Not sure, gained more I think..

ohit

I'm not really sure how much I've saved. I have bits of paper everywhere with everything logged but haven't made it clever with a spreadsheet yet.

I think though I have gained more than saved. For example, chucking 0% credit card cash into savings accounts and abusing gambling intro loopholes.

I only just bought the Money Diet book last week and didn't think to sort out domestic savings such as utilities and proper telecoms etc. I think my parents will be well impressed with my efforts - I'll get to work!

Thanks Martin. The underlining point is that all the information is certaintly available elsewhere, but you basically do the research for us all and present them clearly on this site and within your book. There's some general things I've learnt about money that I never even thought of before. It's brilliant.

Trying to tell others the things I've found is difficult though. Many relatives are too arogant to care or just don't want the "hassle". For example, they don't realise that a saving or gain of £3,000 a year could easily be the equivilent wages of a month or two. It's madness. Even when I'm willing to do all the leg work for them and explain it all as well. Maybe the passion's got to me too much...

jo_b_2

Yeah - it can be shocking how apathetic people can be about this sort of thing.

They just think it's not worth the effort and yet could save a month's salary! ::)

The trick is to do one thing at a time. E.g: phones first, then gas/elec, then bank account... Doesn't seem such hard work then and you get to see the rewards growing!

Nickynoo1

I agree,

My family now thinks i'm tight, just because i have a strict budget. They think i'm obssesed when i talk about money saving, even when it's an idea to save them money. They are not made of money and could save loads like me but just cant get interested or bothered. Drives me mad but i try not to mention MSE in their company anymore. When I'm debt free and have thousands stashed in savings, travel whenever and wherever, buy whaterver i want (all within the budget) I'm sure they will start asking then, how do you do it? well i might not be interested to tell them by then. ;D only joking, i'll just give them the web address to work it out for themselves.

VickyA_2

Some of my friends think that I'm "sad" and "tight" the amount of time that I spend on here. However, as I mentioned on another thread, since our household income has halved, we've hardly noticed the difference due to the savings and bargains that we've had thanks to MSE. And we can still afford to go out every now and again................

Martinslovechild

Trying to tell others the things I've found is difficult though. Many relatives are too arogant to care or just don't want the "hassle". For example, they don't realise that a saving or gain of £3,000 a year could easily be the equivilent wages of a month or two. It's madness. Even when I'm willing to do all the leg work for them and explain it all as well. Maybe the passion's got to me too much...

I know EXACTLY what you mean Ohit.

I've not actually managed to convince ONE person to follow the advice contained within this site or The Money Diet (with the exception of my Dad who changed his gas, electric & phone which I was quite pleased about!!).

Given that I've now saved over £54,000 since using the tips here on this site, I find it impossible to understand why nobody in the outside world wants to listen ??? ???

Anyway, that's their loss.  Like NickyNoo says, when we're all debt-free and living on the MSE Desert Island drinking cocktails, that's probably when they're likely to start asking about how we all did it...??