How to fall in love with saving money

cathybird

Thanks davenport151, have checked out the how much have you saved thread with great interest already, but not the other one you mention.

Re upbringing, I have to say both of my parents were impeccably frugal, in fact my dad lives on the smell of an oily rag and my mum, bless her, squirrelled away quite a respectable amount of savings from her household allowance - she's no longer with us. Without wanting to navel-gaze or go into details, though, they never seemed the happiest pair of people around so I've often wondered whether I tend to spend because I don't want to be like them, or because I associate their frugal lifestyle with their emotional state. Who knows? Anyway, don't want to bore people with family stuff, but I wonder.

WantToBeSE

Hi again Cathy Hope you are having a lovely Saturday?
I am part of a savings thread on here (i'll post the link if i can find it) and we are all starting from scratch...but it seems to have gone a bit quiet at the moment!
I have managed to get to £250 so far, and am hoping to add to that amount weekly. I tend to pay all my bills, buy all my food, give myself £10 pocket money, and the rest goes straight into my savings account.

I have so many things that i want to save for; car, moving house, new clothes for all of us, i feel like i am not sure how much i will need but am aiming for £5K. It feels like a pipe dream to have that much in the bank, but i am determined to reach that goal

cathybird

Thanks WantToBeSE I am having a lovely Saturday, and I hope you are too? ... Please do post link to the savings thread and I'll join in the fun, though will keep up this savings diary for now ... There's also the Save £12K for 2013 thread but I think I started here a bit late in the day for that. It's good to be debt free, huh I got rid of all my debts and I am never going to have a credit card again, or an overdraft, and I am never going to put myself into the position where I need those things either.

davenport151

Cathybird - thats interesting re your upbringing. Mine was being brought up by just my mum in the 70's. So quite frugal I guess. Then once earnings hit I find there is a lot to like about spending. Though I did manage to sort myself out and buy my first mini in my early 20s (Mum helped me with the cost of driving lessons) so must have been doing something right. Being single and living at home helped then though. Not long after I got married then had my son. So it was down to one income for a while.
Now its took me to age 44 to realise I do have to do something and not just manage payday to payday.

Thats my first goal to have that buffer in place.

cathybird

davenport151, there is a lot to be said for spending. In the short term :rotfl:In the long term, not. There is something heady about being able to buy stuff if you couldn't have things when you were growing up, I think - maybe you found that too, if your mum was living in fairly straitened circumstances? But there comes a point, as you have said, when you have to look beyond the next payday. I'm embarrassed it's taken me this long, though.

Eco_Miser

cathybird wrote: »

I was a bit worried this morning because the bulk of other posts on Savings & Investments seemed to be people discussing investments and I thought perhaps a savings diary was a little out of place. However another couple of savings diaries cropped up this morning, so I'm more at ease about it. I guess people who don't want to read them won't read them and those who do, will.

Yes, this board is more about WHERE to put saved money than HOW to save money, but there are quite a few savers diaries, and mutal encouragement threads like Save 12k in [STRIKE]2012[/STRIKE]2013, so your diary is not out of place, and as you can see, you're getting lots of support.

cathybird

Eco_Miser wrote: »

Yes, this board is more about WHERE to put saved money than HOW to save money, but there are quite a few savers diaries, and mutal encouragement threads like Save 12k in [STRIKE]2012[/STRIKE]2013, so your diary is not out of place, and as you can see, you're getting lots of support.

Eco Miser, yes indeed on the support, for which I am extremely grateful to everyone. It may end up be more me talking to meself as time goes on but that's okay - what I wanted to do was make myself publicly accountable, as much as anything - I want people to see what I'm up to. That way I am less likely to misbehave.

Anyway, I posted yesterday about requesting money back from some friends who owe it and today I have done that very thing. That's more money to go in the savings pot, whenever I receive it.

I have also received my monthly pay from work but am waiting on a big bill, not sure how much it's going to be yet, so will transfer more money to the savings when I know how big a dent this bill will make.

Eco_Miser

cathybird wrote: »

I just don't find milk lasts that long. I freeze it in ice cube trays and store it in airtight containers in the freezer. It's kind of a luxury with me anyway since I really only use it for porridge and can use water instead. I don't store vast quantities of it.

Frozen milk cubes? I've tried that, and didn't think the result was anything like milk.
Strangely, while I use milk for breakfast cereal, I use water for porridge.

Anyway, if you hardly use milk, it's not really something you can save on.


You have an allotment? That should be a source of lots of cheap food.

cathybird wrote: »

Speaking of gluts from the allotment I have a frightening number of apples at the moment and I haven't even brought the whole crop back home yet, just the ones that fell off the trees. The plan is to get out the juicer today. I could freeze some for crumbles in the winter, I guess.

I thought that apples can be kept as they are over winter in a cool, dry place?

Without looking, I would imagine the Old Fashioned board has lots of things to do with gluts of fruit and veg.

cathybird

The frozen milk works well as long as you heat it in the microwave in a cup before using it for anything else. If you bung the ice cubes straight into a cup of coffee, for instance, the result is gritty and rather unpleasant, as though it had curdled. I could cut milk out altogether without too many tears. It is nice in porridge though, with a little jam.

Apples do keep usually but unfortunately my trees have both brown rot and codling moth and so the fruit either usually goes off quite quickly or you find some insect has bored into it. Or the birds have a go. It's partly my fault for not putting out moth traps. Not sure what I can do about the brown rot. Some of the fruit seems to last though. It's the Bramleys that are worst affected. I will have a look round the MSE site, as you say, Eco Miser, because I'm sure you're right that there would be lots on gluts of fruit and veg.

cathybird

Friends mentioned in previous comment today have responded very positively to request they pay me back, so that's good.

This may not sound like a moneysaving measure, but it is. From now on I am recording all alcohol consumption on Drinkaware. I quite like a drink when I get home from work, but these things can add up over time, in health and wellbeing as well as financial terms. I have used Drinkaware before and been surprised by how much I was consuming. It's the same principle as writing down everything you spend - it's more than you think Anyway, I found that when Drinkaware told me off, I automatically cut down, and quite apart from anything else over time that saved me a lot of money. So I am going to do it again.