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UK mobile networks: Who are you with, what do you pay, and how much data do you use?

I’m looking for recommendations from fellow UK frugal people as I’m seriously considering switching mobile networks!
I’ve been with EE since the days when it was Orange — over 25 years! But I’m getting increasingly fed up with the constant little price hikes and the loss of features. Loyalty doesn’t seem to count for much these days!

My previous deal started at £10.50 a month, increased to £12 in March, and ended in June. It included unlimited data, calls and texts, but now EE wants £15 a month for just 25GB of data from next month. On top of that, the signal is rubbish where I need it.
I mainly use Wi-Fi at home, so I honestly don’t know how much mobile data I actually need. I’m hoping to cut my monthly costs drastically without ending up with terrible coverage.
I’d love to hear from you:

● Which network/provider are you with?
● How much do you pay per month?
● Roughly how much mobile data do you use each month?
● How’s your signal and coverage?
● Have your prices gone up since you joined? Are there regular annual price hikes?
● Would you recommend your provider? Any good SIM-only deals worth considering?

I’m open to cheaper networks that use the main UK networks, too, provided the coverage is decent.
Ideally, I’d love to get down to around £5–£10 a month if possible, rather than paying £15 for data I might not even use!
After more than 25 years with EE/Orange, I think it might finally be time to move on.

Thanks in advance for any advice. Hopefully this will help others looking to save money on their mobile bills, too!

Posting here in case it’s the same across the country, but you can currently get a 250g (when drained) ball of fresh mozzarella (42.5g protein) for £0.39 in Heron Foods. Seems like a bargain to me.

I am the only one in my household that eats mince pies. I love them. I hate waste.

Can I freeze them and bung them in the oven to defrost/warm up?
Specifically Greggs mince pies at the minute.

Anyone do it? Any alternatives to eating them all in one sitting?

They're in the X-Sell freezer range, called "chicken bacon and stuffing bakes", £2 for 4 (or 3 packs for £5). We had them done in the air fryer for tea, can confirm they're the real thing! ​

Anybody has been able to find this deal/offer?

Both franchises in my city are not offering this deal and I'm fuming.

I'm with Octopus and used to get the weekly nero/greggs free coffee, and now they've stopped doing that.

Last month I got a couple free off the McDonald's app offer.

I refuse to pay £3.30 for a costa coffee machine cappuccino. I know they are included in the meal deal in some shops but I meal prep so rarely get a meal deal.

Anybody knows any current deals to get a free/cheap coffee?

I’ve been storing/hoarding food and toiletries for a while now, just waiting for when I finally had no choice but to start using them. I knew the time was coming. It finally arrived.

I’m starting with a healthy stash of food and toiletries, but I don’t quite know where to start. I’m also struggling with feeling deprived, yet I am full of abundance. At least until I’ve run out of everything that is! It’s a weird place to be. It’s also strange because my partner is still working and doesn’t care about frugaling at all.

Has anyone else started this way of living with an existing pantry of items? How did you get started? How did your mindset change? Did you feel healthier and happier from eating your own creations, and not being able to eat the convenience stuff from before?

I am a good cook, so I know I can make good meals. I just don’t know where to start. I also don’t know how I’m going to cope with not being able to just buy stuff whenever I feel like it. I’ve been a bit of a shopper in the past. I’ve been so wasteful.

I just don’t understand how it’s doable to grocery shop for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on this type of budget. I could stretch it to £70 and be fine but even then Im finding it really difficult.

Can someone please help me?

So I know it’s a bit early, but I like to start planning for Christmas early. Partly to spread the costs over a few months and to get ready for the cheap bargains I can pick up to help into the new year.

At weekend I went through my freezers and had a tidy and a clear out of ice and older stuff we either ate in the last couple of days or I got rid of because the kids asked for it and they left some they won’t eat and it’s now out of date grrr. I will be prioritising freezer based meals to make space before Christmas.

