Making savings before it's too late

caronc · 23 February 2018 at 9:55PM

mardatha wrote: »

Yes, we're all different and that's how it should be

Absolutely

tori.k · 24 February 2018 at 10:07AM

I'm more time poor than cash poor, I found a lot of women's hairdresser tend to drag out the time you in the chair so your getting your money's worth.
The cost of vanity means I'm driving DH to Plymouth this afternoon for a pair of glasses, despite having hundred of opticians shops in Cornwall, he wants Oakley frames so it's off across the water.
As punishment for making me drive in the city I will make him stop at Trago Mills on the way back ( think TK max on steroids) for some paint, that's his next weekend planned for him

flubberyzing · 24 February 2018 at 2:36PM

I used to get my hair cut at the Supercuts chain, where a dry cut was about £14, but I haven't been to the hairdressers for at least 2 years now. My mum does it for me! She's very much self-taught, but does a grand job on it. Like I say, I just "want less than I came in with". I don't want anything fancy, just less of it! My hair is easy though.

About 5 years ago now, I got it all cut off. I'd always wanted long hair, and made various attempts to grow it out long, but once it got to my shoulders it would turn into a frizzy, rat-tail-y mess. It's an unfortunate combination of both frizzy AND fine. Keeping it very short is the only style that keeps it looking good.

pigpen · 24 February 2018 at 4:07PM

We are very much robbing Peter, Paul and John to pay Judas at the moment.. it certainly feels that way!

I struggle for time too... it is so hard trying to fit everything into a baby's nap time that may or may not happen, squished between school runs and meal times and bed times and my partners hideous shifts.

I ended up with a mortgage payment £141 less a month so I will plough that into paying off something else but it is so tiring.. I find it really hard to make decisions of any sort on a good day. £700 will pay off enough little bits that I will have an extra £105 a month so that is what I am working on.

Dry cuts here are £12, my daughter went yesterday (it doesn't look any different ot me if I am honest, but I didn't pay so I don't care) I have frizzy thick wild hair to my bottom and that is a mess too.. I am trying to go get it hacked to shoulder blade length but the thought of someone touching me, and/or not doing as I see it in my head puts me right off.

My trainers have just fallen apart (new to me 12 years ago!!) .. we are so skint at the moment I just decided to lose weight rather than find the money for new clothes that actually fit me!!

I would so like to be 'there' ... right now. However, I have a room to decorate and a bed to buy for my daughter.

tori.k · 24 February 2018 at 7:53PM

Well we are not eating for the next months £430 for a pair of spec's :eek: that's more than what our last holiday abroad cost.
I probably wouldn't have minded so much but driving in Plymouth to me is one of Dante levels of hell.
Sorry if I offend anyone living there. So I'm never in the best of moods to start.
Least March will be a no spend month now.

[Deleted User] · 24 February 2018 at 8:19PM

pigpen try facebook for a bed. My dd just bought one very cheaply for her dd

tori I wear bifocals, my last specs cost an arm and a leg. I am so careful with them and wear old specs when I cycle or go on the allotment

It looks as though march will be a minimal spend for me too, crazy how things add up but it is brilliant to actually be aware of spends. No council tax in march but april brings council tax plus house and contents, another £600 to find for that. Gordon bennett, I don`t think I`ll be able to save anything next month

caronc · 24 February 2018 at 8:28PM

March is always a spendy month for me as it has both my son & Dad's birthday, catering prep for Easter (or Easter itself) and another birthday pressie due early April that usually gets bought in March too. The "free" Council month rapidly gets swallowed up. I'm catering for 10-12 on the 10th but hope (using some stuff that I have and my sister making pudding) to cover it for about £3 per head. Not hideous but it all mounts up. Thankfully son & Dad's pressies are already purchased!

Spendless · 25 February 2018 at 8:48AM

Yes, I have an expensive month in March too. Both my kids birthdays and this year DS is 18, my Nan, my Neice and Nephew (twins) and my b-i-law plus it's mothers day _pale_

Our council takes payments for council tax over 12 months, so we don't get any 'free' ones. We got 4 months 'free' water rates though and I never noticed them!

