Keeping down spending on "stuff"

HC_2

Yeah, right...

Dolly_Mixture

I would agree with what most people have said - agree on a smaller amount to spend on the children and cut back on adult spending. In my husband's family we only buy for the children and it really saves a lot of trouble. I buy for my daughter all year round in sales, charity shops etc. NCT (National Childbirth Trust) sales are fantastic for clothes and toys and well worth going to. They have a website which lists the sales and where they are. There is usually one in the autumn and one in the spring. Fetes are another good source of books and toys. At my daughter's school fete this year, I was astonished by all the books/toys they had left over and for the last half hour everything was reduced to 10p!

Have you thought about selling at a car boot sale/NCT sale/or on e-bay? That money could be put towards a "big" present for the children at Christmas.

I also keep an eye out for stocking fillers in Lidl, Aldi etc Home Bargains is a good source of cheap toys for friends.

It has already been said here but buy your cards cheap too. I bought 5 cards for £1 in a Birthdays sale recently. All my daughter's friends will be 7 next year so I stocked up on a load of age 7 cards.

Shoes for children can be a tough one. Best bet is to buy in the sales, wear cheap sandals in the summer and to manage with as few shoes as possible. My daughter has school shoes, a pair of trainers and a pair of wellies and sandals in the summer.

As far as earning extra money goes - could you babysit or iron for people? That kind of work can fit in with your husband's shifts and ironing can be done at home.

Once you get into it, saving money can be fun - I am always dead chuffed when I find a bargain! I hope you get something out of it too.

Faith_Lady

I have three daughters and when they were still at school wearing uniform I found that if I left the buying of the uniform until the end of the school holidays I could get some great bargains.

Shops don't want loads left when term starts and so they reduce it.

Good luck!

nickyhutch

lisa_75 wrote:

My parents especially would be furious to think we couldn't manage on the wage my husband earns.

So what?! Infuriate them! It's what parents are for!

lynzpower

Have you been to your student job shop? ONly thats where I looked for work for a few days a week and there was plenty back in my day. ( altohugh we are going back some 10 years :eek:) also try agencies. I had some work through the agencies of a couple of days here and there, stuffing envelopes, filing etc, that wasnt the best paid, but easy money when I needed it etc

Also check out gumtree.co.uk in your area they often have bits and pieces odd days here and there? Or could you do some tuition with kids?

m.r.davies

who is your Broadband and TV provider?

If its NTL you can get 10 mb broad band for 17.99, you just have to keep phoning up and say your thinking of leaving and they add the discount on 3 months at a time

a mate threatened to leave and he gets it for this price all the time without having to phone back up

EagerLearner

Hi there, I don't have kids but appreciate your situation - it's very hard to come out and admit what is going on and how down you feel. My few hints would be to buy presents in boot sales, e-bay and charity shops, even the £1 store can sometimes have good things. Sometimes on e-bay you can get things for £0.01 and just pay for postage for really nice things in perfect condition.

Maybe you could make birthday cards with your kids? Even Xmas cards and other occasions - they will enjoy the creativity and the time with you, you will enjoy the time with them and the savings made. That is, assuming you have that time to dedicate if you get a 2nd job ;o)

I also sometimes make my own wrapping paper for those close to me by dragging and dropping images that mean something to them (say Elvis, if they like Elvis) to a Word document, enlarging them all or reducing them, then printing on normal paper.

Madasafish are highly used by MSER's as Martin has obtained a good discount with them (£1 off per month) - maybe you could switch to them? The customer service on the madasafish thread here on MSE is fantastic too.

Also on freecycle.org (I think it's that address, maybe someone will correct me) you could look up your area and get the school/brownie uniforms from other local people, when their kids have grown out of them? They would be free which is great.

I know it sounds silly, but even if you switch the electric points off when you are not using them (ie not leaving things on standby) and request a 'save-a-flush' from Southern Water, even get a water meter installed IF that means your bills would be lower, these things would save you money here an dthere too.

I hope this helps and do tell us how you are getting on.

KARENW_3

lisa_75 wrote:

Also there are 4 of us. That makes £480 per year for Christmas/birthdays. Including us I have 18 relatives and friends that need Christmas and birthday gifts every year. Also there are fathers/mothers day/anniversary. If i just buy Chritsmas and Birthday gifts that is only £13 per person per gift. What on earth can I buy for that? Also the kids at Christmas/Birthdays. I can't only spend £13 on them, they would be devastated.

Apart from buying gifts well in advance in the sales, it also often works out good value to buy joint gifts. For example, for a family you get a family bowling gift pack for £20 from WHSMITH or for a couple showcase cinemas do a cinema gift pack two cinema tickets, popcorn and coke for about £16. both under £10 per person per gift. ALso you could club together with someone else to buy a bigger gift for example for my parents ruby wedding anniversary my sister and I and our OH's bought them tea at the ritz. WHich worked at £30 each. I think people really enjoy "experience" gifts and they needn't be expensive. I also buy 6 monthly magazine subsrctiptions for peole which you can get for under £15 depending on the magazine. Hope this helps.

SusanCarter

We usually spend about £5 to £10 per present for family christmas/birthday presents. Some of them spend similar amounts on us and others I am sure spend more but everyone is happy and there is no obligation or expectation about how much a gift should cost. I tend to look out all year round for suitable things for particular people so tend to buy about half the presents in advance.

For friends we tend to give cards and maybe a token present. Recently we went round to a friend's house for a birthday meal. I made some rock cakes and wrapped them in red cellophane and attached a home made card. It took me a total of one hour to do the whole thing and for me it was fun. He is single and in his twenties so thought they were great because he would never have made them himself and you don't usualy get them in the shops. It's amazing how much people love home baking as a gift.

As you have children, you can get them to do a load of home made cards. Not only will it save money on cards but it will save money on entertaining them too.

mmsparkle

Hello Lisa, congratulations for realising your situation, and acting on it.
Just a thought about part-time work, while I was a student I worked at the local hospital as a care assistant. (an unqualified nurse). You don't need any qualifications, the money isn't great (I suspect around 5 or 6 pounds per hour) BUT you get paid weekly, and you work when you want to. I.e. if you're free next tuesday and thursday, plan to work then. If you can only do one after noon next week, just do one afternoon. You get paid weekly.
You can either do this through the hospital's own 'stock' of staff, a pool or bank of nurses, or go through a nursing agency.
Of course it's not for everyone :-)

It does tend to put your own problems into perspective though!