How Working Together Can Stretch Household Budgets

My Dad has loved playing bowls since before I was born. He competes in league fixtures with his Crown Bowling team, and jumps into the occasional tournament too. When he's not playing, he's peering across the green, making marks on the score-sheet.

Or else he turns around and does a little bit of gardening.

The entire bowling team have co-opted a long, otherwise unruly, patch of land between the lawn and the fence. They've transformed it into an ad-hoc allotment. Whoever is playing that day pauses between turns to do some weeding, or grabs the hose-pipe to water the vegetables.

What started with one of them planting a few surplus potato seeds has now turned into a veritable cornucopia of groceries.

For such a small patch, it's surprisingly fertile. During certain seasons, I'm forever opening the door to find a random man handing me a bursting carrier bag of beans, or sprouts, or marrows. He will be one of the bowlers. This is my Dad's share of whatever just matured enough to harvest.

There's too much for us!  Even with several bags frozen for future use, we end up giving away clutches of vegetables to whoever knocks the door.

Yet no one person is doing too much work, nor paying too much outlay.  Most of the seeds have been donated, or stored from last time, or brought in from someone's own garden. They just all do a little bit and everyone reaps the benefits.

Have you got a communal strip of land like that, and a group of friends to keep it tended? How about a corner of your garden?  If each of you just gave up a few square feet, then parceled out the growing between you, then you could swop and exchange the produce.

Even if you haven't access to land for turning into an allotment, many vegetables grow in pots. Just each join forces to transform windowsills, window-baskets, balconies and rooftops into mini-allotments, and none of you will need to buy vegetables all season long.

As long as supermarkets and other retail stores are in competition with each other, there will be gimmicks to lure shoppers through the doors.

These generally take the form of special offers or limited purchases. You know the sort of thing. For today only, pop in store to pick up your washing powder for half price!  Buy ten bottles of bleach and we'll throw in a stuffed giraffe for free! Get your apples here!  We're giving them away with any other purchase made in store!

And all of those other great inducements to spend, spend, spend, spend, which the average grocery shopper is bombarded with every week.

Not a lot has changed since Carter USM released Shopper's Paradise in 1991. However, we can use this to our advantage.

The trick is to hunt in packs. Form a gang of people who all habitually shop in different stores, or on alternative days. Let everyone be aware of particular wants, needs or favorite luxuries enjoyed by each household represented. Then furnish all with mobile phone numbers.

As each individual embarks upon their weekly shop, they will be confronted with those special offers.  A quick text message to the group will bring in the orders - 'Yes! Get me twenty pot noodles for the price of two, please!' or 'Yes, I will go halves with you on that buy one, get one free, multi-mega carton of washing powder!' or even 'Yes, get the massive catering size tin of coffee, 25% off in the store today, and we'll all refill our jar from it.'

This isn't charity. Everyone pays for what the others bring back, but probably at only a fraction of their usual costs.

Each store's promotions became available to all in your pool of shoppers, but with no-one needing to waste time or fuel trailing around all outlets. Naturally cheaper bulk bought goods get shared across the households and everyone's budget is that little bit bigger accordingly.

That kind of patient thriftiness was impressive enough, but then it was demonstrated what happened when couponing groups were formed.

Suddenly there were many more coupons in the pot, plenty more hands to cut them out, and lots of minds focused upon the strategy of putting them all together to find the best deals.

These were people who organized their shopping expeditions like they were military maneuvers. Marching out en masse to share the carrying of massive bulk buy purchases, or take advantage of coupons which stated 'one per household', alongside another promising, say, 10% of the whole.

They read the small-print and worked together to squeeze every last advantage from each coupon. They swop coupons if one household would get more value than another.

Group couponing increases your purchasing power in myriad ways. It is, after all, the basis behind sites like Groupon!

There's much to be said for pooling pantries to create cheaper meals for everyone.

My auntie halved her grocery bills for years by agreeing to cook her brother's meals too. He lived just a few doors away. They each paid into a mutual kitty for food, then she cooked for both households. It wasn't any extra work, as she merely served up an extra plate of whatever she'd be eating anyway.

If everyone in your group contributes ingredients, then this could be done on an even bigger scale. An oven heated for one casserole will just as easily cook two.  A pot bubbling with stew uses the same amount of gas or electricity, whether that pot is small or large.

You could all take it in turns to cook for two or more households at once, with combined savings all round.  Now that's what I call a community working together for efficient domestic budgeting!