This is not Facebook - the posts you make here should be useful and helpful to people.

I’ve been storing/hoarding food and toiletries for a while now, just waiting for when I finally had no choice but to start using them. I knew the time was coming. It finally arrived.

I’m starting with a healthy stash of food and toiletries, but I don’t quite know where to start. I’m also struggling with feeling deprived, yet I am full of abundance. At least until I’ve run out of everything that is! It’s a weird place to be. It’s also strange because my partner is still working and doesn’t care about frugaling at all.

Has anyone else started this way of living with an existing pantry of items? How did you get started? How did your mindset change? Did you feel healthier and happier from eating your own creations, and not being able to eat the convenience stuff from before?

I am a good cook, so I know I can make good meals. I just don’t know where to start. I also don’t know how I’m going to cope with not being able to just buy stuff whenever I feel like it. I’ve been a bit of a shopper in the past. I’ve been so wasteful.

I just don’t understand how it’s doable to grocery shop for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on this type of budget. I could stretch it to £70 and be fine but even then Im finding it really difficult.

Can someone please help me?

So I know it’s a bit early, but I like to start planning for Christmas early. Partly to spread the costs over a few months and to get ready for the cheap bargains I can pick up to help into the new year.

At weekend I went through my freezers and had a tidy and a clear out of ice and older stuff we either ate in the last couple of days or I got rid of because the kids asked for it and they left some they won’t eat and it’s now out of date grrr. I will be prioritising freezer based meals to make space before Christmas.

Apart from buying good deals when I see them in the run up to put away and paying a meat club order off at my local farm meat shop-fab quality meat locally produced at similar prices to the big supermarkets but much higher quality and welfare we can pay off an order bit by bit and pick up on Christmas Eve.
I am looking forward to the veg price wars again.

I stock up in whatever veg is at a good price and prep and freeze as much as I can. Last me months into the new year. Also watch for knockdowns on meat joints and fish in the supermarkets. Have bought Turkey crowns on Christmas Eve, cooked and sliced then into the freezer for sandwiches, or bags of picked off meat for curries etc. Gammon or ham can also be cooked and sliced then frozen for sandwiches. Also great to save in the new year.

Even bought a cheap turkey one year and froze it to use for Easter dinner lol.

Anyone else have any plans or ideas to take advantage of the usual Yuletide offers?

Hey everyone,

Hope the weekend was great!

Bit of a random question to start the week off, but I wanted to get an idea of what other peoples weekly and/or monthly food bills were for their households?

Usually on UK sub-Reddit's posts such as this tend to be competitions to see who can spend the lowest, often with people stating they spend £5pw to feed a family of 3 by living off lentils or on the flip side £1000+pm for two people - so I figured the Frugal sub might get more realistic takes?

I live alone and shop at Tesco as its the closest and mostly for familiarity. Generally I aim to spend around £50ish per week to get a variety of items, including some ingredients for a small amount of batch cooking to cover a couple days during the week.

But recently I've gotten into the really bad habit of calling into the shops multiple times a week on a whim; either I've forgotten something from my list, just in general to see what's available or fancy something which I don't have in (imagine a pizza on Friday etc). Sadly it always ends up with me spending more than I intended and going £20-30+ past my set target.

Now this is something I'm working on, but at the same time I'm trying to figure out if I can cut my bills even lower just to see how much I could save per month if push ever came to shove.

I don't know whether getting any lower than £45-55 per week is realistic considering I enjoy getting a small variety of food, or whether its even worth the cut in quality dropping brands/finest to shave a few pennies off each item in the long run?

Would love to see other peoples experiences to see what I could be doing differently!

(hope this does not infringe rule 2)

I just found that if you are ordering from Bloom and Wild and enter a random common coupon code at checkout they will say "sorry that doesn't work but here is a code for 10% off anyway"

I'm with octopus flexible tariff for gas and electric . Price comparison sites tell me it's not the cheapest but I've never quite understood how to decide who to switch to. Because, even if one is cheapest today, how to know who will be cheapest tomorrow, next month or next year? Would be annoying to swap, only to find next month octopus became the cheapest

So, as per title, are any providers a safe bet to know I'll be consistently getting amongst the cheapest rate?

