Help me cut back ?!

emma_b_4

i use markets for fruit and veg, spend about £10 per week but use it all up for meals, smoothies etc. then around £20-30 at asda or tesco, incl toilet rolls alcohol (!) etc
i use wilkos for cleaning products or quality save/home bargains
we always need bread in between these shopping trips for sandwiches and toast, i was wandering if it would be worth getting a bread maker? wer buying 3/4 teacakes a day for OH sarnies. i love fresh bread and only eat it fresh

black-saturn

Yes I think it's worth buying a breadmaker but use individual ingredients rather than those bread mixes otherwise it will end up more expensive.

emma_b_4

how much are bread makers? do they come in different sizes? ( havent got loads of room left on my worktops with microwave, slow cooker, george forman, kettle, etc etc!!

black-saturn

I paid about £45 for mine. Maybe you should start a thread on the OS money saving board as they will be really clued up about it

trencherpilot

Instead of shopping at a supermarket, use a farmers market, and an old fashioned butchers etc. My wife (A city girl bless her) cannot belive how cheap fresh food costs, when the greedy B******S that control Tescos et al, haven't had their cut out of it. Same with meat and all fresh produce. the supermarkets don't make £3m a day by making huge profits on tins of beans and biscuits.

We cut our fresh veg and meat bill by around £60 a month by going to market on a Saturday instead of Tescos in the week.

Just use Supermarkets for crap that you cant get cheaper anywhere else like tinned food, bog roll etc. Fresh veg from the field tastes better too.

emma_b_4

yes thats what we do, im always surprised by the price on the market, im always waiting , money in hand, and its at least a fiver too much every time!!!
it lasts longer too cos it isnt shrink wrppaed in plastic so it isnt sweating on the shelves.

johanne

Are you living on your own? If so £80 a month on housekeeping is a bit high. I spend £40 every 6 weeks on food, drinks, cleaning products and general housekeeping and I have got 2 children!! See if you can cut that down by cooking things from scratch how they do on the old style money savings board.

Yeah I do. I know that’s a bit high but it was the figure i guessed before i moved out from my mums (3 months ago) and i know now ive slightly over-budgeted . This will be coming down even more soon anyway due to the fact Im finally now stocked up on most things and only have to do a "top up" shop for the next 2-3 months. I do almost all of my cooking from scratch now too and even come home from work on my dinner hour so i dont have to pay out for pack lunches etc i can eat something i have in already like toast or pasta. Im hoping over the next few months to live off £40 a month (that includes a few little luxuries for over Christmas).

OP, what tarrif are you on? is it o2? if so you could get the £10 a mth top up and you would get 300free texts, the £15 gives you 100free mins too but couldnt you make calls from your landline thru talktalk or something? we have weekend and after 6pm free so we ring people then. and i dont use 0870 anymore thans to https://www.saynoto0870.com

That’s the tariff I am on but always top up the extra because I work nights so use my mobile of an evening/night when im out the house so cant use my landline. (AND ive cut down loads.. pre MSE and working the nights.. I used to spend £80-120 a month!!!!!!)

i have got bband thru ntl for £9.99 per mth. telewest do it for £14.99 and you get FREE digital TV, the freeview i think which channels do you watch? most r on there the main 1s anyway i think.

Im with telewest for my phone/internet/tv. Unfortunetly I live in an area that’s still analogue so I couldn’t sign up for any of their digital deals. The very best package I could get was the £28 one.. I pay an addition £1.50 for talk mobile as I do ring mobiles quite a bit. I double checked with a friend who works for telewest and it really was the best deal i could get

May I ask who you are ringing/texting if you don't have any friends? Do you really need your mobile? I don't use one. There's probably been couple of times one would have been handy, but I used call-box instead.

I mainly ring my mum, sister and my ex (we do still talk everyday almost) Mainly my mum to be honest and weve both agreed to cut down (i know shes reading this ) I also have my mobile for safety as I live in a rather rough area and travel too/from work in the dark I feel safer with it and in this area I couldn’t even tell you were the nearest phone box was...

have you got anything you could sell on ebay?! old clothes shoes etc?

I already do this.. although have a very small wardrobe at the moment as when I was unemployed last year I sold most of it then! :rotfl: Have got a few things to list though at the moment though , was gonna use that for xmas present money.

i dont know what else to suggest except maybe you could start going to some clubs or something to meet people, i dont have many friends either, i have hijjacked most of my fiancees! im meeting more and more people every day now tho at uni and its doing my confidence the world of good, also the people are from all types of backgrounds and its reassuring to know that im not the only skint one.

