How Can I save £100 per Month

bigmig

Dear All,
I am a new user to MSE and I require expert advice from you all.
I have recently overcome a gambling problem which cost me thousands of pounds. This nearly cost me my marriage and my job, but now I am reformed thanks to GA and have vowed never to spend 1p on gambling ever again. Thus far things seems to be going ok.

However my addiction has of course caused problems and I have racked up debts of several thousand. To provide a solution I have taken out a loan and the monthly repayments are £100.

Due to my new start in life free of addiction I view the repayments not as a problem but more of a challenge, I.E how can I repay the £100 each month by saving in other areas of my life, sort of a game I suppose.

I have come up with these ideas:

- Making my own lunch every day (strictly as opposed to a couple of times a week (£2 saved per day)
- Cycling to work (£3 saved per day)
- De-cluttering my house via ebay/amazon (can generate £100)
- Shopping at local shops/Aldo/Netto as opposed to TESCO (£10 per week)

Can anyone suggest other commonsense ways I could meet my £100 target a month which I may have not spotted?

Thank you for any help!

bobsa1

Change gas and electric supplier, Martin has an articel dedicated to this.

Review insurance costs, again a cost cutting article.

Why don't you post a statement of affairs and we can have a look and make suggestions.

Something as simple as no takeaways can save £40 a month if you and partner get one a week.

Well done on facing up to your problem

skintchick

Hi and welcome!

Firstly well done for facing your gambling problem.

I assume from what you say that you have taken out a consolidation loan, which isn;t usually recommended, but as it's done let's find you that £100 or more a month.

Please look at the sticky from southernscouser, and then post your SOA, so then we can identify where you personally can make savings.

homersimpson_3

Due to my new start in life free of addiction I view the repayments not as a problem but more of a challenge, I.E how can I repay the £100 each month by saving in other areas of my life, sort of a game I suppose.

you learn quickly- this way can and often does work
you need to post statement of affairs- list of incomings and outgoings. go over to moneysaving oldsytle board on mse- loads of things there and they do actually work.

Dr.Shoe_2

I found that taking a packed lunch instead of stopping at burger vans saved me £100+ per month. This isn't relevant for everyone but it should give you something to work on.

wannabedebtfreebeth

Don't necessarily throw Tescos out the window. If they do anything on clubcard deal which you would be buying anyway the points can save you a mint. Also look at the Tesos R + R policy on Tesco misprices and Tesco misprices discussion threads under Grabbit now - basically if you are overcharge for an item you get to keep the item and have your money refunded. Some stores are so bad at getting the price correct (ie they are conning the average shopper out of a shed load of money by promising meat etc at a reduced price then charging full price at the tills!) that the only limit to the amount of free meat is how much space you have in your freezer! And I only ever pick up 2 or 3 packs - the sort of amount an average shopper would buy.

PabloNeruda

Hi bigmig
Welcome aboard, and well done for being so candid.
As a relative newcomer myself, I would urge you to listen to all the advice given on the board.
Personally, I would start with the "big hitters" in terms of your outgoings.
Phone/Car Insurance/Home Insurance/Gas and Electricity/Digital TV/Broadband etc.

I've saved MEGA bucks just by clicking on the menu on the right and digesting the advice
<

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Good luck mate.

PoorDave

bobsa1 wrote:

Change gas and electric supplier, Martin has an articel dedicated to this.

Review insurance costs, again a cost cutting article.

Why don't you post a statement of affairs and we can have a look and make suggestions.

Something as simple as no takeaways can save £40 a month if you and partner get one a week.

Well done on facing up to your problem

Although Martin has a warning out not to swap suppliers at the moment after the announced big price rise by British Gas, unless you've never swapped. Wait until others come in line with BG.

CLAPTON

post the full details
as Skintchick has suggested post an SoA
see
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280