Any guidance on how to choose the cheapest energy provider gratefully received, thank you

What is your set up for a good enough camera that does the job and is good value / quality recordings

Thanks

I miss the 17p 2L sparkling water bottles at Asda. But if you’re like me who loves sparkling water, you can save a lot of £££ by transferring to 2L contents into smaller 500ml bottles to avoid wastage. They remain bubbly… until, of course, you finish them.

Looking for recommendations for frugal shower scrubbies. I like the puffy ball type but I find they don't last and quickly fall apart, they aren't particularly cheap either, often costing £1+ each for small ones.

I use a flannel for drying off, but don't really like them for washing with.

Thanks for any suggestions.

i'm in the north east for reference

I am renting a small, older cottage in west Scotland, near the coastline. I haven't spent a winter in it yet, but do to the lack of modern insulation, proximity to a body of water and a hill behind the cottage that has some water runoff, I am worried about damp. It's ~60m2, two bed, single story, with a central hallway layout. I do have a fireplace and double glazing but only electric heating (which is already costing me a fortune in the last weeks). I am looking at dehumidifiers and wanted to know if a 10l is enough, or should I go for something slightly larger like a 12l? Have been looking at maecos and theres a roughly £30 price difference between the 2

Boxes of 40 Whiskas pouches are £11.85 at Tesco at the moment on the Clubcard, but there's also a 4 for 3 on all the cat food. So you're getting 4 boxes for £8.89 each. Cheaper than Amazon subscribe and save.

Anyone got the Lloyds app?

Well if you have, check the rewards section and ‘Rewards’ section and ‘Ready to use’.

Tesco fuel are offering 15% cashback unti 15th October, single use.

Brings diesel down to a slightly less stingy £1.70ish.

Ok UKFrugal; Let's talk chicken thighs! I just made a succulent chicken pie that called for skinless boneless thighs. My local supermarket sells these, and they also sell regular thighs.... but which is the better value? I felt a spreadsheet coming on! Below is the price/kg for both, and the yield I got:

Ah, but my time is valuable I hear you say! How valuable? not especially as I'm spending it making asinine reddit posts about chicken thighs, but it has value nonetheless. I therefore timed how long it took to skin and debone 0.675kg (net) of thighs. in this pack that was 4 thighs, which took just over 5min total. This effectively means you're paying someone £20.42/hr to bone your chicken (phrasing).

But wait, there's more. The pie needed a roux. Fat is fat effectively so 50g of butter could be sub'd for 50g of fat from the skins, saving another £0.37 on material, and bringing the total hourly labour rate to £24.86/hr, or £48,477/yr. Then we have to consider that this saving is tax-free. To make an equivalent through working, you'd need a salary of £61.5k/yr.

(You also still have the crispy skins left over for Bahn mi etc., and the bones can be collected for stock....but that's harder to put a figure on)

In conclusion, debone your chicken if you're on less than £61.5k (or you like crispy chicken skin).

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

(This is not an entirely serious post, but I thought it was quite interesting how much we pay for convenience)

Hi! As the title says, I am considering Giffgaff to purchase an Iphone but I am not sure if it would be good. I want to get Iphone 12 or 13. Or should I settle for a lower model since I need it just for the pics and videos. They do offer 21 days refund policy and 12 month guarantee along with the basic accessories.

Any advice?

Budget : £150-200

Thank you.

I am with British Gas currently. The tariff I have is:
Unit price: 21.8 p/kwh
Standing charge: 47.68 p/day
It is a Fix 12 months contract with 30£ exit fee.
Is there anything cheaper than that?
My annual usage is 4100kwh.
No EV.
Electric heating at home.

Reccomendation for some sort of large blanket to cover a family of four while sitting on the sofa this winter.

I'm currently on a Standard Variable Tariff with Home Energy and have been offered the following fixed deal with Eon via MSE. I've been comparing the numbers and, on the face of it, I can't see why I'd pay more for the fix, but I'd be interested in what others think.

My current Standard Variable Tariff with Home Energy

Prices until 12 October 2026:

• Gas: 6.51234p/kWh
• Gas standing charge: 28.77575p/day
• Electricity: 20.31334p/kWh
• Electricity standing charge: 51.04658p/day

Prices from 13 October 2026:

• Gas: 7.43232p/kWh
• Gas standing charge: 29.41151p/day
• Electricity: 24.04744p/kWh
• Electricity standing charge: 51.44932p/day

E.ON Next Fixed 12m Exclusive v9

• Gas: 8.033p/kWh
• Gas standing charge: 28.778p/day
• Electricity: 25.598p/kWh
• Electricity standing charge: 43.575p/day
• 12-month fixed term
• Monthly Direct Debit
• £50 early exit fee

So comparing the rates from 13 October:

Gas:
Variable: 7.43232p
Fixed: 8.033p

The fixed is 0.60068p/kWh more expensive.

