My money saving, money making journey

Hadalbm

Hi all
I have been lurking on this site for quite some time now and I've really enjoyed reading many of the diaries.

My own debt free journey has been a long one and I still have a long way to go, but life is generally good and I do appreciate that I am better off financially than many. Whilst we have had periods of time when we have seriously struggled to pay the bills we have thankfully always had a roof over our head and food in the cupboards. For this I am very grateful.

However after years of just 'getting by' I've now decided the time has come to actively try and save some money. We have no emergency fund put by and no access to credit so it does worry me that one day something will happen that we won't be able to cope with.
My plan therefore is to try and save or make a little bit of extra money each day and to use this diary to share my successes (and failures!!).

Hadalbm

Despite being in debt for many years I have to be honest and say that I've never really seriously budgeted and have never managed to have any savings
We have always just spent whatever we had (or didn't have) without really thinking of the consequences. I know that now has to change so I now intend splitting our money into different 'pots' to try and account better for what we spend. To help with this I have opened a number of saving accounts attached to my current account which I'm going to use to save for different things.

For day to day living I have allocated us a budget of £200 per week. This will have to cover all food, entertainment, petrol and other bits. I realise this may seem a lot to many on here but it is a lot less than we have previously lived off. I also want to try and make some savings out of this.
My intention is to run our budget from Saturday to Saturday and I'm going to split the £200 into four pots :-
£50 for groceries (to feed 2 adults and 2 cats)
£50 for petrol (we run 2 cars to enable us to get to work)
£80 for entertainment (to include meals out, takeaways, wine etc)
£20 for other (eg haircuts)

At the moment my kitchen cupboards and freezer are full to overflowing as I'm a bit of a food hoarder, so another aim will be to reduce the stockpile. This should help me save money out of the grocery budget.
Any savings that are made out of the above pots each week will go into separate savings accounts :-

Grocery budget - will go into 'big shop' savings to use when store cupboard or freezer supplies are deleted or for parties or Christmas etc
Petrol budget - will go into 'car' savings and will contribute to car related expenses
Entertainment budget - will go into 'holiday' savings
Other budget - will go into 'present' savings to contribute towards Christmas and birthdays

I also intend trying to make on average an extra £10 per day. Going to try to do this by the use of on line survey sites, selling items etc etc. I will also include in this any savings that are made by the use of reduced items on my shopping or BOGOF offers provided they were on my shopping list for the week (hope that bit makes sense?)

Feeling really motivated now to get going

sick_of_being_in_debt

Hi
Good luck in your money saving journey. I cannot believe how much money money I have wasted over the years and for the first time ever I am in control of my finances! and it's a great feeling;).

BILLIE

Love the name Hadalbm!! Your plan seems great, think £80 is a lot for entertainment as that is something we don't have in our lives on a weekly basis - went to the cinema 3 weeks ago fro the first time in years! But if you are going to transfer at the end of each week into other savings lots thing that is good. Being I control is a great feeling sick of being in debt and long may it continue that way. Saving up for things gives one a great feeling xxxx

killerpeaty

How many people is the entertainment budget for? You can probably cut spending with the use of vouchers and freebies, I have 6 free cinema tickets just from one of my bank accounts.

I'm sure you'll do amazingly and I will lurk to see your progress.

Hadalbm

A big 'HELLO' to everyone that has replied I'm sure that all your lovely comments will really spur me on.

Sick of being in debt - I really do want to get in control of my finances and I'm sure that using this diary and support from the lovely people on here will spur me on. I can't wait to experience that great feeling. I think it's starting already

Billie - I know £80 for entertainment is an awful lot but to be honest we have got used to an active social life that always seems to revolve around weekends away and eating out. Until now we have been spending on average more than that
We are now looking at alternative ways to spend time with our family and friends and I'm hoping to make some significant savings from this.

Killerpeaty - this budget is essentially for 4 adults. Our two adult children are living away from home as at Uni and we travel to see them on a regular basis. When we do we take them out for a meal or a day out somewhere and always foot the bill as they are both living off a really tight budget. I'm now looking out for vouchers and freebies to cut the cost and looking at alternative activities

I've just been out to do my supermarket shopping and will post details of what we spent later today.

