2014 Frugal Living Challenge

skintygerlinky

Sarah B - I think you raise an interesting point re: your parents!

I'm 38 and my parents both turn 70 this year. They are also frugal and approach money in a completely different way to myself. They save for treats and somehow ensure they have at least one holiday per year, have good social lives with their mutual and separate friends, own one car, eat well by cooking from scratch and also managed to bring up 4 kids during very lean times and good!!

They are a great financial example for me to follow and I hope to emulate them more!!

skintygerlinky

Focus888 you've made a cracking start!! Keep it up!

SarahB1989_2

skintygerlinky wrote: »

Sarah B - I think you raise an interesting point re: your parents!

I'm 38 and my parents both turn 70 this year. They are also frugal and approach money in a completely different way to myself. They save for treats and somehow ensure they have at least one holiday per year, have good social lives with their mutual and separate friends, own one car, eat well by cooking from scratch and also managed to bring up 4 kids during very lean times and good!!

They are a great financial example for me to follow and I hope to emulate them more!!

My parents are two decades behind yours but they seem pretty similar! They have no mortgage, no debt, and have supported two kids through a total of ten years uni education, all on a single salary. I'm very grateful to them for it, but they make it look so easy! They passed this ability on to my sister but think I missed it, it's a family joke that I will be as strapped for cash in 30 years as I am now as a student since my lifestyle expectations will just rise with my salary. Trying my best to work on this now rather than later...

cw18

skintygerlinky wrote: »

What do others think? Are you comfortable having frank discussions about money with your nearest and dearest?

10 years ago I'd have definitely said no. Hubby got sight of my annual income when I did the yearly calculations of how much of his pay cheques I wanted off him towards the bills - but he wasn't that interested, and never tried to argue the figure I told him to hand over.

6 years ago would still have been no, as I found it easier to discuss options with the mortgage company than admit to hubby we weren't going to be able to make the payments for a few months (but I think part of that was because he was so ill with the cancer and chemo that I didn't want to worry him with it).

Nowadays is at least a partial yes. My OH knows that my income is a lot less than my outgoings without knowing precise figures, and that I'm pretty much living off savings. We do discuss/compare what we pay for various things (like utility bills, mobiles and car insurance) which can be interesting as we have different sized properties in slightly different areas, but while he knows I'm fairly careful about what I spend I don't think he was prepared for how shell-shocked I was when he mentioned what he pays for his S.k.y package. He'll also help me hunt down good deals on things I need or want (mainly electrical gadgets where I don't always understand all the terminology in the descriptions), and comes grocery shopping with me at a weekend if I need anything (which means he's been introduced to the joys of A1di - somewhere he'd never previously been into, but now happily checks out the weekly deals in case something catches his attention ). He was introduced to Whoopsies shortly after we met (26 months ago), and now informs me of any he found and considered worth grabbing with great delight

millionaire_in_training

hi folks. I got a delivery tonight from Sainsburys. I got £15 off as was my first shop. Also got 160 nectar points. Used mysupermarket.com and savings made were over £20 as I used their switch and save option a few times and I also got £1.99 in cashback, It cost £2.99 for delivery but I got so much food that both my freezers are jammed and I am one very happy woman x

nat21luv

I think times are changing, if I lived with someone I would want a completely open and honest relationship. How are you ever to plan your lives together without knowing where you stand?! My parents were like this though so perhaps I've learnt this from them. My dad and his wife are 'one income' as they both have huge debt but my mum and her partner are 'two incomes' as my mother has suddenly become fiercely secretitive and won't allow him to know anything about her finances. Naturally, she knows everything about his...!

cw18

nat21luv wrote: »

as my mother has suddenly become fiercely secretive and won't allow him to know anything about her finances. Naturally, she knows everything about his...!

My parents always used to joke that what was my Mum's was hers, and what was my Dad's was theirs

But I'm sure my Dad knew my Mum's income better than she knew his, as he always did her tax returns for her. Not sure if she still has to do them every year, but I'm sure that if she does then it's also still my Dad does them.

mooomin

cw18 wrote: »

My parents always used to joke that what was my Mum's was hers, and what was my Dad's was theirs

My mum is fond of saying to me "A joint account is all well and good but a woman needs a secret stash of cash"

TM6

mooomin wrote: »

My mum is fond of saying to me "A joint account is all well and good but a woman needs a secret stash of cash"

:rotfl:

Your Mum is SO funny




:j Wahoo :j

It's February 1st

January was a steep learning curve..... February is now a time to put into practice what I have learnt

DawnW

Right, 1st Feb it is, and confession time on January spends :eek:

This was a baseline month for me, so I didn't economise particularly on shopping, had one quite big one off purchase (needed, will save money going forward) and a couple of annual car bills.

So, total spend was: £1783.64 :eek:
I won't bore everyone with all the totals, but doing this was a real eye opener. I have been honest and recorded everything, although the odd small cash spend by OH might have slipped through the net, but if so, this will not have been much (he usually uses his card so easy to keep track of online :rotfl:.

I didn't count costs for either of our businesses in this, as obviously separate records are kept for these, for HMRC.

Now this is a lot of money, and will have to come down. It is fine at the moment, as I earn a good salary and we have no debt, BUT when I retire (scheduled for end of April this year, though I will probably end up staying on part time for another couple of months for a specific project I have been asked to cover) our pensions will not cover spending at this level :eek: We each have a small business, but mine lost money last year (in fairness it had only just started and I bought stock) and probably won't break even this in all honesty. This will have to change, or I shall have to give it up However, I shall have time to spend on it, which I don't have at the moment. OH's business makes a small profit.

There have also been some work related costs that obviously I won't have when I finish my job.

So, an interesting month, and I have just realised that I have spent nearly half of my target spend for Jan - end of April :eek: I fear I am going to miss that target but I shall persevere, and it will be interesting to see how much I miss it by!