Quarter life crisis - advice needed on spending & life

PasturesNew

Blogger wrote: »

Monthly ---- Annual figures

• Coffee ---- £20.00 ---- £240.00
• Toiletries ---- £20.00 ---- £240.00
• Food ---- £300.00 ---- £3,600.00
• Emergency saving ---- £100.00---- £1,200.00
• Gym ---- £120.00 ---- £1,440.00
• Going out / holiday ---- £60.00 ---- £720.00
• Gifts ---- £50.00 ---- £600.00

I've removed the things that are "needs" and some "wants" that are important to you... leaving just the things that stuck out to me.

Coffee - I spend £2/month on instant coffee.
Toiletries - I spend £2-3/year on a good brand shampoo/conditioner and shower gel and £1/year on deodorant. Toothpaste is £2/year.
Food - how much??? you should be able to halve that easily.
Saving - isn't really on this list is it as that never actually leaves you
Gym - how much??? you stated in one post that it's worth it for your health.... I smoke, never exercise, eat crisps/chocolate most days (other days I am eating pies/chips) and in the past 30 years I've had about 3 colds.
Going out/holiday - could be cut back if you really WANT savings to grow.
Gifts - way too much. Start to learn to be tight

debrag

Blogger wrote: »

Maybe it depends on area.. honestly I have no idea how but the £66 is definitely the correct figure. :think:

I live in Bromley

ellesbellesxxx

Toiletries wise you can def cut way back!

I get B00ts own shampoo and conditioner - £1.29 each but using a bit each time, every day they last ages - you can get those pump bottles too - they are really good!
Shower gel own brands good too!
Soap - own brand again!
Lidls own moisturiser is fab - even smells nice!
Body moisturiser - whatever is on offer. Although have just spotted the post about making your own and am very interested!
My OH's shower gel and shampoo lasts for months - I usually get his bits on special offer when they are on offer then months later they are still going!

There are loads of Savers shops which sell these things for a pittance - is it worth every couple of months heading to one of these and stocking up?

Cosmetic wise I only ever seem to buy these once a year when there is a B00ts offer on...but they go on forever as don't wear make up every day.

Have you got a Waitr0se nearby? If so, get their loyalty card each - you get a free coffee each everyday! £240 a year towards deposit xxx

Zoology_Dragon

PasturesNew wrote: »

Toiletries - I spend £2-3/year on a good brand shampoo/conditioner and shower gel and £1/year on deodorant. Toothpaste is £2/year.

How do you manage this? I can't buy many shampoos (contact allergy to SLS) but I have no idea how you spend so little on the other things.

OP - I used to live in London and I actually don't think you're doing too badly. £60 per month for a gym in zone 1 is pretty cheap but I would definitely do some research and make it a priority to find somewhere cheaper for when your contract ends, you can't substitute the facilities of a good gym with walking around the block, the two things just aren't comparable. Our food budget when living in London was £240 for two of us so I'm sure you can cut down a bit there too.

Soundgirlrocks

Hi Wandsworth has very low council tax so guessing OP is there. I would recommend a house share my boyfriend and I lived in a share for two years paying £600 all inc for a really massive room, (and before that I was in a smaller room in the same place £350) Bit of a kooky set up but help save loads of money and met some really great friends as well. Have a look round there are some good deals out there.

Second the gym there are some great parks in south London to go for a run in and have a look at if your work supports the ride to work scheme. You can get a bike tax free if they do and you'll save your transport & gym cost plus have more free time as your using your commute time to exercise.:D

Petlamb

Totally random point, but for a lot of things look at the ingredients/active amounts. Toothpaste - the 17p(ish) tesco value has a perfectly healthy fluoride level. I have psoriasis, so was looking to get some oilatum for the bath recently, but baby oil is made of the same main ingredient (liquid paraffin) so got that (1/10th the price). It's little things like that which can pull down your toiletry spend.

Elena_Handcart

Hello there Blogger,

as you can see - I can't sleep again - so I thought I would have a little read of your post.

