Learning to think like a frugal person

chanie

day 14 - planning and caluclating
I've been doing this for a few weeks now. I write a list of things I need to buy and cross it off as I buy them. It really helps to keep me on track. When I had my first day, I took my notebook with me to keep me on track.

day 15 - monitoring my spending
Other than my play money, I write down all of my spends in my diary to keep me on track. This does force me to be more accountable for my spending. I really like using a paper diary as opposed to electronic apps, so that's one of the reasons I don't use YNAB.

ForMyGirls

Hello coaches,

Credits: when i was at the shops today i noticed the "buy for the sake of buying" impulse, remembered that i hadn't planned to spend (other than groceries) and kept moving. Made side dishes from food in stock rather than buying more food.

My checklist (in brief)
ARC, NO CHOICE, IT'S NOT OKAY and GET BACK ON TRACK cards - yes 2. other response cards - yes 3. transactions in YNAB before spending and savoured purchases - n/a 4. Credits - all of the time 5. use my spend wisely plan - n/a 6. spending plan - yes 7. Monitored my spending - all of the time 8. compared my bank balance and YNAB to redefine "zero" - no 9. Spent only available money for discretionary spending - yes 10. Used "Oh well" no11. Dealt with unfairness thoughts n/a

Chanie - i loved hearing your thought process around the Easter gifts. Well done you for working out the priorities.

Steph and Mizmir - thanks for your encouragement - life is busy, but it almost always is so it is so important that i be able to stay on track when i have a lot on.

chanie

Its great to hear your update FMG and I'm pleased to hear things are going well and you haven't bought the measuring spoons!!!!

Day 16 - no choice
I've been thinking about the 'no choice' technique yesterday and I've decided to change mine to a 'choice' technique, as I am a bit of a control freak. So, instead of saying 'no choice' I'll say 'if you buy XXX you won't be able to buy YYY. Which is more important?' I kind of feel for me, that is a bit more positive and I'm less likely to rebel against that than a blanket 'no'.

This does kind of go against the point of this action, but I feel this may work for me, for the moment, especially when combined with my ARC.

Credits
I feel a bit under the weather today. I have a cold coming on and feel a bit lethargic and congested - not ill enough to take a day off, but enough to not want to be at work. I was tempted to buy my lunch today as I didn't organise anything last night (I fell asleep at 8pm) and I really wanted a 'treat'. I didn't give in to temptation and grabbed something from home.

chanie

daily chatter

I had another day off work today as I have a side business and needed to work on that. I was sorely tempted to treat myself to a greasy fry up today but I resisted spending. I get paid next week, so I will treat myself to lunch as I haven't done so this year.

I did some unplanned spending, but I was under budget so was an acceptable spend.

I did think my spends were frugal:
Ds got a t-shirt to wear to nursery for World Book Day. The t shirt was on offer and its something he can wear on a regular basis. I only bought it because it's a t shirt of a book he loves.
Dd loves a particular book and I wanted to get her another book in the series. I managed to get 3 books for the price of 1 and the other two have been earmarked for birthday presents.

On another note, I bought my batter mix for shove Tuesday. The value batter mix is 15p, as opposed to the £1 I had to pay last year, due to the value mix selling out.

It feels really good knowing that cutting out the unnecessary spends I was able to buy those items and still be under spent. Plus, being organised and forward planning means I can take advantage of bargains.

mizmir

Well done FMG and Chanie on resisting temptation. Definitely credits there. I like the idea of the either/or choice Chanie - that does sounds practical and positive. I am still on day 11 or 12 I think - need to go back and review where I am so far.

ForMyGirls

Hello coaches,

Sorry for my silence. The big stress issue raised it's ugly head again this week - i thought i was getting a month or so off but no such luck. I have been having a bit of a meltdown about it this weekend - kind of like many many months of holding it together and this week's drama was just too much. But i am through it now, just in time for the work week to start again.

I am very proud that i have stayed on budget through my meltdown, and have stayed mostly on track diet wise too.

