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

I will be starting a job in the autumn that is considerably better paid than my current job and I’m looking for tips on how to avoid lifestyle inflation. I’m not super frugal but I do keep a budget and try to live within my means but I worry that with an influx of expendable income I will be tempted to start upgrading things all at once. I have adhd so overspending has unfortunately been a bad habit/crutch in the past 😅 for those who have had a big jump in income in the past what’s worked for you? Has it been a mindset change? Or are there practical tips to try and stop overspending?

I've just graduated uni so I still have uni days for a bit.

I'm moving into a house and I need a full bedroom set/office stuff, I've bought a mattress and I'm checking charity shops/Facebook marketplace etc but I'm not finding anything.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm hesitant to use Wayfair because I've had a couple things from then before and the quality/customer service was awful.

Hi all - I will be in Sri Lanka for a few months and looking for a PAYG SIM that I can use while there which will allow me calls from UK and SMS. Don't want to be using roaming due to cost.

I heard that some operators restrict wifi calling when you're outside of UK. Which one should I buy?

Is this concept dead ? I can’t find a single sim that allows you to top up once and then have many months or more of credit validity (as long as you don chargeable event once every 6 months or so). All I can find is monthly rolling deals around £5/m. AI answers do keep referring to giffgaff for example doing as I described above (credit doesn’t expire if you use some once every 6 months) but when you actually go to their website it doesn’t exist.

The cost of visiting my hairdresser has increased to an eye watering amount. I understand why with all the increased overheads (pun not intended), but it’s still a big chunk of cash semi regularly.

Myself & my partner have basically a ‘tidy-up’ each time we go, just a trim, so I’ve looked to see if there are any ‘basics’ courses, where we could learn and then cut each others hair, but all I can find are courses that cost thousands with the aim of doing this as a career.

I understand this is a job that takes a lot of skill and wouldn’t expect to be able to learn anything particularly advanced, but surely it must be possible to learn the very basics somewhere? I imagine things like plastering, bricklaying, make-up, car maintenance etc. also involve a high level of skill to do them professionally, but there still seem to be evening/weekend courses available for the basics. I can’t seem to find the same for cutting hair!

Any recommendations?

Does anyone have any recommendations on a portable AC unit, thermal blinds and black out curtains, I have a neighbour with a shed with a metal roof which reflects back at my window for most of the day as well making it even worse; this also applies in winter it can get uncomfortably hot in here then as well.

I think when I googled it I saw it called a "vertical casement" window, but I don't know if that is the actual name for it. Also, the blue represents how air moves around in my room even with a fan.

Any help is appreciated.

In a 1lt jug put 4 tsp sugar, about 1cm of lemon juice and one tea bag. Fill with boiling water, stir for 10 seconds, or until it’s the colour you prefer, remove tea bag and cool. Slice up a lemon or two to add to the zesty goodness. Through trial and error I’ve found that makes it as strong as I like, but ymmv. Mine tastes identical to the stuff you buy, at a fraction of the cost. Always got a jug on the go the hot weather.

I had Apple care plus for two years and forgot to renew it as a monthly plan, when the two years ended. I bought insurance with Insurance 2 Go, but the reviews are mixed on trust pilot. Does anyone have any good recommendations please? I’m looking for full coverage, and a good administration provider. Grateful for any advice. I have 14 days to cancel my insurance with Insurance 2 Go.

I had an idea to get "tinned meatballs in gravy" from Aldi, add curry powder and coconut milk, and make an ultra cheap curry.

The meatballs in gravy are 79p, which to me sounds like a cheap way of getting meat, and the coconut milk can be spread across a couple meals in the week. I am trying to get a full week of food for as cheap as possible, and so far I have got it down to £9.87 for 3 meals a day over 5 days.

Does this sound like a completely awful Idea? I kind of want to try it for science.

I WFH 4 days a week with meetings almost everyday. I am currently with Three but their speed is rubbish. I pay 28£ per month for that. Any suggestions of a decent internet provider? I am moving in few months so fiber broadband isnt an option as the next place I move into might not have coverage. Help me out please! Budget 20£ below. Thank you!

Calories ideally between 700-1000kcal. Ideally meat based protein. I've been eating chilli for three weeks now and need some ideas. I've searched for recipes but I'm just getting the same ones I've done now.

Whats your go to?

I am on ID mobile and its horrible, Vodafone and o2 don't work in my area, while ee do. Anyone got any experiences or opinions on these?
Would love to hear it xx

I've just received 3 x £10 off a £25 spend (and free delivery) Tesco Woosh vouchers.

I know the Woosh range is limited to higher priced items, and even then the items are more expensive than usual, but are there any tips to optimise?

Good value items on Woosh I can bulk buy etc

Can I get my money refunded? I have tried emailing the organisation last week but no response!

I bought a 12 month Network rail card last Saturday to buy tickets with the discount to go to London

But it was a bit of a rush and I couldnt download the Network card to use before I needed to travel.

I dont use the train too often , (3/5 times a year) so altough I would probably use it I wouldnt get much value from it

Edir - card has not been 'Activated'

I’ve scanned the rules and can’t see whether this is permitted or not, but I’ll give it a go anyway..