Thank you all once again for taking the time to reply to my post

killerpeaty

Ahh, yes, uni kids. When my parents visited me they used to buy my weekly shop, it was brilliant. I can see your dilemma, if it helps your kids are probably so excited by the prospect of a half decent meal that they probably wouldn't mind where!

Hadalbm

killerpeaty wrote: »

Ahh, yes, uni kids. When my parents visited me they used to buy my weekly shop, it was brilliant. I can see your dilemma, if it helps your kids are probably so excited by the prospect of a half decent meal that they probably wouldn't mind where!

Thankfully neither of them are fussy as to where we go .... but even somewhere cheap does add up when paying for 4 adults Tend to spend less in the summer as we can have picnics etc. I do think it's money well spent though as we all enjoy being together which is lovely.

killerpeaty

Have you considered taking them to one of their uni bar/restaurants? As long as someone is a student there, VAT isn't usually charged. Or using their student discounts?

I used to be terrible, there was a tearoom that I loved which I couldn't afford so everytime my parents came I just pleased with them to take me there. It was about £8 a person so not the worst, but could have been a lot cheaper if we'd stayed in my kitchen!

Hadalbm

killerpeaty wrote: »

Have you considered taking them to one of their uni bar/restaurants? As long as someone is a student there, VAT isn't usually charged. Or using their student discounts?

I used to be terrible, there was a tearoom that I loved which I couldn't afford so everytime my parents came I just pleased with them to take me there. It was about £8 a person so not the worst, but could have been a lot cheaper if we'd stayed in my kitchen!

Oh that's a good idea thank you Have used their student discount but didn't know about the VAT

Hadalbm

So here I go ..... what we've spent and saved this weekend

Budget for week beginning 28th February :-

Groceries £50 :-
Spent yesterday at local supermarket express £1 on milk, £1.83 on 3 large bags of finest clementines (yellow stickered - saved £5.43) and £1.94 on diet coke (BOGOF)
Spent today on weekly shop at Mr M's supermarket £37.99 including yellow stickered hot cross buns at 9p a pack (saving £1.32 on 2 packs), pack if four cheese scones for 25p (saving 75p) and a large artisan poppy seed loaf for 19p (saving 80p)
Total left in grocery budget = £7.24

Entertainment £80 :-
Spent yesterday at local supermarket express £6.74 on 2 bottles red wine. (Yellow stickered - saved £1.75)
Spent today on Sunday lunch in supermarket cafe £12.20 for lamb shank, mashed potatoes and peas and hot drinks for two of us
Total left in entertainment budget = £61.06

Petrol £50 :-
Spent today £25.05 for hubbys car
Total left in petrol budget = £24.95

Other :- £20

Make or save an average of £10 a day challenge :-
Yesterday - saved £7.18 on yellowed stickered wine and clementines, £1.94 on BOGOF diet coke and made £5.06 on inboxpounds site
Total = £14.18
Today - saved £2.87 on yellow stickered bakery products and a massive £9.68 by swapping cat litter and dishwasher tablets to supermarket own budget brand. Earned a total of 1260 loyalty points at supermarket which equates to £1.26 and earned 3p by clicking on paid emails (every little helps !! Lol). Also saved 75p this evening on the bacon and leek risotto I made for tea. Usually I use 200g of bacon lardons. The 200g pack I bought today was split into 2 separate 100g packs so I decided to use just 100g. We honestly didn't notice a difference and saved 75p
Total = £14.56

Grand total saved or made over 2 days = £28.74

I've also decided this afternoon that I'm going to start recording the number of 'no spend days' (NSD's) that I can mange each month. Going to aim for 15 in March.

Finally I usually buy a sandwich and coffee each day at work for lunch which costs me in the region of £5 per day!! From now on I'm going to aim to take a packed lunch and count the savings towards my save or make challenge.

Feeling really positive and motivated now Can't wait to see my savings pots start to grow