Planning a year of money saving and life bettering?

Mint1955

I have also started to organise myself for 2012. Moneywise I now have a spreadsheet for all the pots/envelopes (I just keep it in an esavings account but the spreadsheet shows where the total is split) Bills and standing orders are setup and we have done a budget this is going to be a fun year as DH is redundant from this month.
For the house stuff I am using a paper diary for the usual birthdays sort car tax etc etc using last years diary to mark 2012 one plus also add in extra jobs to do like get prescription, update xmas card list, as and when I think of things but I am going to go with the app on my iphone which covers everything I need to do in the house daily plus special tasks and one of's. You can change it for your own things and I used it for the last 3 months of 2011 and I really like it. If its not on the task list I am going to ignore it LOL It does cost but I think its the way for me this year.
I am also going to make sure I get out more as I am now at home after working all my life and somethimes dont see anyone and I am getting very isolated. SO I will attemp to find things that are free and diary them as events each week plus excersise which is another thing I have let slip and the decluttering of choc and good food has taken its toll by throwing 6lbs on the scales!!!

luvabargain

Hi all, I've been glued to OS moneysaving for past fortnight! Back to work tomorrow but I've got a completely new mindset and hobby now, saving money. Everyone on here is brilliant and there are so many ideas.
This year I WILL get some savings behind us instead of spending it all on bargains on the grabbit now thread where I used to hang out lol. Anyway got the diary, am a list maker already but now have all in one place, great idea. Logged my first GC budget, high but happy to come in under that as a starting point. Can't believe how little some people spend on food so lots of motivation to get that spend down. Also realised yesterday that I was stupidly paying £78 a year(£2 a week for unlimited drinks but only have ten cups of tea a week!!) into 'tea money' fund at work!!! When if I took my own tea it would cost me '400 teabags and a bit of milk every day for year. I'm obviously subsidising all the coffee and earl grey tea drinkers!! Also cancelled £8 a month Unison membership deducted from wages as didn't strike when asked so what's the point. Another £90 ish saved. Sorry it's long reply but I'm bursting with enthusiasm lol. Gotta to try and keep up once I get back to work.

luvabargain

Mint1955 . At last someone like me!! I have a main budget spreadsheet but also several other ones that break down the pots and monitor the individual budgets throughout the year. Then have a box with lots of money bags with cash in that gets spent at different times of month but all gets drawn out at once. Husband thinks I'm crazy but it works for me. also use my iPhone as diary but transferring jobs to do lists into new diary a week at a time ( instead of a notebook which I did anyway ) then got a record of when I last did something. Got so much more done around house as I like to see all the ticks off to investigate star drops and white vinegar now lol.

oliviarosejackson

Hi everyone,

well I have been doing reasonably well at being organised. Am slowly getting there with the house. But have made vast improvements in other areas

We spent the morning trying to cut down our bills. We cut our Virgin down to the basic package, so now only paying £41 for TV, phone and broadband. I wanted to cancel the TV and use freeview, but we are tied into our contract for another 6 months and we would of had to have paid the £80 cancellation fee, which would of cut out two months worth of savings. So we are keeping it until June and then will look at getting rid of the TV then. But we will be saving roughly £20/30 per month Our gas and electricty is due for renewal middle of this month. They were going to nearly double our price plan, so we have switched, saving ourselves £8 per month :0 Wish we had done it last month though, as it is going to take around 8 weeks to switch. Luckily we are in credit with them now, so that should cover most of the increase in our plan until we switch.

I have started to log my day to day spending in my little work diary and I am going to invest in an A4 day to day diary once I can get to the shop to write everything in for the day.

I have also set up a few savings accounts to run alongside our current account. I now have pots for car savings £10 so far and shall transfer the outstanding balance from the bills account every month (usually around £50), christmas 2012 savings £60 so far and shall save this amount every month (also putting £2 on saving stamp card), House savings £800 so far (we had a free month from OH wages, as he gets paid 4 weekly) Going to aim to save £100 per month into this and lastly shopping savings, I am rounding the bank accounts down to leave an even balance, this shall be for new shoes/clothes/school uniform for DD, currently has £13 in it. We also have a jar which I am saving all silver coins in (kids get copper coins in their tin).

So all in all I am quite pleased with what I am doing. I am going to list a few things on eBay at the weekend. I also have a few big baby items to try and sell and once the weather gets warmer I am going to do a carboot sale to get rid of the bulk of our clutter.

happycrafter_2

Great Thread, has me motivated to get organised. This is my year to get sorted and back on track I started to do this last year but I lost someone very close to me and it threw everything upside down for the rest of the year

Will check out the GC thread again after work and start to plan my shopping lists for payday.

