Stop spending.....how??

Charlotteicious

Maybe someone on here can help me?!
Myself and my partner are trying to SAVE, we want to save enough for a substantial deposit on a house. We did have around £4thou saved, but moving from one rented house to another ate up all those savings (heart breaking!).
I am now due to move again (into my mothers- she has moved abroad and we are renting her property)
We live on my partners low income, tax credits etc, and i have just started doing AVON to try and up our income.
Other than AVON i am a full time, stay at home mum to our 16month old.
We have managed to live on less than we are on now, but seem to be spending all our money when its spare. I'm not even sure what on!!! Well i do....take out......we never want what is in....and we get hungry at odd times, when i am too tired to cook. (Ourselves to blame i know) We are trying to stop this though....my partner seems to be a bit of a junk addict...always has been (unhealthy upbringing - but still skinny as a rake grrr:mad:)

This is what we do so far to save(spread money out but not SAVE as in having it there as spare money):

• stopped buying craft items, clothing (make do - clothes to small....i use a hair bobble on the button hole, to big? I take it in or use safety pins!),
• baby clothing (2nd hand from carboots etc as i liked GAP, NEXT, Debhanams etc too much and can still get lovely brands but pre-used),
• food shopping (£30 budget a week -buy cleaning products on offer, shop around and use our local market)
• We have a contract with a gym, but are signed in for a year and this is £44 a month for us both, which is reasonable.
• We have price compared our car insurance and it's the cheapest.
• Leave our gas heating of 80% of the time and use duvets for sitting on the sofa, thick socks and jumpers - unless it's freezing and then we have it on for maybe 1 hour.
• Do clothes washing 1/2 times a week, and do it overnight so it's using cheaper electric(is this true though??)
• i don't have a tumbler - and radiators rarely on, so use the laundrette to dry, but they only charge about £4 for 2 big loads of washing, which i think is reasonable? (in the summer i peg it out)
• Switch lights off whenever it's bright enough.
• Leave TVS off and switch off at mains when not using (except laptop)
• Sell anything i can on Ebay when we have no use for it (but seems more trouble than it's worth! Only getting 99p etc for GOOD quality clothing etc)
• We have a budget planner, and a folder with each of our bill companies in, and weekly we take our wages and put the amount into each, eg £30 into gas&electric, £10 into gym, £10 into phone/internet/tv.....etc etc

We end up with maybe £30 ish spare....and put that into a show box for saving (we found putting into a bank - even a ISA - we'd jsut spend it, i'd use bank transfer on my phone :-/ ) so we now save in the house.... i'm thinking of giving it to my dad to keep in his safe though so that we don't have the money with us to spend?????

I was considering doing 'sex chat/text' to try and bring in a little more money....we discussed it, and i'm sure i could deal with that...i wouldn't have been able to do phone lines...i'd giggle i think!

It annoys me as i am an intelligent girl, but i want to be a full time mother whilst my little boy is at home. I was going to go to uni, and become a midwife - but since giving birth.....no way!
So i was considering doing Beauty Therapy (but taking it further - eg doing botox and other treatments) and training for it through night schools when my partner is at home...but i need to save up for that as it's approx £2500 althogether for the L2.....
Once i have the qualification i can work as a mobile beautician for myself(choosing my own hours and working them around my partners work hours), and put myself through the higher qualification levels

Basically i'm just wondering if anyone has any tips/suggestions/advice on how to save, bring income in as a stay at home mother, and how to curb spending.

I have written a 6 month, 1 year, 3 year and 5 year plan for us to aim towards....but so far not doing so well.
And i have also written down a spending chart to keep track of what we have spent on - so that we can see how much we actually waste...but even that doesn't seem to stop us.

Sorry for the hugely long post! I hope some of you have the patience to read through it and offer something!

Charlotte

getmore4less

I have written a 6 month, 1 year, 3 year and 5 year plan for us to aim towards....but so far not doing so well.
And i have also written down a spending chart to keep track of what we have spent on - so that we can see how much we actually waste...but even that doesn't seem to stop us.


Well you have the two essentials.

The plan
The tracking.

If you can't keep to the plan change it to reflect reality(still ballances) no point in pretending there is a saving catagory in the plan if there isn't one.

At least if it ballances you won't get into debt.

You need you savings goal to have higher priority to your spending

Identify every discretionary spend in the plan and think about them against your goals.

things like
We have a contract with a gym, but are signed in for a year and this is £44 a month for us both, which is reasonable.

It's not about it being resonable its about do you want to go to the gym or by a house a little bit sooner a simple choice

Charlotteicious

getmore4less wrote: »

Well you have the two esentials.

The plan
The tracking.

If you can't keep to the plan change it to reflect reality(still ballances) no point in pretending there is a saving catagory in the plan if there isn't one.

At leats if it ballances you won't get inot debt.

This is true, we aren't really in any debt, we managed to get out of my partners debt when i first moved in with him. We have a credit card but that only has about £400 on it i think and we are paying that monthly to try and clear it (slowly but surely).
It's just a shame that we are 'wasting' money on rent...i hate that we could be paying possibly the same amount or less into a Mortgage!

Thank you for your reply

getmore4less

Sorry submitted before I had finished meant to preview.

