Pinch the pennies

When it comes to money, I’ve always been mean. I blame it on the war: we were brought up with ration books, told to waste not want not, bathe in only six inches of water, and turn off all the lights so no enemy bombers could see us – especially while having a bath.

When we got our first banana, which of course we had never seen before, my mother cut it into four pieces for me, my sisters and my brother. They scoffed their pieces at once. I kept mine for a whole day so I could gloat and make my siblings jealous, despite the fact that by then it was brown and horrible.

Today I go up and down the high street looking for bargain raspberries; I rush when a street stall is selling punnets at £1 each. I know when I get them home, half will be mouldy. Do I care? Do I heckers. I’ve saved money.

And now it turns out I am in fashion, when many are facing a winter of penny-pinching, forced to choose whether they heat or eat.

My dear wife always argued my money-saving was a false economy. She would never do such a thing. Even though she was also brought up during the war, in the same sort of Carlisle council estate, she emerged un-mean, totally un-tight. She would never get over-excited by special offers, two-for-one deals, or vouchers that get you 10p off. Whenever I did the shopping she gave me a list on which she wrote ‘No bargains’. I think half the population is like me: whether you have a lot of money or very little, have suffered deprivation or not, there is something in us that makes us always count the pennies. I honestly do get pleasure out of a bargain; it makes me feel good, as if I have achieved something.

‘The thought of spending £3.35 on a cappuccino at a posh coffee shop appals me’

I am in the fortunate position of being able to spend money on big things: such as giving a substantial donation to Marie Curie. I was so grateful for how they looked after my wife in their hospice. But the thought of spending £3.35 on a cappuccino at a posh coffee shop appals me. So, I trail up and down the high street for a cheaper one. And guess what? In a grocery store that seems to be open night and day, they have a coffee machine where the drinks are only £1.50. My heart pounds as I approach, worried this dream machine might be broken.

How else do I save cash? I am now doing something that would really disgust my wife: I’m not buying dishcloths or washing-up sponges. I use my fingers. Cleaning dishes with fingers is easy – skin, you must have noticed, is brilliant stuff. It lasts longer than a dishcloth.

One of my best tricks – sorry, ways – to save money is used when I go abroad. I buy presents for my grandchildren before I go away. I go round local market stalls and buy cheap, exotic-looking tat. While abroad, I might buy some postcards and get the assistant to wrap them in their branded wrapping paper. Then, when home, I use it to wrap up the stuff I already have in their bags. Clever, huh?

Not having a dog saves me a fortune, too. My children moan about the cost of insurance, the vet, injections, and suchlike. I have a tortoise and in 50 years have not spent a penny on him.

However, the best saving I have ever made is giving up a car when my wife died. I reckon that I save £5,000 a year. I have my Freedom Pass as I live in London so I often hop on and off buses, whether I want to use them or not, just for free travel.

I also enjoy drinking a bottle of wine a day; my favourite vintage is £5.99. So no-one can say I am mean – at least not all of the time…

48 clever money-saving ideas from Saga readers

Supermarkets

1 Make sure you get the best value from loyalty cards. With Tesco you can triple the value if you use it for days out or eating out. Over-60s can get a senior railcard: swap £10 of Tesco vouchers and get a one-year £30 travel card for a third off train ticket prices.

2 Iceland now offers an amazing 10% off for all shoppers over the age of 60 every Tuesday. Just make sure you take some ID when you go.

3 Bend down and look at the lower shelves – it’s where supermarkets put cheaper and better-value products. I believe the same applies to the top shelf, but I can’t reach!

4 Only use ‘buy one, get one free’ or 3 for 2 offers if they are items you use anyway. Don’t be seduced into buying things you don’t need.

5 Get rid of the idea that low-priced food equals inferior quality. By buying most of my groceries and cleaning products in the ‘cheap’ supermarkets, I spend approximately a third to half less a month without compromising on quality, and I’ve shopped this way for 20 years.

6 Really stock up when your supermarket has a special offer on a (non-perishable) product you love. I do it for Nescafé Azera coffee and usually manage to buy it half price.

7 Do smaller, more frequent shopping when already out and about so that a large weekly food shop doesn’t get lost at the back of a full fridge and wasted. Menu planning also helps here.