Grannyknits

Wow Zepsgal, just read through from the beginning and can not tell you all how much you have inspired me. You started a really great thread. :T It makes me feel as though I will be able to suceed with the support of posts like all the ones in this thread. Each year since I discovered mse and Fly lady, I have added little bits to my life but couldn't manage to do everything at once. I think I wanted/expected perfection all at once and because I couldn't it overwhelmed me and sent me in the opposite direction! Reading the posts has helped me to think that it is ok to do things in stages and that when I start thinking about what I have put in place is better than nothing.

I have a filofax and a wall calander (which I hang on wall next to fridge so it's always in view). I go through last years pages and transfer all birthdays and important days through onto new ones. I make a note a week before the birthdays to get the present and cards sorted and posted off if need be. I have a lever arch A4 folder with plastic inserts and named 14 dividers with the months of the year. At the front I have listed all the Birthdays in order. Every 3 months I look at the Next 3 months worth of b.days and buy cards, then put them in the plastic inserts in month order. If I have a bit of spare money I try to get them year to year. The 2 extra inserts I use for general birthdays and blank cards. I also try to buy Christmas cards in sale for next year and make special cards through the year.

I use a white board in the kitchen for evening meal menu. We do this as a family on Sat for next week (my youngest DD loves to do this & then helps with baking and finding ingredients). I can usually do meals based on what I have bought either reduced or on offer previous week.

I have a folder for Christmas with inserts printed off O.C. I then have records of what I bought everyone going back several years. I have another (home) folder with inserts printed off F.Lady & O.C for year to organise cleaning etc, similar lists to other posts. I love lists and think that actually writing things down helps me to remain focused and remember things. I can see the point of just having one book to use with everything in one place though. I think for me, I can change pages and lists to suit my needs using printouts and A4 paper. I think that's the great thing about these threads, people are so generous with their hints and tips that we can take what suits us and tailor a really good method for ourselves.

I am not buying any toileteries or cleaning products certainly for January and hopefully February as I have so much stuff hoarded up. This will have added bonus of freeing up cupboard space too so more place to [STRIKE] hide [/STRIKE] put my fabric and yarn stash! Which I have also vowed not to buy any more of until i've used at least half up! My really guilty buy is magazines, I have loads of quilting and knitting ones. I really have to stop.

I save £2 coins (£48 from 17th Dec!) and have various bottles for loose change. This year I have opened an esaver and set up a s.o every month for Christmas. I am following the Thrifty Gifty challenge thread so hopefully this will cover all Christmas presents but have a large family to buy for so might need a bit extra!) and do surveys and shopandscan to pull in as much as I can. I join in with Rudolph day to make presents for Christmas too. I feel especially challenged as I can not work to bring any money in so that's why I love these threads.

mummybearx

Grannyknits, I love the idea of a birthday folder! Ive started marking birthdays in my big book, but a reminder a week before is a great idea! No point noting the day if you wake up that morning and realise you don't have a gift or a card!!

Im hoping to craft a bit more myself, I have a sewing machine and a lot of fabric, should do more with that. Hopefully could make some birthday presents, christmas presents etc. Help the piles of craft stuff and help the budget, and give me a hobby that I am so lacking! Could work out perfectly lol!

Me and DH made a start on clearing out the spare room. He uses it as a workshop for building and repairing guitars, it's turned into a bit of a pigsty. I cleared out a binbag of rubbish and a bigbag of recycling without breaking a sweat! Hoping that by clearing it up, DH will be happier in there (and do more so he brings in more money!!) and by clearing more space I can get rid of the stash of guitars currently in my kitchen. In turn this will make the kitchen tidier, ticking another thing off my list :j

Oh man, Im loving this whole thread and idea! It's making me want to work a bit harder so I can report back and tell you all how well Im doing :T

janiepopps

Yay! GrannyK, you are the most organised person I 'know'!

I bought myself a new diary today after reading this thread. I went for a A5 page a day one and have so far listed birthdays, direct debits, meals over the next week and shopping needed for them, things to use up in the fridge, to do's, daily income/outgoings, cat & chooks medication dates, daily spends. I'm sure there will be even more going in it too!

I do some research work too and have room to jot down project outlines or requests made during phone calls too so I always know where that info will be (have used scraps of paper up till now with dire consequences).

Bloody brilliant idea Zepsgal, thank you so much for posting!

lilac_lady

Reading this, I've resurrected my filofax. The trick is to use it!

mummybearx

Lilac_lady, I won a filofax last year and never used it It's a lovely pink leather one too, I should ebay it seeing how Im using a free diary I got lol!

Tuesday I made the potato and swede pasty's from The River Cottage Veg book, me and DH had one each with beans. Put the other two in the fridge and had them last night. Made a pot of soup while I was in the kitchen stirring the beans

Another way to keep myself on track with the grocery challange, have a meal prepared the night before! I know when I get in from work that I can't be bothered doing anything for ages, so by having that soup ready to heat tonight when I get in, Im fed about 2 hours before I usually am. Means at 8pm when Im usually making dinner, I can be doing housework and writing more lists :T