2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

System

SandraScarlett wrote: »

Well done you cw18, on getting that turkey crown for such a fabulous price! It's a question of being on the spot as things are reduced, and you were in the right place at the right time. :j

Moaning Myrtle, you've done the really hard part, so don't underestimate your achievement - you've written all your expenditure down, :eek: and you're asking for advice. As I said in an earlier post, you'll get brilliant tips from others on how to save, and it's like a buffet, except you take the tips you'd like to utilise, instead of food!

I'm fortunate enough to be an ol' gel, and have a London Freedom Pass, so don't spend a farthing on travel. I used to meet up with friends regularly, and we'd have frugal lunches, using 2 for 1 vouchers, but my downfall was Costa Coffee Skinny Cappucinos. I realised that if I went out, say, 3 times a week, and had 3 coffees each day out, I was spending ............ £1,000 a year on Costas!!:eek::eek::eek:

What a waste. So I decided to have just one a week. That's still over £100 a year, but a huge saving. I know your total spends might look frightening, but if you total the mortgage, council tax, loan repayment and diesel - all of which are "musts" rather than "wants" - they result in over £15,000 of your expenditure.

Perhaps you could look at the remaining £8,500 and see if you could aim for a savings figure that's "do-able" for you, if it's £1 a week (£50), £10 a week (£500) or whatever. It's like when you go on a diet. What could you do without, that wouldn't make you feel deprived? It may be the gym, or using £2 worth of vouchers each week, or stretching the requirements of 5 meals to stretch to 6.

Whatever you decide, we're with you all the way. :beer:

xx

Thanks for the advice, that is really good words of wisdom, i'm going to take that onboard and try to find a way to reduce our food bills each week now.

System

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Hi Myrtle - honestly, don't be disheartened ... mine's £12,500 and there's only me! :eek:

Some things there's little we can do about - mortgage, council tax etc (and these amounts would be very similar even if there were say 2 of us living here but there's nothing I can do about that either unfortunately:)) so it's trying to look at where savings can be made and making sure there's no unnecessary "waste"

A couple of things leapt out at me ... (I'm on the DFW boards a lot so see a lot of SOAs!) - I haven't added the totals, just general thoughts:

• Mobile phones - £60 between the 2 is a lot each month. Is there any way hubby can reduce his package? Could either/both of you switch to PAYG and use your mobiles for emergencies only? Honestly, it's not that bad once you get out the habit of phoning/texting everyone all the time - I used to be very attached to my mobile and I've managed to cut back huge amounts by adopting this - I can use the landline for free in the house in, so why pay during the day? I topped up my mobile in Dec '10 with £40 .... I will have to do it soon as down to my last £3 but not bad going!:)
• Gym - as others have said, that's a pretty whopping amount each month... if you use it to the full & it's one of the things that you enjoy & would be very hard to give up, then that's fine but something to think about (eg can you use during the day for a reduced fee, how many times do you go/week & could you do this cheaper without the membership etc)
• Business - again, not sure why this would be in your household expenditure?
• Insurances - shop around at renewal times to see if you can get lower
• Gas / Elec - a bit on the high side - try comparison sites
• Entertainment / clothes / anything else - I can't see anything down for these?

HTH:)

Mobile Phones - we are gadget freaks - we don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't go out (painting a lovely picture of us!!) but gadgets we both are into, and so we do like to have the latest phones. I really don't think there's anyway around this one.

Gym - We are actually tied into a 12 month contract, which doesn't end until the summer. In the new year, like everyone else, we will get our money's worth from the membership. Then in the summer hopefully we will be happy to move to a cheaper gym, possibly a payg gym.

Business - we both work full-time but run a very small business in our spare time. It doesn't bring in a whole lot of money, really just pocket money. This is the only monthly bill we have for the company, and it comes out our bills because there's no company fund or bank account, because the business is really a hobby more than anything.

Insurances - these have all been renewed recently so we have the best deals at the moment.

Gas/Electricity - I will do a comparison in the next few days and see if I can get it cheaper.

Entertainment/Clothes - I've not put anything down for these as, like i've said, we don't go out much, more into having people around at the house, so we save quite a lot of money from that point of view. Clothes wise - yeah we always want new clothes - but do we need it? We have a loft full of clothes so i'd say the answer is no! And we are quite lucky in that whenever it is our birthday or christmas it is always gift vouchers for clothes shops we get!

Buffythedebtslayer

I have a Very vague budget!

Its a bit hard really cos I live with Mum I *should* have loads of money but some how don't.

