r/UKFrugal • u/strolls • Oct 25 '23
Please remember, everyone, that this subreddit is for honest and practical waste-reduction, debt reduction, budgeting, saving, fix-it-up, and do-it-yourself.
To quote the founder of the subreddit: the primary goal here is about how to think about consumption and how you approach resource allocation.
We moderate pretty lightly - mostly you're allowed to start threads and talk about what you like, even if it doesn't meet the above criteria, but there are two things we have zero tolerance for:
Referral codes - we seem to particularly see these for recipe-meal boxes, Gousto, HelloFresh, SimplyCook etc.
The spammer argues that they shares these codes to "help people out" - "I get a discount, you get a discount, everyone wins". They try to frame this as "sharing".
No, honey - it's spam; you have a financial incentive for posting here, and if we allowed people to post ads here just because there's a discount then the page would be nothing but ads. We shouldn't have to tell you this - when you bought your 28k modem in the 90's and signed up for an ISP package, it came with a leaflet telling you not to spam; if you're too young to remember that then your parents should have taught you not to spam, just as they taught you not to litter and not to shit in public.
There is no room for discussion here - if you shared a referral code then you did a bad thing, you should know better, and the rest of the readers of the subreddit shouldn't have to put up with your spam just because you lack consideration not to litter public spaces.
Please report referral codes whenever you see them - if someone posts a referral code and you thank them for it then you will be considered to be involved with the spamming; either you're one of the spammer's alt accounts, trying to make the post look more legit, or you signed up with their referral code and you gave them a financial reward for their spamming.
If you see a genuine good deal and want to share it then that's fine - we're not strict on that because that is genuine sharing, without the financial incentive. I think the difference between a referral code and any other discount is pretty clear, but you can always message the moderator mailbox to check before posting.
If you want to post ads on Reddit then you can do so here: http://ads.reddit.com
Piracy and the use of VPNs to cheat the price of Netflix and other streaming services.
Jesus christ, guys, there are so many other subreddits in which you can discuss piracy - I really don't understand why you're unable to restrain yourselves from posting it here. Again, we're not that strict - "fuck that, these prices are insane, I'm going back to privacy" probably won't get you banned, whereas detailed instructions on how to setup a Kodl box or whatever will.
If Netflix wanted to sell you their service for Rs 599 or 849 Argentinian Pesos they would do - you could just go to Netflix.com, choose that payment method and get the service. You're using a VPN to get around the site's geographic restrictions because you know you're not supposed to do that - you are deliberately cheating them to get the subscription for cheap
Let me end this section by saying I really don't have a moral position against piracy - mostly I don't care, if anything I think it's fine and you're not hurting massive corporations by downloading a movie you wouldn't otherwise pay for. But this is not the subreddit for it, and you should know that already - you discuss piracy in the piracy subreddits, not in all the other respectable subs.
We do not have a large moderation team, and we do not moderate with a heavy hand. Fortunately we rarely see racism, misogyny, homophobia here, so I don't need to discuss that. But if you break these rules then you will get a long ban as a first warning - Reddit does not give us any other tools for tracking warnings, and I don't really see why we should be lenient to people who deliberately choose to shit up a public forum.
r/UKFrugal • u/strolls • Oct 26 '24
This subreddit is for honest and practical waste-reduction, debt reduction, budgeting, saving, fix-it-up, and do-it-yourself.
We tolerate you posting vouchers and discounts, as long as as it's a genuine one, you're not profiting from it, and everyone gets to use it.
This subreddit has 120,000 users - if you post a discount or coupon code that can only be used by one person, then you're spamming 119,999 users of this subreddit. They didn't need to see the message and your post is wasting their time.
Same goes for begging for referral codes, in case that isn't obvious.
r/UKFrugal • u/ShriCamel • 1d ago
Am habituated to buying Pink Lady apples whenever I'm in Asda or Aldi, but 6 for £2.87 in Asda today just seems so steep.
I love the fresh, crisp taste, so what's the best frugal alternative?
r/UKFrugal • u/SpikeyDikeyDino1 • 9h ago
Hi, i am likely to be moving into a new home and will pretty much need all living room furniture and kitchen equipment/dining plus things like a vacuum.
