JANUARY pay day seems a long way off - but stretching the pennies will help you stay in the black this month.

As we all tighten out belts after over-indulging during December, readers have been sharing their thrifty tips.

Several suggestions include reusing Christmas cards, with Le-Anne Reeves revealing she writes her shopping lists on the back of hers. Another readers saves them until the following Christmas and then makes tags out of them.

Want a new look for 2013 but don’t want to splash out? Why not swap clothes with a friend? Your cast offs could be just what they want. Or borrow an outfit for that special occasion, chance are you will only wear it once - and they will probably have all the matching accessories too.

On Twitter, a super scrimper from neighbour Norfolk offered this pearl of wisdom: “Top tip: there’s plenty of life in a tea bag that has only seen one cuppa.”

Suggestions made on social networking site Facebook include seeking out special offers or reduced items in the supermarket, then freezing them until you need them bruised fruit will always make a good smoothie or vegetables that are past their best can always be boiled up to make a nutritious, warming soup.

Another tip, is to eat before going food shopping to stop you buying treats because you are hungry.

Car sharing is another option which will help make your money go further, especially as the price of petrol continues to rise.

Frugal tips have also been exchanged at streetlife.com, with Mr Furitgum saying: “If times are really hard then you can take old clothes to a couple of places in Ipswich and they weigh them and give you money per 1kg.”

Another streelife.com user, Lesley, said: “When cooking potatoes, only boil for a few minutes then turn off the heat. They will continue to cook in the hot water in roughly the same time.”

And the same works with pasta too.

But top of the super scrimper is streelife user SF who has a whole list of money saving tips to share:

• Use cheap shower caps to cover food instead of using nasty clingfilm. Can be wiped clean and used over and over again.

•Turn your iron off before you finish ironing, should be enough heat left and you save on electric.

•Save a fortune on trips to the hairdressers, just don’t go! Let your hair grow lovely and long, get a good quality conditioner, and cut your hair yourself, its easy - see ‘Youtube’. Haven’t been to the hairdressers now for 6 years and I’m always getting compliments!

•Wash your hair once a week, or once a fortnight. Washing your hair every day is bad for your hair, and don’t believe what the adverts say. The more you wash your hair, the greasier it gets. Its a pain to start with but believe me, the oils in your hair will sort themselves out, again this will save you money on shampoo etc.

Is saving money your New Year’s resolution? Share your tips by leaving a comment here or email natalie.hoodless@archant.co.uk