Help me work out how to save!

TillyMoo

Thanks for all the advice!

claire16c

June is about 15 weeks away. Stop spending £30 on fags a week and that's £450 already.

Your car insurance is incredibly expensive. My car is less than 6 months old and I pay around £350 a year - you're paying that in a couple of months! I know it varies widely depending where you live etc but I'd have a look at that.

£50 for your phone? I get unlimited texts, calls & a ton of Internet for £26 with O2.

Does your cinema have any cheaper days/times/loyalty cars you can make use of? Use 2 for 1 vouchers for meals.

TillyMoo

Fabulous advice, thanks

PasturesNew

TillyMoo wrote: »

We spend about £30 a week on tobacco as we both smoke (we do aim to quit soon!!!)

Until you quit, check out a middle ground. I've got a machine that makes "proper fags", you buy the machine, then papers (tubes with the brown filter) and packets of baccy (which are wrapped up in a 'proper fag box'). You make the cigs, pop them in the box, then smoke them like regular fags, but at a fraction of the price. Only proviso I'd make is: don't smoke them while driving in case you made a rubbish one and the burning end drops into your crotch).

Supermarkets sell them.

This is the one I've got:
£3.70 for machine http://www.thebackyshop.co.uk/products/make-your-own-cigarette-maker#
£1.05 for 100 tubes: http://www.thebackyshop.co.uk/products/new-rizla-concept-make-your-own-empty-cigarette-tubes

PasturesNew

TillyMoo wrote: »

We spend about £30 a month at the launderette a month, as the flat we live in suffers with such bad damp, trying to air dry just makes it so much worse. (A whole other issue!)

If it's just the drying, investigate a small/electric dehumidifier. If you consider a budget of, say, £50-100 to find one it'll pay for itself in 2-3 months (not to mention more convenient), plus it'll keep the rest of the flat dry if required -and- it's portable when you leave.

Purleygirl

I would start with the food bill, for two of you, up to 60 quid a week is quite a lot. (Hate to sound like an old granny but I feed 6 of us on about the same) Try and be really disciplined and you could cut that by half by only taking cash to the supermarket, go veggie for a while and try make everything from scratch. I'd agree that 50 quid a month for a phone contract is steep. Fags is an obvious one but you know that yourself Neflix I'd keep, it's fantastic value. Could you wash the clothes at home but take them to the dryers at the launderette? Would that be possible? My sister in law dyes all her towels and sheets to give them a new lease of life, they always look great. Don't forget charity shops for clothes. Also, I've seen friends put up notices on facebook, asking if anyone is selling a bed/sofa/whatever, you'll be amazed at what people can get. So first things first, do a menu plan for the week and take £25 to the supermarket, leaving a bit for milk for the rest of the week. It can be done. Good luck.

bellevie

edit - just seen young drive - still might help though -when is your renewal due? Can you look around for cheaper? Some companies prices dont show up on go compare etc - co-op being one of them, so even though its worth having a look at comparison site, look elsewhere before signing anything new.

Smoking is the obvious cut back, if you are unable to completely stop, can you cut back, a little every week until you completely stop?

Boots have a free sign up with stopping smoking, where they will also give you patches/gums something to help - I dont know the ins and outs Ive just seen people enquiring. Worth looking into.

Electric is also a little high, do you have storage heating & economy 7? Im with southern electric - I believe they are or they were last time I looked the cheapest for economy 7. Direct debit they give a slight discount.

For saving, once you work out how much you have spare a month, can you transfer it to an esaving account so its automatic, if its realistic you might not even miss that amount and it will build up quite quickly.

I find withdrawing my weekly bugdet for food & petrol and not touching my account apart from my 'budget day' helps. I also have a pot at home, and everything I dont spend out of the budget goes in there sometimes its pennies, other times its quite a bit. Where possible I leave my card at home so Im not tempted on impulse buys.

Food could be brought down a little a bit, maybe some meat free nights to help it last longer, downgrade some brands etc.

If you still want to be going out doing things, Id set out a monthly budget for socialising, and when that money has gone no more until the next month. If you want to do more you'll need to find cheap things to do, to make the budget last.

choccybuttons

Hi

From doing quick sums you both would have about £300ish minimum each left over each month. So even if you allow yourselves £50 a week for spending you should be able to bank about 200 a month between you without any real hardship

clearingout

it won't save you £1000 in the time you want but I personally find the little things help. My biggest 'little' saving is £2 coins - you don't get them often enough to feel like you're emptying your purse daily but they're still big enough to add up quickly. I do at least £200 a year. If you were to add 50ps as well it would be a help...or it would start you a small 'not to be touched except in dire emergency fund' - I haven't touched mine in 4 years (I really don't want to spend it!) so it's a small nest egg now and it gave me a small sense of security during a time when life has otherwise been very difficult.

claire16c

My car insurance is from direct line & they don't show up on price comparison websites, so maybe have a look? I'm 29 but I used them when I was younger along with Tesco some years who also have similar quotes.

In terms of holidays me and DH used to save £10 a week and by the time a holiday came round we'd have a decent amount of spending money put away ready. As it was only £10 we didn't notice it at the time.

TimBear

TillyMoo wrote: »

I'm classed as a 'young driver' at the age of 23, so although I own a small engined 2001 little hatchback, the cheapest I could get was £170ish a month. Even with 4 years no claims bonus, it's mental.

Have you done all the comparison sites and visited Direct Line etc separately too? I'm a 25 year old woman and have never paid more than about £450 a year on car insurance and I've just done a renewal quote ready for March and it's coming up at c. £300 for the year. My first car was a 1.3 engine and this one is a 1l; admittedly I understand that these are cheaper to insure, but definitely worth looking at.

I always do quotes too with my parents as named drivers (although they would only ever drive my car in an emergency), as that often brings the cost down (providing their licences are clean etc).