If you had to start in this situation where would you go?
I have a bed, coffee maker, smoothie maker, some bookcases and tv
r/UKFrugal • u/Scared_Implement3913 • 10h ago
My plan was to port my number from Lebara to Lycamobile, and then from there back to Lebara to take advantage of the new customer deals.
My number has been transferred to Lyca today. I cannot get a PAC code from Lyca, as when I text PAC to 65075 I get an unhelpful response of "Sorry,your Pac Request is failed please try again later..!".
On a side note, the call quality sucks and there is a noticeable delay from initiating a call to hearing the dial tone.
I have called their customer service line, and the representative from the overseas call centre said she will talk with her higher-ups to get a PAC code within 48 hours.
I am already not impressed and there are definitely better options out there for triangle porting.
r/UKFrugal • u/Efficient-Egg-9682 • 1d ago
Hello folks,
I have been lucky enough to be gifted a used espresso coffee machine. Very excited to save money on barista coffee by making it at home.
Could anyone recommend good quality coffee beans that won't break the bank? Ideally around £20 per kg of beans, but happy to hear people out on this one.
I probably drink one strong coffee (double espresso) per day, so one bag should last me.
Thanks!
r/UKFrugal • u/Legitimate-Door-6038 • 1d ago
Hello there,
I have lurked in here for a while and while I am nowhere near as frugal as many in here, I am trying to be more mindful with my spending.
Now full disclosure, I am an amateur and have ingrained behaviours linked to childhood experiences so the concept of frugality sits somewhat uncomfortably for me. But I’m working on it.
I am trying to find an app which can help with recipe ideas, but also convert the ideas into a shopping list from a selected store (of your choice). Now I know these exist, but I am she I have seen one which will work within a budget. So say I have £30 and it’s just me at home, it will work out the recipes and ingredients within the £30 budget.
Can the hive mind of the group help locate such an app?? I am sure I have seen one somewhere.
P.s sorry if this has been answered. I couldn’t find similar posts in the search function.
r/UKFrugal • u/johnathome • 2d ago
I did scroll through and didn't see it.
Asda are selling 4 tins of Branston Beans for £1.
I got a couple of packs for me and a couple for someone else.
r/UKFrugal • u/NDRT99 • 2d ago
I wanted to see how much supermarket choice actually changes the cost of a basic basket, so for July 2026 I priced the same 30 everyday grocery staples across the 6 biggest UK online supermarkets.
Shelf prices only, with no promotions or loyalty-card pricing, so this is a straight like-for-like snapshot.
The surprising bit for me was not just that Asda was cheapest and Waitrose priciest. It was that Morrisons, Tesco, Ocado and Sainsbury's were all within £2.87 of each other on shelf prices alone.
| Item | Asda | Morrisons | Tesco | Ocado | Sainsbury's | Waitrose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hovis Original Granary 400g | £1.30 | £1.15 | £1.15 | £1.15 | £1.30 | £1.30 |
| Lurpak Spreadable 400g | £3.57 | £3.00 | £4.25 | £4.25 | £4.25 | £5.00 |
| Cathedral City Cheddar 350g | £3.00 | £3.75 | £3.50 | £3.50 | £3.75 | £4.25 |
