Everyone was so invested in helping me use up my 36 bananas that I thought I’d come back and give you all an update.

I made several suggested recipes with varying degrees of success. Here’s my verdict;
Welsh Nanas banana bread with a banana upside down twist delicious/10 of course
Coffee Shake 9.5/10 easy and yummy
Banana tray bake with raspberries and white chocolate 8/10 very dense
Banoffee cake 7/10 classic
Banana fritters 8.5/10 I didn’t do the best job but they still came out divine
Banana and blueberry smoothie 6/10 pretty basic but would make again
Banana and cherry ice cream 9/10 brilliant I wish I’d known you could do this earlier
Banana pancakes with caramelised pecans 10/10 took me a few attempts but utterly perfect once I got the hang of it!

Thanks everyone who made suggestions and apologies for not doing your recipe justice if you shared.
It’s my Bread and Butter pick up day tomorrow so watch this space!

Hi all. I'm worried about the cost of heating the home this winter, and wondered if anyone has done any research into whether electric heaters can be cheaper and more efficient? In particular, I wonder whether one or two of them could be used to heat kids / baby's bedroom a couple of times a day. The radiators are not hugely effective even after bleeding etc., and I can't face replacing them! Any help is hugely appreciated

Recently a few weeks ago when on holiday my suitcase handle had broken this was a big IT suitcase and I had it for 10 years. I think I lost the receipt, however I think the suitcase might have had a 10 year warranty.

I just wanted to ask, could anyone recommend any good suitcase brands/big suitcases that would be frugal for the price and wouldn’t break too easily and you can at least get a few good years out of them ?

Obvs you need to like red Leicester, jalapeno Philly and pickle flavour ketchup.

Philly was 19p a tub and Ketchup 69p

I do. 😃

Where do I find the best bargains?

Decided I could no longer justify the cost of my Head & Shoulders conditioner (pink label, 'Smooth & Silky', I was usually getting the 3 for £10 deal at Tesco) and went straight onto the Aussie dupe from Aldi but I hate it and I feel like I'm having to use 2-3x as much and still struggling to get my fingers through my hair. My scalp has also been feeling more irritated too, despite still being on H&S shampoo that I had stocked up on ages ago.

The aldi stuff feels like a bit of a false economy because of the amount I have to use, but £12.12/L on the tesco deal feels way to expensive for my circumstances at the moment.

Any recommendations??

What is the most cost efficient (or free?) way to get free airport lounge access? I know you can get one via Amex welcome offer but I already have the Amex everyday cash back card.

I basically have a 9 hour wait in Istanbul when connecting flights, flying from London to Thailand via (Turkish airlines) with a connection in Istanbul airport. I will not be leaving the airport during the 9 hours.

What’s the best way to get lounge access so I can have some free food/rest in the lounge. I have a miles account with about 10,000 miles.

I'm currently using the Bitdefender suite across my phone, tablet and laptop. It's renewing next month for £85 so I'm looking at alternatives that don't cost so much.

Hi everyone,

I need some advice on finding the absolute cheapest protein at Asda on a very tight budget.

My kitchen situation is pretty limited, I don't have a stove, only a microwave and an oven. I also don't really know how to cook raw ingredients, so I need things that are pre-seasoned or already made where I can just heat them up and eat.

For over a week now, I've only been eating instant noodles because they were the cheapest thing I could find, but I'm starting to feel pretty awful from the lack of actual nutrients and protein.

What are the absolute cheapest options I can grab at Asda?

Any tips on other ways to save money?

Edit part of the reason I don't cook is I'm disabled. I can't use my right arm so I'm getting the hang of it. I get so frustrated I feel like crying when I try to actually cook.

I’ve been working remotely for the last couple of months and my new job involves a lot of screen time. I’ve noticed that my eyes can feel pretty tired by the end of the day soo I’ve been looking into getting a pair of glasses with a blue light filter.

I went to a couple of opticians to see what my options were butt the prices were honestly a lot higher than I expected. Since I’ve only recently started working, I’m trying to be a bit more mindful about where my money goes and don’t really want to spend a huge amount on something if theres a cheaper alternative that does the job. I started looking at online glasses sites and there are some surprisingly affordable options compared with what I was quoted in store. A few also have virtual try on tools which is handy because I’m always worried about ordering frames online and then finding outt they look completely different on me.

I’m still deciding whether to order online or just save up and go through an optician. I’m mainly wondering about the actual experience of buying glasses this way in the UK. things like quality, prescription accuracy, fit, delivery and whether the cheaper price is actually worth it in the long run.

