2014 Frugal Living Challenge

nikki2002-2008

I've done my excel spread sheet, each month has all the date down with each category at the top, then I can enter amounts in each day of the month and it tallies up on my yearly page so I know how much I've spent each month, then what evers left will be thrown at the debt I have from a sudden death of a family member and the funeral costs. I have £6000 to clear but I'm hoping it will only take the year determined to do this.

Frugalsod

quidsy wrote: »

I'm in.

I've done a rough projected worst case budget;

Yearly food budget = 4,160 (345 pcm)
Work travel = 1,920 (160pcm)
Yearly Personal spending (me & Ds clothes, snacks out etc) = 2,600 (220 pcm)
AND the biggie;
Household expenses including rent, insurances, car running & tax, utiltiles, mobile phone, sky etc = 21,720 (1,810 pcm) :eek:


I usually take lunch several times a week but I am attempting to make that 5 days a week, we aready take pack lunch or our own snacks on trips out & I plan on putting a total embargo on eating out next year unless it is a special occasion or we get caught short. OH & I cook seperatly due to our working hours differing but we have already discussed him taking over the cooking in an effort to cut our shopping bill.

My mobile is a whopping 28 quid a month, it doesn't get renewed until September though, so am stuck with it till then.

Sky, internet & house phone are a big expense (70pcm), they are up for renewal in May so will get on to sky & see if I can cut it early or at least reduce it.

Well it does depend on how many of you in the family. There could be ways to cut the food bill considerably. £345 a month is a lot. Eliminating food waste is best and costs nothing, and once you have extra food you can actually cut back.

Have you considered making your own bread? It is considerably cheaper than supermarkets and you could also try that with cakes soups and that can even help use up spare food. If you can batch cook and freeze the excess. You might have to buy freezer safe storage but it will pay for itself within a year.

The mobile charge does depend on what you get with it. With mine I am paying slightly over the odds for the calls but I did get a top of the range phone on what amounts to an interest free loan for 2 years. So if you look at it that way it is not such a bad deal.

As for not eating out, why not have a cap on meal costs. I regularly eat out and we have a £10 a head cap on meal costs. So if you do it only once a month it will not feel so bad.

As for the sky package. Do you really need all those channels? Big savings there.

quidsy

Thanks for your comments frugalsod.

I actually do use up left overs in fridge & will make a stew etc with veg on the turn I also batch cook but as me & oh eat different ethicity food it adds up as he requires different ingredients etc for his food whereas me & ds eat mostly what I cook but there is certainly room for savings. OH will take over the cooking from January, we will all eat the same & he is getting lessons from me on how to stretch the meal. he comes from a country where fresh food is cheap & abundant so he needs a mind adjustment. He's willing but will take a while.

Mobile, well I hardly use it, take full advantage of the telephone at work (allowed) & the internet so I really don't need the package I have.

The sky can def be cut back, we keep it for the kids channels & I enjoy the shows on fox but I am looking into ways to stream online so if I can, it will go. We do use the internet all the time though so that can't go but I am sure I can cut it back with a different provider. Same with the landline, oh needs it to call family/friends overseas on 1p a minute numbers (skype not an option) so it has to stay but I will cut the cost down if i can.

The plan this weekend is to make a list of end dates for contracts & diary date times to call up & see what deals can be done.

Eating out, we don't tend to eat out at night, most of our eating out is snacks, lunches or some kind of fast food after shopping. This can be stopped, it's not heathy & it is expensive. We can eat when we get home or take our own.

Goldiegirl

We've been paid for December, so this money takes us into January, so the game is on!

I just wanted to do a post to properly introduce myself, and to outline what I’m hoping to achieve

I’m 53 and my husband is 62, and we are hoping to retire around about September 2015. It’ll obviously be an early retirement for me, and my husband will be 65 in October 2016, so he’d be retiring just over a year early.

At present, we both work, although less than full time. I work two days a week, and my husband works four days a week. We also both receive a pension each from our previous employers.
Our mortgage is paid off and we have no other debts. At the present time, all our needs and wants (not excessive wants!) are covered by our joint income and we are able to save money each month too.

However, for the year or so from September 2015, we’d just have our current pension income to live on, until my husband is 65, when his state pension kicks in and another small occupational pension. I’ll get my state pension when I’m 66, but that’s too far ahead to even think about!

We do have savings, but that money is for the travel we hope to do after we stop working. I don’t want to use our savings for day to day living.

I want to ensure that our pension income, especially during that first year covers our needs and a few wants too. It’d also be nice to still be able to put a little into savings too – after the first year I definitely want to be able to put some money into savings each month.

I’m using this challenge to help me build a sustainable, enjoyable and comfortable retirement life, by reducing the cost of some needs so we can still have some wants too.

