Saving money at home

mrsw21012

I have just calculated that from Dec to March, on top of our usual bills, we have an additional £1500 going out (Car and Bike both need MOT, Service and Tax, Lighting needed fixing at home, 2 new tyres on the car plus spends for a holiday in Feb)

We have decided now we are married to turn our wedding jar into a Christmas jar and put our change etc into it to get food etc for next xmas - I've also signed up for a loyalty card with the orange supermarket and signed up to receive my vouchers with the blue supermarket in Nov to help with Christmas.

We don't live beyond our means but I would like to save money where I can.

We used to shop fortnightly (£50) but found we would run out of fresh stuff, so I now shop weekly (£25) and buy things like large packs of mince for £2.20 and make a big chilli which does the two of us 5 meals each.

We're not extravagant spenders - we pay our bills, have money each to spend per month and put money away eahc month. It just seems that everything is getting so expensive, especially groceries.

Any other suggestions?

lushlifesaver

I'm sorry I can't help more but I just wanted to post and say you are not alone and this is the best place to come for support and advice!

I know that the next three years are going to be some of our hardest as bf competes/trains for a place at Rio2016 so I'm doing the 52 week challenge. Basically for each week of the year you save that much so week 1= £1, week 2=£1, wk 3 (this week)=£3. You add it all to the same pot/account and at the end of the year it should add up to over £1000 (just over £1300 I think off the top of my head). Obviously more noticeable as you get further on in the year but my aim is that with doing the grocery challenge (a great thread to join on here) etc I believe I will be able to do it as I will have prepared in advance.

Hopefully some more helpful peeps will pop along soon

bargainbetty

Just a thought, but if your vehicles need MOT, service and tax, you might want to be a bit creative.

Firstly, do you actually NEED them both serviced right now? While recommended, you could wait a while.

Secondly, get your MOT done at a proper test centre rather than via a mechanic. You often find that you don't need nearly as much done as you think, and you only pay for the test. Look up your nearest one online.

Thirdly, why not pay for six months tax rather than a year. You can save up for a year's tax by July, and then you have the advantage of the service, MOT and tax not all falling due at once in future too.

You have to do certain things, but this might help you shuffle them a bit to fall more kindly for you.

Good luck x

Butterfly_Brain

Unless the car and bike are brand new/still under warranty I would skip the service, it is basically a very expensive check up on the car such as oil change, water top up screen wash, wipers etc, if anything needs doing urgently the MOT will throw it up. My car is 20 years old and my DH keeps it going by doing basic checks every month and replacing things himself when they need replacing, this has saved us thousands over the years.

karren

I agree about the servicing my friends dad services ours, we tend to save hundreds this way, and my cars 9 year old and still in good condition, our other car was same, ive no intention on selling on until shes very eldery and entitled to pension!