How to save money within reason

JustThisOnce

Lots of good advice, as always! My input, for what it's worth...

1. £100 a year for a hobby you obviously love isn't very much (that's £8.33 a month - you'd spend far more going to the cinema, taking an evening class, going to the swimming pool or the gym).

2. If you like your hairdresser, DON'T change! Hair you're happy with is worth a lot. If you're determined to save on this, you could stretch it out to 8, rather than 6 weeks, which would save almost £100 a year. Or look at a DIY job between hair appointments to stretch it further, maybe? That's a very personal choice though

3. As other posters have said, don't pay interest on your debt if you can help it. Either use your savings to pay it off (I know it's a wrench, but there's no point having spare cash if your earnings are paying for debt), or shift the debt to a 0% balance transfer credit card. MSE has tons of advice on how to do this.

4. Have you looked at your bigger expenses? Sorry if you've already sorted this, but my biggest savings have come from shifting our energy supplier, getting a cheaper mobile phone tariff, shopping around for insurance, changing our bank account to one that pays interest on balances (and gives cashback on utilities). Again, lots of advice and different options on here.

5. Piggy-banking can be done by opening lots of savings accounts, or just lots of spreadsheets! I have: money that goes out every month; money for annual or one-off bills (insurance, vet bills - in your case - etc); the holiday pot (which can then be raided as it's something we only do if we can afford to); extra for overpaying the mortgage (ditto); and presents and personal expenses.

6. Re: Christmas. Who are you buying for? If you always buy for friends, why not ask them if you can either not buy this year, or if you can do a Secret Santa-type arrangement. Ditto for adult family members (siblings and grown-up children). Even if you just do it for one year, you should be able to save quite a bit without feeling too austere, and can then start setting cash aside for next year.

7. Baby steps - do things you might not even notice once they're in place. If you like Starbucks/Costa, then go, but maybe also have a look around for a nice independent place? Have one less coffee out a month, or only go to a coffee shop if you're meeting someone/the weather is awful? Have one less meal out a month? Invite a couple of friends round for dinner/Sunday lunch/pizza and DVD night every so often, or set up a supper club (this depends on how close by your friends live, obviously) so you take turns?

Hope that helps. For what it's worth, you seem to have a good grip on your expenses, and on what's important to you - that's an enviable place to be starting from!

JTO

76rosie

http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=1941


looks like a good deal.

76rosie

JustThisOnce wrote: »

Lots of good advice, as always! My input, for what it's worth...

1. £100 a year for a hobby you obviously love isn't very much (that's £8.33 a month - you'd spend far more going to the cinema, taking an evening class, going to the swimming pool or the gym).

2. If you like your hairdresser, DON'T change! Hair you're happy with is worth a lot. If you're determined to save on this, you could stretch it out to 8, rather than 6 weeks, which would save almost £100 a year. Or look at a DIY job between hair appointments to stretch it further, maybe? That's a very personal choice though

3. As other posters have said, don't pay interest on your debt if you can help it. Either use your savings to pay it off (I know it's a wrench, but there's no point having spare cash if your earnings are paying for debt), or shift the debt to a 0% balance transfer credit card. MSE has tons of advice on how to do this.

4. Have you looked at your bigger expenses? Sorry if you've already sorted this, but my biggest savings have come from shifting our energy supplier, getting a cheaper mobile phone tariff, shopping around for insurance, changing our bank account to one that pays interest on balances (and gives cashback on utilities). Again, lots of advice and different options on here.

5. Piggy-banking can be done by opening lots of savings accounts, or just lots of spreadsheets! I have: money that goes out every month; money for annual or one-off bills (insurance, vet bills - in your case - etc); the holiday pot (which can then be raided as it's something we only do if we can afford to); extra for overpaying the mortgage (ditto); and presents and personal expenses.

6. Re: Christmas. Who are you buying for? If you always buy for friends, why not ask them if you can either not buy this year, or if you can do a Secret Santa-type arrangement. Ditto for adult family members (siblings and grown-up children). Even if you just do it for one year, you should be able to save quite a bit without feeling too austere, and can then start setting cash aside for next year.

7. Baby steps - do things you might not even notice once they're in place. If you like Starbucks/Costa, then go, but maybe also have a look around for a nice independent place? Have one less coffee out a month, or only go to a coffee shop if you're meeting someone/the weather is awful? Have one less meal out a month? Invite a couple of friends round for dinner/Sunday lunch/pizza and DVD night every so often, or set up a supper club (this depends on how close by your friends live, obviously) so you take turns?

Hope that helps. For what it's worth, you seem to have a good grip on your expenses, and on what's important to you - that's an enviable place to be starting from!

JTO

buy martin's thrifty ways book. Check out the old style thread, coupons threads and the elite thread.

I get cinema tickets from showfilmfirst. pay 10 pound a time for a hair cut. Use o2 priority for freebies.

i also have bank accounts for free money and cashback credit cards.

i have free mobile phone contracts.

Personally, if you don't want to change your life, you have to get better value for your money. For example getting gift cards from tesco to buy xmas presents. They are giving 150 points for every 50 pounds. I bought 3v cards to pay for my service charge. Then i had enough points for pharell williams tickets at the 02. I save a lot of my points for ticket master. Or will help for clothes or next years xmas pressies.

i am earning a similar wage and have a mortgage and car to run.

