Best Ways To Save Money

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Best Ways To Save Money

Stretching your money further has never felt more important, and over the years I've built up a genuine collection of ways I actually save money myself, rather than generic advice I've never tried.

This is my single go-to guide for saving money, pulling together my best cashback finds, referral codes and money-saving articles all in one place.

Below you'll find everything from cashback and shopping habits to household bills, transport, food, and financial planning and budgeting, plus dedicated sections for students, seniors and families. Dip in wherever's most useful to you.

Cashback and smart shopping

Use cashback websites for online shopping

This is genuinely one of the biggest wins in my own budget. I use a combination of cashback sites for our household shopping, and between us we've made over £7,000 through TopCashback alone in ten years. It's my favourite of all of them.

Sign up to TopCashback here for a welcome bonus, or sign up to Quidco here as my backup for anything TopCashback doesn't cover. I've written up my full experience with both in my TopCashback review and Quidco review.

I've pulled together everything I use in one place in my list of the best UK cashback websites and apps, including JamDoughnut, Airtime Rewards, Qmee, Budgey, Sprive, Cheddar and EverUp, all with my referral codes.

If you've ever wondered whether cashback sounds too good to be true, I've written a straight answer in my article is cashback legit?

Snap your receipts for cash back

I've used receipt scanning apps for years. It costs nothing but a few seconds, since you're just photographing something you were going to throw away anyway, and the rewards genuinely add up over a month of normal shopping.

My go-tos are Shoppix, SnapMyEats and K-Card.

I've reviewed all the ones I actually use in my list of receipt snapping apps that turn UK receipts to cash.

Sign up for email newsletters

Signing up to your favourite shops' newsletters is a simple way to catch exclusive discounts and new-customer offers before anyone else does. I keep my own free money newsletter updated with money-saving tips and free money offers too.

Compare prices and use a shopping list

Basic, but it works: write a list before you shop and stick to it, compare prices between shops and online retailers, and check unit prices rather than just the sticker price. Leaving your card at home and taking cash instead is still one of the best ways I know to stop impulse buying, as you'll have to add up as you shop.

In-store scanners, where the supermarket lets you scan items as you go, are handy for the same reason. I love using them at our local Sainsbury's, since you can see your running total build up in real time, which makes it much easier to spot when you're about to go over budget before you get to the till.

Buy gift cards at a discount before you shop in-store

A lot of people don't realise you can get cashback on in-store shopping too, not just online orders. Apps like JamDoughnut let you buy a discounted gift card for stores you already shop at, get the cashback credited instantly, then pay with the gift card at the till.

I've used this for Primark and consistently get around 4.9% cashback on kids' clothes shopping, on top of Primark's already-low prices. I've written up exactly how I do this with my Primark cashback trick, and the same method works at plenty of other High Street shops.

Apps like Sprive, EverUp and Cheddar work the same way.

Get a genuine discount on your regular shops

Some retailers offer an ongoing membership discount rather than a one-off code. I've shopped at H&M for over two decades, and their free membership scheme earns points on every purchase plus a 15% welcome offer once you hit their Plus tier. I regularly get £3 vouchers to save on my kids' clothes shopping there.

Sign up to H&M membership using my referral link, or read the full breakdown in my H&M membership review.

A few of our other favourite loyalty schemes: the B&Q Club regularly sends us vouchers worth £5 or £10 off a shop, our local garden centre has a points card where the points convert straight to cash off your next visit, and Holland and Barrett recently changed their points scheme so the cash is available to use on your next order straight away, rather than waiting for a quarterly statement like it used to.

Buy secondhand

eBay, Facebook Marketplace, charity shops and car boot sales are all genuinely good ways to save money and reduce waste at the same time. Repairing something instead of replacing it, or upcycling what you already have, works just as well.

Household and energy bills

Cut your energy usage properly

Draught-proofing, turning the thermostat down by a degree or two, and switching off standby appliances all add up more than people expect. The fundamentals are: seal draughts, insulate properly, and stop paying to heat air that's escaping through gaps. We recently insulated our attic to help trap heat in over winter too.

Little things add up too. We switch to a winter duvet and brushed cotton sheets for the colder months, then back to a lighter summer duvet and linen bedding when it warms up, so we stay comfortable in bed without needing the heating on as much.

I don't believe in suffering through the cold to save money, but energy bills have got genuinely ridiculous, so it's worth finding the small changes that let you stay comfortable for less. We've also invested in solar panels and a log burner for the bigger, longer-term savings.

