10 Little Ways I’m Saving Money This October….

October is definitely the month where I start to notice our spending changing.

The heating is starting to go on more, the lights are on earlier and I’m much more interested in a bowl of homemade soup for lunch than anything remotely resembling a salad. 😂 At the same time, Christmas is getting close enough that I’m starting to think about what we need to buy and how I can spread some of the cost rather than leaving everything until December.

I’m not planning any kind of October spending ban because that’s just not how we live.

I’m just doing a few little things that should save us some money now and hopefully make the next couple of months a bit easier.

1. I’m doing more batch cooking

I always get more into batch cooking at this time of year because so many of the meals we like when it’s cold are really easy to make in bigger quantities.

If I’m cooking mince in the slow cooker, for example, I can make enough to have mince and dumplings one night and then turn the rest into cottage pie for another night. I can make one big batch of Yorkshire pudding mix and use some for toad in the hole and the rest for giant Yorkshire puddings to have with something else.

Most of the meals I’m making at the moment will give us leftovers too, which is exactly what I want at this time of year. A portion of cottage pie or mince and dumplings for lunch is so much nicer when it’s cold outside than a sandwich or salad, and it means one cooking session can cover tea and at least one lunch.

2. We’re finally using our doors and curtains properly

There’s a door in our downstairs hall that I genuinely don’t think we’d closed since the day we moved into this house in February.

It’s been permanently open for months, but now the weather is colder it’s closed most of the time. There’s no point paying to heat the rooms we’re actually sitting in and then letting all that lovely warm air disappear off into the hall.

Our curtains are finally doing some work too. Since we moved in they’ve mainly just been fancy decorative accessories, but now they’re getting closed around tea time when it starts getting darker and colder outside.

I know closing a door and drawing the curtains isn’t going to suddenly knock hundreds of pounds off our energy bill, but both take about ten seconds and cost nothing. We’re paying for the heat, so we might as well try and keep it where we want it.

3. I’m having one of my random freezer clear-outs

I do this every few months when I realise the freezers have gradually filled up with random bits and pieces again.

For a week or so afterwards, our meal plan usually looks slightly ridiculous because I’m trying to use what we already have rather than buying ingredients to make everything match. There’ll be nights when I cook three or four completely different meals because I’ve found a random portion of this, half a batch of that and something else that’s been sitting in there far too long.

It sounds like loads of extra cooking, but usually most of it just needs reheating or something simple adding to it.

I actually quite like doing this because it reminds me what we have, clears some space and gives us a cheaper food-shopping week or two. And with Christmas coming, having some actual space in the freezer is definitely going to come in handy.

4. I’m starting to think about Christmas food now

I’m not about to fill a cupboard with mince pies in October because there’s absolutely no chance they’d still be there by Christmas. 😂

What I am doing is starting to think about the things we know we’ll want over Christmas and keeping an eye out for good offers. If it’s something that will keep and we would definitely have bought anyway, then I’m happy to pick it up early and popping it in my Christmas cupboard (which is actually a storage box this year).

I much prefer spreading the extra Christmas food spending over a few shops rather than doing one enormous shop in December and wondering how on earth we managed to spend that much on food.

The important bit for me is only buying things we would have bought anyway. Something isn’t a bargain just because it has a Christmas tree on the packet and a yellow sticker underneath it.

5. I’m keeping an eye on our loyalty rewards

I’ve been deliberately letting some of our supermarket rewards build up because I know they’ll be useful over the next couple of months.

I’ve got a couple of £5 vouchers on my Morrisons More card, more than £30 on our Asda Rewards account and around £15 in Tesco Clubcard vouchers at the moment.

We usually use the Tesco vouchers for a meal out just before the chaos of Christmas starts because there are places where you can swap them for more than their face value. Last year we used ours at Pizza Express, so I’ll have a look at the options this year and see what we fancy.

