how much longer can this go on for...

BabyElephant

OK - first of i apologise if this isn't in the right place

we have been managing on the same amount of money to "live" for the past 7 years. i don't know how i've done it - well actually i do know how i've done it but i don't if you see what i mean - but i have managed to keep our budget the same for the past 7 years. this is in a time when as you all know interest rates on our mortgage have increased, decreased and increased again, water rates have increased, gas and electricity have increased, telephone rental has increased and so has everything else and i have managed to keep our living allowance with the same amount.

i figured today would be the day that i would have to increase the budget - our buildings and contents renewal came through. it cost us £38 per month 7 years ago and i have managed to get better premiums every year. last year we paid £20.80 per month and i fully expected it to go up. it did go up - to £20.81 i figured there wasn't much point shopping around since we'd got such a good price last year and i probably couldn't beat it, but i tried anyway because that's the sort of person i am i was shocked to find i can get it even lower and have found a premimum of £13.41 :T

i was just wondering how much longer i can go on saving money like this, i mean if this carries on they will be paying me to have their insurance - lol

is anybody else in this boat - hubby can't believe that i've managed it on the same amount for so long....

Spendless

well done you :T . Out of interest why are you getting the same wage as 7 years ago?

Counting_Pennies_2

Whatever you do check the small print about what it does and does not cover you.

Having had to claim several times this year on both car and house insurance, I am agast at what wasn't covered in our hours of need.

Read the small print and ask the company what isn't covered and ask them to put it in writing if it isn't.

What wasn't covered on our everyday 'highstreet' cover cost us over £1000

BabyElephant

no, i'm not getting the same wage, i'm talking about our monthly budget for living on is the same as 7 years ago - sorry for the confusion

Counting_Pennies wrote:

Whatever you do check the small print about what it does and does not cover you.

Having had to claim several times this year on both car and house insurance, I am agast at what wasn't covered in our hours of need.

Read the small print and ask the company what isn't covered and ask them to put it in writing if it isn't.

What wasn't covered on our everyday 'highstreet' cover cost us over £1000

thanks - i'm a bit of a stickler for those things, i won't sign up to anything until i've seen and ready the full policy document - been in the same situation as you in the past and determined not to go there again. also our neighbour has just had to fork out a load of money for his fence which was blown down in the recent storms and he's found out his insurance didn't cover him... it is not a nice situation to be in having to find that sort of money.

Spendless

BabyElephant wrote:

no, i'm not getting the same wage, i'm talking about our monthly budget for living on is the same as 7 years ago - sorry for the confusion

Sorry. I re-read your post and realised what you meant . How fascinating, sorry I've now got loads of questions.What made you decide to do this? What have you found the most difficult and have you saved or spent the money you've saved and on what -I'm very nosey-lol:D

BabyElephant

are you sure you want to know spendless - it's a lengthy story - lol

when we first moved in to this house 7 years ago we were on a discounted rate mortgage, we knew after 2 years once the discount had ended if the interest rates went up to what they were when we took out the mortgage then we would have to pay a few hundred pounds more every month. we could afford it but we didn't want to, we wanted to keep our budget the same. hubby and i also have some very personal experiences with our parents when we were growing up that meant we didn't want to spend more than a certain amount so i started on the money saving quest.

the most difficult has been this past 12 months, i have managed to do all the big things like gas, electrcity switching, water saving etc but then i was stuck - then i got told about this site and started doing the moneysaving old style stuff, and i was back on a roll again - lol

the other thing i find difficult is actually spending money - take going out as an example, we have got that used to moneysaving that going out for a meal seems like such a waste of money... or buying clothes, paying full price for stuff seems like a crime :eek:

my dog is something i have spent my money on and she has been by far the most worthwhile amount of money i have ever spent but i still carry on money saving with her - i make my own dog treats for her and i even made all 3 of the dog beds that she has in order for them to match our decor and not cost the earth - lol

as for other things, we had our first holiday 3 years ago - and we'd been together for 12 years at that point and never had a holiday. we even did moneysaving on that too using points for tunnel crossings.

apart from that we've saved the rest, getting the best interest rates we can. now our mortgage is out of a penalty period we're just about to switch and i'm going to get a mortgage pig and feed it :j as well as making regular overpayments.

one thing i will admit to is that my planning didn't always run smoothly in the early years and i had a couple of months when fund transfers didn't take place between bank accounts when they should have and i ended up with bank charges . but now i'm claiming those back thanks to this site as well.

hope that answers all your questions - but if you have more i don't mind

roswell

Shhh dont tell the goverment or your boss or we may be in deflation and in that case we wont need pay rises.. what ever you don dont tell Mr Brown or he will want more of your income.

Spendless

Thank you. One of the reasons I'm so interested is we had our eldest child nearly 7 years ago, so that was the point when our household income dropped. I roughly know what are incomings were back then, but I don't know about out-goings. We have moved to a bigger house since and so have a larger mortgage, but I think yours is a great idea. Hubby got a big salary increase from the beg of the year and I'm thinking I want to take your idea on board and try it myself. :beer:

MATH

I have sourced same cover but cheaper buildings/contents and car insurance for the last 10 years:j This year I didn't think I would be able to beat the renewal price and I was right but one company was offering £50 back if they couldn't beat it so I asked them to try and enjoyed cashing my £50 cheque when it came through:D

Each year I have reduced projected budgets. As a family of five we are living on less than Mrs MATH and I spent when we were just a couple 15 years ago. I am so glad I've constantly cut back as Mrs MATH lost her well-paid job last year and has had to take one earning half of what she earned before. We still manage tho...sometimes I think money must be elastic, if you pull it hard enough it's amazing how far it will go. LOL