Blogtober day 22 and theme is my favourite side hustles. After thinking about this post. I thought I would share some ways we can save money and maybe earn a little extra. Which we all need in the coming months.
With the cost of living and Christmas on all our minds. We all need to take a step back and look at how we can afford to get through this.
Table of Contents
The Kids Old Toys
We all know just how much space the kids toys take up. Then there is finding places for all the new toys and games they get for Christmas.
Have a look through what they no longer use or play with, and ask yourself
- Is it still in working order
- Are all the pieces there
If yes, make sure it is clean and sell it on.
- You will free up some much needed space
- Make a little bit of money to go towards Christmas
- Help someone afford Christmas by getting toys at a lower price
Use Your Skills
What are you good at? Is there a way you can use your skills and knowledge to make a little extra money? it could be something you do everyday and not thought about.
- Book keeping for someone else
- Cleaning
- Do an ironing service
Just remember not to panic and get drawn into those schemes where you can make hundreds by stuffing a few envelopes that sound too good to be true.
Batch Cooking
I have mentioned before about my lazy cow dinners as we call them. When shopping look at meals that you can make extra for.
- Roast beef in the slow cooker – you have the gravy. Just slice and freeze down with the gravy for a quick and easy roast mid week meal
- Cottage Pie – freeze half the mix down. You just need to defrost and add the mash. I prefer my mash fresh and not left over (unless making bubble and squeak)
- Chilli – freeze down the chilli. I also freeze down rice so this really is a quick dinner
Heating
we can not escape the fact our heating bills are stupidly high. But there is nothing more miserable than being cold.
- Try keeping your heating on to a minimum
- Turn the thermostat down slightly
- Layer up on clothing
- Check for drafts and stop the heat escaping
Look For Bargains
I can not buy anything unless I have checked tons of websites and searched out the best bargain. I am lucky and do have a little app on my laptop that searches the bargains for me and applies automatically at the checkout. It is called Honey and has saved me £1000’s including my weekly shop when doing it online. I do have a referral code if you want to join, where I get 500 points. If you sign up you can refer also. You can find out more here.
Do you have any tips for making a little extra money, or cutting down your spending? Share below, as we all need to start cutting the costs.
Sensible advice, as always. Thank you.
I often make two meals at the same time which certainly helps reduce the eye-watering cost of a supermarket shop. Batch cooking would be even better. I also use a small combination microwave/convection oven which cooks meals much faster and more cheaply than using a normal oven.
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Great tips.
I am always cooking in bulk and freezing down, saves so much time
I’m constantly looking for bargains. In the morning, Lidl reduces all their meats expiring on that day down to either £2 or 90p. I once bought a whole chicken for 90p and placed it in the freezer to cook another day. I have reduced my spending a lot doing this.
I used to pop into Lidl when my daughter was at school, would drop her off and go straight to Lidl for my weekly shop. I should start doing that again
Great ways to save and make money. Thanks for sharing xxx
I hope it helps or given a few ideas
Great tips! We have a smart thermostat that is automatically set to turn down the heating when we’re not at home, which has been really nice.
That is great, we have ours set to go on at a certain temperature and off if it reaches another temperature which helps
I really need to meal plan properly and batch cook, a great idea to help keep costs down.
It means you are cooking less, plus always have something in for those crazy busy days
My kids have discovered they can make money selling their old stuff – my daughter saved made half of what she wanted to buy a new bike just from selling her old stuff!
so many ways to make money or save – batch cooking saves so much
It is surprising how we can save a little extra money when we start to look at what we do already. I do love batch cooking as it does save a lot of time as well
I have already started layering up as I am trying to delay putting the heating on as long as possible
Our heating is on now, but do love layering up and keeping warrm, I hate being cold
What great ideas. I have been decluttering over the past week and have found quite a few things that I am planning on selling. Every pound counts at the moment. x
I think it is a good idea to declutter and look at items we can sell on, especially with Christmas coming up
These are some great ideas, I have recently started batch cooking too
It does help to have something you can just pull out of the freezer
Thanks for the tips i do alot of batch cooking,it really helps
It seems a lot of people are now and it does help
Lots of good tips and helpful at this time when everyone is struggling!
We do all need to find ways to help cut down costs