8 If you are buying a gift of flowers, the ‘cheap’ supermarkets sell the same flowers often for less than half the price of ‘normal’ supermarkets. Wrap the blooms in a piece of on-trend brown paper (cut from the roll you bought at the cheap shop) and prettify it with ribbon from the tin where you save offcuts.

Cleaning

9 Use eco wash balls. Costing about £20, they clean without the need for washing tablets, powder or conditioner and last up to 1,000 washes. I have used these for years – they’re a big money saver.

10 Use only basic cleaning materials, such as bleach, soap powder, soap, soda crystals, bicarbonate of soda, scourers and kitchen roll. I have stopped buying cling film, fabric conditioner, wet wipes and all spray cleaners, including window cleaner.

Household

11 Follow our columnist Paul Lewis’ money blog in Saga Magazine to receive regular financial guides and easy-to-understand explanations.

12 Join the Nextdoor app for the latest news on your local area, plus many free items people are getting rid of, including plants and household goods.

13 I mend most of my own clothes. I once patched a pair of jeans with pink hearts and made my own fashion statement!

14 I cut the laddered leg off a pair of tights and then during the winter, instead of putting on a pair, I wear two one-legged tights!

15 Use old curtains as winter door coverings behind exterior doors.

Gardens

16 We all know about the benefit of a water butt for the garden but we take it a stage further. Our bathroom is almost directly above the butt so using a length of hose we syphon out the bath or shower water into the butt below. I stand there with my thumb over the bottom end while my wife pours water into the top end using a jug and funnel. When the pipe is full she puts it into the bath and secures it there with a weight.

17 When you buy plants, try to pick those you know will bulk out. It’s amazing how much joy you get reviving a reduced item, seeing it flourish in the weeks ahead.

Days out

18 Odeon runs a scheme for over-60s called Silver Cinema. You get to see a new release or timeless classic as well as being offered tea, coffee and biscuits before your film, all for £3.50. Check your local cinema.

19 Use the library. Books are free and you can request the latest novels. Plus, for a small fee, you can often borrow CDs and DVDs, too.

20 Each year in May, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine has a 2 for 1 promotion for gardens throughout the UK. The magazine is expensive but it’s worth the money if you do several trips, plus you get a load of good-quality seed packets included.

Food

21 Wilted salad leaves, brassicas and carrots will revive in cold water in the fridge

22 Buy a large sliced loaf of bread and pack the slices in freezer dated bags, according to how many you need each day. Just take out the packet beforehand to thaw, and the bread is always fresh.

23 The cost of my favourite instant coffee has gone up by 25%, so I have decreased the amount I use in each cup by 20%. It makes no difference!

24 Use food waste apps such as toogoodtogo.co.uk which sells leftover stock from shops and restaurants. It’s pot luck – you won’t know what’s going to be in your magic bag until you collect it and everything has a short date, but I’ve had £20 worth of items for just over £3, and I freeze some. It’s great fun, too, and my teenage grandsons love it!

25 Put leftovers from tins in jam or pickle jars so you can see them clearly in the fridge.

26 I make the delicacy ‘Fridge Soup’, using wilting or sad vegetables. Some are more successful than others, but you do get a warm glow of no waste.

27 We all know about freezing stews and casseroles, but we also cook, say, sausages in batches of at least 12 to freeze separately. We also buy whole cooked chickens, cut them up and freeze the various parts. Both make a quick and easy meal.

28 If onions are getting old, slice them and open-freeze by spreading them out on a tray, then bag ready to use. This can be done with a lot of food getting old: don’t throw it, freeze it.

29 I live on my own now so rarely bake using the oven. If I do make something, it’ll be a fridge cake. The fridge has to be on so it’s better to use that rather than the oven when you can.

Utility bills

30 My hot water supply often takes about 30 seconds to come through when I wash up, so I harvest the cold water in a jug until it runs hot. I then use this to water my plants or to fill the kettle. My water bill has reduced since I have been doing this.

31 A water meter has saved me a large sum: a decade ago the water rates in my three-bed semi were £500 a year, and on a meter I pay around £170. I live alone but I don’t scrimp on water and still make savings.