Switch energy providers and claim cashback on the switch

Shopping around for a cheaper energy provider is one of the highest-value things you can do in an afternoon. Switching suppliers once saved us £264 in a year, just from actually checking rather than assuming we were already on a good deal.

You can also often get cashback from TopCashback when you switch, on top of whatever you save on the tariff itself, or use a friend's refer-a-friend link instead if they're happy to share one.

With Octopus Energy specifically, you can get a genuine £50 credit using my referral code. Switch to Octopus Energy here for the £50 credit, or read the full details in my Octopus Energy referral code review.

octopus refer a friend code £50

Negotiate your bills every year

Insurance, mobile contracts, broadband, all of it is worth shopping around for every single year rather than letting it auto-renew. Once you're out of contract, you're usually paying well over the odds, since providers rarely move you to a better deal automatically.

Check your contract end date, then either call and ask to be moved onto a current new-customer deal (most providers will do this if you threaten to leave) or actually switch to a different provider entirely, since loyalty is rarely rewarded.

If you're after a genuinely cheap SIM-only deal, Lebara currently offers 50% off any plan for your first 3 months, with no long contract. Get 50% off Lebara using my link here. My husband and son are actually on Lebara, while my daughter and I are on Tesco Mobile, where we renew our SIM-only deal every year and get free Tesco vouchers and special priced deals linked to our Clubcard.

The trick that's worked best for us is specifically asking to be put through to the "customer retention team" if the first person you speak to won't budge, rather than accepting the standard customer service line. We once got our Virgin Media bill down from £54.50 to £34 a month this way, simply by staying calm, mentioning we knew others paid less for the same package, and asking what they could actually do to stop us leaving.

If you're switching to Virgin Media as a new customer, use my referral link here for up to £50 cash.

The same goes for streaming services. It's easy to end up paying for a package you don't fully use, so it's worth checking what tier you're actually on and whether a cheaper one covers everything you watch.

I've written dedicated guides on this because it's such an easy win once a year: cheapest ways to get Netflix UK, how to haggle a cheaper broadband deal, and getting the cheapest broadband deals.

You can also get automatic cashback towards your mobile bill by linking your cards to Airtime Rewards. Download Airtime Rewards here and use my code FTT7WY7W for a £2 bonus once you spend £5 or more at a participating retailer within 7 days.

DIY home savings

If you enjoy doing things yourself, there's real money to save on jobs you'd otherwise pay a tradesperson for. My husband Ben has done almost all the DIY in our home himself over the years, laying flooring throughout the house, fitting a kitchen, and even building a roofed veranda that saved us around £1,500 compared to a tradesperson's quote for the same job. I've put together save money in the home with these DIY tips and 5 money saving cleaning tips covering exactly what's worked for us.

If you're weighing up heating options, it's also worth knowing whether wood fuel is actually cheaper than gas, oil or electric, since the answer isn't as obvious as you'd think and depends heavily on your setup.

The same principles apply outdoors. Ben once found a rotavator on Facebook Marketplace for £35 that would have cost around £150 new, and maintaining garden furniture properly (a bit of sanding and oiling each year) meant a £50 bench lasted us seven years, compared to a couple before someone else's identical unmaintained one fell apart. I've written up more money saving ideas for the garden if you've got outdoor space to work with too.

If you're thinking about bigger upgrades rather than just habits, I've covered 10 energy efficiency upgrades that actually save money.

Food and groceries

Get free food and savings on food shopping, takeaways and meals out

Between free daily giveaways, apps that pay you back on food you'd buy anyway, and community initiatives like food banks and community fridges, there are genuinely more ways to eat for less in the UK than most people realise. I keep a full, regularly updated list of everything I know in how to get free food.

Use supermarket coupon and cashback apps

GreenJinn and CheckoutSmart both offer cashback and even occasional 100% cashback on certain items, meaning you get them completely free. Full details in save money at the supermarket with GreenJinn and save money at the supermarket with CheckoutSmart.

Shopmium is another one I use myself. Download the Shopmium app here and enter my referral code 46e3t for a welcome cash bonus, on top of their regular cashback offers, including some 100% cashback offers occasionally.

Plan meals and cook from scratch

Meal planning, batch cooking, and freezing leftovers all reduce food waste and cut your weekly spend more than almost anything else. Sitting down once a week to plan meals against what's already in the cupboard, rather than shopping on the fly, is the single habit that's made the biggest difference to our grocery bill. I've written more on this in how to save money on the weekly shop.

