to save as much money and keep my life as organized as possible

x_karrie_x

:beer: Happy New Year :beer:

Its been ages since i have updated but back on the straight and narrow again now that Christmas is out of the way. I had a really lovely Christmas, it was so nice to spend time with my family just enjoying each others company.

Since my last update i have managed to save £100.00. It would have been a bit more than that but i have been out for a meal and had a couple of nights at the pub with friends as i decided that if you cant enjoy yourself at Christmas then when can you

Im so looking forward to this year and glad that things are getting back to normal. I have had a really productive weekend, taken the Christmas decorations down, cleaned the house top to bottom and caught up on my washing and ironing

Ok tasks for this week are

1. To have 4 NSD
2. Sort out some things and photo ready to start ebaying next weekend

Off to have a lovely soap and glory bubble bath now and then an early night ready for a brand new year at work. Hope everyone has a good week.

Karrie xxx

Becky_2

Hope you all are well and that your money saving is going well.

I have had a cold for most of this year so haven't felt my best but am feeling much better now. Having worked every day between Christmas and New Year was very good for me financially, I hardly spent a penny and the great news is that I haven't used my overdraft at all so far this month and am not planning to do so in January. Currently looking into finding the best savings account with the highest interest for the money that i will be saving this year.

The plan for this weekend is to write down the content in my freezers and cupboard to help me planning my meals and spend less on food in January and February.

Would be great to hear how you are getting on.

All the best.

Becky

EC12345

Hey Becky and Karrie

Still reading your posts with interest. Becky, I also worked the period between Christmas and New Year - it doesn't bother me either, we got to leave early most days which was a bonus and it saves my holiday entitlement.

Managed to save about another £40 towards the end of December and am going to try and save quite a bit when we get paid at the end of January. I was quite motivated to save loads during the end of last year but haven't felt so over the last couple of weeks - so need to get back on track and read some of the threads on this site to get me motivated again.

The weekly spend challange on the debt free board really helps. I take the cash out on a Saturday (when I go to the supermarket) and then that has to stay in my purse all week. Any that is left goes in my sealed pot. Have been on budget three weeks out of four and it really makes me question "do I need that chocolate bar/packet of crisps etc etc". May have an expensive week next week as having a couple of lunches and one of them is going to be about £15 :eek:. Hopefully if everyone says they are feeling a bit broke, we can go somewhere cheaper, it would help me if we could for defo.

I am also trying to spend less on food. Like you, I may also go through my freezer and cupboards - on Saturday before I go to the supermarket. There are only two of us in our house so we manage really quite well. My husband is quite a good cook and can normally make a meal out of nothing. We also always take our lunch every day to work.

Let me know what else you are doing to save the cash - like I said before really need to stay motivated.

x_karrie_x

Hello, hope everybody is well.

Life is still so busy at the mo, was hoping that things would have settled down by now after Christmas but because of all the snow and my deputy being off work with the flu, i have had to do extra hours which will be all good for the savings but i feel like work has taken over everything else.

Emma i seem to have lost my motivation as well the last few weeks. I have managed to save £100.00 since i last updated but my food budget has not been so good as it was before Christmas. I spent just over £55.00 last week :eek: So this week im going to try something different. I always shop at Mr Ts as its easy for me to get to, but a friend of mine has suggested i try Mr Ls, so this afternoon im going to go through my freezer and cupboards work out a meal plan for the next week and then off to Mr Ls to see if i can save myself some money

Iam also annoyed at myself for not starting Ebaying yet so this weekend it is going to be top of my to-do-list.

My day to day spending is also not as good as it was either. Seem to have been buying chocolate a lot more than i was to help me through the long days at work. :mad: So from today i have started a spending diary as that seems to keep me on track and my waist line will thank me for it as well.

Right i am off to start my meal plan. Will report back soon with the results of my shopping task. take care.

Karrie xxx

Becky_2

Hi Karrie and Emma!