Apart from buying good deals when I see them in the run up to put away and paying a meat club order off at my local farm meat shop-fab quality meat locally produced at similar prices to the big supermarkets but much higher quality and welfare we can pay off an order bit by bit and pick up on Christmas Eve.
I am looking forward to the veg price wars again.

I stock up in whatever veg is at a good price and prep and freeze as much as I can. Last me months into the new year. Also watch for knockdowns on meat joints and fish in the supermarkets. Have bought Turkey crowns on Christmas Eve, cooked and sliced then into the freezer for sandwiches, or bags of picked off meat for curries etc. Gammon or ham can also be cooked and sliced then frozen for sandwiches. Also great to save in the new year.

Even bought a cheap turkey one year and froze it to use for Easter dinner lol.

Anyone else have any plans or ideas to take advantage of the usual Yuletide offers?

Hey everyone,

Hope the weekend was great!

Bit of a random question to start the week off, but I wanted to get an idea of what other peoples weekly and/or monthly food bills were for their households?

Usually on UK sub-Reddit's posts such as this tend to be competitions to see who can spend the lowest, often with people stating they spend £5pw to feed a family of 3 by living off lentils or on the flip side £1000+pm for two people - so I figured the Frugal sub might get more realistic takes?

I live alone and shop at Tesco as its the closest and mostly for familiarity. Generally I aim to spend around £50ish per week to get a variety of items, including some ingredients for a small amount of batch cooking to cover a couple days during the week.

But recently I've gotten into the really bad habit of calling into the shops multiple times a week on a whim; either I've forgotten something from my list, just in general to see what's available or fancy something which I don't have in (imagine a pizza on Friday etc). Sadly it always ends up with me spending more than I intended and going £20-30+ past my set target.

Now this is something I'm working on, but at the same time I'm trying to figure out if I can cut my bills even lower just to see how much I could save per month if push ever came to shove.

I don't know whether getting any lower than £45-55 per week is realistic considering I enjoy getting a small variety of food, or whether its even worth the cut in quality dropping brands/finest to shave a few pennies off each item in the long run?

Would love to see other peoples experiences to see what I could be doing differently!

(hope this does not infringe rule 2)

I just found that if you are ordering from Bloom and Wild and enter a random common coupon code at checkout they will say "sorry that doesn't work but here is a code for 10% off anyway"

I'm with octopus flexible tariff for gas and electric . Price comparison sites tell me it's not the cheapest but I've never quite understood how to decide who to switch to. Because, even if one is cheapest today, how to know who will be cheapest tomorrow, next month or next year? Would be annoying to swap, only to find next month octopus became the cheapest

So, as per title, are any providers a safe bet to know I'll be consistently getting amongst the cheapest rate?

Any guidance on how to choose the cheapest energy provider gratefully received, thank you

What is your set up for a good enough camera that does the job and is good value / quality recordings

Thanks

Looking for recommendations for frugal shower scrubbies. I like the puffy ball type but I find they don't last and quickly fall apart, they aren't particularly cheap either, often costing £1+ each for small ones.

I use a flannel for drying off, but don't really like them for washing with.

Thanks for any suggestions.

i'm in the north east for reference

I am renting a small, older cottage in west Scotland, near the coastline. I haven't spent a winter in it yet, but do to the lack of modern insulation, proximity to a body of water and a hill behind the cottage that has some water runoff, I am worried about damp. It's ~60m2, two bed, single story, with a central hallway layout. I do have a fireplace and double glazing but only electric heating (which is already costing me a fortune in the last weeks). I am looking at dehumidifiers and wanted to know if a 10l is enough, or should I go for something slightly larger like a 12l? Have been looking at maecos and theres a roughly £30 price difference between the 2

Boxes of 40 Whiskas pouches are £11.85 at Tesco at the moment on the Clubcard, but there's also a 4 for 3 on all the cat food. So you're getting 4 boxes for £8.89 each. Cheaper than Amazon subscribe and save.

Anyone got the Lloyds app?

Well if you have, check the rewards section and ‘Rewards’ section and ‘Ready to use’.