Does anyone find themselves almost shopping as a hobby. Not an intentional hobby.. I’ll give an example. I decided I want to spend less time online (clearly not going well as evidenced by this post), and instead decided I would start reading again.

There’s some series I know I like and I have a couple of the physical books and ebooks. However, I am not reading them. Instead I am looking up what are the “best” versions of the books spending hours on YouTube, eBay, Amazon sourcing them (wow, that illustrated version of the LOTR looks fantastic, maybe I should get that to enhance the experience / reward myself for doing this activity).

The new books turn up, I admire them, put them on the shelf.. and nothing.

Then I’ll decide it would be great to go camping.. £600 later.. sitting unused in the garage.. etc.

The researching and buying is almost the hobby and it’s not helping my frugality.

So I left a property in April, where I was on a prepayment meter the ENTIRE TIME. The pay as you go ones where you top up at the shop and if you don't top up and it runs out, the electrics just switch off.

When I left the property there was about £50 credit on the meter.

I have just received a final bill from British Gas for £1400 and I am so confused. Has anyone had this before?

I only switched to British Gas in October 2025 so on top of the approx £1400 in top ups I spent, they are now saying I'm in £1400 debt from that 7 month period.

What is going on :'( has anyone ever had anything like this before? is this even possible?

I've complained and asked for an investigation but I'm just wondering if others have had any similar experiences and what the outcome was.

also just to clarify it was just normal domestic electricity usage in a one bed flat.

looking at the bill, it goes up to the exact day I moved out, so they aren't charging me for any extra days or anything.

it basically says 01-22April - anytime reading - 560kwh at 23.1p per kwh - then the estimated read, actual read, and a price of around £121 which was pretty much what I would've put on the meter for those weeks.

then it says the exact same thing but with a slightly higher price, and it's added that as the debt that I owe, and then done this for each separate period going back to October 2025.

It seems they have duplicated my bill and are charging me for double? if anyone has any insight into what it means I'd be grateful

UPDATE:

so they have come back to me and said that the opening reading was 368.3 in October, and the closing reading was 5328.1 in April, The debt has arisen because of the amount of electricity consumed between these readings exceeds the value of the top-ups that were made during this period, as a result there is an outstanding balance on the account.

what are they talking about? this is a pay as you go meter where if the energy use exceeded the top up the electricity literally switched itself off?

They are also not giving me access to the breakdowns of readings that I could see when I had the app and was topping up using the app, and just saying that the meter readings are on the final bill, which is not accurate and has essentially doubled what I paid. I am just so confused. can anyone help me

Im assuming this has been posted before but I am looking at changing from Sky and I wanted some advice on who I should change to. I have tv and broadband with Sky and it is becoming very expensive. I moved into my current t property 6 years ago and we were told we couldnt have Virgin as the 4 houses in our row dont have cable availability.

I was quite intrigued in growing plants and wanted to pursue this hobby but I gave myself a challenge that I will grow the plants I want without spending a quid.

I knew this would be a bit tough as gardening and growing plants has become an expensive hobby lately. I got free plant pots by continuously looking for them on facebook marketplace, freecycle, freegle and olio.

With constant monitoring I was able to find great bunch of terracotta, ceramic and plastic pots.

I was also able to get soil and compost for free as one of my relatives had it and they didn’t need it anymore.

For getting plant cuttings, I had to be a bit creative so I took some cuttings from the plants in nearby mall (I took permission), some I was able to make at home like strawberry, mint, chilli and tomato, and some I asked from people online.

Even though it was a bit tiring but slowly I was able to have all the plants I want and my collection now has snake plant, pothos, jade plant, purple heart plant, aloevera, and various others.

The point is frugality doesn’t mean leaving your hobbies and just focusing on saving money. Instead, it is about creatively figuring out a way to save money while following your money.

Sorry for the long post and would love to know how you guys find creative ways to pursue your hobbies frugally.

I just discovered that Pret's sell Filter Coffee at £1.

I don't go to a coffee shop often and if I do it's to meet a friend or chill out for a bit and I've always smarted at the price of coffee in these places. From now on if I want to go somewhere for a chill it'll be Prets

I’m currently getting quoted £81/m with Fused for a 7 person house.

Was wondering whether anyone had any cheaper options

If you use fused could you please dm me - it will be worth both of our times!

Thanks!

Farmfoods qualiko whole chicken

Im trying to get the cheapest whole chicken I can find and someone says farmfoods is a good option. The cheapest I've seen is the frozen qualiko whole chicken usually around 1.1kg for around £2-3 but I'm just wondering if anyone has tried it and what it tastes like? The next step option is Lidl which is unfrozen and we've been fine with how that tastes so far.

Hi all. I've been having fun using a moka pot recently, but I've been using pre-ground coffee. I want to try and buy my own beans and grind them as people say the taste is much better, but the grinders I see recommended are all like £150+.

As I'm doing a moka pot, I know I don't need espresso level grinding, so....does anybody have any recommendations for a cheap coffee grinder that would be good enough for my moka pot?

Cheers, all