I've calculated some figures to see how things would stand now if we stopped working – that should help me see where I need to get to by September 2015!

I’ll post these figures in my next post

Goldiegirl

I did some calculations to work out how much our income would be if we stopped work now - including the fact that I wouldn't pay tax, and my husband would only be paying tax on a small part of his pension.


I also assumed we'd only have one car (we have two at present, but will drop to one on retirement), and that we'd fill up with petrol once a month - I don't anticipate regular long journeys.


Then I calculated everything we pay out on , and food.


This comes to £956.75. This included not only essentials like house insurance and council tax, but other regular things such as boiler servicing, and Sky TV


This leaves £530 per month or £6360 per year for everything else - entertainment, day trips, clothes, hair cuts and general spending.


I've always kept records of gas and electric spending etc and food spending - but I've never quantified the leisure and clothing type of spending -so I'll be keeping detailed records to make sure we stay on track.


I will be looking at reducing my regular bills so there can be more leisure spending if required.


On of the first things that will be looked at will be the food expenditure, currently £325 per month for two of us.


Now I know I lot of people will say this is a lot. But as a percentage of current net monthly household income, this is quite a small percentage - so relatively speaking, this is not excessive. I'm not wasteful with food, and we always take our lunches to work with us. But I do think this is an area where reductions can be made, so thought it was the easiest place to start. Oh and yes, a Breadmaker is on the agenda, we love our bread in this house!

23rdspiral

Goldiegirl , I totally commend you for planning early retirement and being so througher.

Are you planning on Imagining that your income will be only the pensions amount for a month (or longer), and then only living on that? I guess it won't be too accurate as you'll still be running 2 cars for work plus won't have the 'leisure time' you'll have on retirement, but perhaps that'll make a balance?
- then the monies saved during that Trial month will be a good addition to savings for later?

Thinking logically, yes there is bound to be food budget savings... Do you use the Old Style board here? So many good ideas there. Also you could try the Brand Downshift Challenge? (so if you currently buy branded, you downshift to 'Finest'/'extra special', or from there to 'own brand', and so on...

Best of luck Hun, not that I think you need it

Goldiegirl

23rdspiral wrote: »

Goldiegirl , I totally commend you for planning early retirement and being so througher.

Are you planning on Imagining that your income will be only the pensions amount for a month (or longer), and then only living on that? I guess it won't be too accurate as you'll still be running 2 cars for work plus won't have the 'leisure time' you'll have on retirement, but perhaps that'll make a balance?
- then the monies saved during that Trial month will be a good addition to savings for later?

Thinking logically, yes there is bound to be food budget savings... Do you use the Old Style board here? So many good ideas there. Also you could try the Brand Downshift Challenge? (so if you currently buy branded, you downshift to 'Finest'/'extra special', or from there to 'own brand', and so on...

Best of luck Hun, not that I think you need it

Thanks for your good wishes 23rdspiral

For the last couple of months we have started to 'live' on our pension, and save our salaries. It's not an exact science, as, like you say, we still have the two cars, and we pay out on the petrol that we need for our journeys to work. But, broadly speaking, we have come in within budget for the last two months, so it is encouraging.

One of my plans for the year is to build up a store cupboard, to take advantage of offers when they happen, and also to help when we do finally stop work. So our outlay may not decrease too much in the short term, but I'll be looking to buy more for a similar outlay.

I'm finding the OS boards to be very helpful - apart from the bread maker, slow cookers are also under discussion, not to mention batch cooking.

Also, brand down shifting is happening. I've always bought Andrex loo rolls...but this time I bought Sainsburys own brand, and the Sainsbury's rolls work just fine!

Incidentally, the £325 I mentioned does cover all loo rolls, cleaning products and most toiletries.

I'm looking forward to 2014, it feels like I'm starting my way on the next stage of my life

Buffythedebtslayer

am so excited about this challenge!


am pondering the idea of a neutral Christmas next year and taking Mum to Rome. wondering how to do it so I can still pay off debts.


xx

mum2one

Buffythedebtslayer wrote: »

am so excited about this challenge!


am pondering the idea of a neutral Christmas next year and taking Mum to Rome. wondering how to do it so I can still pay off debts.


xx

That sounds amazing, - try car boots, table stop sales, ebay, survey sites, cull the xmas list, buy in the sales, come and join the thrifty -santas challenge - thread.

i've done that for the 3 years and it does make a difference, and you have an added incentive for those early Sunday mornings..xx

alja

Evening everyone I hope you're all well! It's great hearing everyone's plans.

In the new year I think I will try to reduce the amount of trips I take to our nearest shopping centre. As it's about 15 miles from us it costs quite a few quid for each trip there and back. So I think my spreadsheet will really help me plan ahead and keep a check of what items I may need for the upcoming months, then I can buy more things within one trip