On a less self-absorbed note i went to a vigil/ rally last night. Australia has shocking immigration policies at the moment which involve sending refugees to offshore processing centres. Last week on of the centres was invaded by local rebels and corrupt police so the Aussies running the centre and left the poor bloody refugees to fend for themselves. A 23 year old man died and about 60 others were critically injured. I have been sticking my head in the sand about political issues since our very conservative government came into powr last year but last week's events well and truly brought me out of my cave. The political action group was collecting donations last night and i was so relieved to remember that i set up a charity budget so i could contribute without blowing my budget.

Enough for now - time to do some housework in this last hour of the weekend :-)

mizmir

Good for you protesting. This kind of inhumanity needs to stop. We have it here too - not off shore but processing centres and such a lot of dangerously negative rhetoric about immigration. Lucky that something like that violence hasn't happened yet. Bottom line here is that more Brits emigrate to other places in Europe (and Oz!) than other nationalities come here - and those who do come are largely hardworking and contribute massively. For sure our NHS and tourist industry would grind to a halt without immigrant workers.

But the right wing politicians whip up such a storm making people feel everything bad is down to either immigrants or - the other easy scapegoat - those on benefits. Sadly it is too easy to get people to believe it - yet the impact of immigrants and the tiny proportion of people defrauding the benefit system is tiny compared to big business evading taxes.....

Off the soap box.

chanie

Welcome back fmg. Sorry to hear about your stressful week. Hope you are through the worst of it. As Mizmar says, immigration is a big issue in the UK too.

Yesterday, I had another trip to the big shopping centre for another facial, which was a gift that had to be used by the end of the month. I decided to be frugal and take public transport. I swear the Gods are transpiring against me as I got to the station to hear it was closed due to 'planned engineering works'. Last time, it was a tube strike!!! Anyway, I managed to get there but was 5 mins late.

I spent £2.50, which is pretty good going. £1.50 on a slice of pizza for lunch (I didn't want to, but I was a ,2 hour commute home, so I went for the cheap option). I also bought DS a pack of sweets he loves for £1, which I haven't managed to find elsewhere.

ForMyGirls

Hello coaches,

Far from 100% on track today! Main issue was i was invited to a farewell lunch for a colleague and i didn't have any play money left. I contemplated just going for the company and not eating but got worried about feeling conspicuous. So i bought lunch and am now $15 overspent. Not quite sure how i should have handled this one. I am not OK with having gone that far over budget so i need to work out a way to deal with these situations.

As i am writing i remember getting a bit strung out when i was first dieting about how to handle offers of food (birthday cake at work and the like) and i discovered that it was actually just fine to say "I'm on a diet". So maybe the next time i am in this situation i won't get food and if anyone asks i will say "I'm on a budget"!

On the credit side of things i was tempted to go over budget today by buying petrol and a new set of parking vouchers. Instead i bought the petrol and said i will wait till next pay to get the parking vouchers. If that means i ned to bus or bike on a day i would prefer to drive well then i can just suck it up!

My checklist (in brief)
ARC, NO CHOICE, IT'S NOT OKAY and GET BACK ON TRACK cards - yes 2. other response cards - yes 3. transactions in YNAB before spending and savoured purchases - sort of 4. Credits - all of the time 5. use my spend wisely plan - no 6. spending plan - yes 7. Monitored my spending - all of the time 8. compared my bank balance and YNAB to redefine "zero" - no 9. Spent only available money for discretionary spending - no 10. Used "Oh well" no11. Dealt with unfairness thoughts no

Thanks for joining me on the soapbox Mizmir!

And well done Chanie for persevering with the public transport despite it's best efforts to get you off track.

ForMyGirls

Hello coaches,

Credits: I thought through whether I had money available when faced with some possible spends today. I didn’t end up spending the money for other reasons - but it was good to see that I didn’t spend first and then think about whether I had budgeted for it - apparently the habits are forming :-)

My checklist (in brief)
ARC, NO CHOICE, IT'S NOT OKAY and GET BACK ON TRACK cards - yes 2. other response cards - yes 3. transactions in YNAB before spending and savoured purchases - n/a 4. Credits - all of the time 5. use my spend wisely plan - no 6. spending plan - yes 7. Monitored my spending - n/a 8. compared my bank balance and YNAB to redefine "zero" - no 9. Spent only available money for discretionary spending - yes 10. Used "Oh well" no 11. Dealt with unfairness thoughts no