We all want to make our money stretch as far as we can and with prices going up and up, it’s getting harder and harder to do so. Making the things that we buy last longer will mean we don’t need to buy them as often and will therefore save us money.

Shampoo, conditioner, liquid soap and washing up liquid are all things that many of us use far more of than we actually need each time we use them. A simple way to cut down on how much you use without having to really think about it each time is to add water to the product when you buy it. Tip 1/3 of the bottle into an old bottle you’ve saved and top up the now only 2/3rd’s full bottle with water, give it a shake and pop it back on the cupboard. So for every 3 you used to buy, you now only need to buy 2!

Razors can be costly especially if you use the disposable sort – paying a higher price once for a reuseable one, that you can buy new blades for could save you money overall especially if you pick one where the blades are generic not specific to that razor. Another tip is to make sure that you rince and dry the blade after each use as this will extend the life of each blade or set of blades.

The life of your mattress can be extended by simply flipping and rotating it regularly. Once a month either Flip it over, so the top becomes the bottom, or rotate it so that the foot end becomes the head end. If you write on the calander which to do when, you’ll never get it wrong and your mattress will wear more evenly and in this way will last a lot longer.

Freezing food as we all know is a great way to preserve it, but don’t forget that just because you didn’t do it on the day you bought it, doesn’t mean you can’t do it still. If you find yourself with 3 packets of cold meat in the freezer that are only a day off their sell by or use by date, seperate them into individual portions and freeze them. As long as you make sure that you note on them that they only have a 1 day life span when you remove them from the freezer, you will be able to defrost them one at a time and use them before they go off. Less waste, and therefore less cost for you. (This can also be done for things like fruit and veg, if you blanche it you can then freeze it and extend it’s useable life).

Did you know that a good chunk of the wear in your clothes comes from washing and tumble drying them? Well it does, so if you are wearing once and then washing everything you could be shortening the life of your clothes considerably. Obviously for undies we only want to wear them once before we wash them, but for outer wear, wearing it a couple of times before you wash it, and then hanging it on a line or airer to dry it rather than putting it in the tumble dryer will not only save you money on the amount of washing and drying you do (think of the cost of all that electricity and water), but it could also extend the life of your clothes by as much as a third.

These are all small things, and I’m sure there are more that other people can add (do feel free to use the comment box to do so!), but each one of them added into a routine will save you money without really adding much to your workload.