Another vote here for "if you cant afford it, don't buy it"! I don't own credit/store cards and would not consider using one unless it was absolutely necessary.
Recycled crafts are a great way of having "new" things practically for free. Last night I made 3 hats from 2 old t-shirts and have made skirts out of old clothes for Molly.
Once a week have a meal made from leftovers (freeze even small amounts and you'll soon have enough for a cottage pie type thing!) or just using ingredients in your cupboards (i.e. dont go to the shop to buy anything for it). Cook double amounts of things for freezing or even swapping with a friend or neighbour.
Make your own bread. Supermarket brand bread flour is 50-60p and will make several loaves, and you can vary the recipe loads, or make rolls, breadsticks, pizza bases...etc. Don't buy overpriced cereals, learn to love porridge.
Local butchers often do great value meat packs - as long as you'll use everything in it, plan your meals around it and freeze anything you won't use soon. When making meat dishes, try to use an equal quantity of veg or pulses to meat, so it stretches a bit.
Use your local library lots. Every few weeks you can have a new selection of cookery books, DIY manuals, craft books, gardening books or whatever takes your fancy! Not only do you not have to pay for them (unless you're like me and run up overdue charges everytime
) but info in them could save you money too.
Make use of charity shops. Most of my local ones are quite rubbish for clothes and bric-a-brac, but cheap furniture and books can often be found. Be wary of shops that tend to overprice stuff (I am sometimes
at what charity shops want for the rubbish they try to sell!) and get to know the local good ones, and when they rotate their stock. remember that even the most outdated wardrobe can look lovely with a lick of paint.
Make your own laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, cloth napkins, use washable wipes/family cloth and reusable anything.
Go through your house and pick up 10 items you never use. Can you sell it? Can you change it into something else that you will use?
Do grocery shopping online. Yes, you may have to pay for delivery, but you'd probably spend far more than £5 on impulse buys if you actually go to the supermarket...
Bake your own treats etc. Its not always cheaper, but helps prevent impulse buys of junk food.
I hate putting the oven on for one tray of chips or something - I try to throw in a batch of cookies (rolls of dough in freezer
) or a pan of bread or a quickly whipped up cake, just to justify the electric. Otherwise I'll try not to use the oven for just the one thing. Get a slow cooker (seriously, cheapest ones are only a tenner, well spent)
When considering buying something new, put out a wanted add on here or freecycle or somewhere to see if you can get it free or even just cheaper.
Brew your own beer or cider. Its a cheap project with great results and a fun science experiment for your older kids. And even the supermarkets won't give you 40 pints of beer for a tenner. Also good as gifts at celebratory times of year.
Use rolls of wallpaper or lining paper instead of the more expensive kids drawing paper rolls.
Save, save, save! Account for savings in your budget if you can. I agree those tiramundi (sp?) pots are great, or even one of those "can" money tins that have to be opened with a tin opener. Throw all your spare change in there or even just pounds. We saved over £90 soley in copper coins (thats a small heavy box I cannot lift, and hours of counting coins, but it paid the car tax!) A jam jar will hold around £200 in £2 coins.
Don't browse WAHM sites when you have no money
I feel like I've rambled on a bit here. Will stop now!
How about a sticky for tips ect? Just an idea 
but each time they say ok as a goodwill guesture this once.