Well done on posting, it seems to me that you & your partner have quite a good handle on managing your finances and looking to plan for the future.

My first thought was that, although you have posted your expenses - you haven't actually posted your salaries. Do you have much spare cash after the monthly outgoings of £2405 a month?

then there are your travel expenses. I know that living in London is VERY expensive for travelling. Is there a possibility that you could invest in a bike? this way could you reduce your travel expenses and at the same time increase your efforts at keeping fit? Or maybe - could you get off the train/underground a couple of stops early and walk the last few stops to work. Hopefully, by getting off a few stops early you would not need to pay quite so much, and you get the extra exercise.

You mentioned that you have a one bedroom flat (£900 a month) plus a lot of your friends are in similar situations. Are your friends close enough - that you could possibly enter into a house share? You could shop around and hopefully get rent reductions for you and your friends. Although - your gas & electric are very reasonable - so you could be gaining & losing if you took this route.

You mentioned your partners student loan - is this your only unsecured debt? if it is - WELL DONE, you are already doing great. if not, you might want to list your debt repayments as well, as these will impact on your ability to save towards your dreams.

On the question of the money for your Mum. This is obviously important to you - so keep doing it. If it was putting you into debt, then I would suggest reducing it, but if you can afford it just carry on because it is obviously something that means a lot to you.

Gym membership - as above, could you change your fitness program to include free activities (bike / walking / street joging etc). Again - this is a trade off between living for now and/or saving for tomorrow.

Gifts - I don't think that £50 a month is extravegant. What it does show is that you are actually budgeting for the inevitable expense of gift giving (rather do that than throw away stupid money buying a last minute gift and paying on a credit card). Maybe - your christmas gifts to your partner could be a £100 savings account and you could look on it as buting the first few bricks in your new home? (This doesn't work so well if you are buying for Mum or Sis)

Toiletries - Well again these are a necessity for some people and not for others. Could you maybe go down a brand or two? Plus, what I have been doing is signing up for all the freebie websites. Quite often they will send you samples plus money off vouchers. A great way to try new products, and get reserve stocks in.

Phones - I think you could make savings here, but it will depend on your needs. personally - I get away with a PAYG mobile and put £30 on every 6 months (haha - I can't have many friends!!). I rather cheekily use the phones at work, (I don't take the Micky, just enough to keep in touch with the nearest & dearest).

On that note, my employers are also very generous, because they pay for me to charge the phone/ipad/laptop etc. We are probably only talking pennies but it all helps.

Well - I think I will run off now, but just wanted to say that you shouldn't despair. It sounds like you are relatively debt free, and have set yourself some understandable goals. I found that in order to realise my dreams I had to think what do I want in say 3 years time. If your aim is to have a depopsit for a house - then you will probably need a minimum of £30k. that breaks down to £10k a year. So you need to be saving about £800 a month. That breaks down to £400 a month each per month (saving £400 a month already sounds a lot better than finding £30,000, doesn't it?). The trick is to work out how you can achieve this and how much you are willing to give up/reduce now in order to get it in 3 years or 5 years or your own deadline date.

Best of luck:beer:
E_H

theoretica

A thing I find with little luxuries is that they look very different in bulk from considered individually. No-one is saying that changing your shampoo use will change your finances all by itself, but that it is worth looking at all your non-essentials together and prioritising. I know when I go to the supermarket smoked salmon will catch my eye (I like it and £5 isn't really expensive) then the luxury chocolate biscuits... out of season berries, Green and Black's icecream. I have realised that if I let it the cost mounts up faster than the enjoyment.

maddiemay

Hi there, well done for posting your outgoings. You are a lovely daughter and hopefully in time your mum will find employment.

I think you have been given some useful pointers for savings on food, communications and perhaps gifts. Have a good look at the OS boards, something like a slow cooker (if you don't already use one) can save money and would give you a lovely meal when you get in late. Some really good meals can be produced by the "chuck it all in method" when you are pushed for time LOL. You might be able to shave something off toiletries etc by doing a raid on the cheaper shops and special offers in Boots and Superdrug, I try and buy all deodorant, toothpaste and shower gels that way, while still using quite nice brands, I don't mind having 3-4 months in stock.