The rest can go towards Christmas food or one of those bigger-than-normal December shops. I barely notice the rewards building up through the year, but I definitely notice the difference when I use them all at once.

6. I’m making lots of homemade soup

This is absolutely homemade soup season for me.

My homemade tomato soup is one I make regularly and it freezes really well, so I can make a decent-sized batch and have easy lunches ready for another day. It’s also a great way of using up tomatoes that are getting a bit past their best rather than throwing them away.

Leek and potato is another favourite, with loads and loads of black pepper. Miss Frugal always asks me to make that one when she’s not feeling well, so it’s one of those recipes that I’ve made so many times I barely even think about what I’m doing now.

I’m not particularly precious about following a recipe when I make soup either. If there are vegetables in the fridge that need using, there’s a good chance they’re going in. That’s one of the reasons soup is such a good money saver for me — things that might otherwise end up in the bin can turn into two or three lunches instead.

7. I’m checking what we already own before buying anything for winter

We’ve only been in this house since February, so there are still things tucked away in places where I’ve completely forgotten about them.

Before I decide we need anything for winter, I’m having a look around first. Blankets, warmer bedding, winter clothes and all those cosy things that suddenly become very tempting when the shops start filling up with them might already be somewhere in the house.

And if we genuinely do need something, second-hand is usually my first stop anyway.

I’ve just bought a brand-new Monsoon winter coat from one of the charity shops in our village for £10. It still had the tags on and originally cost £150. It’s long, pink and looks ridiculously warm, and although I probably won’t wear it all that often, for a tenner I couldn’t leave it there.

That’s exactly the kind of thing that reminds me why it’s worth checking second-hand before buying new.

8. I’m embracing cheap, cosy weekends at home

As much as I love going away and doing things, I also really love this time of year when staying home starts to feel like a perfectly good weekend plan.

A walk, something nice cooking in the slow cooker, a film and a cosy night at home costs practically nothing. After a busy summer, I’m quite happy to have a few weekends like that.

It doesn’t mean we won’t go anywhere or spend anything during October. We will. But every weekend doesn’t have to involve spending money just because it’s the weekend.

And the quieter weekends make the ones where we do have something planned feel a bit more special anyway.

9. I’m getting my Christmas present list organised

I need a list at Christmas because otherwise I completely lose track.

I’ll write down everyone we’re buying for, ideas for what we might get them and what we’ve already bought. I’ll also keep a rough running total because lots of smaller purchases have a habit of not feeling like much until you add them all together.

Starting now also means I’ve got time to look for things second-hand, wait for offers and change my mind about ideas rather than panic-buying something in the last week before Christmas.

I actually enjoy Christmas shopping when I don’t feel rushed, so getting organised early makes it better as well as potentially saving money.

10. I’m making sure we have easy meals for the nights when nobody can be bothered

This is probably one of the most useful things I can do to save money because I know what we’re like.

There are always going to be nights when neither of us particularly wants to cook, and if there’s nothing easy in the house then a takeaway suddenly starts looking like a brilliant idea.

So I want a few easy options in the freezer that need practically no effort. Some will be leftovers from all the batch cooking I’m doing, some might just be really simple meals and there will almost certainly be mac and cheese in there at some point.

Mac and cheese is also one of my go-to meals when the kids come round because they joke — at least I hope they’re joking — that it’s the only meal they enjoyed when they were little. They still sometimes ring me and ask me to make it for them, so clearly I did something right. 😂

None of the things I’m doing this month are huge money-saving changes on their own. Closing the curtains isn’t going to pay for Christmas and a bowl of homemade soup isn’t going to transform our bank balance.

But that’s never really how saving money works for us anyway. It’s usually lots of little things: eating what we’ve already got, cooking a bit extra, using our loyalty rewards, buying something second-hand rather than new and not spending money just for the sake of it.

October feels like a good month to get back into those habits, especially with Christmas getting closer and the more expensive winter months ahead.

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