32 Take in solar garden lights to use indoors at night – they light hallways well.

33 We use the Equiwatt app. You earn points when the power to certain devices is turned off via smart plugs, saving energy and money. You earn more points for power-hungry appliances such as the kettle and tumble-drier, which you can then swap for Amazon vouchers or energy-related offers. It’s worth delaying a cup of coffee for!

34 If you have a combi boiler, turn off the hot water preheat setting, especially overnight. The preheat setting keeps a small amount of hot water ready inside the boiler at all times so it reaches your taps quicker, but it means your boiler is firing up every 90 minutes or so. You can save 5-10% on your gas bill by turning it off (some boilers don’t let you).

Making money

35 Pay your electricity or gas bill monthly by variable direct debit [instead of a fixed monthly sum] so you just pay for what you actually use.

36 If you’re rattling around in a house that’s too big, rent out a room – my lodger is here Sunday night to Thursday and it’s good to have someone youthful around again!

37 My husband and I live near a busy station and we no longer run a car. We rent out our driveway and earn £110 a month – it’s easy money.

38 Keep up to date with your savings interest rates. My bank’s regular monthly eSaver was paying 0.5%. The current monthly eSaver is paying 2.5% – five times the old rate. I have closed the old one and opened a new one with no penalty.

39 Sell unwanted books, CDs, DVDs and games here. If you use the app, your phone camera scans the item’s barcode and you get an instant valuation. It’s quick and easy and you can have them collected from you.

Shopping

40 Register for a Boots Advantage Card – its points system is one of the best. You’ll also get 500 points – worth £5 – on spending £10 if you recycle five beauty, health, wellness and dental products, from any brand, that can’t be recycled at home.

41 I always pay with a store credit card to earn extra points, which turn into money off vouchers. The balance must be paid off monthly to avoid paying interest, which would nullify the benefits.

42 Use cashback site Quidco.com. You just access the shop you want – participating retailers include Argos and Amazon – via the site and earn a slice of their commission.

43 Online retailers often offer a welcome discount if you subscribe to their newsletter. Subscribe, get the discount, then unsubscribe if you don’t want further emails. My epitaph will say, ‘She never paid full price!’

44 Sign up to apps like Shopmium.com, which is free to join. You search for the offers you like and buy the products as usual, then get cashback when you submit the receipt. You can often try new products for free, too.

Bathroom

45 One day I ran out of face cream so I cut the tube open into two pieces – it was full of cream that lasted me more than 10 days. Since then I have cut all tubes in half, whether it be tomato paste, cream cheese, toothpaste, make-up or pain-reliever creams.

46 I pull the top off body lotion bottles and the lotion that’s left lasts me another three or four days. I rinse out shampoo bottles and do the same with washing machine liquids.

47 Cut the sealed end off a nearly empty toothpaste tube, make a little ‘hat’ for it out of foil, and you will gain several more cleans from it.

Home

48 I use a one-cup kettle as I live on my own and drink tea all day. When I first bought it I checked the amount of energy I used on an average day – mainly making tea! – and it’s nearly half of what boiling a normal kettle cost me.

‘We’re making and saving money’

Brian Kennedy, 71, and wife Barbara, 68, save on bills by housesitting for others – and get exercise walking clients’ dogs, too.

The couple, from Hertfordshire, began working for Homesitters in 2004 after Brian took early retirement. Since then they have taken on more than 300 housesits for homeowners on holiday or away for work.

They earn around £20 a day in total, possibly more if there are pets to look after, and have noticed huge savings on their own bills, particularly in winter.

‘For us the payment isn’t a strong motivation, but it is nice to have and it means we can enjoy occasional pub lunches during our stays,’ says Brian. ‘An unexpected bonus has been the significant reduction in our home heating bill, too. We like looking after the pets – you get all the pleasure of having a dog without the vets’ bills. And the dog walks provide us with welcome exercise and fresh air. We also enjoy the sense of responsibility and purpose we get when we’re left in charge.’

The Kennedys have stayed in more than 80 different homes – some modest, others less so (one had a moat). ‘We’ve visited more parts of the Home Counties in the past 19 years than we did in the previous 40 years,’ says Brian. ‘Homesitting for us has been like having lots of small holidays. Up to 20 times each year we pack our bags, load up the car and set off on a new adventure. I’d really recommend it to other readers.’