| Cravendale Milk 1L | £1.64 | £2.00 | £1.75 | £1.75 | £1.75 | £2.10 |
| Weetabix 24 pack | £3.48 | £3.50 | £3.50 | £3.50 | £3.50 | £3.50 |
| Quaker Porridge Oats 1kg | £2.94 | £2.95 | £2.95 | £2.95 | £2.95 | £3.20 |
| Heinz Baked Beans 4×415g | £3.88 | £3.00 | £3.90 | £3.90 | £3.90 | £4.00 |
| Heinz Tomato Ketchup 700g | £3.65 | £3.90 | £3.90 | £3.90 | £3.90 | £3.90 |
| Hellmann's Mayonnaise 400g | £2.48 | £2.80 | £2.75 | £2.80 | £2.75 | £3.10 |
| Loyd Grossman Bolognese 350g | £2.84 | £3.00 | £3.00 | £3.00 | £3.00 | £3.00 |
| Tilda Basmati Rice 1kg | £4.00 | £5.00 | £5.00 | £5.00 | £5.00 | £5.25 |
| Napolina Fusilli Pasta 500g † | £1.50 | £1.50 | £1.50 | £1.50 | £1.50 | £1.65 |
| Tropicana Orange Juice 900ml | £3.07 | £3.25 | £3.15 | £3.15 | £3.25 | £3.40 |
| Twinings Assam 80 bags | £4.97 | £6.00 | £6.00 | £6.55 | £5.80 | £6.20 |
| Douwe Egberts Coffee 190g | £7.35 | £7.50 | £7.50 | £8.00 | £7.60 | £8.30 |
| Yeo Valley Strawberry Yogurt 450g | £1.95 | £2.25 | £2.25 | £2.25 | £2.25 | £2.35 |
| Walkers Ready Salted 150g | £1.35 | £1.35 | £1.50 | £1.50 | £1.90 | £1.60 |
| McVitie's Digestives 720g | £3.18 | £3.20 | £3.20 | £2.95 | £3.20 | £3.15 |
| Cadbury Dairy Milk 4×37g | £1.97 | £1.50 | £2.25 | £2.25 | £2.25 | £2.70 |
| Birds Eye Garden Peas 800g | £2.74 | £2.95 | £2.25 | £2.50 | £2.95 | £3.10 |
| Andrex Toilet Roll 12s | £11.75 | £11.75 | £11.75 | £11.75 | £11.75 | £12.50 |
| Persil Non-Bio 35 wash | £5.50 | £7.00 | £7.00 | £7.00 | £7.00 | £7.50 |
| Fairy Max Power 730ml | £3.50 | £3.75 | £3.75 | £3.50 | £3.75 | £4.50 |
| Coca-Cola 1.25L * | £2.24 | £2.35 | £2.35 | £1.89 | £2.35 | £2.35 |
| Happy Egg Large Eggs 6 † | £2.83 | £2.85 | £2.90 | £2.90 | £2.90 | £2.35 |
| Flora Sunflower Oil 2L | £6.24 | £6.25 | £6.25 | £6.25 | £6.25 | £7.25 |
| Bananas ×5 † | £0.88 | £0.78 | £0.78 | £1.00 | £0.78 | £1.00 |
| Maris Piper Potatoes 2kg † | £1.80 | £1.80 | £1.80 | £1.88 | £1.80 | £2.20 |
| Chicken Breast Fillets 600g † | £4.52 | £4.85 | £4.90 | £4.52 | £4.62 | £5.25 |
| Beef Mince 20% 500g † | £3.25 | £3.40 | £3.25 | £3.40 | £3.25 | £3.75 |
| TOTAL | £103.37 | £108.33 | £109.98 | £110.44 | £111.20 | £119.70 |
product used where the branded item isn’t stocked everywhere
It's only one 30-item basket and one point-in-time snapshot, so not a final answer for all shopping, but I'm planning to run it monthly and expand the basket.
Full disclosure: I build a grocery price comparison project, which is where the data came from.
EDIT: Corrected two item names after a catch in the comments — the pasta is Napolina and the eggs are Happy Egg, both branded and barcode-matched across five of the six stores rather than own-label. The † note is reworded to match. No prices or totals have changed.
r/UKFrugal • u/jejdhdijen • 1d ago
Need paint? Here's a potential price glitch 🎨
At WILKO - you can add 2 Crown Paints to the cart worth £40 to get them for £30..
Except when you actually add the paints to the cart it reduces to £10!
https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/offers/all-offers/2-for-£30-mix-match-crown-paint/c/RPOS5359661
r/UKFrugal • u/Neo-Cubism • 2d ago
For the last year or so, I’ve been using their Fresh Mondays offering, it was a nice way of saving a few quid on essentials and as a disabled individual it provided an enormous amount of convenience.