I have never really budgetted just cut back loads to pay off debts(stopped going out bought things as cheap as I could and didn't buy anything much really)

Since being debt free I have been massively silly with my cash. I have bought lots of stuff for the house, my pets, I passed my test so spent lots on the car had to pay for tax and insurance. ermm new furniture went on Holiday(first since 2004), bought new boots (first in five years!)

any how due to the Dentist I have a CC and that plus christmas spends I am back on the slippery slope again.

I won't outline my budget because I feel bad that I have been wasting so much and really have very few expenses. This should be easy!

I am aiming to save 1000 pounds each month. ie to have 1000 pounds left to pay off debts or to the dentist or to save (finally!)

I really hope I learn tips and make the most of what I have to make sure I don't waste money in 2012.

xxx

Cherryjack

Wow!! ive finally caught up on all your fab posts.. feeling hyped now reading them.. and needed the boost so thank you :-) Makes me want to check everything, sort out my stuff and get organised
2012 will change our lifes now after finding you lovely people and this site... im quite excited!

Rachel021967

Please can you put me down for 2012 challenge. I need to spend and waste less so we don't go into debt in 2012.
First task is to set a budget.

Erme

Och I'm going shopping today (not very frugal) so have a small budget :eek:....

Going where's there's loads of cheap shops and bargains to be had :j....Must be good but I have Ma to keep me right

And Me and SC stopped Ma from buying £90 worth of stuff for shoeboxes in M+S yesterday :j...Praise God...:money:

So Ma has said I can make my own sandwiches tomorrow ...that'll save £5 and like I have a flask for tea (cos I found one at Ma's old job on Thursday).....

So that's that sorted...:D

And like Cabbage soup diet for a few days on Friday to get this weight off so that will be cheap ...

Ma ordered me new hair dressing scissors yesterday as my crimbo present :j...so they should come next week sometime...

So yeah.....Doing okay so long as I can get the food shop for like £30 this week

E

patentgirl

Morning everyone
just stumbled on this thread and realised failed miserably last year got to do better this year due to me being made redundant last Nov so down to just one wage now although with me being out of work will be able to concentrate much more on allotment was being a bit neglected by end of last year from sept so looking forward to attacking that hoping get back to a year ago when DH managed it when he was out of work bringing in most of our fruit and veg homegrown now he has ajob again its my turn
will prepare a realsitic budget and get back and will read whole thread so could I please be added to list again!!

andrinaperry

Me too I am in the process of setting our budget not easy!!

stitching_witch

I've been working on the budget over the last few days and have shaved it down to £5000 not including rent, council tax, water and debt repayments. Figures for two adults and rounded up to the next 50p where necessary.

Electricity 90.00
Phone/broadband 52.50
Contents Insurance 14.00
TV Licence 12.50
RAC 10.50
Garage rental 30.50
Allotment/hens 3.50
Food * 75.00
Mobile 15.50
Bike MOT/Tax/Ins 19.00
Bike petrol 10.00
Car diesel** 20.00
Prescription prepay 10.50
Pension 40.00
TOTAL 403.50

* Food includes cleaning stuffs, toiletries and cat food.
**DH pays for car MOT/tax/insurance currently but we may need to rethink that when his JSA runs out if he hasn't got a job by then.

This equates to £4842 per annum so there's £158 (£13.17pcm) for anything I've forgotten. I realise there's nothing included for clothing, gifts etc but when I'm working on a budget that's in deficit to the tune of £70pcm these things are not important to me.

I paid off and closed one CC account this morning so that releases a small amount each month, and I realised if I buy a Prescription Prepay Certificate I can save around £4 a month too. It got to the stage [STRIKE]last[/STRIKE] this year I was doing without medication as I couldn't afford to pay the charges.

This year will be different....
stitchy x

SandraScarlett

We're a bonded band of Female Frugalistas
And we're staunchly doing everything we can
To support and help our Super Saving Sisters
(Though I do believe there is a lurking man!)

Now our spending trends have all been estimated
And, with courage, any problems we shall meet
We'll ensure that shopping trips are calculated
And, with luck, we'll find we'll still afford to eat!

Now we know there'll be some hiccups on our journey
P'raps appliances that break we must replace
But we'll shop around to get a super bargain
And, bravely, any problems we will face

So let us wave our Frugal Flag to Glory!!
We will conquer any problems, never fear
And, next Christmas, we can post each happy story
Of the huge amounts we all will save Next Year!!! :beer:

xx

Just doing my bit to get everyone hyped up and ready to rise to The Challenge!