Make your own staples

I've saved a genuine amount over the years making things from scratch instead of buying them. A litre of oat milk costs around £1.50-£1.80 in the shops, but £1.60 worth of organic oats makes at least 8 litres at home in a blender. I've written up my full oat milk recipe if you want to try it.

Get more out of every shopping trip

Small habits stack up more than people expect: checking the reduced section first, buying own-brand where the quality difference genuinely doesn't matter, and timing bigger purchases around sales rather than buying the moment you notice you need something. I've written up 5 ways to get more money out of every in-store shopping trip, covering things most people walk straight past.

Riverford and organic veg box deals

If you want organic veg delivered, my Riverford link gets you £15 off your second order, and they plant a tree for every referral too. Use my Riverford referral link here or read the full review: Riverford discount code review.

Abel and Cole is another organic veg box option I've used, with a genuinely strong new-customer offer: 50% off both your first and fourth boxes. Choose your box and enter code VEGBOX50 at checkout here.

Get free coffee, cake and starters just for having the right app

Some of these cost nothing to join and pay for themselves within your first visit. I get a free cake every year on my birthday just from having the Costa app, and if you bring a reusable cup, you get a bonus bean each time too, so you only need 5 drinks instead of 10 to earn a free one. Sign up here and enter code SV77B for 5 free beans to get you started, or read the full details in my Costa app invite code review.

If you eat out at Pizza Express, joining the Pizza Express Club with my referral code 73S7GP gets you a free starter.

Get half-price meals out with Tastecard

If you eat out often, a Tastecard gets you 2-for-1 or 50% off at thousands of UK restaurants. It's a paid subscription, so it's worth checking the current sign-up terms before joining. Check out Tastecard here.

Enter Win a Dinner every day

I check Win a Dinner daily myself. It's a free prize draw for restaurant and takeaway vouchers, and it takes seconds to enter.

Best Ways To Save Money

Clothes, fashion and beauty

Build a capsule wardrobe

Buying fewer, better pieces genuinely saves money over time, rather than constantly replacing many of the fast fashion pieces that fall apart within a season. I wear the same core pieces through both summer and winter, just layering up when it's cold rather than buying separate seasonal wardrobes. It also makes getting dressed quicker, since everything you own actually goes together.

I've written about exactly how in save time, space and money with a capsule wardrobe and why shopping sustainably for fashion will save money.

Save on natural beauty products

Natural and DIY beauty swaps can be a lot cheaper than branded alternatives, and often use fewer, simpler ingredients that last longer too. Things like oils and multi-purpose products tend to work out far better value than a cupboard full of single-use items you only use once each. See how to save money on natural beauty products for what's worked for me.

Save on kids' clothes

Kids grow so fast that overspending on clothing is an easy trap, especially when it's tempting to buy full-price for a growth spurt that's over within months. I've once borrowed an entire box of baby clothes from a friend and simply returned it once my son had grown out of them, ready for her own new arrival.

Buying a size up deliberately, shopping end-of-season sales for the year ahead, and swapping with friends and family all make a genuine difference here. I've shared my own tips for saving money when buying kids clothes.

Transport and car costs

Use public transport, walking and cycling where you can

Short journeys on foot or by bike save money on fuel and parking, and they're better for you too. For longer trips, a travel card or season ticket usually works out cheaper than paying per journey, and off-peak fares are worth planning around if your schedule allows it.

Maintain your car properly

Regular maintenance, correct tyre pressure and smoother driving all improve fuel efficiency. I've written about how maintaining your car tyres saves you money specifically, since it's one of the most overlooked areas.

Know what you're doing before you buy a car

If you're in the market for a new car, there's real money to save just from knowing the right time and way to negotiate. I've written up how to save money when buying a new car covering exactly that.

Use split ticketing for train journeys

Buying separate tickets for each leg of a train journey, rather than one ticket for the whole route, can work out significantly cheaper in the UK's fragmented rail pricing system. When I tested this for a Bristol to Glasgow journey, split ticketing saved over £30 each way compared to a single through ticket. I've written up how to find cheap split train tickets online, including the site that finds the cheapest split combination for you automatically and only takes a cut if it actually finds you a saving.

Compare car insurance every year, don't auto-renew

This is a big one. Insurers routinely price loyal customers higher than brand new ones, so letting your policy auto-renew is often the single most expensive mistake people make on this list.

I always get fresh quotes through TopCashback's comparison tool a few weeks before renewal, which also earns me cashback on top of the cheapest quote, usually around £45 a year.