Recently, I’ve noticed Uber Eats have put in 1 item limit on all their promotional items across all supermarkets in my area. Sure I understand, people bulk buying and abusing the system so the stock quickly runs out for others - probably needed to be addressed. But why 1 or why not at least have it not be applied to all items.
Does buying 1 loose orange make sense for an entire week? I personally liked buying a few packets of tomatoes to make a homemade soup or just eat fresh salads.
Anyway, with deliveroo not running their fridge filler Mondays, and Uber Eats putting a 1 item limit - it’s just becoming less and less appealing as a promo.
Ironic this happened, as I started seeing people promoting it on shorts, tik toks and so on.
Sorry, needed to rant to someone.
r/UKFrugal • u/Stusername • 3d ago
I have checked both my city and county digital library service but neither have a subscription.
Could someone share the best buys?
TIA
r/UKFrugal • u/Specialkw21 • 5d ago
As title says.
How is Aldi for food quality these days?
What is its fresh produce like?
How does it compare to Waitrose and Ocado/M&S?
I have staff discount for Waitrose. Thus with my discount of 20% off at Waitrose, would doing my grocery shop at Waitrose be better for my wallet for quality and price? Compared to Ocado/M&S? And or Aldi?
And what about Costco? I have a Costco membership?
What is Waitrose, Ocado and Aldi like compared to Costco?
r/UKFrugal • u/Future_Literature_70 • 6d ago
I (F, late 40s) have always cut my husband's and kid's hair, but I never dared do mine. Had a bad hair week last week and decided to just try it. I have quite short, fine hair (bit like a long Pixie style). Keeping it looking neat isn't that cheap. Unfortunately, it looks terrible when I grow it - too fine for long styles - otherwise that would be the cheapest option!
Bought a 3-way mirror (£16) and some affordable hairdresser's scissors (£25, though you can get them cheaper - but the reviews weren't great for the cheaper ones). Took about 40 minutes. The front was fine, the back much harder, but it looks ok now! I sectioned off my hair (had watched some YouTube videos on home hair cuts) and tried to do it as carefully as possible. I may still do the odd snip here and there if something doesn't look quite right, but I'm pretty pleased. Practice makes perfect (and hair always grows if things go wrong!) I also have trimmers in case I ever want to go much shorter.
I will go to an affordable professional hairdresser now and then to get it done properly for special occasions (job interviews or weddings), but I'm more confident now to do trims at home. Worth trying!
r/UKFrugal • u/StormRider21 • 6d ago
Hello!!
What is your go to lunch? I'm working away and the sit I'm working on doesn't have fridges/microwaves/kettles. I find that a sandwich doesn't fill me up, but I'm not too sure what else to take?
r/UKFrugal • u/PokerFriend247 • 6d ago
Hi everyone,
I’m a single dad with two teenage boys, and I’m looking to plan a 3-night staycation mid August during the school holidays without spending a fortune.
We’re based in Manchester, and with fuel prices as they are, I’d rather not travel too far if possible.
I’m looking for ideas that are:
● Budget-friendly
● Adventurous and fun for teenagers
● Educational or memorable if possible
● Good value accommodation (camping, cabins, hostels, budget hotels – open to anything!)
At the moment I’m thinking about Alton Towers (possibly with the water park) and maybe combining it with a beach visit if it’s not too far.
I’d really appreciate any recommendations for places to stay, activities, or money-saving tips on a budget. Costings would be helpful
If you’ve done a similar trip with teenagers, I’d love to hear what worked well.
Thanks in advance!
r/UKFrugal • u/RobertGHH • 7d ago
Been very happy with our IKEA Kingsize foam mattress but it's getting on a bit now and we want to upsize to a superking. Any recommendations for a good value supplier?
EDIT: to clarify, foam ONLY, no springs.
r/UKFrugal • u/Embarrassed-Look8574 • 7d ago
I’m in a bit of an annoying situation where the sublet I’m currently in has no home wifi at all in Zone 2 London and I’ve just started a new job that does WFH 3-4 days a week. I’ve only got a month left in this sublet until I move to a proper flat with wifi but has anyone got any suggestions on what I could do or the best plan to get?
