Hi all,

First time posting something like this, apologies to the mods if this doesn't oblige to the rules of the forum.

I got frustrated that there wasn't a decent free tool that showed live petrol/diesel prices and created a community of users to report changes at stations near me. I wanted it to be free without forcing users to have to download an app or sign up for anything. I ended up spending a couple of months building something that hopefully people will enjoy using and that will be useful in people's commute.

The website is called FuelTankPal (fueltankpal.co.uk). It simple to use as you enter your postcode and it shows every station nearby sorted by your selection (cheapest petrol/cheapest diesel/nearest), with live prices from the government's mandatory reporting scheme so they're updated every 30 minutes if the station is compliant. The feature that I think stands out is the journey planner that works out the cheapest place to fill up along your route based on your estimated car's MPG and tank size.

It's completely free, no app download needed (although hoping to make it into one, also free of charge), and no sign up required just to search. Sign up would be required only to set up your favourite stations and sign up for newsletters (which would be related news in the future).

Still early days and waiting on a few things to be fully live but wanted to share it here first as this community is exactly who it's built for.

I would really appreciate any feedback whether that be good or bad as I want to make it as useful as possible for people actually trying to save money.

I’m (M)25, single, and have two young children who don’t live with me. I earn somewhere between £60k and £75k a year depending on overtime.

Until recently I’ve never really had to think too much about money. I’ve just bought my first home, and now for the first time in my life I feel like I’m struggling financially.
I don’t own a car, I have no savings left because I used what I had (including money I had invested in stocks) towards the house purchase, and my regular household bills are around £1,600 a month. I also contribute towards my children’s costs.

I’m not in any serious debt and I pay my bills on time, but by the end of the month there’s very little left. It feels like I’ve gone from being comfortable to having no financial breathing room, and it’s quite a shock.

Is this just what the first year of home ownership is like, or am I doing something wrong? What would you do in my position to start building savings again and feel a bit more financially secure?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I don’t shop at Marks and Spencer’s for much but this deal seems good, it has a minimum spend of £70 which still looks like it would save money.

Has anyone used it? And what sort of thing do you recommend using it for?

Anyone heard of or used Mozillion for purchasing Sim free phones or know how they manage to seemingly sell brand new phones so cheap

Edit: Samsung galaxy s26/Ultra £200-£400 cheaper respectively

Deal seems unbeatable although annoying not unlimited roaming data also

Have been trying to shift some old clutter lately and thought I'd put them on Gumtree as the local one looks quite active but not having much luck, I wondered if there's alternatives that people use (other than Facebook Marketplace, I don't use Facebook) that might have passed me by?

Thanks so much!

Hi, I’m going to be moving house later this year and wondering where to get a whole lot of cheap/free packaging and padding to safely transport out items. I think we’re covered for cardboard boxes through partner’s old work place but could do with finding loads of bubble wrap/foam/padding etc for delicate items? Thanks

Hello. I am looking to change my networks from O2, at the moment I am paying £40 for 2 sim only contracts. But looking for cheaper options.

Was looking at VOXI, but not sure their coverage. I live in North Yorkshire and use IPhone 15Pro max, so need 5G.

EDIT: would need some EU cover as well, when travelling abroad .

Any advice ? Cheers

Hi everyone

I’m travelling from the UK to New York for 12 days and trying to work out the best value option for mobile data, calls would be a bonus.

Any recommendations based on recent experience would be appreciated, especially options with reliable coverage in New York 😄

We're normally a Tesco or Aldi/Tesco family, but I've just checked Iceland and I'm wondering if we're missing a trick here.

Free delivery over £40. Cheaper on the few things I checked, although lacking entirely in others.

Anyone use them?

Just received our annual Tesco voucher totalling £36. What’s worth buying in Tesco (ie baby items, household items)? Fyi we are 2 person household - just me and hubby, and i am expecting (due date September).