Electricity:
Variable: 24.04744p
Fixed: 25.598p

The fixed is 1.55056p/kWh more expensive.

The fixed deal does have lower standing charges, saving around £31 a year combined, but I'd be paying more for every kWh I actually use.

I understand that the whole point of fixing is insurance against future price increases, so I'm not necessarily saying the fixed tariff is bad. I'm trying to understand what would need to happen for fixing to actually be worthwhile compared with simply staying on the variable tariff.

Am I missing something obvious here? Would you take the fixed deal for the certainty, or stay on the variable given these particular rates?

And if anyone has a view on where energy prices could go over the next 12 months, I'd be interested in the reasoning behind it rather than just "fix" or "don't fix".

I use foamer dispensers for hand wash, shampoo, shower gel and washing up liquid. (1/4 soap/shampoo, 2/4 water - and 1/4 air) Works a treat to reduce the amount you use. I also keep leftover paper towels/napkins after meals if they aren't too dirty and wipe kitchen sink/drainage to remove residual food that should not go down the drain before washing it properly. The latter being the habit some of my friends might consider odd.

I just bought 16 2oz beef burgers, 908g, for £6.99 from a supermarket. I wasn't impressed.

I have a non fancy family butchers a little bit away. So I checked their FB page. 20 4oz beef burgers, £8.99, made on the premises. Worth the effort given their general good prices.

Sorry, this might be a bit niche 😅 I've tried searching Reddit and Google but I can't really find much information answering these specific questions, so I'm hoping to crowdsource this. Hopefully some of you guys have actually tried them and can help.

I've been looking for a cheap unlimited-data SIM to use in a 5G router at home.

I originally wanted iD Mobile because their unlimited plans are cheap (around £15/month through Uswitch) and, more importantly, they allow a physical SIM. Unfortunately I've tried applying three times and iD keeps declining me on the credit check despite having an Experian score of 900+, so I've given up with them.

I've now come across: (thru uswitch)

• Zable - around £15/month for unlimited 5G, Vodafone network
• Rewild Mobile - around £14/month for unlimited 5G

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be much real-world information about either one, especially for using them in a 5G router rather than a phone.

Zable

• Has anyone managed to get a physical SIM from Zable? Their website currently says eSIM only, but their help centre says you can request a physical SIM.
• Has anyone used Zable in a 4G/5G router?
• Is the data genuinely unlimited, even with very heavy usage?
• Does Zable impose a speed cap after you reach a certain amount of data usage? For example, some "unlimited" SIMs allow unlimited data but reduce your speed after 100GB/200GB/etc.
• If you've used 500GB+ or even 1TB+ in a month, did your speed remain the same?
• Any throttling/FUP issues after heavy usage?
• What kind of speeds are you getting?
• Any issues with the SIM being used in a router rather than a phone?

Rewild

• Has anyone actually used Rewild for several months?
• How reliable is the connection?
• Has anyone used the physical SIM in a 5G router?
• Is the data genuinely unlimited, even with very heavy usage?
• Does Rewild impose a speed cap after a certain amount of data consumption?
• For example, if someone uses 200GB, 500GB, 1TB+ in a month, does the speed remain unrestricted or do they throttle you?
• Any other fair-use policy that kicks in after heavy usage?
• What sort of speeds are you getting?
• I understand they use Three/Vodafone, but does the SIM actually switch between both networks or is it assigned to one?

I'm particularly interested in people who are using 100GB+ per month, rather than normal phone usage.

I'm in the UK and would be using it primarily as my home internet connection.

I know this is a pretty specific/niche question, but I've genuinely tried searching and there just doesn't seem to be much information out there yet. So I'm hoping to crowdsource some real-world experiences from people who've actually used these services.

The main thing I'm trying to establish is whether "unlimited" actually means unlimited without a usage-based speed reduction.

Would really appreciate any first-hand experiences, good or bad. Thanks!

Hi,

I get 3% discount on gift card on Tesco from my workplace. If I buy most of the products with Aldi match and cheapest Tesco products, will that be almost as cheap as explicitly buying from Aldi?