If you were my daughter I would be much happier for you to be excercising safely in the Gym and having some shared time with your OH, running and certainly cycling in London IMHO could be far too risky. My OH is a lifelong cyclist (in the country) and I am fully aware of the rising number of experienced cyclists who are being seriously injured or killed each year.

If you don't already do it try carrying a little notebook with you and recording every penny you spend over a month, you might find you can cut or reduce the frequency of a few spends.

Good luck.

PS Keep up the pension savings - so very important.

Blogger

theoretica wrote: »

A thing I find with little luxuries is that they look very different in bulk from considered individually. No-one is saying that changing your shampoo use will change your finances all by itself, but that it is worth looking at all your non-essentials together and prioritising. I know when I go to the supermarket smoked salmon will catch my eye (I like it and £5 isn't really expensive) then the luxury chocolate biscuits... out of season berries, Green and Black's icecream. I have realised that if I let it the cost mounts up faster than the enjoyment.

I cannot agree more! there are so many temptations everywhere and if you give in to one you will easily give in to pretty much all. This ia where the debt problems start I think. You will always want more than you can afford if you do not learn to control yourself. We were lucky because our desires did not outweigh what we could afford so we did not get into debts. I also love all those things you listed but like you I also not buy and reserve these pleasures for occasional treats which makes them that extra special.

Elena_Handcart

Many thanks for your posts and advice! It is invaluable! Our earnings outweigh our spending budget by 1200 roughly but it depends. Sometimes unexpected cost pop up so we end up being skinned, things like relocation cost or additional travel costs, or "necessary visit" to relatives.. THis is why we try to minimise everything we can. In the past we used to go on holidays twice a year for a week or so but now I we stopped. Our badget is only a fraction so we will have to be more creative.

For traveling there is not much we can do sadly. He already walks to and from work and uses TFL for just necessary travel but I am travelling form Zone 1 to Hertfordshire. So this is TFL cost for zone 1-5 + train from Zone 5 to Hertfordshire. Before travel fares went up I used to get up really early to catch a train off peak hours and buy ticket daily thus saving £5 a week but after the increase there is no point My train fares went up approximately 18% and tube by £100 off per year.


House share- yes, we looked into that. The location which satisfies most people would be further than where we live so my partner would be paying zone 1 tube fare to get to work which is £112 per month. In addition the average house was approximately 2.5K +bills. So on average we would be paying more than here + travel costs. Normally when you share with friends people pay per person and not per room but if you rent a room somewhere then you pay for room and slightly extra for couple. It is definitely worth looking into.

Student loan is a government loan. you only pay back if you earn over 19K per year and interest is very low too.

Zoology Dragon
You are right. Food budget is something we can look into definitely. Where did you shop if you do not mind me asking? Was it markets or major supermarkets?


Soundgirlrocks We live right on the edge of the City of London but it definitely is £66. Perhaps it is a mistake from council but I am not going to ask them to correct it :rotfl:

ellesbellesxxx fantastic advice for waitrose! but dont you have to buy anything in their coffee shop like pastries to get free coffee? I normally go for coffee only but I think minimum spend there is £1.50.

maddiemay


Thank you very much for your post!

2 years ago I got hit by a car when I was cycling and the car did not even stop. Luckily I did not break anything and it was a minor damage to myself. It is extremely dangerous to cycle in central London. We took the bike to his parents house and it now lives there.

I got spending app, so does my partner and it VERY useful to control one's spending!

I think many factors determine how much you can save. Our location is good for some things and not so good for frugal living. I can never find tesco value toothpaste or tesco value tuna because tesco nearby me does not stock it and if I have to order online the delivery costs negate the savings when you have no space for bulk purchase. Right now I am concentrating on few tips from here and to increase my income by all means I can.