HELP! Have cut back all I can but am still over-spending!

merlot123

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

You are spending a fiver a day, every day, on alcohol.

Cut this down, for both your financial, and health, well being.

Is this correct? If so, you are spending £5 per day on alcohol, yet you will not get contents insurance! Insurance is NOT a waste of money, it is there to help in an emergency, it costs very little for piece of mind.

I have got to say I like a tipple but not at the expense of my home.

Your priorities are obviously different from most people in your income bracket.

emsywoo123

OP, assuming this is all genuine, which I do believe it is, then I wish you good luck.

I believe the troll accusation was bandied about as you spend a considerable sum per month on groceries and alcohol, yet state you sometimes make your children share a meal when eating out and hide per bought drinks under a table!

That seems, at best, confusing.

sweetpea26

Hi SSaving

Hope you have got some help ... most people mean well I am sure but some can be just mean.

I think it is incredibly vital for you to have both building and contents insurance. I like yourself use to think that the money was wasted paying into the coffers of the large insurance companies until a few years ago I changed my mind.

Our home went on fire in broad daylight and within a few minutes it was ablaze due to an electric fault. We had to move out to temporary housing, which our insurance covered, we were amazed at the thousands of pounds required to structurally repair our home and the thousands,yes thousands it cost to replace basic items like furniture, clothing, bedding, curtains, toys,books, ornaments. We sadly lost items precious only to us, little baby momentos, wedding clothes that no money could ever replace.

A nightmare we could not have come out of if we had not had house insurance. So I sincerely think that you should consider the consequences for yourselves being put into such a position. We are non smokers and had smoke alarms galore and we switched everything off at the wall at night bar the fridge, freezer and alarm clock.

We thought it would never happen to us. Thankfully none of us were injured.

All the best with your money saving and keep posting.

ScrimpingandSaving

Wow.

Not sure what to say really. I came on here for advice and now am reading as my whole life is torn apart to everyone to scrutinise.

I'm not sure if I want to answer some accusations but I will do briefly.

We all make lifestyle choices and I am truly sorry that you disagree with mine. However I did not come on here to ask for anyone's approval. I came on seeking ways in which I could cut down my spending and I got a lot of great advice and I have taken most of that on board.

Now I am getting attacked and called a troll. Just how do I defend myself against that and should I even bother?

I am not happy about not having contents insurance but there you go. We don't have it and I haven't asked for opinions on this. Whatever you think, it's frankly none of your business and nothing to do with my original post. Yes something disasterous might happen and you can then hop up and down and say "I told you so!" or, we might go another 15, 20 years without anything happening and save ourselves a few more thousand. And don't bring my children into it as some kind of guilt trip, you have no idea who my children are and I actually resent someone telling me how bad I would feel if my children's toys were all burnt. That is uncalled for and in bad taste. I'm sure some of you make decisions that I would not agree with, but they are none of my business either. I don't agree with making insurance companies rich and having this paranoia about bad things happening - my choice and I stand by that. If the insurance quotes we had were more reasonable, or we got contents cover for free then I'd go for it. As for losing precious mementoes well insurance won't ever bring them back will it?

We do have buildings insurance and included in that is the cost of temporary accommodation, legal costs, etc.

Alcohol - I said quite early on in this thread that we do not drink that much yet people have latched onto this and think drink = alcohol. That's very presumptious. Here is what we drink in a usual week:

Friday evening 2 cans of lager each max.
Sat evening 1 bottle of wine with a meal. One with a DVD when kids are in bed.
Sun aft one pint in the pub.
Sun evening ginger beer (non-alcoholic) or similar fizzy drink of whatever is on offer. The rest of the drink is fruit juice.

Meals out - I have been made out now to be some drunkard whilst my kids go short. This is untrue. If and when we do eat out then we will try to cut costs by taking our own drinks for the kids (as soft drinks are just as expensive as beer) but obviously pubs don't like you taking your own so yes, we do this subtly. Also sometimes the kids will share a dish rather than have one each. That makes sense as they rarely eat everything. If you think we dine like royalty whilst they have to share by the way then you are wrong. We order the cheapest mains and often share that round too.

We don't eat out often. The last time was for my birthday and we used a voucher.

I also think it is unfair to say that my husband and I have come to expect a certain lifestyle. I don't think we live exorbitant lifestyles. I'm not posting on here about how we go away every weekend, have lots of expensive hobbies, watch cable TV, subscribe to expensive iPhone contracts and have takeaways every night but yet are living above our means. I don't think that anything I have posted would point to us living a life of excess that we somehow feel entitled to.

We have both worked all our lives. This house is our first owned house. We've always been quite frugal. We always choose the cheapest times to go away (Oct half term), we have never signed up to expensive phone or TV contracts, we've never spent what we don't have and evidence of this can be seen by the fact that we have no debts apart from the mortgage. If we can't afford to buy a new 3 piece suite then we don't buy it and will look for an ebay one instead, or do without. We've never got anything on HP and until a few years ago we never had a credit card either.

That is why I was so surprised to find that we were regularly spending over our budget each month and why I was determined to find the cause and put a stop to it.

I can see that we spend way too much on shopping and having gone through receipts and spending habits last night I now understand that we are doing several shops a week, using the large supermarket as the place were we get EVERYTHING we need, from household items to things for the children, birthday presents and food. When we run out of items I've been guilty of nipping down to the local shop to stock up which is hideously expensive.

I realise that I need to become better organised and to this end I've signed up with an interactive meal planner that lets me plan a weeks menu, adds the items to my shopping list and also allows me to add extra items such as toiletries, bread, etc.