My last renewal for my Ford Focus came out at £259.74, dropping to £215 once the cashback landed. I've put together a full guide on how to save money on car insurance in the UK, covering exactly what I do each year to get a better deal than my renewal quote.

Travel

Book ahead, stay flexible, and compare properly

Booking flights and accommodation early nearly always beats booking last minute, especially if you've got kids and can only travel during school holidays when prices spike. Being flexible with your travel dates, even by a day or two, can also shift the price noticeably. I always run a few different comparison sites against each other rather than trusting the first price I see, since they rarely agree.

Car rental is one area where the headline price is often not the real price once insurance and extras are added, so I've written specifically about avoiding those add-on traps. Camping is one of the genuinely biggest wins I've found for cutting travel costs without cutting the trip itself.

We once did an 8-day, 1,700-mile road trip through Europe with our two young kids for around £1,400 total, camping and using Airbnb instead of hotels (a two-night campsite in Amsterdam cost us £75, and an Airbnb on the outskirts of Bruges cost £60 a night, compared to hotels quoting £300 a night in Bruges), taking our own food rather than eating out, and finding free things to do like libraries and parks.

It's proof that a proper family trip abroad doesn't have to cost a fortune if you're willing to camp and cook rather than book hotels and restaurants for the whole trip. Buying a cheap camping stove in a sale and sticking to tinned food kept our costs right down on that trip.

I've written more on how to save money when you go camping if that's your style of holiday.

I've written extensively on this across a few different guides:

Financial planning and budgeting

Build a realistic budget and stick to it

Tracking your income and expenses properly is the foundation everything else sits on. As we're self-employed, we pay ourselves on the same date each month and set as many direct debits as possible to go out just after, so we always know exactly what's left until the next payday.

I've shared exactly how to properly manage your salary and budget throughout the month, based on what actually works for us.

Build an emergency fund

Having a buffer saved changes everything about how financial setbacks feel. We built ours up gradually rather than all at once, treating it as a fixed monthly amount that came out before anything else, the same way you'd treat a bill. As we're both self-employed, our emergency fund effectively acts as our sick pay and redundancy cover too, since there's no employer safety net to fall back on.

We've genuinely needed it more than once, including during an extended hospital stay for our daughter when our income dropped at the same time. Just a couple of weeks ago our 22-year-old oven finally gave out after we'd kept it going with repairs for the past couple of years, and having the emergency fund meant we could replace it straight away rather than going without an oven for weeks while we saved up.

Even a small emergency fund means an unexpected car repair or boiler breakdown doesn't tip you into debt.

I've written honestly about this from my own experience:

Cut back on unnecessary spending

I know exactly what it feels like when unnecessary spending spirals out of control, since I owed £17,500 by the time I was 19, spread across an overdraft, three credit cards, two loans and seven store cards, almost entirely from a clothes shopping addiction. It genuinely changed how I manage money for good. You can read the full £17,500 teenage debt story if you want the details.

My husband and I now track every penny together on a shared Google Sheet we can both access from our phones, updated the moment we spend something, so there's no guesswork about what's left before payday.

We also each have a small guilt-free monthly allowance to spend on whatever we like with no questions asked, which takes the pressure off everywhere else.

I've written up the full approach in how to stop spending money on unnecessary things, and if Christmas is your weak spot like it is for a lot of people, how to stop overspending at Christmas.

Use tax-efficient savings and understand your allowances

Making full use of ISAs, claiming any tax relief you're entitled to, and understanding your personal allowance can add up to a genuinely meaningful amount over a year. If you're saving for your kids specifically, I've written about whether Junior ISAs are a good idea.

If you're saving towards your first home or retirement, a Lifetime ISA comes with a genuine 25% government top-up. I've reviewed the Moneybox Cash Lifetime ISA in detail, including how to get a 25% top-up on your LISA savings.

I also use Tembo myself for its retirement LISA and cash ISA, which offers a welcome bonus of its own if you deposit £500 into an ISA within 30 days and use my referral link. Use my Tembo referral link here, or find full details in my free money offers article.

Use a smart credit card strategy, not an accidental one

Used properly, a credit card can earn you rewards on spending you're already doing, but only if you're confident you'll clear the balance in full every month. I use a Tesco Clubcard credit card for our everyday spending and exchange the points for Pizza Express vouchers at three times their face value, which usually works out to a couple of free family meals out a year for spending we'd have done anyway.

It's also worth knowing about Section 75 protection: if something you buy between £100 and £30,000 goes wrong, your credit card provider is jointly liable with the seller. Just mentioning it once got a car hire company to finally return a deposit they'd been ignoring for weeks.

