Over the years, we’ve accumulated many habits that contribute to keeping up a frugal lifestyle, but there are also specific tools we use to help save us money.

You can make and save money by taking advantage of free trials and referral offers, and this page is a directory of trials, services and resources that we recommend.

My frugal living cheat sheet – recommendations, resources and referrals for frugal living.

I use affiliate links on this site, so many of the links here will generate a commission for me, but will add absolutely no cost to you if you choose to use any of these services.

I’ve split them into household resources and business resources.

Household Resources

80-20 Investor – we’ve recently started investing small sums, working our way up. If you are in a position to invest and would like a helping hand for guidance on how to invest in the stock market, I recommend 80-20 Investor, brought to you by my fellow UK Money Bloggers at Money to the Masses.

Amazon Prime – Don’t pay for Prime until you get yourself a free trial! Time it right and you can take advantage of free Amazon Prime Video, as well as music, e-books and unlimited one-day delivery, and get hold of special deals on Prime day. A 30-day trial gives you £7.99 of Prime membership for free.

Bulb – our new cheaper energy supplier. You can get a free £50 by signing up to Bulb through my link, and you can read all about why you should switch to Bulb here.

Circle – a payment method similar to PayPal, but without the fees! I’ve been using Circle to cash out my payments from Prolific Academic surveys.

Curve – get £5 for free when you sign up to Curve with the code G68DX. Curve is a mobile wallet that can save you time and money, and you can read all about it in this blog post. Be sure to use the code to get your £5.

Etsy – the marketplace for handmade items, where you can support artists and artisans, or even make money by selling your own items. Click this link to get selling for free with 40 free listings.

Fat Lama – Fat Lama is a platform that allows you to borrow and rent items: imagine being able to make money from the things you own without having to sell them, or being able to save money on buying things that you need but either won’t use for long or can’t afford outright. By borrowing items from people in your area you can save yourself some money or try that product out before you buy it. This link gives you £25 to put towards borrowing.

Faver – I’m a brand ambassador for a new social shopping site called Faver, which bills itself as a “Pinterest for products”. You can organise your shopping lists and share them with friends and family, and sell on Faver as well. This post talks a bit more about why Faver can be a great tool for shoppers as well as sellers.

Freetrade – this fee-free investment app hasn’t launched yet, but I’m very excited for when it does, as it looks like a brilliant way to start investing without the barrier of high trading fees.

Giffgaff – we’ve been using giffgaff for several years now and spend no more than £5 a month each on our mobile phones.

gohenry – gohenry is a brilliant way to manage your child’s pocket money, and it has a few features that stand out for me:

• viewing transactions
• paying money for chores or tasks
• letting relatives give pocket money

Whilst gohenry isn’t free (it costs £2.99 a month but this link gives you a two month free trial), it occurs to me that it could be very useful in cases where parents are separated and want to give a child additional pocket money. This isn’t the only instance where it could be useful, but it’s one that I think is overlooked.

Look After My Bills – just as the name suggests, a site that looks after your energy bills switching you to a better deal when your current deal is up. Great for saving money whilst cutting out the hard work!

Pick My Postcode – a site that gives away cash prizes based on randomly drawn postcodes, with no gambling. Prizes are funded by the site’s ad revenue. Free money for checking regularly and potentially from taking up offers.

Prolific Academic – one of the survey sites I use to generate a little extra cash. High value surveys that are actually worth the time!

Quidco – a great cashback site which is our immediate go-to for home insurance. Quidco gives you a free £10 bonus when you sign up, on top of any offer you choose!

Quidco also powers Quidco ClickSnap, a cashback app for groceries.

Shopmium – a great cashback app to save you money on food, or get free food. My referral code is KHKCCFEQ.

Top Cashback – our favourite cashback site which can save you hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds per year. We receive cashback on most of our online purchases via TopCashback. Check out the latest new member offers here.

Online Earning & Survey sites

Are these kinds of sites any good? Well, that depends on what you’re trying to achieve and what your outlook is. I used them a lot when I was building up a deposit for our house, although I use them less now. Remember to approach all offers with care and remember to cancel your subscriptions if you take out any free trials for points/cash!

Inbox Pounds offers you cash payouts by cheque (£20 threshold) to complete offers, surveys and small tasks. You get a penny for each email you open and click through as well.

Click here to read my review of whether you can make money with Inbox Pounds.

Maximiles pays out in gift cards or vouchers only (no cash) and physical items. Referrals (which get you a welcome bonus) seem to be made via email so get in touch if you’d like one.

Swagbucks – Swagbucks is a website that allows you to earn cash through surveys and easy tasks. Kids over the age of 13 can also use Swagbucks.

Gift Hulk is like Swagbucks – gamified elements and the chance to pick up ‘Hulk coins’ through surveys and tasks to redeem for cash.

Blogging and Business Resources

Affiliate Window – if you have a website or blog that you would like to monetize, I recommend starting here for affiliate marketing. See this post for more.

Fiverr – find cheap creative services for your business.

Moo – faultless quality business cards with short runs and the chance to have a different photo on every card! This link gets you 20% off your first order.

Porkbun – you can get many domain names for only $5 USD, including .design, .ink and .wiki domains.

Recurpost – Recurpost is a fantastic alternative to more expensive social media scheduling tools like Meet Edgar or CoSchedule. The benefit it has over tools like Buffer and Hootsuite is that you can build up a content library of your links that don’t disappear once they’ve been posted!

Snapfish – low cost photo printing and printed homewares – handy for branding items (this is where I ordered my mug). Click here to view all special offers.

Tailwind is a scheduling app for Pinterest and Instagram. This link gives you a $15 credit to try.

ValuedVoice is a network that connects social influencers and bloggers to paid opportunities.

I hope this page has been of some help; I’ll continue to add and update offers.