Thanks for your updates. Hope you both will soon be back on track when it comes to saving money. Karrie, a spending diary is a brilliant thing to do. I did one a few years ago and realised I spent around £60 a month on my daily cappucino. These days I hardly ever buy one. Good luck with your diary.

Emma, I do what you do, I also withdraw money once a week (usually on a Friday) to last during that week but I have never thought about putting the money away and save them. What a brilliant idea!

Personally I am doing really well this month. Hardly spending any money at all and not a snack person at all. Karrie, I just thought about something, perhaps stop taking money with you into work if you find it hard to resist choclate. My weakness is crisps and a few years ago I didn't allow myself to walk through the crisp aisle and now I don't crave crisps anymore.

What do I do to save money? I try to meal plan and never to throw away leftovers. Tomorrow I am planning to go through our 2 freezers and write a content list for each freezer and then one for the cupboard. Like yourselves I am really thinking about if I need a specific item and often I don't buy it. For me it works to keep the credit card at home rather than in my wallet, for me that is to tempting.

Good luck with saving money and have a nice weekend

Becky

EC12345

Hi Ladies, hope you are having a good weekend, thought I would drop you an email to see how you are both getting on ....

Karrie - did you manage to go to Mr L (I take it that means Lidl). How did you get on? We have a L round the corner from us but I have only been in there once (to get a Christmas door mat). Did you find it any cheaper? My food budget has also gone out the window - but hey, am just going to try better next month (can you believe it is almost February - where does time go). How is your spending diary going? Is it working?

I am going to save another £125 this month -am going to write my cheque out later and post it off tomorrow. Yesterday, my and my sister went to have facials and when we got to the salon, we found out they were doing a "January Special" - half price on everything (WOO HOO) - so instead of paying £40, we only had to pay £20 - so that's another £20 I still have in my purse. Should really add it to my savings - as it is money that I would have spent - but I'll see how I go. In December I would have saved it for sure but just need to get my motivation back on track.

Becky - great to hear you are still on track - that's fab news and well done. I've been really finding that having the cash in my purse is really making me think "do I need it, do I really want it etc etc". I think this is the way forward for me. I have also read about people spending lots of cash on cappucino. The lady who I sit opposite at work spend as about £2.75 probably every other day on a coffee. She knows she needs to stop as well. :rotfl:

Did quite a big food/laundry shop yesterday. Next week I am determined to only buy the minimum and put as much as I can in my shopping pot (there is £19 in the moment and I want to get that up to at least £150 by mid June to put towards our spending money in Venice) - hopefully the thought of this will keep me on track.

Keep me posted and enjoy the rest of your weekend/week ahead.

Emma x

Becky_2

Hi ladies!

Hope you are both well.

Emma - Mmmm, a facial sounds nice. Well done for putting aside £125 in January. Great start for this year. Keep it up!

I am still doing well this month. I will be able to put aside at least £10 this month. Not bad for being me, the last few months I have always been overdrawn so this is a great start for me. In February my OH and me should spend less on food since I now have done a content list for the freezer and there was a lot more in there than I expected and it's so much easier to mealplan when you know what food you got at home. I have also joined the no spending on toiletries challenge, so I will be using up what I have got instead of buying new stuff. So far this year, I feel really inspired to save money and I question every purchase at the moment.

Hope to get an update from you both soon.

Good luck with saving money.

Becky
x

x_karrie_x

Hello ladies, hope you are both well?

Its lovely to read your updates, and to see how well you both are doing.

My spending diary is going well it really does make you see where you can save money. No more bars of chocolate for me

Emma my trip to Mr L's was interesting some things were a lot cheaper and good value and some other things were cheaper and not so good value. My dd described the cereal i got her as sugary cardboard. So i think that maybe once a month i will go there and pick up the things that i was impressed with and carry on shopping at Mr T's for the rest of my shopping. I have been way over budget with my shopping this month as well, so i too am going to try a lot harder in February.