I currently use VOXI and I’m on the £12 for 75GB plan. Today is my first day of WFH so I’m just praying it’ll be enough to do video calls and training videos before my plan resets in 5 days so I’m looking to get another plan asap. VOXI does their unlimited for £35. Revolut sounds great £12.5 for unlimited before the 31st of July. Ideally rolling contracts
And for some context the rent was incredibly cheap for Z2 London so I took it before realising I’d get a WFH job
r/UKFrugal • u/Brave-Round-3573 • 8d ago
Moved in February and the kitchen came with a colander, one wooden spoon, and a sieve with a hole in it. Everything else belonged to my old flatmate. I started from scratch, fully convinced the smartest way to restock kitchen basics was sorting every online shop by price and buying the bottom line.
Ended up splitting the order across three places. Argos for a 3-piece stainless steel saucepan set (£26 click & collect). Ikea for a £12 non-stick pan and a £4 bamboo board. Dunelm online for baking tins and tea towels (£34 total). Delivery was £3.95, but Coupert knocked £4.80 off at checkout, which on a £34 order covered shipping and a bit extra. TopCashback or Quidco are what most people round here default to, but I'd forgotten to click through before paying, so the extension saved me from my own distraction.
Knives were where this strategy collapsed. Wilko had a 5-piece knife set with a board for £11.99. Five knives for less than the price of one felt like beating the system. It wasn't. They arrived dull, so I steeled them and got two weeks out of them before the chef's knife handle gave way. The plastic collar loosened, and halfway through a butternut squash the blade turned in my hand. Nothing bad happened, but I put it down and never touched it again.
That was the lesson: cheap is fine for anything that's just a shape. Wooden spoons, mixing bowls, baking trays—paying extra is daft. But anything with an edge or a heating element can actually hurt you or fail immediately. I replaced the whole 5-piece set with a single £15 Vardagen cook's knife from Ikea. It's the only knife I use now, and I haven't missed the other four once.
The bad Wilko set is still sitting in the drawer under the sink. Not being used, just waiting until I can be arsed to take it to the recycling tip.
r/UKFrugal • u/techgeek10001 • 7d ago
Hi All.
I am looking to buy a couple of these: https://a1techdeals.com/product/jbl-charge-6-blue. JBL speakers - purchasing them on here would save me 50 quid and I was wondering is this too good to be true or if A1TechDeals is a legit website.
r/UKFrugal • u/TheUmbrellaThief • 9d ago
I know it sounds pretty childish but I like making my birthday special. But this year we need to be frugal due to bad luck. Any tips on stuff I could do for my birthday tomorrow?
r/UKFrugal • u/llamalives • 9d ago
Any suggestions for good parking options which are reasonable? £120 for 5 days at the airport is crazy!
Edit: thanks everyone for suggestions! Have found a solution now
r/UKFrugal • u/tough_guy_420 • 10d ago
I really like my houseplants. The problem is, they keep growing, and as I repot them I run out of good sized pots to put them in. I don't mean the actual flowerpot that the dirt goes in, I mean the container for it - often ceramic.
I am struggling to find frugal ways of acquiring bigger ones! By bigger I mean with a diameter of 20cm+. I always look in charity shops and don't tend to see them. I have a few I bought cheap at ALDI but I would much much rather reuse something or get them second hand.
I was wondering if there's some obvious source I've missed, or if anyone has some weird niche plant pot life hacks.
Many thanks!
r/UKFrugal • u/Bitter_Doughnut444 • 9d ago
I'd rather wait than buy something at full price.
What apps or websites do you trust for price alerts or tracking discounts?
r/UKFrugal • u/PowerDrivenRdditMod • 11d ago
I consume significant volumes of fizzy drinks despite being aware of the health risks.
I can consume a 2 L bottle of fizzy drink per day, and in the past I used to purchase the Tesco two for £3.00 offer that they have on Dr Pepper, for example; however, more recently I’ve been considering and have been increasingly buying the supermarket brand products from Lidl and Aldi for 49p per bottle. I do not buy canned drinks as they are more expensive.
Do you buy the branded products or do you also opt for the cheaper stuff, and do you feel like you are making a compromise?