Living below your means

taplady

Mics_chick wrote: »

I'm just posting in this thread so I can find it again

Thanks for this :T I hadn't read this thread and have found it most interesting!

I am living within my means now at last!:j we are paying an IVA off which takes nearly £500 a month from our income and we are managing to live on what is left so when we are finally out of debt we will be rolling in it!:D
I have learnt a lot from this site over the last few years:T

thriftlady_2

Mics_chick wrote: »

I'm just posting in this thread so I can find it again

I haven't seen it before either -so thanks;) Btw your avatar has completely transfixed my 12 yo son:D

Hardup_Hester

I can't manage to live below my income when that's all we have coming in, but all the other bits & pieces help.
One thing I do is to allocate seperate bit of income towards different expenditure.
I put my chatline wages towards my broadband, so I have to earn at least £20 a month from it.
My craft sales pay for Christmas.
The idea being if I feel lazy & don't want to log on to chat or don't feel like knitting, it gives me a kick up the bum.
Other things I do
Shop online from Mr T once every 3 months, so no impulse buys.
Check the Tesco Express every morning as I go past for reduced items.
Never have a holiday
Never buy magazines
Rarely go out, maybe 1 or 2 times a year.
Cook from scratch & use up leftovers, usually for lunch the next day
Keep the heating set low & wear extra layers
Always shower & not bathe.
Never buy new clothes
Never use tumble dryer
Never wear make up
Wear my hair up in a bun or cut it my self.
I do buy Nice & Easy £4. every 2 months to hide the grey hair.
I ask my kids for smellies for my birthday & I get £20 of tokens from work for my birthay & if things are really bad I use the tokens to buy Christmas pressies with.
I can't think of anything else at the moment
Hester

taplady

thats a good list Hester!:T

Things we do to live within our means are

cook from scratch, freeze extra portions
dye my own hair
cut DHs hair myself(no 1 on the hair clippers!:eek: )
grow our own veggies
only use Tumble dryer in extreme emergencies!
only go out once or twice a year
buy clothes at carboots and charity shops and accept hand-me-downs
1 tablet in the washing machine
recycle/reuse almost everything
bake my own cakes etc
go carbooting
only holiday I have is a paid one for work taking a service user away.
have a second job
Use cash for everything
menu plan
shop with a list


am sure theres loads more but have gone blank!

Hapless_2

• We pay cash for bills at the PO or use internet banking where we can so we don't get lumbered with Bank charges.
• Write shopping lists and stick to them
• Any leftovers are kept and eaten next day or frozen
• Grow what we can
• Use the car only when needed
• Use credit cards only for internet ordering
• Sell stuff we are not using
• Use freecycle as much as possible
• Dry clothes outside or in kitchen wherever possible
• Make sure the neighbour never throw anything wood out for bin men if we can use it for kindling
• Phone people only using the free calls on our mobiles
• Kids only get pressies on birthday or Yule
• Clothes are passed down where possible
• Make the most of natural light
• Buy professional grage washing powder, fabric conditioner and washing up liquid and use quarter recommended amount
• Buy clothes in the sales
• Colour my own hair
• Cut OH and kids hair (and get him to cut mine)

HopeElizzy

Queenie wrote: »

One of my brothers visited and I humbled myself and asked to borrow £5 - he said he couldn't ... he came back a couple of hours later ......
...... to show me the gold necklace he'd just snapped up at a bargain £150 for his girlfriend!!!!! The anger and injustice I felt!! (LOL seems daft now!).
I turned into action and the rest is history.

For some reason this made made all teary........ then I happened to glance at the date and realised it was 2 years ago!! I do feel a twit.

:money:Thanks for resurrecting this thread - it has some helpful advice on it.

Mics_chick

thriftlady wrote: »

I haven't seen it before either -so thanks;) Btw your avatar has completely transfixed my 12 yo son:D

:rotfl:

janb5

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

I can't manage to live below my income when that's all we have coming in, but all the other bits & pieces help.
One thing I do is to allocate seperate bit of income towards different expenditure.
I put my chatline wages towards my broadband, so I have to earn at least £20 a month from it.

Hester- how do you earn money from chatlines and is it difficult?

Thanks

Jan

Mics_chick

Hapless wrote: »

Buy professional grage washing powder, fabric conditioner and washing up liquid and use quarter recommended amount

What is this ??? (highlighted above)

moanymoany

Queenie wrote: »

Pay yourself FIRST! If you wait to put those savings away each week/month they have a tendancy to be gobbled up; so be strict with yourself and once you've worked out your budget and *know* that you should theoretically have X amount left over - pay it by DD into a savings account.
Second - give yourself an allowance (pocket money) so you don't feel deprived.

The above works for us. Even if all you can afford to "pay" yourself in savings is £10 per month and your allowance is only £5 pm it gets you into the discipline.

This is the way we do it Queenie, it has worked like a charm for us for several years.

We began when we realised that even with compensation, our mortgage wasn't going to be paid. We could pay an extra £500 a month. DH said it couldn't be done and on paper he was right. So, I said let's put the £500 into a savings account. If we really can't live without it we can take what we need out of it and pay what's left off the mortgage. We lived without it and we paid that £500 for the four years left on the mortgage. We learnt to live old style and we even started to save extra.

If you take the savings out and put them somewhere difficult to get, e.g. you have to physically go to the bank or Building Society, you will soon get the message. Every time you go to spend something you will have to think about how much money you have left. It sharpens the mind beautifully!