What are your 3 best top money saving tips?

A bit pathetic I know but I used to throw away lettuce, coleslaw and fruit juice all the time.

Now I wrap lettuce in tin foil and honestly it lasts for ages, try it.

I make coleslaw as and when now I have the right equipment.

Fruit juice makes fantastic ice lollies for the GD.

Simples.

Cook and split up the mince for Chilli and Rissoles = 4 main meals
Do my own pastry and cake baking
Ask for gift vouchers for xmas/birthdays so I can buy my favourite shampoo's/toiletries.
Plus loads of others but I would be here all night.

I think mine would be

1. stay in bed
2.stay at home
3.if I do venture out leave purse at home

am feeling very chastened as I felt I managed my finances quite well

green I misread your post and thought you'd said you'd got rid of your cat 8 months ago!

Thanks glassortwo tried for the year but they get snapped up so quickly. Used freecycle in both directions for years. Can't access at moment as my new email is incompabtable with their system.

But it seems these days so much is dependant on them, the net etc. that anyone who does have all these mod cons is limited.

My tip is these living lettuce which are only £1 and give you salad greens for couple of weeks.

1. buying children's toys in charity shops and car boots, in order to build up a stash for the GC at our house

2 trawling round different supermarkets of bogoffs and reduced prices on all the staples

3 managing ISAs and savings accounts properly and moving them as soon as introductory savings interest rates drop

the corrolary (sp?) of course is what do we WASTE money on:

Well, - lettuce (we never use it after the first few leaves), bacon - I buy it and then remember how much indigestion it gives me, then it ends up going past sell by, way past sell by, and a dongle, it costs me £5 a month, I really must cancel it.

Anagram - !!

1. Subscribe (free) to Martin Lewis's website: www.moneysavingexpert.com for useful tips and sometimes access to vouchers for restaurants etc.

2. Use Ebay (sparingly) for presents. You can find pretty jewellery that doesn't look cheap but is. My favourite is dichroic glass. Ebay is good for toys as well - my DiL trawls through and sends me the links to things the children would like for Christmas and birthdays.

3. Don't click 'one click' immediately on Amazon. Use your wish list until you are really sure you want the book. The price may go down - and always check the Kindle Daily Deal - the book you want might come up for 99p!

I started keeping my bath water and using it (with a bucket) to flush the lavatory - not primarily to save money but for environmental reasons.
We don't have any problems with shortage of water here in the mountains, but it might be a good idea where some of you are living!

I always hover around the reduced section in the Supermarket - why pay full price when you can get it for less - put excess in freezer. I don't get tempted by BOGOF's unless I really think I need 2 cauliflowers!
I buy some clothes/household goods in TKMaxx - really nice stuff at a good price.
Since J died, I tend to live in the kitchen which has independent heating, and leave the rest of the house on a very low temperature.
I intend to educate myself in 'selling' on eBay - I have so much excess 'stuff' which I could mke a bit of money on and use towards my visits to Oz.

My favourite economies are:

1 Only eat out with a voucher eg 2 for 1, when a friend and I split the bill

2 Grow whatever you can - herbs and salad on a windowsill, veg in containers. I grow a lot of soft fruit, which I love, andwhich is very low maintenance in the garden. The surplus is fuss free to freeze.

3 Don't go shopping for entertainment, even to bookshops - my personal downfall

4 For any big spend - that's anything over £20 in my book - always have a cooling off period before splashing out

Cut plastic tubes of hand cream etc in half when you can't squeeze any more out. The bottom half will fit into the top half and you will be amazed at how much is left that you can use. It's clever of the manufacturers to design these tubes so you can't use all the contents unless you perform surgery.