Becky, well done on staying out of your overdraft a great start to the new year. Like you i am also trying to use up all my toiletries as the amount i have stashed away is silly and if i do need anything like cotton wool etc then i am going to use my Boots points to pay for it. So the plan is to get to the end of the year without having spent any cash on them. I have also banned myself from buying any more books until i have read all the ones i have got, so that should save me some more money.

Since i have last updated i have managed to add another £125.00 to my savings account bringing my total to £860.00, which i am thrilled about. I also get paid tomorrow so i should be able to hit just over my first £1000.
I have also started saving for Christmas again, by putting £2.00 a week in a sealed tin towards food and drink and £5.00 a week for presents. Think i am finally finding my motivation again.

Hope to hear from you both soon. Take care

karrie xxx

EC12345

Hey ladies, have a day off today so thought I would update.

Karrie - that really interesting about Mr L. Sometimes I just think there are really good offers in the main supermarkets and things would work out more expensive going to the cheaper shops. I should really pop in and see for myself though. My grocery shop last week was quite cheap - I had an extra £10 for my shopping pot - there is nearly £30 in there already and I want at least another £10 in there tomorrow. Will let you know how I get on. I am off to do my shopping list in a moment - think I need quite a lot of meat for the freezer tomorrow. One thing I bought last week at Mr T was the Value Toilet Cleaner - it cost 25p. Now, ladies, I am quite fussy when it comes to cleaning my house - I love my house to be clean and fresh smelling - but just thought I would try it. It's great - am going to get some more tomorrow and get some for my sister. I was really impressed. Our toilets are clean anyway so I don't really need a really expensive cleaner - just a thought if you are trying to cut down somewhere. I thought it would be thin and it's really thick and smells of lovely pine.

Other good news is that this month I managed to save £130. Am desperate to get my savings to £2,000 - that will be a real milestone for me. Won't be until next month though. I need a few new clothes for work though - shirts - still another two weeks until payday but can manage for defo with what I've got for next couple of weeks and then might treat myself next month - but won't be able to save as much. Oh well, never mind, swings and roundabouts I suppose.

Like both you ladies, I am also trying to use up showergels/bubble bath/soap - I got stacks of the stuff for Christmas and that should keep us going for at least another four months. I keep finding things in drawers though - found some of those bath bombs just the other day - may use one tonight.

I always do the weekly spend challenge as well on the debt free board. This week I had a budget of £15 - needed a few things from Boots - and gave in to a couple of chocolate bars - but only spent £7.54. Some of it is going in my sealed pop - can't afford to put the whole lot in so maybe around £3. Cash every week is definately working for me. At the weekend, I work out what I need to get in the work - just things for myself - i.e. any work lunches, drinks etc etc - so will be considering my budget for next week tonight.

Anyway, that's it for me .... will let you know how I get on with my shopping tomorrow - feeling quite a bit more motivated now.

Take care and have a great weekend. Emma.x

Becky_2

Hi Ladies

Thanks for your updates. Hope you are both well and that you are doing well with this challenge. I agree L can be really good value for money.Emma - how did you get on with L? I tend to do what Karrie does and only buy certain things in L. For me this is sausages, parma ham, yoghurt etc.

Karrie - a good idea to start putting aside money now for Christmas. Well done, for putting aside another £125.

emma - Well done for saving £130 in January. Hope you reach your milestone soon.

I am doing well this month. I saved £10 in January and at the moment I am putting aside £1 for every toiletry item I am using up. £4 in that pot at the moment. Currently I am only working part-time so I am using this challenge to help me to stay out of the overdraft. I am hoping to work full-time in a couple of months but the job market is so tough at the moment. I am also spending less every week compared to what I have budgeted for so at the end of the month I am hoping to put aside a small amount again.

Last week I rang a company to complain that the product I had bought was not up to scratch. I felt really embarrassed to do this. In the post this morning I got 3 vouchers in the post for more than double of the value that I paid for the product so I feel really pleased with this.

Good luck with the challenge. Hope to hear from you soon.

Becky
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