Monthly income

Look at your phone contract. Do you really need all that data and phone calls? Can you find another sufficient for your needs, cheaper.
Don't buy ready meals. You can cook something better for a fraction of the price. Though I do appreciate that if you are out at work, you don't always feel like cooking when you come home.
Buy supermarket own brands. If there is something you really don't like, but the next cheapest.
Generic medicines e.g. paracetamol, are much cheaper if you buy the supermarket own brands, rather than branded ones.
Every time you reach for your purse or credit card, ask yourself if you really need that item. This is where you have to recognise the difference between need and want. After you have done it for a while it becomes second nature.
Have one day a week where you don't spend anything at all, apart from essential travel costs.
Don't look on it as a depressing time, think if it as a challenge.
I really do know what it is to be hard up. My first husband left me with no income, practically no furniture, and masses of debt he had racked up. I survived!

Have a look at the Moneysaving Expert page on line

I agree with previous posts regarding MoneySavingExpert - I think Martin Lewis should be the next Chancellor of the Exchequer! He has certainly saved me some cash. My motto is never pay full price unless you have to. Look out for Cashback/sales/charity shops/Aldi and Lidl/discounts on food which can be frozen/eBay - buy and sell/competitions. Regard it as a challenge.

Thank you so much for all your helpful tips. I think you are right TiggyW this needs to be taken as a challenge, my mind is whizzing with saving ideas now. First challenge....All the direct debits need investigating for cheaper deals and then go to cheaper shops for my batch cooking! Thank you all again.

I have a small pension from my late husband, an NHS pension and Carers Allowance looking after Mum. Not old enough for State Pension for another 3 years and 8 months. I live with Mum and Dad so my costs are minimal. I do pay for my car and storage fees of £429 every 4 weeks for my furniture when I get a house of my own. This is wasted money as I have money for a house of my own, would need to get rid of stored furniture as it will not fit into smaller house. Shall be going down to see what I can sell and maybe the rest into Dad's garage x

I live on what I have got, below the lowest tax threshold. If I don’t have the money, I don’t do it or have it as a lifestyle. I also paid off all credit cards 15 years ago.
Holidays I plan carefully and pay a bit off until paid.
I got rid of smart phone mobile package which can eat a chunk out of a low income.
Luckily, I don’t drive, can sew and do, plus rely on Freeview and Netflix rather than expensive satellite packages.

Have a few hobbies that don’t cost money, start them before retirement.

Good luck!

I managed on £73 a week bereavement allowance then the same amount on Job seekers.

Had to pay everything out of that (even around £6.00 a week Council tax.

Don't have a mortgage. no treats but it can be done.
Depends how you budget.

You cannot change water supplier; you get the supplier for your area. What the man probably meant was he changed to a meter.

The answer is as long as a piece of string.
Get up an Excel spread sheet put in two columns, one saying income the other expenditure and list all your basic expenditure.if income exceeds expenditure, no problem.

If expenditure exceeds income, first do a benefit check. Is your income low enough for you to get Pension Credit, Housing Credit (if you rent) Council tax benefit, do you have any disability that means you might get Attendance Allowance.

Then go through your expenditure item by item and consider what economies can be made, downsizing? equity release? shopping more economically eating more economically?

We all have different lifestyles and different incomes and two peoplewith the same income, one will be struggling and the other in clover.

I think a thousand a month is a fortune. Also to someone who made a scathing remark about council houses please think twice . I bought mine also i know a solicitor who lives in an ex council house several teachers. In the north east many of us live on benefits. I work and have tax credits. You must scrimp. Go to shops when they reduce foods. Clothes from charity shops. Learn to sew and alter clothes to fit. Learn to scrounge by that i mean asking friends and family who are getting new stuff if you can have their old stuff. They can only say no. Trade favours example offer to babysit for a lift to the shops or swap things. We can all do it

Can I suggest that you look at Christmas and birthdays now. Do you really need to buy gifts for all the people on your list. I saw Martin Lewis talking about cutting your Christmas expenditure but it was too late for me last year. As soon as New Year was over I made a determined effort to tell certain people that I really can't afford it and, would it be ok for us just to send a lovely card. I must say they have all looked quite relieved. (Love Martin Lewis)

Nothing wrong in living in a council house or housing association house. In fact many of them are built better than the new ones. Also you can get help with your rent if your income is low enough.

If you are someone who does a food shop every week, try going every 8 days.

Such a simple tip but a friend of mine said going one day later didn't mean she had to buy extra things and she saved a lot over a year because she didn't do a food shop 52 times.

How does the 8 day shopping work Tangerine? If I buy 7 apples, one for every day, then I would have to buy 8 if I knew I wouldn't be shopping for 8 days. If I knew a loaf lasted me just 7 days, I would have to buy 2. If you shop fortnightly, you buy twice as much so that it lasts. I can't see how your friend's idea would work.

I have an O2 pay as you go type contract that costs me £6 a month. It has limits on data, calls and texts but then older people are not always online or downloading films so it is perfectly adequate for everyday use.