I've written up exactly how I approach this in smart ways to use a credit card, and if you're carrying a balance you want gone, 7 tricks to paying off credit cards faster is worth a read too.

Use personal finance apps to keep on top of your financial reality

Seeing your spending laid out clearly, rather than guessing, changes how you spend.

I've used several myself, such as Snoop, since it connects to your bank accounts, flags when you're being overcharged compared to other customers, and gives personalised tips based on your actual spending. Use my Snoop referral link here for a free £5 Amazon voucher once you've had it connected to a bank account for 28 days, or read my full Snoop review first.

Credit Karma is another one worth having, giving you free access to your credit score and report with no impact on your file, which is genuinely useful before applying for a mortgage or loan.

For a fuller list, I've reviewed the top 10 apps for personal finance management I actually use myself, to help you find one that fits how you think about money.

Overpay your mortgage without really noticing it

If you have a UK mortgage, Sprive is a genuinely clever one. You buy gift cards for shopping you'd do anyway through the app, earn cashback on them, and that cashback gets sent straight to your mortgage as an overpayment with one click.

Download the Sprive app here and use my Sprive referral code 3OVDPUBK when you sign up.

Set a clear savings goal and build towards it

Whether it's a house deposit or just a general savings pot, having an actual number and timeframe makes saving far easier than a vague intention to "save more." Setting up a separate savings account with an automatic transfer on payday, even a small one, is the single change that's made the biggest difference for us.

Free and low-cost entertainment

Free museums and galleries, library books instead of buying new ones, and free outdoor events are all still genuinely worth doing. We used to spend a small fortune on books our kids would finish in half an hour. Now we reserve library books online and collect them weekly for nothing.

Volunteering is worth mentioning too, since it costs nothing, gets you out and social, and genuinely helps people.

For the cinema specifically, memberships, off-peak pricing, kids' screenings, cashback and Meerkat Rewards can all bring a full-price family trip down significantly. I've rounded up the full options in how to always get cheap cinema tickets.

Students

If you're a student, the biggest wins are the ones specifically designed for you: student discounts on travel, shopping and entertainment, a student bank account with added perks, and making full use of campus resources like the library rather than buying your own materials. Cooking your own meals instead of relying on takeaways or the student union bar menu makes a real difference too.

A TOTUM card, UNiDAYS or Student Beans account gets you discounts at well-known retailers both online and in-store, and it's worth signing up before you buy anything big. Eating out is a good example of where this pays off too, like the Zizzi student discount with UNiDAYS.

If you're heading off to uni for the first time, I've put together a back to uni essentials checklist covering exactly what's worth buying versus what you can borrow, share or skip entirely.

Seniors

If you're retired or approaching retirement, it's worth checking you're claiming everything you're entitled to, pension credit, council tax reduction, and free prescriptions where applicable, alongside the more obvious senior discounts on transport and entertainment. Downsizing can also make a genuine financial difference if your current home is bigger than you need.

There's more available than most people realise once you're over 60: a free bus pass, a Senior Railcard for a third off train fares, free NHS eye tests, and free prescriptions no matter how many you need. I've rounded up the full list in money saving benefits to take advantage of as you get older.

Families

There's a lot of crossover between saving money and making memories as a family. Days out don't have to mean full-price entrance fees, plenty of attractions run discounted family tickets, off-peak pricing, or genuinely free entry days if you check in advance rather than just turning up. I've written specifically about this in 6 easy ways to save money as a family, and for days out specifically:

We've used Kids Pass ourselves to get both kids in free for a Wookey Hole day out, using their £1 trial. It's worth trying if you've got a specific attraction in mind, since one saving can cover the cost of the trial many times over.

Beyond days out, I've also written about looking further ahead in the best way to save money for kids and their future.

Eco-friendly savings

Being kinder to the planet and to your budget often go hand in hand. Choosing to repair, reupholster or upcycle something instead of replacing it outright almost always costs less than buying new, and you end up with something that actually suits your space rather than whatever happens to be in stock.

I nearly bought a set of dining chairs on eBay for £185 before finding an almost identical set on Facebook Marketplace for £20, saving £145 once we'd upcycled them with a lick of paint. I've written up the full upcycling story if you want the details.

Final word

Saving money is genuinely a habit more than a one-off decision. I use a mix of these myself rather than relying on any single method, and it's the combination that actually adds up over a year rather than any one trick on its own.

Sign up to my free newsletter for more money saving tips, free money offers and making money from home ideas, or head to my free money offers article for everything currently available.

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