Charlotteicious

I know you are right, such as regarding the gym, the problem is that 1.) we are signed in for the year so can't cancel it, and 2.) It's something we both love - maybe once the contract ends, we will have to reconsider and take up jogging etc
It's £528 a year, but i've been looking at it in terms of, it's £5per week each...when i look at it spread over a year, that is more than half a grand!
I'm no good at this not spending - i had a very privelaged upbringing, and was used to money just being there. . . .i think i need to get it into my head more that it isn't, only we can properly help ourselves and there is no point saving on other things like heating and clothes, if we are going to waste it on gym/takeout etc

nicjane113

Hi there,
I've lived with my boyfriend for almost 3 years now and have saved us quite alot of money each month by going through all our bills and working out if we really needed it and what we could live without.

I think you should definately get rid of your gym membership once you are out of your fixed contract as £500 per year could do wonders for your savings. You could always start up again once you have managed to get your mortgage.

Do you have sky tv? this could be switched for freeview
Try checking your gas and electricity to make sure your on the best tariff and switch everything off when not in use. I see you mentioned not doing this with your laptop but I would recommend you do. Not only does it decrease the life of your battery but laptops cost alot to power. I switch mine off overnight to save money.
Good on you for getting cheaper alternatives for your baby's clothes - also try supermarkets as I've seen some lovely clothes that are so cheap!
Also keep a look out for vouchers for money off shopping etc. as you get some good deals

Both me and my partner work full time as we have no kids yet so I feel for you living off one wage. Do any of your friends have kids? If your staying at home with your child, you could earn a little off looking after your friends kids.

I would probably stay clear of the sex texting thing

Charlotteicious

nicjane113 wrote: »

Hi there,
I've lived with my boyfriend for almost 3 years now and have saved us quite alot of money each month by going through all our bills and working out if we really needed it and what we could live without.

I think you should definately get rid of your gym membership once you are out of your fixed contract as £500 per year could do wonders for your savings. You could always start up again once you have managed to get your mortgage.

Do you have sky tv? this could be switched for freeview
Try checking your gas and electricity to make sure your on the best tariff and switch everything off when not in use. I see you mentioned not doing this with your laptop but I would recommend you do. Not only does it decrease the life of your battery but laptops cost alot to power. I switch mine off overnight to save money.
Good on you for getting cheaper alternatives for your baby's clothes - also try supermarkets as I've seen some lovely clothes that are so cheap!
Also keep a look out for vouchers for money off shopping etc. as you get some good deals

Both me and my partner work full time as we have no kids yet so I feel for you living off one wage. Do any of your friends have kids? If your staying at home with your child, you could earn a little off looking after your friends kids.

I would probably stay clear of the sex texting thing

We had a big virgin package but swapped down to freeview - but kept a decent internet connection as i use it for my AVON, and we also download music and films as it is much cheaper than blockbusters etc! So in a way we are still saving money. . . .

I really should switch my laptop off..i will start doing it, i just hate loading the damned thing up the next morning.

Can i just ask what people's average bills are for gas and electric, combined? As i am with E-on, and we put away £30a week(£15each)...does this seem a lot...as it covers it with little spare...and i usually have the heating off like i say?!

Unfortuantly none of my working friends have children, there are one or two other mothers but they are also stay at home mothers like me. I offered to look after my nephew for my sister, but i don't think she thinks i'm good enough?!(hurtful but fair enough) And she is spending £50 a day on childcare(super duper eco friendly organic nursery) I'd have done it for half that! But never mind!

I was thinking about maybe seeing someone about mine and my partners eating habits...but even that costs money. So instead, i've just gone and searched for all and any resturant numbers/menus and thrown them into the recyle bin!!!

I'm not keen on the whole sex line thing...as i think it could be pretty degrading....some men out there have twisted minds from the stories i'd heard. But it is a way of bringing income in from my home...i looked into survery sites-but they don't pay out enough, question sites(eg 118questions) and they don't seem to ever have vacancies..i looked for from home typing jobs but none seem to exist lol...so at a little bit of a loss

bendix

Charlotteicious wrote: »

I'm not keen on the whole sex line thing...as i think it could be pretty degrading....some men out there have twisted minds from the stories i'd heard. But it is a way of bringing income in from my home...

So is prostitution. Where do you draw the line? The willingness of women to do this sexchat thing and somehow convincing themselves that they aren't, in fact, selling sexual services is incredible. The power we have to deceive ourselves.

nancyo

I dont actually think you can do anymore than you are already doing, apart from seeing if any family/friends can help out with babysitting and you could maybe get a part time job - or get a part time job while your partner can watch your kid

EarthBoy

• Do clothes washing 1/2 times a week, and do it overnight so it's using cheaper electric(is this true though??)

Electricity is only cheaper at night if you have a two-rate electricity meter (often called an Economy 7 meter) which registers different usage at night and if you are on a two-rate tariff.

If your electricity bill only shows a single tariff rate then all your electricity is charged the same, no matter when you use it.

Charlotteicious

bendix wrote: »

So is prostitution. Where do you draw the line? The willingness of women to do this sexchat thing and somehow convincing themselves that they aren't, in fact, selling sexual services is incredible. The power we have to deceive ourselves.

Oh for goodness sake. I asked for advice not judgement.