" I only bought reduced food, eg once I got a bag of spuds and bag of veg sausage rolls for 50p, and that is what I ate all week."

This what pensioners are reduced to in this so-called civilized society.

littleAnnie, I do a big shop on a 5 week basis and it works the same way an 8 day shop does. I budget for each months money to cover 5 weeks food, bar perishables and one-offs, then about once every 4 months I go out, for example, and stock up on 28 April then the next shop isn't until 1 June, so the sum of money that I would have spent in May is still in my bank account to be spent, or not as planned.

In an 8 day rota, one weeks money is budgeted to cover 8 days food this means, assuming the week rota goes from Friday to Friday, a week will come when food is bought on a Thursday one week and not until the Friday of the following week, missing the Friday immediately after the Thrsday, so that a weeks housekeeping is in hand.

Littleannie - OK. I grant you that it isn't foolproof if you specifically want one apple per day but I think the general idea is that the food is eked out a bit. The saving isn't a fortune.

M0nica's explanation covers it too.

I agree with Etheltbags1 trading favours is a brilliant way to save money. My sister bakes a tray of cakes for a man who cuts her grass each week. She used to pay to get it cut. Think if you have a skill you could trade. Could you babysit, bake a cake, walk dogs etc. When my daughter was on maternity leave and money was really tight for her she walked the neighbours 2 large dogs every day and they gave her all of their good quality second hand baby clothing., and she also borrowed some baby equipment from them too. Neighbours used to pay to get dogs walked in the week as both worked long hours. I also know a lady who paints nails and does make up in return for a few hours childcare in school holidays. You don't need as much clothes as you make think you do. Now I am not working as early retirement due to ill health I have not bought any new clothing except a couple of bras for almost 2 years. If you are lucky enough to have a bus pass use that instead of driving and paying to park. I went to cricket match on Sunday to see child play and took enormous flask of coffee and a large blanket as cold. Everyone else seemed to be paying £1.20 for a small cup of coffee and buying 3 or 4 each as so cold. You can do this, you really can.

I get about £800 a month income and my mortgage is paid so after gas /electricity/ phones/ water/ sewerage/tv license/ insurance and contact lenses and £2000 a year on children and grand children birthdays and christmases what’s left is mine to do what I want with I don’t get any benefits but I do get free bus pass which is a god send I think I manage quite well and never feel poor I don’t drive so no car and I don’t have central heating both of which would take up a huge slice I do shop in charity shops because I see things I like not because I have to I don’t eat meat and have lots of vegetables and beans seeds etc I don’t take much in the way of holidays but it would be no fun alone anyway so why waste my money I never feel I can’t manage I just have a simple lifestyle I guess but I go out to the cinema and lunch with friends regularly so I m not deprived
Cut your clothe according and you ll be fine

Tiger is right you can't change your water company.

Lots of good advice here but I wonder why one is suggesting comparing TV deals? We have never had a TV deal, there is plenty to watch without one and if you don't like what's on TV, listen to the radio or read a book!

One no one has mentioned is wear a sweater instead of turning up the heating, perhaps a rug over your legs in the evening? I don't like the feeling of too much central heating and would far prefer to wear a sweater.

I'm another who thinks there is nothing wrong with social housing. We are what we are and should not be defined by how much money we have.

I found Bluebell's post so positive and heartening.
My H has died recently and at the moment I don't know what my income is going to be.
I live in a house bigger than I need but find the thought of uprooting and downsizing far too daunting as I am a very old lady.
One should never make hasty decisions any way until some time has passed and I will be even older then.
I hope to be able to manage and stay while following many suggestions posted on this thread.

Money saving expert has an income and expenditure spreadsheet you can add to and download. Each item eg insurance has a link to money saving ideas.

I worried how I would manage when I retired but live well on less than £10000 yearly.
It would be easier if I still drove (I can’t afford to). I have to shop locally, can’t lug home big packs or multi-buys and a trip to the nearest big town takes 4 hours by bus. Hang onto your car as long as possible.
Help your family with childcare in the hope that they will do small jobs for you.

For me to live comfortably, with no mortgage I would like £15,000 a year.
But you need to look at your budget from an "essentials" "can cut down" and "luxuries" view point.
List all your outgoings, and whether you need them, whether you can reduce them. So for example things like Sky TV, mobile phone, car, might not be essential. You could straight away save money on your minimum spend. You could get cheaper insurance, or sell stuff. If you have a mortgage, you could remortgage at a cheaper rate or downsize.
The only person who can work all this out is yourself. Go through your outgoings by looking at bank statements for a year, as should have things like annual insurance, car expenses etc.
If it is too high, go through again to see what you can reduce or eliminate.
I've been very poor and also very comfortable and so much is discretionary spending. Also look to see if you are saving an amount each month, you could cut that out completely.
I've had to walk everywhere, had no heating (couldn't afford it), ate proper student cheap meals, etc.
On the flip side, can you increase your earnings? Do you work? Could you do a bit of hourly paid work, or take on a part-time job?

It depends on what is important to you, and what your priorities are.