For anyone who has ordered glasses or sunglasses online, how did it go? Were you happy with them and are there any things you’d recommend checking before placing an order?

I picked up an order from The Bread and Butter thing today which I thoroughly recommend but on the way out one of the volunteers offered me an extra free bag which turned out to have 6 packs of ripe bananas in it.

My go to is normally banana bread when I have the odd one. I can freeze some but what else can I make?

Hi guys, I have an overdue eye test that needs to be done. Because I work in the NHS, I can get a free eye test with vision express. But I want to be able to get glasses for a very good deal as well and I know with the prescription, I can take it anywhere to get the glasses done. Any recommendations? In total I don’t wanna spend more than £50, ideally a lot less than that though.

Joint was a 2.5kg smoked Wiltshire cured gammon from Tesco @ £6.25 a kilo clubcard price. Equivalent sliced ham @ £31.25 a kilo would have cost 78 quid.

Cheaper ham and cheaper gammon are available, but a similar price ratio applies whatever your price point. I prefer to pay a bit more because of the higher animal welfare standards.

The game changer for me was cooling the gammon for a while in the cooking liquid, then wrapping it up tightly and putting weight on it overnight in the fridge. Made it much easier to slice thinly.

Cooked in the slow cooker for 6h with carrot, onion, celery, garlic, and pepper. Cooled in the broth for approx 1h. Removed and wrapped tightly in greaseproof then tied with twine. Wrapped tightly again in foil. Plate on top with some weight (couple of tins) then in the fridge overnight. Broth strained and saved to cook beans in.

Vegan or not I reccomend making seitan from vital wheat gluten (VWG) as an extremely low cost protein source. When I was doing a high protein diet as a vegan this was a god send, but it can be great for anyone.

A 5kg bag of VWG on Amazon for £22 makes 12-15kg of seitan.

A 150g portion of seitan is around 35g protein.

That’s almost 3 months of daily seitan for £22 of VWG.

You can make it replicate any meat depending on the spices used and can be really creative with it. I bought a deli slicer to make sandwich slices.

I recommend recipes that include beans for a complete amino acid profile, but even just the VWG recipes are fine as long as you have other sources of protein throughout the day.

What’s one money-saving tip, habit or bit of advice someone gave you that genuinely made a difference?

Could be food, household bills, shopping, DIY, anything really.

Bonus points for something ridiculously simple that you wish you’d known years ago.

What’s one money-saving tip, habit or bit of advice someone gave you that genuinely made a difference?

Could be food, household bills, shopping, DIY, anything really.

Bonus points for something ridiculously simple that you wish you’d known years ago.

Mine is skincare, make up and SPF.

Turns out, I have reactive skin and have spent more money of trying to find cheap replacements / alternatives for my mid to expensive items than I would have if I'd just bought my regular items in the first place.

Friends & family have benefited from this quest but not my bank account.

It’s time to share your frugal wins from the past week.
They don’t need to be impressive. Small wins absolutely count.

Did you:

• Save a few pounds on your food shop?
• Avoid buying something you didn’t really need?
• Use something up instead of replacing it?
• Cook a cheap, cheerful meal?
• Cancel, downgrade, or rethink a subscription?

You can also share:

• A near-miss (something you nearly bought but didn’t)
• A habit that’s starting to stick
• A small mistake that taught you something useful

If it made your week a bit cheaper or a bit smarter, it belongs here.

Drop it in the comments and let’s normalise the small victories.

Because the cost of everything keeps going up I’ve been trying to do a minimal food spend every week , not buying takeaway or unnecessary stuff mostly under £20 without shopping around , occasionally swapping the protein source out if things are on club card price or reduced
some things last longer than a week and I swap out kidney beans for chickpeas and whatnot but you get the general idea for under £20

Not including pantry items like salt , pepper , tea bags ect

Stockwell honey - 74p
Salted cashews - 99p
Banana , £1.29
Oats - 85p
Molly dark chocolate- 59p x 2

1kg frozen mixed veg - £1
Long grain rice - 52p
Tomato puree - 59p
Tinned chopped tomato - 43p
Kidney beans - 35p
Lentils 500g - £2.10
Tofu - £1.95
Wholemeal bread - 55p

Soy yoghurt - £1.50
Soy milk - £1.15

Total - £15.19

I know it’s a bit repetitive and boring selection of food but I don’t mind , there’s so much you can make when you put your mind to it.
Anyone doing similar or better?

With prescription then shop around or try online.

Firmoo.co.uk have some great offers and easy to use site.

I know stamps are expensive, but I thought 15p was a real bargain and I’ll be handing this to the person instead of posting 💌

They had other designs