r/UKFrugal

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?

Hello, I’m currently looking for the best high interest savings account with easy access and where I can deposit about £5000.

I currently use Chip but they are dropping their interest rates massively. I already have a Trading212 ISA as well.

Thanks

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 ordered earbuds from Currys and paid extra for next-day delivery which was supposed to arrive on Thursday. It’s now Saturday and I still haven’t received anything or had any proper updates.
I placed the order as a guest checkout but I do have the confirmation email with a CUR order number. I tried making an account afterwards with the same email but the order doesn’t show up there.
The problem is I also can’t get any help from customer service. The chatbot keeps saying my order number is invalid even though I copied it directly from the email, it keeps saying they’re too busy to connect me to anyone, and when I try calling it just redirects me to the website and ends the call.
So I basically can’t reach a real person at all and I have no idea what’s going on with the order or whether it’s even been dispatched.
Has anyone had this happen before with Currys? Is it likely just delayed or is it stuck somewhere? Also any idea how to actually get through to a human would really help.

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

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'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

Hi all,

I Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for money saving apps etc? I'm not a shop aholic, mostly using charity shops etc so a lot of money discounts dont apply to me as they are for highstreet brands I almost never frequent.

I'm looking for something that helps save money on eating out / cinema and actual food bills / energy bills etc.

Also any easy to start side hustle that help generate a bit of side cash here and there. Anyone got some ideas for me?

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 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.

Prices are still ridiculous. Aldi is smidge more expensive. Lidl is, if memory serves, about £5.99 for 750ml. Is anywhere else doing it cheaper? This feels like my greatest indulgence at this point. But the salads demand it.

Edit to add, I went back to Lidl and it's actually less than a fiver for the cheap plastic EVOO, and about £5.50 for the 500ml ones in the glass bottles. But I ended up buying some posher Portuguese stuff from TK Maxx for £7.99 for 750ml. Looking forward to seeing how it compares.

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

Any recommendations for the best value sun cream, SPF 50, and preferably quick to apply?

I’m sure others are also getting through a lot of it in this hot UK weather.

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.

Going on Mat leave #2 so I know I’m going to need lots of coffee, and lots of decent coffee. I’m a bit of a coffee snob usually but fully recognise I don’t have the budget for it right now 😭.

So I’m looking for recommendations for the best-tasting supermarket coffee. I use V60 filter so anything that works with that. 🙏🏻