I'm also going to sign up to the big 4 for online shopping as I know that sometimes they offer free delivery slots so I can pick and choose between them.

I will get my main shopping from them and will set aside one day every week (Mon) to shop in Aldi for fruit, veg, wine and joints like gammon which I can use for sandwich meat.

I've set a budget for groceries which is £90pw. That should easily cover us.

I've paid for AVG anti-virus until March and then when it runs out I'll switch to the freebie.

We will cut out the Sun afternoon pub treat and take instead a hot flask and drinks for the kids which we can have in the car afterwards.

I'll get a pre-payment card for prescriptions.

These changes I've made with the help of some very kind posters who have spent a considerable amount of their time going over my expenditure and I am very grateful to them for that. I would not want them to think that their efforts have been at all in vain, which is why I have decided to post once again on this thread. It's not fair to have people call me a troll when others have spent time trying to help me.

It's really hard when you make information public and really emotional when strangers are picking that information apart piece by piece. I understand that most of it was for the best and helped me to realise that we couldn't carry on spending so much and that just by being better organised I could make some huge savings. Some of it however was very mean and very upsetting. I wonder how you would feel if strangers poured over your expenditure asking you to justify every choice you made? It's a difficult process and I fail to see how someone would think that I had gone to all that effort just to make it all up and waste everyone's time, including my own?

Mara_uk7 I'm sure Orkney is lovely but we've decided that this year, again we just can't afford it. Not until we get ourselves sorted out. Petrol alone from here will cost around £450. The ferry over is about £150? I think that's each way? We can't possibly do it in one day so one night's accommodation there and one night on the return. Then there is spending money. It's just not possible this year. We could have a week camping in France for less than half that amount! We'll keep our options open but for now it looks like I might have to put it off for yet another year.

Now believe it or not I have work to do today! Thanks again for all who came on with advice. You haven't wasted your time trust me, I have read each reply carefully and have made plenty of notes so the budget saving list I compiled above is just the start of it really.

Have a great weekend everyone. I'll be back soon to let you know how it's all going (veggie meal day today!).

heartbreak_star

For your visit to see your dad, try looking at booking.com or similar might help make it affordable.

HBS x

asparagus1968

ragz wrote: »

My homemade wine is lovely. However occaisionally I treat myself to a bottle of cabernet saivignon from Lidl or Aldi and that is really nice, for less than £4 a bottle! They do other drinkable wine too, trying it out is half the fun!



Foodwise, I spend less than £450 a month, including packed lunches for 2 of the 3 children and hubby who eats a lot! I buy organic veg and only british meat and free range chicken (I could manage on £250 but I like my decent quality food and I see no reason to scrimp on food unless I have to.)
Meal planning - I shared this on another thread recently, but thought it may help you... here's how I meal plan. I have a list in my head that I run through and pick 7 meals that way, it is simple and never fails me.

One roast,
One meal using the rest of the roast (eg curry, pie or just more meat veg and gravy!)
One or two mince meals (cheap, easy... can have one beef and one lamb. Lasagne, chili, cottage/shepherds pie, chili, meatballs, spag bol)
One jacket potato night (cheap, filling, can use leftover chili or jsut cheese and beans, this can also be your meat free night)
One fish meal (frozen fish is fine, if a little watery but cook it right, white fish topped with pesto and cheese and baked is cheap enough)
One pasta meal (I don't do this any more as I low carb, but pasta bakes are cheap or pasta and pesto with added veg, a bag of frozen chargrilled veg is easy to add to things)
One meal with rice (this can double up with your mince meal if chili or leftovers meal if curry)
One sausages meal (sausages are cheap, even if you buy decent ones but very cheap if you don't. Sausage and mash, sausage casserole, sausage curry)
One 'junk' meal (something like fishfingers from the freezer/homemade pizza with chips or wedges)


I don't have that, am I insane? lol

ooh, i'm liking that plan. I already meal plan.but in a more random way, i will try your way,thanks.

bess1234_2

:T:T:T:T:T:T well said

the supermarket lightbulb will transform your money. let us know how you get on. first time deliveries often get a discount , and go through cash back to sign up. not sure if the discounts are permanent so have a scout round. Then try all four in turn;)

mummyroysof3

took me a while to find this thread again. glad you are making some changes but im sorry to say i agree with those who have questioned your choice to have no insurance. we have been paying it for 10 years and never claimed but i still continue to pay £170-£200 per year and will do so forever.

3v3

ScrimpingandSaving wrote: »

...
Now I am getting attacked and called a troll. Just how do I defend myself against that and should I even bother?
...

No, you shouldn't bother - the accusers are not worth your energy. And, it detracts your thoughts away from the issues you actually need to focus on

Unfortunately, some people who jump on the "troll" attack wagon rarely see the irony in their accusations

Seems to me like you are making a good start in tackling your financial issues; good work! :T

asparagus1968

Hi Scrimpingandsaving,

you don't have to explain yourself.
good thing on here is tou can ask a question,and get 100's of peoples ideas/ views/ advice. it's great because everyones lives and priorities and circumstances are different.
you just choose which bits you like/ would work/ are willing to try and just says thanks to the rest.
personally, the things that worked best for me were:
meal planning,but i only ever did it weekly,too lazy to do monthly!
always going through the cupboards ,fridge and freezer before doing the shopping list.
stopping the £3-4 a week magazine habit ,got addicted to reading internet blogs and MSE instead!
cutting cinema to once every two months .
shopping at aldi so i wasn't tempted by clothes and all the special offers.
you will come up with your own strategy if you want to sort out your budget, and your priorities will change without you even realising.
good luck