10 Things I Stopped Buying To Save Money
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When aiming for a new and more frugal lifestyle it can feel like we’re missing out. However, there are almost always cheaper alternatives. In this post, I share some of the things 10 things I stopped buying to save money and the cheaper, and sometimes better, alternatives I found to branded products.
10 Things I Stopped Buying To Save Money
1. Branded Fizzy Drinks
I know fizzy drinks aren’t the healthiest and I’ll admit to drinking more of them than I probably should.
However, I rarely drink alcohol at home so it’s nice having something I really like to sip on of an evening.
I know plenty of people that will only drink one of the other of the leading brands of fizzy drink, especially cola, but with the introduction of the sugar tax and supermarket offers seeming to be less frequent we found we were paying between £1.50 and £2.00 a bottle.
Giving up fizzy drinks completely would, of course, have been the most frugal thing to do – but we found this ended up making it a sort of forbidden fruit and we’d end up popping to the corner shop and getting some even though the prices were crazy expensive just because we were craving it.
So as a money-saving compromise, we decided to try and find an alternative that was reasonably palatable.
I’ll be honest, nothing does taste quite as good as the branded ones but we have got used the cheaper version and the savings are worth it.
Our favourite is Lidl’s own brand Cola, Freeway, but the one that’s the dupe for Coke Zero/Pepsi Max. At around 50p a bottle, it’s about a 3rd of the price of the real thing.
2. Expensive Shampoo and Conditioner
Through my late teens and almost all of my twenties, I bought the same shampoo and conditioner. Convinced that John Frieda’s ‘Frizz Ease’ was the best thing to tame my wild barnet of curly locks, I winced each time the price increased (eventually to almost £8 a bottle!) or if there wasn’t a special offer on.
I think this is one of those things that had become a habit to buy and I was worried my hair would become an untameable mess if I stopped using it.
Of course, it didn’t. It has taken a bit of trial and error but I’ve finally found a shampoo and conditioner I love and which I can usually get both of for under £3 (Dove’s repair shampoo and L’Oreal Elvive conditioner if you’re interested!)
The shampoo is available in Poundland and I usually get the condition from savers. It’s worth shopping around as the Shampoo is £3 in Wilkos!
3. GHD Straighteners
While we’re on the subject of my crazy hair, it’s probably not surprising that in my younger days I bought several pairs of GHD Straighteners.
These are branded as being top of the range and are supposed to be some of the best straighteners you can get, no matter your hair type.
Except for me, that isn’t true.
After a lot of research and a decent recommendation from a friend, I found these straighteners which work better and are half the price of GHD’s. I also found GHD ‘s didn’t last long and I was replacing them every 18 months to two years.
I’ve not needed to replace my Babyliss ones yet almost eight years in.
Read my full post: These Straighteners are better than GHD’s and half the price!
4. Full Price Meat and Prepared Veggies
I love a reduced bargain and thus, very rarely pay full price for meat and vegetables. Of course, there are occasions where I do buy the odd thing full price – usually frozen chicken breasts, but on the whole, the majority of our meat comes in at half price or less.
As meat is usually the most expensive part of the meal, we end up saving a fortune by buying from the reduced section.
Batch cooking and a big freezer prevent any of these purchases going off before we use them.
5. Fresh Fruit
While fresh fruit is lovely, it also deteriorates pretty quickly once home from the supermarket.
Switching to frozen means there’s no waste as we only get out of the freezer the amount we need and you get much more fruit for your money.
Frozen fruit is also perfect for making smoothies and for baking with too.
Buying frozen fruit has worked well while we’ve been weaning our baby daughter – we want to encourage her to eat lots of fruit but as we don’t like that much fruit ourselves she has been able to try lots of different things in nice small portions without the worry of it going off.
6. Brand New Clothes
It’s honestly amazing what you can find in the charity shop and it’s now pretty rare I buy anything new (underwear aside!)
As well as preventing clothes going to landfill, buying from charity shops helps support those in need and the clothes are better for the environment – as they’ve already been washed there are less harsh chemicals than there are in new clothes.
The price of clothes in charity shops varies wildly depending on the part of the country, the condition of the items and quite often, the person who is doing the marking up.
I’ve found that near me the average price of a nice jumper or pair of jeans is around £4 and nice tops around £3 with more basic items being around £2. There are also charity shops that have set pricing – I’m lucky to have an ‘everything for £1’ one near me and another where everything is £3 or less.
Of course, it’s not just charity shops either – there’s a thriving second-hand clothing market on both Facebook and eBay as well as other places such as Shpock and Depop.
How To Find The Best Bargains on Vinted (8 Awesome Hacks!)
7. Sky T.V
A couple of years ago I wrote this post all about how to haggle with Sky T.V without even having to pick up the phone. However, since then, we’ve discovered Netflix, Now T.V and Amazon Prime.
Continuing to pay for Sky when we used it so little seemed a bit pointless.
I also love that we can watch all of the above streaming services anywhere without having to pay extra to do so.
Cancelling Sky covered the cost of all three of the above and that doesn’t include the savings made by having Prime Delivery. A total winner in my book!
8. Books
There are so many ways to books for free that I’ve given myself a bit of a book-buying ban to save some money.
My biggest downfall is buying at the airport when I’ve not been organized enough to sort one for my holiday beforehand – probably the most expensive place to buy!
If you have friends that love to read as well it’s worth asking if they have any books you could borrow.
The pub I used to work at actually had a free book box for people to both donate and take from and this worked well, with people regularly book swapping and then bringing them back again when they were done.
If you have an e-reader it’s also worth looking at books that you can download for free – as well as lots of short time offers on newer titles, many of the classics are now out of copyright and therefore free.
9. Having A Second Car
There was only a short period where my husband and I had our cars before I had a massive crash and mine was written off.
While initially, I intended to buy another as soon as my insurance paid out, this took almost two years due to complications with the case (the other driver had become ill at the wheel when he hit my car so his insurance deemed him to be not at fault!).
The thing is, we managed perfectly okay with just the one car and the extra money we saved on insurance, MOT and other car costs contributed a hefty chunk to our £35K house deposit.
There have been times we’ve considered getting another car but the benefits are yet to outweigh the additional costs.
That said, I am lucky enough to live close to the town centre and I have everything I need within easy walking distance, if I lived in a village I think I would probably feel differently.
10. Stopped Buying Takeaways
When I first started blogging I wrote about what I felt our biggest financial downfalls were.
One of the things was buying takeaways far more than we really should – often two or three times a week despite the fact I’m a really good cook.
Working unsociable hours as a chef meant that I often didn’t feel like cooking when I got home.
As my husband and I car share, I often had to wait for him to finish work and then by the time we’d got home, showered, and relaxed a little I just didn’t feel like cooking.
Since leaving that job I now cook almost every night.
Meal planning has helped considerably with this and we now have a takeaway as a treat only once or twice a month.
I’ve also started learning to cook various fakeaways – our favourites are orange chicken and homemade KFC – this help when we fancy a particular fast food but don’t want to spend lots of money on it.
