Unusual Thrifty Tips

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of hearing the word credit crunch and economic downfall!

Entering competitions and winning free stuff is a easy & free option that you should already be doing on a daily basis if your even reading this blog. But what about being thrifty in the more unconventional ways?

I asked a few people from Win4now to give me their top 3 money saving tips - what they actually do themselves not what we should do....

Here are our personal thrifty tips:

Rob uses free moisturiser samples and makes sandwiches in the morning rather than buying them every day for lunch. He also uses Deezer to listen to music ("never buy another cd!" he says!) and rides or runs to work to save money on fuel (an extra bonus to this is, if you can have a shower at work it saves your own electricity bill as it reduces the number of showers you take at home!).

Adele uses hot water bottles instead of leaving the heating on at night, brews her own beer and bakes her own bread.

Gemma keeps the same hairstyle for two months - this saves her £40 a month! She also goes to her mum's for tea and gets lifts to work so that she doesn’t have to pay bus fare.

Patrick keeps his heating on all the time but at a low rate and turns it up when entering the room.

Kerry says she shops at 'Primarni' (Primark) and warns everyone not to have children because they cost too much!

Graeme says that you shouldn't fully fill your car up with petrol at the garage as, when you only put a tenner in, you're saving money due to the extra weight loss thus improving mileage. Take out anything in your car that does not need to be there (grannies in the boot, sledgehammer on the roof etc) to make the car lighter, once again saving petrol.

Steve says he freezes his credit card in a bowl of water in the freezer (It doesn't damage it) and leaves it there. That way you don't make any rash purchases and will have to think before you use it (and it'll probably taste a lot less like plastic than the vegetarian bacon that someone left behind after the BBQ in the summer).
He also says once you break into a note (currency), put all the coins in a jar. That way you will always have money at the end of the month and, if you are like me, you make full use of every note you break into.

Annette turns up at parties with a bottle of Lambrini - then just drinks everybody else's nice expensive wine. (I don’t do this but I notice lots of other people do….)

Ruth cooks on residual heat, does menu plans and then writes shopping list to avoid food wastage.

Carryn says it's good to do your grocery shopping online if you can – make a list and stick to it. You’re less likely to impulse buy if you have to search through pages and pages of offers! Make use of club card points, especially when buying petrol/diesel – we often get vouchers through saving us loads of money.
Start a £1 jar – every time you have a pound in your pocket – put it in the jar. It’s amazing how you never miss a £1 and even more amazing how quickly it adds up so you can use it to pay something off!

Helen says she has a thermostat on the radiator in each room so that you can heat the room you are in without having to heat the whole house.
Also instead of buying compost make your own with a compost bin. But don’t buy one from a garden centre or DIY store - contact Recycle Now who work with your local council to sell a variety of home composters cheap and deliver them to your house at no extra charge.

There you have it, money saving tips from the Win4now staff themselves! ( We can't guarantee any of these tips will save you money, these are just the things that we do. )