Upsidedown_Bear

suicidebob wrote: »

I always had suspicions Starbucks was full of poseurs drinking expensive coffee who really couldn't afford it!

I go in Starbucks and I can afford it

Gracie_1827

Hi Fusspot... I love Ancestry and used for a few years but don't subscribe at the moment. But in the past I've got someone to buy my subs as a birthday or Xmas present. Also, of late I've been sharing someone else' account (shhhh...don't tell anyone) maybe if someone else is interested you could halve the subs.
There's lot of free sites out there aswell

suki1964

You have had some great advice from here so far

This is going to come across as harsh, it's not meant to be rude, condescending or anything, just need to point this out in black and white

You don't have enough savings.

You really do need to build those savings up, at least to three months salary Jobs are not safe anymore, esp in the public sector, how would you manage if you were to lose yours?

Now I know you like your coffee, and your meals out, and you have given reasons as to why you don't want to change these habits, but you really can't afford not to


You do need to start small. You do need to meal plan. You do need to keep a spend diary. I think you also need to decide on an amount to save each month - say £100, then work your budget around what's left over rather then saying "can I cut back on anything to make a few savings". Think of the savings as a bill that HAS to be paid monthly and work from there

My shopping bill is pared right back. I buy meat on special offer-3 packs for a tenner every other week, then the next week I buy stuff like liver, hocks, sausages etc and if I'm near the factory shop at the chicken plant I go see what I can get there once a month. I make a chicken do at least 9 adult meals, same with a pack of mince. Meal planning takes some time to get into but once you get a good selection of recipes under your belt it becomes easier. I've even been known to google for a recipe in store when I'm at the yellow sticker shelves seeing if I can turn a bargain buy into something we as a family would eat. Batch cooking and freezing into portions is the way forward, stick a reminder on your phone to remember to remove from the freezer the night before

You are also right in thinking that you may need vet bills. I don't have insurance and it's costing me £40 a month on meds and vet visits for just one dog. That's not counting defleaing, worming, vaccinations. Perhaps you need to start looking at getting insurance now or once again, commit a certain amount a month as separate savings

Birthdays and Christmas , once again, look at who you buy for and decide on a budget, and work out where you are going to find that money and divide that up over the 12 months and save it

Also, if you can't make your money stretch to cover the lifestyle you want, perhaps you can look at the boost your income board?

I do hope that now you have started to think about savings, you can start to look at what changes you can make to bring about a more secure financial future

Good luck

Fusspot

No offence taken Suki, I understand what you're saying. I know I need to cut down without depriving myself completely. I've already started Martin's piggy bank technique and am going to save for Christmas, holidays, big things for the flat and vets bills so I know where my money is going and hopefully won't end up in this state again in future.


Regarding food at home, I have a slow cooker and use it on and off, the main things I do in it are mince stew, sausage stew and corned beef hash. I then tire of eating the same things and go off the idea. I would love to cook and portion up chicken but am worried about reheating chicken after its been cooked and frozen.


At the moment I am eating Birds Eye chicken fillets and fish fillets with McCain jacket potatos which are lovely and can be cooked from frozen but I realise it may work out more expensive in the long run.

suki1964

I know what you mean about repetitive meals, the bane of singledom. I'm often in the same boat as hubby often worked away or I'm on lates

However when I batch cook I do a whole days cooking I make mince with veggies, that's a few shepherds pie basis. Then I'll do a bolognaise, that also gets made into lasagne I buy the wee foil dishes with lids and freeze them with cooking/defrosting instructions written on the lid. Stew I will make a big batch, turn some into pies, the rest I portion and freeze. Same with a whole chicken. After the dinner is taken from it I slice and freeze portions in gravy and the scraps will be turned into something else. And soups. Big saucepans of hearty soup frozen in bags. A couple of batch cooking days and soon there is a huge choice of meals in the freezer waiting to go

You can also batch cook jacket spuds, mash and wedges, all easy shoved in the oven

You have no worries about reheating chicken, as long as it was cooked through in the first place. The first cooking will have killed off any bugs. Defrosting in the fridge and reheating till piping all the way through will be perfectly safe

And yes whilst those chicken fillets are nice, they are expensive. Till you get more adventurous , try down branding. Lidl fish in particular is very good

zippychick

As this has dropped down Old Style, Ive moved this to DFW where you can get some more specialised advice

good luck

Zip

Hi, we move threads if we think they’ll get more help elsewhere (please read the forum rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

dancingfairy

If your salary is approx 1,200 and your bills come to £700 then that leaves you approx £500 a month for discretionary spending.
I think you need to work out where all your money is going currently and see what you want to keep and what you don't want to keep. Coffee each day sounds great but is it the best use of over £40 a month (I've said £2 per days times 20 works days but it could be more). Maybe restrict it to Fridays or Mondays only. Could you take soups to work or make coffee at work? It's difficult when it's cold to think of cheap places to meet up but in the summer you could cut right back and go for picnics/walks/browsing the shops etc, but I can understand that's not so great in winter.
Why not set yourself a budget of say £250 a month and challenge yourself to see how far you can make it stretch?
df