finance

Mums share the most extreme tricks they've used to save money.

Frugal tips and tricks are a lazy person’s worst nightmare – saving money certainly isn’t free. Instead, frugal hacks are laced with time-consuming habits of the organised, proving to be far too much effort for some.

But for others? This is where the thrifty folk really shine.

Women took to online parenting forum Mumsnet to share the most frugal tips and tricks they’ve used, or seen others use, to save a buck or two. And, boy are there some seriously outstanding techniques here.

The frugal foodies

Because what’s better than food you didn’t really pay for?

“Someone I know collects sauce sachets from restaurants and uses them to refill his ketchup bottle,” one wrote.

Another added their grandparents have some very… creative ways of getting the most of their milk.

“My grandparents water down the milk to make it go further and they will peg up a teabag to dry out and reuse. I do keep telling them there’s not a war on but they won’t have it. They are actually very comfortably off.”

The ones who flick the switches

Got the energy to turn all your appliances off before bed every night, and back on in the morning? These guys do.

"[My husband's] brother turns EVERYTHING off before going to bed. Wifi, oven, kettle, everything that has a plug. Except the fridge/freezer, although I'm sure he'd turn that off if he could. It makes me smile but [to be honest] he'd paid his mortgage off by his late thirties so perhaps we should all take a leaf out of his book," one wrote.

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Or, there are ones a little more simple than that.

"My father takes the battery out of his clock at work when he is not there. He has oodles of cash. Perhaps this is why?"

Listen: Financial planner Canna Campbell shares her best money-saving tricks. Post continues after audio.

The ones that are totally out-of-the-box

"Someone [I know] who buys shirts/t-shirts and asks for the hangers, then returns the clothes minus the hangers," one wrote.

"My father saved used matches, so he could reuse them by lighting a used one from an existing flame (when available). He trained all of us to do the same; throwing out a match still seems decadent to me," another added.

And then there are the ones which are just a tad unhygienic:

"Working in an elderly care home. We were told to wash and reuse disposable gloves. I wrote my resignation letter on the spot."