MSE Forum Retrospective 2022

Plants of the MSE Forum

Let's start with an eye cleanse. Below are just a few of the prettiest shots taken by gardeners of the MSE Forum. Most were found in the Awful weather – typical Brits talk thread and a few other places within the Greenfingered MoneySaving board. If you've an allotment, garden, window box or merely a potted plant on a windowsill, consider sharing your tips and questions with our MoneySaving gardening community.

Important: When sharing photos on the MSE Forum, please make sure they don't contain any personally identifiable information, such as your face.

Most active discussions

Back in 2021, the most active discussions were 'The NEW waiting to exchange thread', '2021 mission declutter and clean', 'Bluestone Mortgages', '2021 frugal living challenge' and 'Time to face the music'. This year, the top five looked like this:

The Top Easy Access Savings Discussion AreaA hub for discussing MSE's regularly updated Top savings accounts guide.It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?Life's getting more expensive. These posters share the ways they're cutting back on the costs of basics, such as the supermarket shop.2022 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSDParticipants of this recurring yearly challenge aim to declutter their homes, setting themselves goals such as a certain number of rooms cleared, or even by clutter weight shifted.Giving Up/Cutting Down Alcohol Thread Part 17These MSE Forumites cut down on their alcohol intake by setting a goal number of alcohol-free days per month. This popular yearly challenge was born in 2008.

Tighten Your Belt with SWA place for participants following the Slimming World plan to encourage each other and log progress.

Join the declutterbugs of the yearly decluttering challenge

MSE news stories, blogs and guides that originated in the forum

Often, posts lead to investigations and become official MSE News stories. At the start of this year, we published one such story: Beware NHS Covid pass fraud – one MoneySaver was scammed out of £25,000 though he got his money back after MSE intervened. Many other news stories followed, including TSB customers 'left without cash' after duplicate payment error.

And a few threads leant themselves to full-length MSE blogs. This year we also began a new blog series, highlighting what's been happening in the community each week.

• Coupon fairies – have you ever encountered one?

• Spend less or save more: how the MSE Forum can help you make or break a habit in 2022

• Easter craft ideas from the MSE Forum

• Ask An Expert: Energy

• Ask An Expert: Deals & Shopping

• How to save £667.95 in 2023 with the 1p Savings Challenge (updated for 2023)

• Spend less or save more: how the MSE Forum can help you make or break a habit (updated for 2023)

Many Forumite tips also made it into this important new MSE guide, which went on to be picked up by countless other publications:

• Heat the human not the home

Compers' prizes

The enduringly popular Competitions Time board saw some huge wins in 2022. Comper becks171 won £12,500 in cash and chezvic won a brand new Citroen C3, for starters. But every day there are smaller prizes being won, some of which are posted in the Winners, post a picture of your win! thread. Here's a small selection:

Discussions that tickled us

Welcome to the chucklesome side of the forum.

• My four-year-old's obsessed with ponds, but we don't have the space. What alternative is better than a box of water but simpler than a hole in the ground?

• Sunday lunch meat – should it be hot or cold? Help me settle a disagreement with my in-laws

• What have been your weirdest experiences when viewing properties?

• I ordered vanilla pods from Asda and they sent me a vanilla scented candle instead

• There's a strange fart-like sound coming from my bathroom – what can I do?

• How can I stop rooks from cracking walnuts on my roof at the crack of dawn?

• I've worked out I can save 43p a day by following the 'if it's yellow, let it mellow' rule

• Show us a picture of your unnecessarily large Amazon box

• I 'butt dialled' and accidentally ordered an Oodie

• How many more cats do I need to sufficiently heat my home?

• Ring doorbells are making things difficult for Secret Santa

• I've written a Christmas poem about Martin Lewis

Creatures of the MSE Forum

We're often treated to photos of your pets, but also of wildlife you've spotted. Prime areas for this sort of content include the Greenfingered MoneySaving board, as well as Show us your Christmas pet outfits and the Keeping hens and ducks chat.

It's time to take a short break from reading and browse these pretty pictures instead. Why not look at them up-down-diagonally instead of left to right, to really give your eyes a change?

A few successes

For your inspiration and delight, here's a very (very, very) small selection of the success stories that were posted in the community this year.

• I cleared £70,000 of debt

• I was refunded £6,950 after challenging my council tax band

• I reckon I've made about £3,000 in bank switching bribes by now

• I received 56,000 Nectar points

• I saved myself £852/year by haggling with my broadband/TV provider

• Split ticketing saved me £180 on a train trip for myself and four friends

Most discussed Money Moral Dilemmas

A recurring feature of the Money Tips email (sign up here if you haven't already) is the Money Moral Dilemma, a real-life problem sent into us and summarised as a post for MSE Forumites to discuss. Here are the 10 that best caught your imagination in 2022 – the ones that elicited the most comments.

• Is it fair for my parents to penalise me for not having children?

• Should I charge my boyfriend rent, even though I don't have a mortgage?

• Should someone who earns a decent wage use food banks?

• Our neighbour is selling clothes we've given them – should we say something?

• Should I ask the bride-to-be for my money back?

• Should I use work perk towards household food shopping, or keep it for myself?

• How much should my partner pay towards our holiday?

• Should I ask for my daughter's school-leavers' celebrations to be cheaper?

• I put in a much bigger deposit – but should we split the property equally?

• Should we leave our friend out of rounds at the pub?

Craft projects of the MSE Forum

Our members are a talented lot. They can stitch, paint, knit and craft, all while keeping things MoneySaving and minimising waste. These images were taken mainly from the No Craft Spending and Cross Stitch and Craft Cafe 2022 threads.

A few of the most active challenges

Thanks to the aspirational spirit of many of our MSE Forumites, challenges are a big part of the community. There are monthly ones as well as yearly ones, all of which see participants supporting each other in meeting their financial goals. The majority can be found on the Old style MoneySaving and Debt-free wannabe boards. We're focussing on yearly challenges here, below are a few of the challenges that got the most participation in 2022.

• 2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

• 2022 Mortgage-Free Wannabes

• The "Save 12k in 2022" Thread!

• The all new using what you have from your Freezer, Cupboard or Shed (Barn)

Thanks & happy 2023

For every tip you supplied, question you asked, glitch you flagged, anecdote you told and picture you displayed, thank you.

And if you're a lurker rather than a member, thank you for reading. Though we must ask... as it's a brand new year, is it time to become an MSE Forumite?

From everyone on the MSE Forum team, have a wonderful and MoneySaving 2023.