Stop spending.....how??

Caroline73_2

getmore4less wrote: »

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!


Normalise every catagory to the annual cost, most people cant compare weekly monthly yearly in their heads.

Now what else costs £5 per week that you could do without.

I have to work things out as cost per day, that's what works for me. Cost per year doesn't work for me but that's personal. When I was a student I used to work out how many pints it would pay for in the union bar.

If your OH is only getting 16 hours a week sometimes and you can earn a decent salary have you considered you being the main wage earner? Could he fit his hours at the cafe around you?

Auxillary nurses are called health care assistants these days, and the salarys are above minimum wage and often include NVQ training, register with the NHS jobs site and check out private hospitals in your area. Often you can get a job nights only or even work 'on the bank' which is on as an as when basis.

Ultimately it comes down to how much you want something. We are trying to save up £20k asap for a larger house. everytime I want to spend I ask myself "Do I want this or a larger house?" It works for me. I start a new job next month and every penny will go towards that £20k.

It sounds obvious but have you checked you have every benefit you are entitled too? Good luck.

sasha0802

When me and my partner were renting our a house together my situation was very similar to yourself...minus the baby!

First things first!....Do you really need the gym? Take up jogging, power walking, invest in a fitness DVD a couple of times a year has got to beat £44 a month!

Food shopping!- Aldi is best for fresh fruit, veg, frozen fish and meat, I never brought these from big supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsburys, Co-op etc because they just completely rip you off!! But well done on keeping your eye out for offers on cleaning products!...99p Shops/£1 shops are great for toiletries and cleaning products too, they generally sell the 'big brands' and at a quarter of the price you would pay in your supermarket.

Cooking- I used to hate cooking especially after doing a 12 hour shift at work!....Try cooking enough for two nights and plate the meals up and pop them in the fridge...all you have to do is heat it up then, and will also help cut down on those takeaways you keep spending on!

Bills- Switch Sky to freeview, shop around for best/cheapest internet if its a necessity, Stick to mobile contracts rather then pay as you go you generally get better deals on minutes & texts. Use mobiles rather than landlines, and keep an eye on electric and gas usage, try and cut back where possible!!

Earning extra pennies - Ann Summers Parties are absolutely great for earning extra cash, I took up Ann Summers parties just before xmas last year just for a little bit extra cash over christmas...put it this way in two hours at one party I earn just under £300 in commision just for myself, but expect to earn £40-£100 on an average night!

Hope these tips help, best of luck on saving!! x:o

tazdevil01985

Hi with regards to your fixed costs you meantioned your mobile phones which you said were £80 p/m. When you get half way through the contract most companies will let you drop a tariff point so down to £35 p/m each I know its only a £10 p/m saving but thats still an extra £120 per year most people forget this ! Also most companies do sim only deals which start at £10 per month when your contracts end. Which means you keep you phone that you have and just get a new sim. I know that you wont get a flashy shiny new phone but saving upto £60 per month. I am trying to do the same I have a bit more money as dont have kids but have to agree renting is paying somelses mortgage and would be better off buying if I could save enough. Good Luck to you

getmore4less

tazdevil01985 wrote: »

Hi with regards to your fixed costs you meantioned your mobile phones which you said were £80 p/m. When you get half way through the contract most companies will let you drop a tariff point so down to £35 p/m each I know its only a £10 p/m saving but thats still an extra £120 per year most people forget this ! Also most companies do sim only deals which start at £10 per month when your contracts end. Which means you keep you phone that you have and just get a new sim. I know that you wont get a flashy shiny new phone but saving upto £60 per month. I am trying to do the same I have a bit more money as dont have kids but have to agree renting is paying somelses mortgage and would be better off buying if I could save enough. Good Luck to you

Also keep an eye out for the cash back phone deals.
Phone cost can down to zero and still have loads of minutes.

glittermonster

Thanks for everyones replies - I've been looking to see if I can pick up any tips!

david_hellier

The real function of a budget is to prevent overspend. The encouragement of overspending by the banks is the main problem with the economy, and they will look for ways to perpetuate this, for example by the introduction of contactless cards. The complete elimination of paper money is their long term aim so we as consumers must pay hawkish attention to exactly how much is available to spend.

One of the best ways to tackle this is to use the weekly subtraction method. Firstly work out all your income. If your income is monthly then divide this by 4.33, this will give you your weekly income. Note it.

Then work out your monthly essential outgoings, but exclude food (more later). Divide this by 4.33 to give you your weekly out goings. Note it.

Take the outgoing figure from the incoming figure. This is the weekly Start amount available to spend on anything else including food.

Get any little notebook and write the Start figure in it at the start of the week. As you spend or withdraw cash deduct it as you go. Try to get to the end of the week with some left in it and carry this forward to the next week and add it to the new Start figure.

Using this method ensures you do not overspend. I suggest you include food in the Start figure because the amount we spend on it can vary widely. My personal experience shows allowing a specific amount for food is impractical, however, it's up to you.

This method also requires you to effectively ignore your bank balance, because it is meaningless on a day to day basis. What you should see is it increasing steadily.

Also remember to include any od charges, interest or other fees in the essential outgoing list, otherwise overspending will continue.

Other top tips: stop using credit cards for further spending and make FIXED repayments, never the minimum.

I have an excel spreadsheet which can work out the Start figure if you PM me with an email address.

Wishing you all a happy new, prosperous, debt free New Year.

Dave

loveandlight

You must get on to the couponing (money off coupons) thread on the forum where you can save a lot of money on your food bill and get some of your stuff for the silliest of prices. They are real shopping pros on that board and I use it all the time.

Also visit the freebie board regularly as I believe scrimping and saving that hard will lead to depression after a while so you must give yourself and your family some treats once in a while. On the freebies board its nice to have little things to look forward to coming in the post and the same with using money off coupons you can end up getting some of your products for free.

themull1

i keep a little notebook each year, and when i buy a present, i write it in with the name of the person i'm giving it to. stops me forgetting what i've bought.!

BitterAndTwisted

I'm absolutely amazed that no-one has recommended that the OP pays a visit to the Old-Style part of the forum yet. There's a wealth of friendly and helpful hints and tips to be found there for cutting down on the spendys.

Charlotte: the very first thing you should do in my opinion is to find some impulse-control where buying take-aways are concerned as this is probably the area where you could save the most. Check out the cheap-family-recipes website and see how you could feed yourself and your family for £100 a month. it will require time and effort but I think you do have the time but you need to gird your loins and find the will to actually make that effort.

Plus, one really easy way to confirm where you're spending money where you don't need to is to buy a small note-book and write down every single penny you spend on house-keeping. If you keep the receipts and review it after about a month I suspect that things will automatically suggest themselves.

One other way is to make a calculation of what a reasonable weekly amount for house-keeping would be and to draw that out of the bank in cash and never, ever go shopping with a debit or credit-card, so when you go shopping you only have your withdrawn cash and once it's gone, it's gone till next week's withdrawal.