Scrimping

Scrimping used to have such negative connotations didn’t it?  Almost penny pinching.   Miserly maybe.   Not these day now.   Savvy shoppers and living frugally mean that we are all scrimping.

I know I am.   Life for us is expensive at the moment.  I am not particularly sure why.   There just seems to be one thing after another that leaves me staring at my bank account thinking “but there is still so much month left”.

So when I was shown this website recently I thought “ooh I like the look of this”.  Called Superscrimpers it comes off the back of the popular Channel 4 show of the same name and gives all sorts of handy tips to saving money.   This is what they say about it:

Since its launch on Channel 4 in 2011, Superscrimpers has been providing viewers with challenges to survive the slump and save the pennies and the pounds. Now fans can access the reliable resources provided on the TV show any time they like on Superscrimpers.com.

Based on the Channel 4 series, Superscrimpers.com is a brand new practical website packed with smart ideas to save money in these tough financial times. A pool of experts writing for the site will present useful solutions to everyday economic woes, including tips from super-scrimping supremo Mrs Moneypenny and product comparisons from top consumer journalist Harry Wallop.

The aim of Superscrimpers.com is for readers to find the fun in personal finance and seek out small, easy ways to take control of the purse strings. There will be information on a whole host of topics including food, fashion, gifts, homes, gardens, lifestyle and travel.

All over the country, families are feeling the squeeze and Superscrimpers.com will provide plenty of tips to make financial tweaks, with practical, simple money-saving solutions. Superscrimpers.com is personal, positive, persuasive and passionate.

I have to admit that I am not very good at doing things like making my own cosmetics or cleaning products, which many friends of mine do but recently I have been trying to save money where I can.     There are some great tips on the site that I am trying to embrace.  Such as buying the ugly fruit!  Swapping the fresh peas at £1.49 a bag for Saturday’s risotto, for a tin of peas that cost 48p are just two things I have done this weekend.

Emma over at Mum’s Savving Savings has some great advice in her post entitled 6 Free Food Apps That Really Give you Free Food.  Yes, free food.   It is definitely worth a read and download of all the apps she mentions.  I keep hearing people talk about the Too Good To Go app and Emma’s post has been the nudge I needed to finally download it.

Lidl and Aldi are also now high on my agenda rather than Waitrose and Sainsburys.  There can’t be anybody in England who doesn’t know how great these two shops are for being cheaper than many of the main four supermarkets.   I don’t know how much I actually save on a weekly shop because no two weeks are same for us but I know that the price per item is definitely cheaper on the stuff they sell.   And it is always good for a laugh to see the stuff they have in the middle aisles.   Laminator anyone?

It’s ironic that as I sat down to right this post yesterday afternoon and had a dig around the Superscrimpes site I found lots of advice about not getting unnecessary parking fines.   As I read that I felt sick.   I suddenly remembered that I was meant to check if the spot where I parked on Wednesday to go and see the London Team Honk start off and to catch up with Comic Relief, was in the Congestion Charging Zone.   Guess what?  It is.

I cannot repeat the words I used as I realised I had just earned myself a £130 parking charge.   The knowledge it was reduced to £65 if I paid this week didn’t make me feel any better.   What should have been a tenner has now cost me six times that.

Now more than ever I need to get scrimping.   Do you have any great tips to share with me?  Do let me know!

Image of a piggy bank courtesy of Shutterstock