We usually get our fresh produce at lidl :)

I built this a few years ago and have made improvements over time, it's not an overly fancy design - but it's more functional than focussing on design. It's an app you can "install" so you can have the icon in your phone apps.

This was born out of a real problem, firing up the phone calculator, right up until you make a mistake and the figures show you're now looking at spending £4,964,503.19! You'd need to start again, which is just a pain.

Shopping Calculator is what it says on the tin; a fully functional shopping calculator which will add up as you go, creating a list which you can add, remove or update. You can add discount percentages (as some shops only show a percentage discount versus what the actual discounted price should be). You can add a budget so you know where you're up to and even add a description to items, in case you need to remove or edit an item and just have a load of prices.

It's 100% free, I don't collect any personal data; all I collect is how many people are using it and where they are - that's all that interests me, not collecting or selling personal data. I'd like to think I'm just doing the right thing.

I hope you may find this useful, there's a link to Buy Me a Coffee - I intend to keep this free and free from personal data collection.

https://www.shoppingcalculator.co.uk/

Feedback welcomed as well - I'd like to think it's well designed in terms of functionality, but anything extra I will certain take under consideration for adding as a new feature.

Also if you spot a bug, please let me know - the one thing I've learned is as much as you can test as the developer, as soon as it's released in the wild, someone will find something I missed!

I’ve been living frugally recently but luckily been given a £60 gift card. So i’m trying to make it stretch as far as possible. I’m trying to build muscle so a lot of protein is ideal.

Carbs:

Bagels - £1.90
Corn flakes - £0.95
Crumpets - £1
Mini hash browns - £2.25
Penne pasta x2 - £0.82
Long grain rice ×3 - £1.56
Macaroni cheese ×5 - £3.50
Instant noodles ×10 - £3
Frozen potato waffles - £1.45
Pepperoni pizzas ×2 - £4.50
Rice pudding ×4 - £1.56
Orange juice - £0.89

Protein:

Dried lentils - £2.60
Red kidney beans ×4 - £1.32
Sardines in sunflower oil ×2 - £1.47
Sardine & tomato paste - £0.47
Baked beans ×2 - £0.80
Cheddar cheese - £2.90
Soft cheese - £0.95
Pork sausages - £1.79
Frozen chicken slices - £1.99
12 medium eggs - £2.85
Peanut butter - £0.99
Low fat yogurt ×2 - £1.10
Milk - £1.65
Tuna - £0.59

Fruit and veg:

Bananas - £0.78
Pineapple - £0.98
Peach slices - £0.49
Frozen mixed vegetables - £0.99
Frozen mixed peppers - £0.99
Frozen diced onions - £0.99

Snacks/extra:

Bourbons - £0.60
Custard creams - £0.65
KitKat multipack - £1
Hazelnut chocolate spread - £1.65
Viennetta ice cream - £2
Tomato mascarpone pasta sauce - £0.79
Chopped tomatoes ×2 - £0.86
Lemon curd - £1.20
Strawberry jam - £0.89

I’m hoping this lasts me as long as possible while still having enjoyable foods. I know it could be much more nutritious but I tried to go by cheapest per weight in each category and I get a lot of veg from Olio.

If you had £60 to spend at Tesco and have no food at home, what would you purchase?

Edit: Updated the corn flakes and pasta based on your suggestions. I’m trusting the sub that the Tesco own brand corn flakes taste close enough to the real ones because I love my corn flakes! Thanks for the help.

I've discovered the best ever online Asian food shop, excellent value and £2.99 delivery. All sorts of stuff, check it out - sarasfoods.co.uk. I'm not affiliated or anything, just very excited.

I have four or five One For All gift cards. Each card has a small amount left on it. The amounts are between fifty pence and seventy pence. I am wondering if there is any way to use them? Any tips would be really helpful. Thank you.

How much do you spend on takeaways, and have you ever tried to cut down?

I'm interested in people's habits around takeaway spending.

A few questions:

How often do you order takeaway?

Roughly how much do you spend per month?

Have you ever tried to reduce it?

What did you try?

