Tips to stop spending!!

oopsadaisydoddle

Please with myself...only a small thing but it all helps. Was going to pop to Mc D's for my kids tea because DD been poorly with hay fever and she's (we've) been up all night with cough and wheeze. I am shattered so thought I'd go there to save me cooking.

Anyway, I resisted and made them some fishfingers and fries here and a paper aeroplane instead of a toy!!

They had fun and I saved about £5.50!!

oopsadaisydoddle

Well I've had a not too bad week. Set myself a budget of trying to only spend £50 out of the £60 I had and at present I've only spent about £20. We're going to have a takeaway tonight but that should be about £20 or less depending on whether DS' GF is here. I haven't got plans to buy anything else over the weekend although if it's nice we might get an ice cream at the park. If I have money left then I'll transfer it to a savings account in case there are any weeks where I might need extras. If at the end of the month, I have any of that left then it will go towards the card.

I also managed to persuade DH to phone Virgin and we've bagged a £16 discount on our current package - and we've also been upgraded to faster broadband at the same time!! Bonus!

I've got some clothes to take and get recycled and should get approx £15 - £20 for those. Also put some things on eBay so fingers crossed for them. My friend has asked me to do her nails and she said she would buy me a takeaway in return so that will be like a night out for me next week.

I have also sat and done a monthly meal planner instead of the weekly one I do and I think I can manage to chop my groceries budget. We get paid on 25th so think I will start with that from then.


DH also did some overtime yesterday so we should get about £100 for that. Will put that towards the renovations in the house though.

Hope everyone is well.x

chevalier

Why not open a regular saver so that some of that disposable income that is burning a hole in your pocket is locked away?

The other thing I would think of is the what ifs, ie what if one of you lost your job (say the company went bust and there was no redundancy), or one of you had an accident which meant you were on long term sick. Could you cope with your outgoings THEN? If not you need to treat funding an emergency fund as a debt your aren't 'paying off' at the moment.

Ideally having 3 months wages for each of you saved would be a start.

good luck
chev

oopsadaisydoddle

chevalier wrote: »

Why not open a regular saver so that some of that disposable income that is burning a hole in your pocket is locked away?

The other thing I would think of is the what ifs, ie what if one of you lost your job (say the company went bust and there was no redundancy), or one of you had an accident which meant you were on long term sick. Could you cope with your outgoings THEN? If not you need to treat funding an emergency fund as a debt your aren't 'paying off' at the moment.

Ideally having 3 months wages for each of you saved would be a start.

good luck
chev

Hi we both work for the same company - ahem - the biggest mobile provider!!! I've just moved to another dept and we're getting more work so hopefully than means I'm secure for the foreseeable debt busting future. DH is in a more specialist department where the company are putting him through some professional training so am hoping that means that he'll be secure for a little while.

If we were sick, we would both get 6 months full pay and as I'm hoping to get my debts clear by then anyway, hopefully that shouldn't be a problem. I will start to save for emergerncies after the debt is clear. As I said earlier, previously we never had rainy day savings as such but always had enough for emergencies (repairs for car, boiler etc ) and we didn't have any debt either. DH went through redundancy scares 3 years in a row so we're hoping that now things have been restructured, he might not have to go through it again for a while!! We are aware than it's always a possibility though.

Thanks for replying. Any input is much appreciated.

oopsadaisydoddle

Well we had takeaway last night and I've discovered that I don't actually enjoy it!! I don't know whether it's my IBS (sorry if TMI) but it just makes me feel all sluggish and horrible after. DH and DS like it though so I think I might opt out next week although I'll probably get the whole 'awwww aren't you having anything, it's not the same without you (?!!)' line! I shall resist though!

Was feeling a bit low last night but feeling a lot more positive this morning. Going to try and find something for the kids to do that doesn't cost and is not the park!!