How to fall in love with saving money

davenport151

cathybird - it happens to us all.
some weeks i go over budget and its easy to be hard on yourself. Its a learning curve.
Was the budget realistic? Did it take into account those items that are not needed every week but cost a little more? Possibly up the budget a little to give you a bit of leeway.

Great news on the taking lunch to work though> We can have lunches where we work for £2 a day, I get such a buzz from taking my own in. The advantage of this is on a decent day we have lovely gardens so we can picnic outside!

cathybird

Thanks davenport151 A bit of beating up on myself every now and then probably does no harm :rotfl:In fact it probably wasn't that realistic a budget for a first go, though I did try to keep my initial groceries spend for the month pretty low. It was more based on what I thought would be left over after I'd saved £1,000 for the month. I'm sure I'll do better at budgeting as I go along.

The lovely gardens sound nice ... I wish we had something like that. Agreed with you on the lunches, we do have a work canteen but the food I make is at least as nice as what you can get there (well I reckon)

YoungBusinessman

organic_wanabe wrote: »

YoungBusinessMan, can I be cheeky and ask why you would make a lump sum payment towards your mortgage to bring down your LTV, rather than paying down your debt. I presume the interest rate you are being charged for your mortgage must be higher than the one you are charged for your debt. I haven't had a mortgage since my late 30's (now mid 50) but from what I read mortage interest rates are low - I was someone who bought in the late 1970's when mortgage rates went to 15%!). Since you have your head screwed on I am pretty sure you will have it all worked out.

I have always been a saver and my DH and I are now both retired and comfortably off. My DS (21 and graduated this Summer) is not a premier league footballer but has managed to save well over £30k. He delivered papers from the age of 14, worked at Costa Coffee during University holidays, saved Christmas and Birthday money etc. and then had a very well paid 10 week Internship in London last Summer. However, now living in central London, I can't think he'll manage to be as fortunate as you with regard to getting on the property market for some time yet.

Good luck to you and cathybird. You both know you can do it.

Not cheeky at all, you make a very good point although i have it covered. Theres no financial gain/savings if i pay it off early, if anything having savings in a couple regular savers paying 4% is better than paying it off early to no effect. Its made up of 4 parts and was paid to me in 4 instalments, so i may pay off the smaller 3 before make the overpayment just so monthly costs come down. If i pay them all of bar the biggest balance longest term one, i will then pay £328 a month as opposed to the £800+ i currently do which makes me a bit :eek::eek: But luckily i have an ok income to cover it and allow me to save.

As i am on weather depending work on price aswel, need to crack on and get some money in before the end of this year as January and February are normally more or less a write off. Need a new laptop but holding off and going to get it as my treat once savings are over £10k again(likely to be around April-May):)

YoungBusinessman

Also it is payday tomorrow :T:j

tara747

cathybird - don't beat yourself up over the food budget. The important thing is to prioritise. If you want to spend a little more on food and books, then see if you can cut back elsewhere. If you've trimmed your budget as far as you can, then relax.

Another option is to increase your income - there are lots of tips on the Up Your Income and DFW boards on MSE. Some take up a lot of time for very little rewards, so weigh up how much your time is worth (e.g. I don't do surveys etc as they don't pay a lot).

Re the gym - again, how important is it to you? If it's the most convenient way to exercise and relieves stress (and otherwise you might not bother lol), then keep it up! It's £36 well spent. If you want to try giving up and see how you get on, then do that. If you miss it, join up again.

It's not about cutting expenditure back to the bone and being miserable. It's about rethinking your attitude to money and dividing up your budget in a smarter way. Focus on the things that matter most to you, and compromise on the rest.

cathybird

tara747 wrote: »

cathybird - don't beat yourself up over the food budget. The important thing is to prioritise. If you want to spend a little more on food and books, then see if you can cut back elsewhere. If you've trimmed your budget as far as you can, then relax.

It's not about cutting expenditure back to the bone and being miserable. It's about rethinking your attitude to money and dividing up your budget in a smarter way. Focus on the things that matter most to you, and compromise on the rest.

Tara747, such a sensible answer, thanks The thing is I am a little embarrassed about my budget anyway because £30 a week is more than some people on the MSE forums spend - some seem to live on the smell of an oily rag But I love food and I love cooking, I have a whole bookcase full of cookbooks alone, and I know I'm only going to cut it back so far. If I try to live on £50 a month I'll manage that for a few short weeks and then I'll completely lose it, and run amok in Waitrose, or somewhere else expensive and tempting So there's no point my trying, in one sense, and the same with books, though I should certainly cut back on both. But you're right, and I hope with the help of this diary and the sterling support of MSE-ers to do a whole lot better than I have done in the past. :A:A:A:)

cathybird

tara747 wrote: »

Re the gym - again, how important is it to you? If it's the most convenient way to exercise and relieves stress (and otherwise you might not bother lol), then keep it up! It's £36 well spent. If you want to try giving up and see how you get on, then do that. If you miss it, join up again.

It's important - keeping fit altogether is important. I do need to look at how often I use the gym, and whether I could do otherwise, I guess. In the past I have both belonged to gyms and failed to use them, and also not belonged to gyms and failed to keep fit that way :rotfl: I need to get back in the habit either way.

cathybird

tara747 wrote: »

Another option is to increase your income - there are lots of tips on the Up Your Income and DFW boards on MSE. Some take up a lot of time for very little rewards, so weigh up how much your time is worth (e.g. I don't do surveys etc as they don't pay a lot).

Good point. Have been meaning to have a look.

tara747

cathybird wrote: »

Tara747, such a sensible answer, thanks The thing is I am a little embarrassed about my budget anyway because £30 a week is more than some people on the MSE forums spend - some seem to live on the smell of an oily rag But I love food and I love cooking, I have a whole bookcase full of cookbooks alone, and I know I'm only going to cut it back so far. If I try to live on £50 a month I'll manage that for a few short weeks and then I'll completely lose it, and run amok in Waitrose, or somewhere else expensive and tempting So there's no point my trying, in one sense, and the same with books, though I should certainly cut back on both. But you're right, and I hope with the help of this diary and the sterling support of MSE-ers to do a whole lot better than I have done in the past. :A:A:A:)

I know that a lot of MSEers live on very little, and I applaud their ingenuity. Thing is, for a lot of people it is out of necessity. And lots of them don't work full-time. I would love to have the time to bake all my own bread and make every single thing from scratch - but I don't. So no point in feeling bad about it. We all try to do our best, and that's good enough.

So if you have room in your budget to spend a bit more on food, then by all means do so. In any case, good food = good health. There are worse things to spend your money on than food!!

cathybird

YoungBusinessman wrote: »

Also it is payday tomorrow :T:j

Drinks are on you! :beer::beer::beer::beer: