10 random ways to save money

Posted by Rosie

There are literally hundreds of pages on the Internet giving you ways to save money.  Here's the first one I picked from a search engine: The Telegraph's 50 ways to save money in 2015. Now I don't know about you but I have already implemented many of these or they just don't apply to us.  What I need are some personalised money saving tips that work specifically for us.  These are 10 random ideas that I have come up with.

1.  Reduce Ben's penchant for chucking clean clothes in the wash

And bearing in mind we live on a smallholding it is not a problem wearing his old tracksuit bottoms again if there is a slight bit of mud on them.

2.  Cook faster meals

We like stir fries so that's good!  We do have the advantage of the woodburner though so I am cooking on top of there whilst it's alight including making lots of stock from bones I have stockpiled in the freezer.  I am also cooking dried beans on the woodburner which I then freeze in usable sized portions.

3.  Batch cooking

4 loaves of bread in the oven is far better than one and if I bake one cake I might as well shove another one in the oven at the same time and then freeze it.

Batch cooked bread

4.  Try to get one freezer turned off

We actually have 3 chest freezers and a fridge freezer but as we produce so much of our own meat, veg and fruit they are often all pretty full. And adding lots of cooked beans and bread isn't helping.  That said though, stock takes up less space that the bones and at least half of each batch I make gets turned into soup that we eat straight away. 

5.  Lights off and switch items off standby

In other words keep nagging the boys to turn off lights and the X Box when they have left the room or finished playing.   How hard can it be turn the DVD player off?

6.  Mend things

Hmm - this is not my strong point.  I am a failed seamstress and was the only girl at school who regularly sewed what ever it was I was supposed to be making to her skirt. BUT, I do have a lovely friend who is currently laid up with a broken Achilles tendon who can both sew and has the time at the moment. Torn trousers will be delivered this week ... I wonder if I can tempt her to sew new ties on my apron too?!

7.  Reduce wine consumption

Gulp .... in my defence my favourite wine is only €1.99 (that's £1.50) but it all adds up over a year. 

Wine at €1.99 a bottle

8.  Drive more economically

Our car is now a petrol rather than the very economic diesel that we did have before it died so trying to drive more economically would be a good idea as well as combining journeys where-ever possible.

9.  Sweep rather than hoover

With a wood burner, 2 children, 2 adults who will have tramped through muddy animal pens and several house pets, the floor downstairs really does need regular cleaning. But if I sweep it rather than hoover every other day that'll save a bit of electricity.

10.  Take fruit bush cuttings for free new plants

One of my jostaberries has died and I have more space for more fruit bushes.  It is getting a little late to take cuttings (late autumn is best) but as I also still need to prune my bushes I might as well do some cuttings and hope they take. 

Well I did say it was a random list!  Feel free to share it or simply pinch the ones that fit in with your lifestyle. I'd love to hear your personalised money saving tips, maybe some of them would work for us too.