cheaper, even if your not a great cake maker the children won't notice. Let's face it they only want to blow the candles out!

7. Sell your old mobiles. Always check ebay first to see what they are going for they usually go for more. If you haven't got the time to ebay, make sure you use a comparison site before you commit to one company.

8. Sell on ebay. One of my resolutions this year was to declutter the house I have managed to sell over £200 already this year, just from selling our old 'junk'.

9. Buy on ebay. Ebay is great for everyday things if you can wait for them to be posted. I bought a waterproof sheet on there for my sons bed it was £1.94 posted!!!!! They were £7 in the supermarket.

10. Go for a jog or brisk walk instead of joining the gym. My gym membership was one of the first things to go after having children. Jogging is more practical you can go when you want and when you feel like it. There is no pressure to go because its free!

11. Do your own DIY. We saved thousands of pounds last year by doing our own driveway. After seeing my parents drive completed we wanted to smarten ours up as well. We got a quote for £5200. We did some research on the Internet and decided to have a go at doing it ourselves. It  cost us £1200 saving us 4000 of the little coins.

12. Save your change until Christmas. I pop all my coppers into a money box, and the occasional £1, £2 or if I'm felling flushed i will stuff a fiver in there. Its really surprising how much its builds up to and is so welcome at the most expensive time of year.

13. Set a direct debit up of £20 per month to a savings account. You won't notice it going out monthly if you do it the day after you get paid and it will build up to £240 after a year. Of course you can also add to it if you have any money left at the end of the month. You will also earn interest over the year.

14. Make your own ice lollies for the children. Super cheap, super easy. Look on ebay for ice lolly molds it will be a good investment and certainly be cheaper than buying supermarket lollies.

15. Take a picnic. Going out for the day? Take your own, you won't have to queue either.

16. Upcycle instead of buying new, revamp your old things. My next project is to paint my kitchen table and chairs.

17. Enter competitions. I have saved lots of money by doing this especially by winning things I need to buy anyway like the year supply of tea and washing powder I won. I have also won things I couldn't warrant paying for.

18. Book train rides weeks in advance. Whenever we are planning to use to train we always book in advance you save a small fortune.

19. Wait for the sales. I can't remember the last time I bought a full priced item for myself I almost always wait for the sales. Matalan have a £5 shoe event on at the moment so why not see if you can pick a bargain up.

20. Check through your bills. Do you pay direct debit for everything? Most companies now offer a discount for paying direct debit.

21. Use loyalty cards. Today I have booked a euro tunnel crossing for the grand total of £9 because i saved my Tesco points up and used them. Your spending at the supermarket anyway so you might as well save the points at the same time.

22. Kids in bed? Why not light the candles at night instead of having the lights on? It will set a nice romantic mood as well as saving on the leccy bill!

23. Compare insurance deals every time. My house insurance was due in February, after using a comparison site my existing insurer came up cheaper than my renewal quote!! ALWAYS check it will save you ££££s.

24. When you have chosen your insurance provider, go through a cashback website. I use topcashback. In fact whenever I buy anything online I always go through them if I can.

25. Make a meal plan and a shopping list. When you do this you know what your going for and won't be tempted by anything else.

26. Try and haggle for things. I'm not so gutsy to do it in the shops, my mother-in-law haggled in barratts the other day and got a bag for nearly half the price it was marked up at. We haggled when we bought our sofa and got insurance for 5 years free!

27. Make packed lunches. School meals are £2.10 at the moment that's £10.50 for one child for the week. that would easily feed all 5 of use for packed lunches for a week.

28. Use discount codes. Sign up to newsletters that interest you and check facebook pages before you buy anything sometimes companies will put a flash promotion on.

29. Use the library. Yep the good old fashioned library.

30. If your feeling fruity, share a shower, it saves water and on the heating bills.

And last but not least enter the moneysupermarket 30 ways to save a pound competition, to be in with a chance to win £1000 plus they will give you £1 for every tip.

So there's my list, its higglidy pigglidy, but thats how I thought of them! Have you entered?