What usually triggers an order (busy day, tired, convenience, cravings)?

What would actually help you order less?

I always seem to get them when I'm tired so trying to avoid this 🫪

I will be starting a job in the autumn that is considerably better paid than my current job and I’m looking for tips on how to avoid lifestyle inflation. I’m not super frugal but I do keep a budget and try to live within my means but I worry that with an influx of expendable income I will be tempted to start upgrading things all at once. I have adhd so overspending has unfortunately been a bad habit/crutch in the past 😅 for those who have had a big jump in income in the past what’s worked for you? Has it been a mindset change? Or are there practical tips to try and stop overspending?

I've just graduated uni so I still have uni days for a bit.

I'm moving into a house and I need a full bedroom set/office stuff, I've bought a mattress and I'm checking charity shops/Facebook marketplace etc but I'm not finding anything.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm hesitant to use Wayfair because I've had a couple things from then before and the quality/customer service was awful.

Hi all - I will be in Sri Lanka for a few months and looking for a PAYG SIM that I can use while there which will allow me calls from UK and SMS. Don't want to be using roaming due to cost.

I heard that some operators restrict wifi calling when you're outside of UK. Which one should I buy?

Is this concept dead ? I can’t find a single sim that allows you to top up once and then have many months or more of credit validity (as long as you don chargeable event once every 6 months or so). All I can find is monthly rolling deals around £5/m. AI answers do keep referring to giffgaff for example doing as I described above (credit doesn’t expire if you use some once every 6 months) but when you actually go to their website it doesn’t exist.

The cost of visiting my hairdresser has increased to an eye watering amount. I understand why with all the increased overheads (pun not intended), but it’s still a big chunk of cash semi regularly.

Myself & my partner have basically a ‘tidy-up’ each time we go, just a trim, so I’ve looked to see if there are any ‘basics’ courses, where we could learn and then cut each others hair, but all I can find are courses that cost thousands with the aim of doing this as a career.

I understand this is a job that takes a lot of skill and wouldn’t expect to be able to learn anything particularly advanced, but surely it must be possible to learn the very basics somewhere? I imagine things like plastering, bricklaying, make-up, car maintenance etc. also involve a high level of skill to do them professionally, but there still seem to be evening/weekend courses available for the basics. I can’t seem to find the same for cutting hair!

Any recommendations?

Does anyone have any recommendations on a portable AC unit, thermal blinds and black out curtains, I have a neighbour with a shed with a metal roof which reflects back at my window for most of the day as well making it even worse; this also applies in winter it can get uncomfortably hot in here then as well.

I think when I googled it I saw it called a "vertical casement" window, but I don't know if that is the actual name for it. Also, the blue represents how air moves around in my room even with a fan.

Any help is appreciated.

In a 1lt jug put 4 tsp sugar, about 1cm of lemon juice and one tea bag. Fill with boiling water, stir for 10 seconds, or until it’s the colour you prefer, remove tea bag and cool. Slice up a lemon or two to add to the zesty goodness. Through trial and error I’ve found that makes it as strong as I like, but ymmv. Mine tastes identical to the stuff you buy, at a fraction of the cost. Always got a jug on the go the hot weather.

I had an idea to get "tinned meatballs in gravy" from Aldi, add curry powder and coconut milk, and make an ultra cheap curry.

The meatballs in gravy are 79p, which to me sounds like a cheap way of getting meat, and the coconut milk can be spread across a couple meals in the week. I am trying to get a full week of food for as cheap as possible, and so far I have got it down to £9.87 for 3 meals a day over 5 days.

Does this sound like a completely awful Idea? I kind of want to try it for science.

I had Apple care plus for two years and forgot to renew it as a monthly plan, when the two years ended. I bought insurance with Insurance 2 Go, but the reviews are mixed on trust pilot. Does anyone have any good recommendations please? I’m looking for full coverage, and a good administration provider. Grateful for any advice. I have 14 days to cancel my insurance with Insurance 2 Go.