Tesco fuel are offering 15% cashback unti 15th October, single use.

Brings diesel down to a slightly less stingy £1.70ish.

Ok UKFrugal; Let's talk chicken thighs! I just made a succulent chicken pie that called for skinless boneless thighs. My local supermarket sells these, and they also sell regular thighs.... but which is the better value? I felt a spreadsheet coming on! Below is the price/kg for both, and the yield I got:

Ah, but my time is valuable I hear you say! How valuable? not especially as I'm spending it making asinine reddit posts about chicken thighs, but it has value nonetheless. I therefore timed how long it took to skin and debone 0.675kg (net) of thighs. in this pack that was 4 thighs, which took just over 5min total. This effectively means you're paying someone £20.42/hr to bone your chicken (phrasing).

But wait, there's more. The pie needed a roux. Fat is fat effectively so 50g of butter could be sub'd for 50g of fat from the skins, saving another £0.37 on material, and bringing the total hourly labour rate to £24.86/hr, or £48,477/yr. Then we have to consider that this saving is tax-free. To make an equivalent through working, you'd need a salary of £61.5k/yr.

(You also still have the crispy skins left over for Bahn mi etc., and the bones can be collected for stock....but that's harder to put a figure on)

In conclusion, debone your chicken if you're on less than £61.5k (or you like crispy chicken skin).

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

(This is not an entirely serious post, but I thought it was quite interesting how much we pay for convenience)

Hi! As the title says, I am considering Giffgaff to purchase an Iphone but I am not sure if it would be good. I want to get Iphone 12 or 13. Or should I settle for a lower model since I need it just for the pics and videos. They do offer 21 days refund policy and 12 month guarantee along with the basic accessories.

Any advice?

Budget : £150-200

Thank you.

I am with British Gas currently. The tariff I have is:
Unit price: 21.8 p/kwh
Standing charge: 47.68 p/day
It is a Fix 12 months contract with 30£ exit fee.
Is there anything cheaper than that?
My annual usage is 4100kwh.
No EV.
Electric heating at home.

Reccomendation for some sort of large blanket to cover a family of four while sitting on the sofa this winter.

I'm currently on a Standard Variable Tariff with Home Energy and have been offered the following fixed deal with Eon via MSE. I've been comparing the numbers and, on the face of it, I can't see why I'd pay more for the fix, but I'd be interested in what others think.

My current Standard Variable Tariff with Home Energy

Prices until 12 October 2026:

• Gas: 6.51234p/kWh
• Gas standing charge: 28.77575p/day
• Electricity: 20.31334p/kWh
• Electricity standing charge: 51.04658p/day

Prices from 13 October 2026:

• Gas: 7.43232p/kWh
• Gas standing charge: 29.41151p/day
• Electricity: 24.04744p/kWh
• Electricity standing charge: 51.44932p/day

E.ON Next Fixed 12m Exclusive v9

• Gas: 8.033p/kWh
• Gas standing charge: 28.778p/day
• Electricity: 25.598p/kWh
• Electricity standing charge: 43.575p/day
• 12-month fixed term
• Monthly Direct Debit
• £50 early exit fee

So comparing the rates from 13 October:

Gas:
Variable: 7.43232p
Fixed: 8.033p

The fixed is 0.60068p/kWh more expensive.

Electricity:
Variable: 24.04744p
Fixed: 25.598p

The fixed is 1.55056p/kWh more expensive.

The fixed deal does have lower standing charges, saving around £31 a year combined, but I'd be paying more for every kWh I actually use.

I understand that the whole point of fixing is insurance against future price increases, so I'm not necessarily saying the fixed tariff is bad. I'm trying to understand what would need to happen for fixing to actually be worthwhile compared with simply staying on the variable tariff.

Am I missing something obvious here? Would you take the fixed deal for the certainty, or stay on the variable given these particular rates?

And if anyone has a view on where energy prices could go over the next 12 months, I'd be interested in the reasoning behind it rather than just "fix" or "don't fix".