Saving ahead of maternity leave

MrsMarine

Hi,


I have just found out I am pregnant, due in November.


Looking to save as much as I can ahead of not working next year etc (might end up being off longer than a year as partner is away with work so childcare would possibly be too costly)


I am currently able to save around £250 per month, but I know that I can probably save a lot more if I am strict on things like food shopping etc. Currently just shop when we need/want stuff but that normally leads to a hefty weekly bill.


Wondering whether you lovely people could give me tips on how to save money on the monthly outgoings etc to start me off, I am slightly clueless.


I was thinking of selling a few unwanted bits on Ebay as well.


Thanks in advance!

Linda32

With regards to food shopping, do you buy branded, if so would you consider going down a brand?

Do you take pack ups to work or buy out?

monthly outgoings, are you on the best rates for gas, electricity, insurance etc.

Shopping when you need or want something because you very rarly just buy what you want. A shopping list helps with this and just visit the shop once a week. An idea I have is to keep a piece of paper on the fridge and add to it as and when I use something.

It sounds odd but do nor under estimate what you want, for examle if you use 3 bixes of cereal do not just buy one as you will need to go to the shops to buy more plus extra.;)

hth

GeekPetite

Hi MrsMarine

Congratulations!

I'm new here too, and due in September. As regards childcare, you can get money towards that from Child Tax Credit I think, keep meaning to look at it for myself.

Grab all the freebies you can whilst you're expecting, Bounty Pack, Emma's Diary, supermarket baby clubs etc. Midwife gave me a Bounty pack at 12 week scan and I got money off coupons and a few freebies in the first one. The second Bounty pack had better freebies, I got a free baby towel, trial size toiletries for baby and me, and a pair of oversized (imo) scratch mitts. The scratch mitts were an extra cos I redeemed it at Asda, but others got muslin squares which sound better.

I have my vouchers for Emma's Diary but I haven't collected them yet, so no idea how good they are. I have heard that they will phone you with offers, so I haven't given them my number.

I'm buying most of my stuff second-hand (except mattresses) to keep costs down. We have a great charity shop that does baby clothes for 25p each but needless to say they sell out really quickly!

Dropping down a brand with food shopping is a great idea, as already stated. I have to say that the problem I had early on with buying food was that I went off a lot of stuff, so I had to buy weekly as something I usually loved just didn't appeal any more.

hth

MrsMarine

Thank you!


In regards to shopping, we tend to buy a lot of brands, but I will definitely go down a brand and see how we go. I have slipped into a bad habit of just popping to the shops every few days which ends up being so pricey.


Think we will go for a weekly shop in Aldi with a shopping list from now on. - Think current monthly shopping bill is £300!!! Which is ridiculous for one person Mon-Fri and two at the weekends.


Hubby is fed on base Mon-Fri of which comes out of his salary - but is heavily subsidised so that doesn't effect us. I try to make as many lunches as I can, so pasta or sandwiches normally or leftovers.


Monthly outgoings - gas and electric I have just fixed for a year with Scottish Power, I think the only thing we could reduce is our sky bill, although we only have the basic package with phone and internet it works out as £55 a month.


GeekPetite - Thank you for all the advice on freebies for bump! I didn't know you could get all of that, will definitely ask my midwife when I see her. I am so up for charity shopping rather than buying new as well, I don't see the point in the majority of things coming new, other than mattresses like you say. and I am sure the baby will be spoilt rotten for a while anyway by the eager grandparents to be!


xxx

newthrift

Firstly congratulations

I am a complete Aldi convert!! There is just me and my OH and I spend average £60 a week, trying to lower this to £50 at the moment (£200 per month). I have been partaking in the grocery challange, could be worth having a look on their.
Last month I started a spend book, and I kept receipts, wrote down everything I spent, including any donations!!!, I then spotted where I was spending extra, on the food shopping I spent another £100 I had no idea I had spent. So maybe this is a good thing you could try.
Making meal plans is fab, I do homemade soup quite a bit.
For your first trip to Aldi try to browse and get some different bits. Thing's I have personally found to taste no different and what I swopped to on the first Aldi trip are: tinned toms/kidney beans/tinned fruit, fruit & veg, frozen veg/chips/pizza, orange juice's, lemonade, sugar, flower, bread, choc bars, eggs ect... As I have gone more and more I have also swopped to ham - the smoked version, bacon, Aldi version of stork, Olive spread, The mayo/tom sauce and brown sauce also curry sauce, fajita wraps - almost everything!

We do go to the butchers for our meat every week, not that we are snobby but we love the butchers meats, although I have heard that the meat from Aldi is good - I have brought their chicken fillets and they are lovely!

Taken me a while to get in to the swing of being more frugal and allowing me to save extra but I am getting there now!

Hope that wasn't too much babble and helps

laura_hoggle

Congratulations!

I totally agree with going down a brand, and I think Aldi is a great idea - I've been trying to shop in there a lot more lately, and have found our food shop going down a fair amount. Last month we spent about £220 for 2 adults for all meals every day, and that included about £40 worth of booze! I signed up to the Grocery Challenge on here which really made me keep a track of what we spend on groceries!! There will also probably be a voucher in the Mirror newspaper on Thursday for £5 off a £40 spend - it's normally the last Thursday of every month! Meal planning and bulk cooking (if you have the freezer space!) also really helps!

If you are going for 2nd hand, might be worth checking out Freecycle/Freegle in your area? I have seen people posting all sorts in my area, and if you put a general post to say you need baby stuff, people will probably remember stuff they've got lying around! Also, have a look and see if there are any selling pages on Facebook for your local area. I always seem to see bundles of baby and kids stuff on there!

I went to a nearly new baby sale with a friend after she had her little girl, she was after a travel cot and managed to get one for about £5, which she was really pleased about, so worth looking out in local newspapers for events like that!

Make sure you link any loyalty cards with utilities (Eon - Tesco, British Gas - Nectar, I think!) as that will get a few extra points for doing not very much!

One of the big things I'd recommend is cashback websites if you don't already use them. I only use TopCashBack, but there are others like Quidco. Since I signed up about 2 years ago, I've earnt about £350 on things that I would have been buying anyway!

MrsMarine

Thank you so much for all of your help so far!


I am planning on going to Aldi this Friday and will be sticking to the meal plan! Hubby doesn't really drink and now obviously I wont be so shouldn't cost too much per week. Thank you for the Mirror tip off!


I have started signing up to pregnancy freebies (started a new email address just for this!) looking forward to the vouchers coming through in time for any required purchases. Hubby and I are going to write up a bare essentials list soon and stick to that when buying ahead of bumps arrival. Hard not to go mad already! haha


Will also look into cash back websites as well!


Thank you again

phizzimum

I'd recommend looking at Jack Monroe's blog - her recipes are quick and easy to cook but very thrifty and my family have enjoyed eating them. I've been cooking my usual sort of meals most nights but using Jack's recipes twice a week and it's made a difference to the amount I've spent without us feeling hard done by.