I went to college last year to better myself (but had to leave due to ill health Been the bain of my life ) While I was there though I found the only people I made friends with where the mature students and a couple of older lads id known from 2 years before when id been there…. people my own age didn’t bother with me cos I didn’t “fit in” with the norm and expected image of a 18/19 year old Liverpool girl (hard to explain) Had the same problem working in a girls clothes shops in town too. Im totally “one the lads” and so find it hard to make friends.. as the girls don’t wanna know cos im “weird”.. and the lads I make friends with have girlfriends that think im after more because I get on so well with the lads and think nothing of sitting in the pub with them with a pint watching the footy! I have hijacked my ex’s mates and get on with a few of them quite well but its awkward at the moment to go out with them as I don’t have direct contact to them.. have to go through my ex – PLUS most of them work at Tesco with us but him and them work days… and I work nights (including weekends).. so they all go out when I work.. and are working when im off! Might change If/when I can find a day job… but then he might’ve found a new girlfriend by then (if he has got over his "its not you, its me i just want to be allllonnnnnne" phase :rolleyes: ) and then it would be horibble and i dont think his new girlfriend appreciate "the ex" tagging along on nights out

I do wanna go back to college to finish my A levels sometime soon though, but will be at least next sept.. and ive found and open university course id like to do very very much so through the tutorials etc there I might be able to make some more friends.

im sure you could find a like minded person if you looked thru some ads for flatshare, how old ru, could you go back to your parents while you look?

I have checked out the flat shares and keeping my eye on them but the ones I can afford are students looking for other students in big 7 people flat shares etc which isn’t me at all or professionals looking for people that are older, as Im only 20. I could go back to my parents but having only just left I really don’t want to as I like my new freedom, it’s a very last resort to be honest (know my mum reads this site and knows how I feel..hopefully she wont mind me saying this..) I fight with my 13 year old brother and dad like cat and dog, I had no privacy at all and couldn’t bring anyone round (hence the not having any friends really) Dad would be funny about me going out aswell so the friends I did have abandoned me basically because they gave up asking me to go out cos I always had to say no. My bedroom in my mums is 6ft by 8ft so barely room for a bed so id have to store all my house stuff in my uncles house as my mum and dad don’t have any room to spare. They have actually moved stuff into my old room to give themselves breathing space as the house is just too small. Also as me and my dad don’t get on at all I used to be upset and stressed all the time living at home.. nothing I did was ever right or good enough it sounds horrible but its like he’s almost waiting for me to fail now… and moving home would do just that. It really is a last resort.

Instead of shopping at a supermarket, use a farmers market, and an old fashioned butchers etc. My wife (A city girl bless her) cannot belive how cheap fresh food costs, when the greedy B******S that control Tescos et al, haven't had their cut out of it. Same with meat and all fresh produce. the supermarkets don't make £3m a day by making huge profits on tins of beans and biscuits.

I wish we had a farmers market close but I live in the middle of Liverpool and the only farmers shop I know is miles and miles away and I have no way of getting there! I do shop at the local greengrocer instead of supermarket and it still works out cheaper, i spend about £5 a week on fruit and veg and i also buy meat from the butcher or when its reduced in the supermarkets. – I see what goes on with Tesco’s fruit and meat etc with working there and it does put me off! :rotfl:


Oh well, im going to sit down again over the next few days and try and work a few things out. Just received news that I might have sold my car ( I don’t use it – its sat up my mum and dads driveway waiting to be scrapped as its beyond repair) AND ive found a flat for £85 a month less rent than im paying now plus my heating and hot water included in the rent which might mean up to £105 saving a month! Ok its in an even rougher part of Liverpool but cant have it all and once my curtains are shut..! Plus it has gardens front and back which i dont have here.. and they are very well kept too as the rent includes a gardner ( :eek: ) and i the house its in is nice and well kept on the outside as ive seen it on my old bus route home from college. Have to arrange a viewing sometime this week hopefully. :j

Alleycat

Hi,

I've just had a look on the entitled to website and think you may be entitled to working tax credit if you are over 25 and should be able to get housing benefit (worked it out as being around £37 per week). I know its not a lot, but would help towards paying the bills.

Go to https://www.entitledto.co.uk and put your details in.

Good luck!

Alley

johanne

thanks for that site

As im only 20 i dont get tax credit but when i put in my estimated income being 36.5 hours on minimum wage and the rent at the flat ive been looking at (which is £85 a month cheaper in rent) it worked out id get housing benefit of...... £0.82p a week :j :rotfl: You know what though.. i would claim it! Every penny counts!

Putting in my current rent though.. id get £20.36 in theory.. problem being im a single under 25 in a 2 double sized bedroom terrace :rolleyes: Sooooo id get penalised for that. They expect me to live in a small 1 bedroom property with shared facilities. :rolleyes: So id probably end up with nothing!

Was worth looking though so thanks!

Downsizing__for_sanity

I think you do really need to compromise somewhere - maybe decide to make one change this month, whether that's cutting down on phone bills, or making extra money from overtime say?

If you're not prepared to share a house (and remember you can get £4000+ odd tax free from the rent-a-room), then why do you need a 2 bedroom house? Honestly, most people looking for a flat share will be just as worried about who they share with as you! Sharing would mean much cheaper bills etc.

There MUST be overtime available at Tesco's over Christmas - I've seen my local one advertising for the last month! Failing that, can you look for a better-paid job somewhere else?

Sorry if I sound harsh, but you really won't be helping yourself if you refuse to change anything about your circumstances.

DFS