what luxuries have you cut 25 February 2011 at 3:22PM in Old style MoneySaving 127 replies 32.6K views

gizzie121

BARGAINHUNTER! wrote: »

Seriously thinking about getting rid of Sky (when I have saved up enough for one off purchase of freesat box)

You'd save up for a freesat box really quickly if you got rid of Sky first. It would only take you a couple of months.

JOANNESAPHINE

Takeaways, magazines and newspapers. Found dvds a waste of money to watch once usually and then collecting dust on the shelf. Hire dvds from the library if it's something we really want to watch. Stopped buying expensive birthday cards and presents, now shop around for small but thoughtful gifts and know a lovely cheap independent card shop. Used to love a new book from Waterstones but now it's charity shops and I return them afterwards so they can sell them again. No more Costa's hot chocolate with extra cream and marshmallows with my daughter on our trips to town. Used to love buying the odd food treat from M&S every week and a few ready meals but this has all stopped too. Do lots of walking as I don't drive but I don't use the bus either as I think of what that £1 could be spent on and it's doing me good to walk. Lost my job in July 2010 and can manage without my part-time wage with these sort of changes plus really thinking hard before buying any non-essentials. Makes me wonder now if I could have saved years of wages.

burge23

The sky boxes do work for Freesat but for some bizarre reason if you want Channel 5 you have to pay a one off £20 fee for their Freesat card. :mad:

On another note wee one's school have a total ban on nut products. Having searched in vain for lunchbox treats acceptable for both school and a sophisticated 5 year old (or so he tells me he is;)) I found totally nut free muffins, flapjacks and Cupcakes by a certaain fabulous baking company. They are almost always half price in one of the supermarkets and for once I get brownie points from teeny terror!:D

burge23

[QUOTE=roosterpotatoes;41616320

Re-reading all of this has made me come to realize how stingey I am;)[/QUOTE]

Not stingey at all.....just emminently practical! M i L who lives with us was disbelievingly querying if our bills had gone up since her arrival. :mad: Have been gently explaining the impact and need for money saving. Meat goes 1 meal where is previously did 2, we'd be as well moving a cow into the back garden with the amount of milk we get through and looking into shares in a coffee plantation:( This site is keeping us just about sane and just about solvent! You have to

jumblejack

r.a.i.n.b.o.w wrote: »

Don't say that too loud!! If you have a TV or DVD player, or anything that can receive TV signals (will probably include PCs very soon) then you should have a licence, even if it just sits in a cupboard and you just use it once a year for games/DVD!

Hi. We have tv but don't pay a license. We wrote to explain that we only use our tv for DVDs/consoles (which is entirely true!) 9 years ago. We have had about 3 visits since and each time they left entirely satisfied but advised us to let them know the moment our circumstances change. Our aerial is cut also where it enters the house. Tv catchup sites are a new luxury which is a great thing for us to use occasionally.

Hope it helps.

zarazara

holidays,going out for meals,magazines,DVD's,visiting the pub,buying garden plants,renewing things in the house,going out for drives in the car to see places and people,buying decent cuts of meat. Must have saved a lot of money but it doesnt feel it at all because we didnt have the money in the first place so its not "saved" anywhere,it was never there in the first place,unlike years ago when we were better off financially.

kitschy

adelight wrote: »

Swapped magazines for blogs, I could easily spend £20 a month on magazines and papers.

Totally second this - blogs are so much better, there's something for everyone, and half of the magazine is adverts anyway. Real people are infinitely more interesting than celebrities as well.

Dippypud

gizzie121 wrote: »

You'd save up for a freesat box really quickly if you got rid of Sky first. It would only take you a couple of months.

Keep your Sky box, ask for a Freesat from Sky card, (used to be £10,but I heard it's gone up), from Sky a one off payment.

More channels than A Freesat box no extra cost...:money:

If you've got Sky HD +, you can keep the record function for £10 per year.

Try http://http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/what-can-i-watch/ for more info

[Deleted User]

I quit smoking almost 4 years ago. Just that alone has probably saved me over a grand!

pigpen

r.a.i.n.b.o.w wrote: »

Don't say that too loud!! If you have a TV or DVD player, or anything that can receive TV signals (will probably include PCs very soon) then you should have a licence, even if it just sits in a cupboard and you just use it once a year for games/DVD!

No you don't.

You need a license if you watch tv programmes at the time they are shown.. live streaming.. you can watch stuff like iplayer after it has been shown on tv.. you can own a tv without a license for consoles DVD/VHS.

You have to have a license if you do not own a tv but live stream on your phone or computer. Also if you record from live tv and watch later.

Full details are on the tv licensing website

Very proud to have not watched 'live' tv in 20 years.. though we have one now for the consoles.. we do not have an aerial