Where prescription drugs are concerned, ask the pharmacist if you will be saving money by purchasing direct instead of via your prescription. It is frequently cheaper. This often happens now that the prescription charge is quite high.

When you are buying a branded medicine, antiseptic cream or anything similar at the chemist, ask the Pharmacist if there is a similar generic product. You will can save yourself quite a bit of money by this one simple move.

Many manufacturers take one of these BP. items and brand it as their own product. This is quite legal, but the generic product will be cheaper because there is no expensive marketing or packaging attached to the product. Anadin is aspirin, Panadol is paracetamol and so on.

Some products are known as Elite Preparations which means that the product is not advertised and may be prescribed by a doctor on prescription as a medicine.

A classic example of these last two points is given in item No. 1 below.

Although some of the following items are not strictly medicines, they are items normally stocked by your chemist where you can be saving money, and are included here for your convenience.

1. Instead of buying several different pots of cream for dry skin for various parts of your body, try Aqueous Cream BP. This is a good buy at around £1.50 for a large 500g pot (1/2 lb. pot) and will last for many months. It can be used for all sorts of dry skin conditions and rubs in very easily. Good for hands, heels elbows in fact all ‘hard wearing’ parts of the body. It is non-greasy, non perfumed and is very pleasant to use.

There is also a trade-marked product called E45 cream (an Elite Preparation - see above) which sells at around £9.99 Yes - that is right for the same size tub. Both E45 and the Aqueous Cream BP are the same and are based on a mixture of liquid paraffin and white soft paraffin.

The only difference is in the packaging and the price - and that is astronomical.

It really does pay to do your homework and shop around for your medicines – or sign up for our Newsletter (below) and let us do the legwork for you so that you are saving the money.

2. If you normally use Hypromellose for dry eye conditions, when you visit a Pound Shop you will find a product in their small section for medicines. It is called Moisturising Eye Drops made by Galpharm International Ltd. from South Yorkshire.

The ingredients in these eye drops are exactly the same as those in the more expensive product Hypromellose. This product is frequently prescribed by opticians as a medicine.

NEW 3. If you suffer from Thrush or other fungal or microbial conditions try using Clotrimazole Cream which is equivalent to Canestan Cream. Clotrimazole is the B.P. equivalent and at least £1.00 cheaper than the branded product. Thanks to Dawn of Harleston, Norfolk for this invaluable tip. Take a look at Tip No. 13 for even more soothing information.

4. Always buy the chemist‘s own brand of the paracetamol and ibuprofen medicines rather than Calpol and Nurofen. Thanks to Julie of Southampton for this tip.

This also applies to the adult paracetemol. Non-branded costs 39p and the cheapest branded alternative of the same size retails at £1.59 Again a terrific saving.

Aspirin can be included here. Budgen's charge 50p. for 16 bog-standard tablets and the same can be purchased for 13p. in Tesco. Shop around.

It is well worth investigating supermarket prices as well, so take a competitive look at the web site here.

5. If you need to buy four prescriptions or more per month you may find it cheaper to buy a Prescription Pre-payment Certificate. As from 1st July 2007 these will cost £26.85 for a three month certificate and £98.70 for a twelve month certificate. This should give you quite a saving.

6. Tesco’s own brands of cod-liver oil and vitamin products are very good and reasonably priced.

7. Don’t throw away your toothpaste tube when you think it is empty, be a real scrooge and cut the base end off and use what is left inside. There will probably be enough toothpaste left to last for at least a week. Cover with a small piece of cling film to keep the cut end fresh.

The manufacturers of Colman’s Mustard made their fortune by the amount left on the side of the plate, so don’t make tooth-paste manufacturers any richer. It is up to you to be saving money not wasting it.

8. This tip also applies to expensive face creams and other beauty products that come in a tube. Try placing the tube on a flat, hard surface then pressing the back of a comb up along the tube towards the nozzle.

Hey presto, masses more cream for you to use. Even after this treatment you can cut the plastic tube open and probably find enough cream left for at least several other applications.

9. If you are washing your hair whilst in the shower and the bottle of shampoo slips out of your hand, just slip an athletic wristband over the body of the bottle – no more slipping and wastage.

10. When you think your shampoo bottle is empty, remove the cap and invert it on top of the new bottle.

Wait until you have used the new bottle a couple of times because you will be surprised at the amount that transfers from the old one to the new one. (This tip can be applied to all bottles, salad cream, etc.)

11. If you buy a bottle of shampoo and find it is not to your liking or does not live up to your expectations, don’t throw it away - use it as a shower gel instead. Think saving money here.

12. Do watch prices! If large supermarkets such as Tesco don't have a 'flyer' label on the shelf boasting how much cheaper they are than other supermarkets, this indicates the competition is cheaper. For instance, Pantene Enhanced Layers Shampoo £3.29 at Tesco - no fancy flyer, BUT only £2.86 at Superdrug. A saving of 43p - 13%

13. Definitely not a medical tip, but if you put a crushed Asprin tablet in the container when arranging flowers, this helps them to last longer. Maybe it stops them from getting a headache. Sorry about that!

14. If you can, buy Elasoplast type dressings in the long strip and cut it to size, as required. Better than the expensive individual sized pieces that are individually wrapped. A waste of both packaging and money. Saving money again.

15. Don't forget to claim your free Vitamin D. This is easily done by spending 15 minutes per day in the sunshine, without a sunscreen applied to your skin. Easy in the summer, but a little more difficult during the winter months.

16. There are also some offers at

Well worth a look.

17. To help keep yourself healthy, you must eat well. Take a look at saving money on food and create some interesting and tasty meals.

18. Aloe Vera is a very handy plant to have around - not only a very interesting pot plant but so useful for burns, insect bites etc. Just snap a piece off and rub the juice onto the injury.

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