This week I have been loads better at the lunchtime meals and only spent £1.70 for the week, I spent more on a collague's meal as I paid for his because he helped me out when I had a puncture the night before. I work out in the sticks, DH was away over night, my Dad has had an op recently and can't drive. Everyone else was at work or not in a position to come and pick me up.
I took car to an independant tyre fitters, recommended by a friend and it *only* cost £50 for a new tyre.

I've had a week when I've been out more socialising though, I went with DD to the theatre (ameateur production, was ok, but nothing spectacular), out with friends from my schooldays to a Tapas bar. We meet up quarterly and I always enjoy seeing them, we shared a bottle of wine and ate from the all you can eat menu and it came to £21 each which I thought good value. Last night I went out with DH, which probably was an expensive night. DH isn't up yet, so I can't ask about how much money he took out and what is left.

One week, I will manage to pull together being organised for both lunches and evening meals and not have gone out much either. :rotfl:

On the toiletries front - I got down to the last bodyscrub that I had saved for 'best'. Only to discover I don't like it.

It's finer that the others, more like a salt rub than the liquid ones I've been using. It's such a big tub though, I feel it would be a waste to sling it. What I'm thinking of doing is dropping heavy hints to DD about me having one I like for Mother's Day and if I do, I'll throw the other. If I don't I'll persevere until my birthday (end of Sept - yes, it will last that long, combination of size and my reluctance to use!) and get another then.

I also discovered some body lotion (a product I don't use) is actually a self tan one. DD bought herself some (a cheap one) the other week out of her pocket money, so I can now pass that on to her, stop feeling bad about not using the body lotion and have de-cluttered the toiletries more. :j

The odds and ends of deodarants that I'd been putting out for DS have been used up. I discovered them as I went on a hunt for recycling items around his bedroom. There were so many discarded, that if I didn't know for a fact I'd put them out with only a squirt or two left in them then I'd have been giving him some tough questions!! As it happens, for all his whining about lack of toiletries, he's got 2 gift sets from xmas bought by relative, where he hasn't thought to open the bags they came in, so he has several more tins and shower gels. I'm thinking if he doesn't use them, I'm going to start an area where we put things in he'll need for Uni. We went to view accommodation yesterday and this is my reason for wanting to save. Going to have a discussion with DS about the suitability of each place we viewed and then make a decision.

moneyistooshorttomention · 25 February 2018 at 9:33AM

Kittie,

I saw your comment re having months free of Council Tax and thought "She must be paying in 10 months per year type installments".

I've been spreading mine over 12 months - and so installments come out every single month and it eases the bills burden.

When I moved here a few years back I told the County Council that I do this and they said "Well - we don't" and I'm trying to remember whether I had to specifically "ask" every year for the first couple of years - as it wasnt just to tell them what I personally do and then it would automatically happen from there on in for rest of my life unless I told them different.

They did get a couple of mouthfuls about putting me through unnecessary hassles - and told "My city has been doing this for decades - so how come you aren't yet?!!"

Fortunately (for them:cool:) they've now swopped to standard/modern practice and I won't have to tell them ever again that they got my bill wrong.:cool:

So I would imagine every Council in Britain now has this system - and one can just tell them it's 12-monthly installments - rather than having a yearly argument with them.

EDIT; Just struck me that I never had one argument with my last Council (in 40 odd years) - didn't realise how lucky I was with them I guess....and how rare it was to have "the hairs on my head raised" by Council attitudes - when it's now pretty much on a weekly basis on reading the local newspapers.

Iamzee · 25 February 2018 at 10:41AM

Great list and definitely worth the try! My sister too knows how to do my hair. She once work in a salon and whenever possible I ask her to do my hair on occasions. It saves me a lot knowing how haircut costs these days.

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Making savings before it's too late

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