Big ticket money savers for us:
- cars. Two older cars, one big efficient diesel (45mpg) for transporting the whole family (we have three DC), and one 8yr old Leaf for DH commute, though he WFH as much as possible. Saved £1000 on fuel per year when we bought it, reducing spend by two-thirds. But biggest thing with cars is paying for them - we pay for them on credit card and then balance transfer regularly for 0% interest payments. Paid off the diesel years ago, Leaf will be done next year. Not paid a penny in interest so never needed to get any money out of savings/investments to spend on cars.
- firewood. Had a log burner installed in 2017. Have a fire nearly every day in winter (Nov-March). Never paid a penny for wood, we have processed a couple of our own trees that we had to remove on advice of a tree surgeon. Literally logged and bagged the entire tree down to the finest of kindling branches. We get the DC involved in family projects like this! Recently got a load of untreated scrap timber from a house next door that is being rebuilt from the ground up - DH has cut it to size and it is enough for about 3 years supply of firewood. We still have logs from a tree to process too. This keeps down our spend on gas for the central heating, especially in the cooler but not cold months.
- laundry. Have never owned a tumble drier, line dry wherever possible and if not, have a dehumidifier running in our small utility room that has racking to hang washing. Reusable everything - dish cloths, rags, nappies (though those days are thankfully over and the nappies are now rags!), san pro, facial wipes instead of cotton wool, flannels, etc. Super efficient washing machine that runs on cheap rate electricity overnight and only wash at 30 degrees.
- DIY. DH is an engineer and immensely practical. So he fixes plumbing, electrics, wonky furniture, rebuilt our garden trellis, built the compost bins, put up wallpaper, installs shelving - all that sort of stuff. I am good at paint colours, fabrics, sewing, repairs, thrifting furniture etc. Between us we fix just about everything. Memorably we have done things like re-sew the padding around our kids' trampoline using fishing line and the sewing machine, and edge leftover carpet to use as runners. DH also installed a new pump in our 11 year old dishwasher three years ago and it is still going strong. We very rarely need to get people in to do stuff. He's also a tech whizz and can repair laptops/phones etc - my laptop died so he bought a non-working one the same for peanuts on eBay and cannibalised the parts to get mine working again!
- food and cooking/gardening. I pack lunch for all the DC and DH if he is in the office. Never any leftovers and our backyard chickens get any scraps that are too good for the compost bin, in return for eggs. I make yogurt, sourdough etc. Rarely buy processed food. Make jam, chutney etc in season using produce from the garden. Grow my own flowers and veg from seed - total outlay on the garden in the last year has been for three sacks of potting compost for raising seedlings. For the rest I use our own garden compost.
