The SURVIVAL to the extreme

Jacks_xxx

I hope you don't mind sweetie, but I thought I'd see how our house compares...

swingjune wrote: »

The increased burden in getting a roof over our heads http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1126491
had prompted us to act ..................

1) Be selfish, don't want to have kid :rotfl:Doh! We've got two of these already. I promise not to have any more though, and one of the ones we've already got pays £223 a month into the household bills account.

2) No pet Doh again! We've already got a grumpy old cat who only eats meat and fish - not cat food - but he's already outlived all his brothers and sisters so I don't s'pose we'll have him for much longer.

3) No smoking Oh thank goodness! At least I haven't failed this one already! No definitely not planning to take this up.

4) Only entertainment => internet, radio, sky And DVDS borrowed from our friends extensive collections, plus the library for all kinds of entertainment. We freeview-ed for a while but once we'd got a debt plan in place and we'd made major inroads into it we relaxed a bit and got sky back.

5) Walk instead of taking the car We sold both our cars and tried to do without a car at all for about 3 months but Hubby's Walk-Train-Tube-Different Tube-Train-Bus-Walk commute from Hampshire to Hertfordshire cost more than running cheap wheels and took more than twice as long - so after giving it a good go we eventually bought an old diesel heap. I feel good that we gave it a try though.

6) Buy and stock up wine if on sale for 2.99 We stopped drinking at home a while ago, but if we were going to £2.99 wine would definitely be better than £7.99 wine. (and I probaly wouldn't know the difference anyway!)

7) Buy frozen vegs, cheaper and convenient I keep frozen veg for the convenience factor when I have to produce a meal in 20 minutes flat before we all go out to our second jobs, but I reckon the cheapest veg is home grown or donated from someone elses garden / allotment. (We currently have more marrows, courgettes and runner beans than I know what to do with!)

8) Split the 450 gram meat into 2 packs before freezing I don't do this but I do bulk meals out with beans lentils and porridge oats wherever possible and a few portions always go into the freezer for our version of convenience meals or for someones packed lunch.

9) Plan and cook meals Oh yeah baby! :dance: The more we do this the less we spend. It's that simple.

10) Pack sandwiches for DH to bring to work My hubby and my son both take their lunch to work but they prefer to take chilli, curry and pasta and nuke it - rather than sarnies. I don't think it's much more expensive because technically it's left overs. Plus it was probably made with free veg and bulk bought pasta or rice - and at least it keeps them out of the pub! :rolleyes:

11) Window shopping - very hard at the beginning, after a couple of time, get use to it Honey, I just wouldn't even torture myself. I just spent about £300 on clothes after not buying any for over two years and I found the choice in the - now unfamiliar - shops so overwhelming that I ended up running home and ordering most things online instead!

12) No eating out We do this once in a while. I had a meal out with a friend last week and it was a lovely treat.

13) Monitor expenses, check bank account every day Yep, me too. I also use spendingdiary.com to see where it's all going. (I just love the "thunk" as the pie chart bounces onto the page!)

What else? hmmm .............

:A

Very interesting hon,

I'm going to read what everyone else has added now for more ideas!

Love Jacks xxx

swingjune

Jacks_xxx wrote: »

I'm going to read what everyone else has added now for more ideas!

Me too :j
:beer:

swingjune

Jacks_xxx wrote: »

I hope you don't mind sweetie, but I thought I'd see how our house compares...

Interesting comparison Jack, love it :T