Living below your means

anguk

luxor4t wrote: »

Round here the reductions are much later & it's not your bum that gets slapped, you get trampled by the scrum. I suppose it is because things have been hard here a while longer than most places.

Round here even if you go in the supermarket 5 minutes before it closes the reduced stuff only has about 50p knocked off. The cheapest I've ever managed to pick a reduced loaf up was 55p!

Yet my son is always on the phone telling me about his reduced bargains (he lives in London), he picked up a whole leg of lamb for £2.50, I'd be lucky to get a pack of 2 lamb chops for that in my local Tesco. :rolleyes:

Olliebeak

I'm another who shops in the 'bum slapping store' and manages to get fabulous whoopsies.

That day's use-by Hovis/Kingsmill/Warbies were all down to around 29p a loaf at 1.00pm on Sunday with three hrs to go before closing (usually it's around 6.30pm cos it's 24hr).

Like everything else, it all depends on how polite you are when the assistant appears - I've known them to walk away with the trolley and pricing-gun if there's too many people pushing/shoving and I don't blame them!

Rebekah24

I have been making steps towards tightening my belt further, as I really want to be debt free for my birthday in June

1. Walking to work - Bus travel is 3.20 a day for 2.5 miles or £55 a month! eek!

2. Minimising food costs- just me, so rarely eat

3. keeping the heating off, after a whopping £1350 last year E7..its off..apart from drying clothes once a week

4. Washing clothes/sheets once a week

5. Being the whoopsie queen when getting bits for oh, bread/eggs 29p, fab!

jazzyjustlaw

bunny_too wrote: »

What agreat thread.

I've been living on benifits for a few years due to ill health. I just about manage to live within my means. I get great hints and tips on mse. My main things for making my money stretch are.

1. Try not to use washing machine on hot wash. my machine takes 2 hrs and 15 mins to wash at 40. So i steep my clothes in hot water in the sink for about an hour and then put into machine on a 30min. cycle. Works a treat and save me leccy.

2. Sold td. All clothes line dried and then on airers.

3. Cook and bake from scratch. Found out by trial and error what i could freeze well etc. Now have a very well stocked freezer of home made food. Can't believe that i use to spend £20 on carry out pizza etc.

4. Only use half the recommened amount of shampoo, toothpaste,washing powder etc. thinhs last twice as long, more pennies saved. Also cut open all tubs bottles etc. to get the last out of them.

5. Cut and dye my own hair, use 1 box of hairdye twice. Go to hairdressers about twice a year. Nice and easy i buy when i see it in offer, have 6 boxes at the moment.

6. Work at having a well stocked store cupboard, and buy when things are on offer. Go to chinese supermarkets for herbs and spices, rice,cooking oil etc. much cheaper to buy in bulk. Split some large packets with a friend, both getting the saving.Big on line shop every 8 weeks.Stops impluse buying.

7. Turn all plugs off at the wall, leave nothing on stanby. TV and bt box costs 3.75 per week to leave on full time. Have an elec meter to check prices.

8. Bought a Remosky. Can't believe the difference this piece of kit has made to my leccy bill. I bake every day, and now i don't use main oven at all. Best thing ever.

9. Wear layers before putting the heating on. My pre mse days i sat about the house in a t shirt complaining i was cold, this would be in Dec. I now wear fleece, sheepskin celtic house boots, and only put heating on if i'm still cold after that.

10. Put old duvet under my fitted bottom sheet, heavy tog duvet and take hottie to bed.

11. Fleese throws on each sofa for snuggling to watch tv., burn a few tealights on hearth to give a bit of a glow at night. Makes you feel nice and warm when heating has gone off.

12.Always look for ys when in supermarket. Try to have a few veggie meals a week to cut down on butchery costs.

13. Meal plan. I try to have a pastry night, pizza evening, curry night, pasta night, fish night , roast night, chop night, soup toastie and dessert night.etc etc. This saves so much money, i found it amazing when i first tried it.

14. Carry a book with you and recorded every purchase, pre mse days i spent a whopping £12.00 per week on mags alone. Never mind the lattes.

15. Take snacks and flask out with me when shopping, find a nice spot to have coffee and a home made goodie. Type of car picnic.

16. Make pack lunch for son for school, he prefers this to his school canteen.It tends to be frozen pizza and chicken nuggets. You get used to home cooked foood and can taste the chemicals in ready meals, so you tend to prefere hm. iykwim.

17. Make good use of charity shops, i haven't bought anything new for over ayear. Except undies. Buy xmas and birthday pressies all year in sales and put in to my pressie cupboard. Cards too in Jan sales.

18. Hand make as many gifts as possible. Have tags printed in local office supply shop for pennies.

Thats about it for now, please keep all the great ideas coming, everytime i log on here i learn something new. xx:A

Good advice - more people will be trying to take on some of your tips given the recent budget its VAT that will affect me!!

pumpkinlife

As we are paying down debts, I can't say we live within our means as such, but we are paying it down at a much faster rate than I ever anticipated, on less money than we used to earn than when we accrued the debt (god how DUMB we were then :mad:).

Pay yourself at the beginning of the month! The best thing we now do is write a serious budget at the beginning of every month. We work out the fixed outgoings. Then we allocate a certain amount to discretionary spending (food, clothes etc. The figure has been whittled down every month so far as I get stingier and stingier!). What is left immediately goes into either debt repayments or a savings account (if we are saving for a big payment looming) at the beginning of the month. In addition, all of our loose change goes into a jar at the end of the day and is then either saved or used to pay down debt.

I think that its basically its a case of being mindful about every little bit of money that goes out. I feel sick now everytime I forget to take lunch to work and have to buy some overpriced soggy sandwich. One day I will get around to keeping a daily spend diary, because I know I could be better. One day I will do a lot of things that I should .

Trinny

Hi There

Learning to live below your means is something that takes time to get the hang of. Its been like baby steps for us. What works for one will not work for another. Its about finding the things you can change which will free up extra cash. My list probably looks extreme, but it works for our family, and means that we are able to save.

Still trying to get the grocery budget down! Still struggling to get to the target NSD's for the month.

This is what we do

1. Join grocery challenge
2. Join No Spend Day challenge on DFW - this has been tough for me, as i waste small amounts of money daily if i am not careful and it all adds up
3. Turn off the heating and try to go as long as possible without it
4. Grow own veg - forage, and water garden with grey water and water harvested in water butt
5. Only buy clothes in charity shops - apart from underwear.
6. Look on freecycle first before buying anything.
7. Furniture is secondhand
8. Shop in B&M, Home Bargains and Wilkinsons for toiletries, food items and cleaning products/toilet rolls
9. Frequent the reduced to clear section at the end of the day.
10. Menu plan and never waste food - love the leftovers and get food waste down to a minimum.

This stuff sounds extreme but we are keen on being green, so these ideas suit us. Its taken ages to start thinking differently about money and about what it takes to make one happy. Before MSE a Saturday for me was recreational shopping, supermarket was finest everything, didnt think about what i was spending and there was nothing at the end of the month.

By adopting these strategies - we live on one salary, which means we can save to get the heating and wiring done in our much loved but delapidated house.

Best Wishes

Trin

Thats_me

As redundancy is hanging over me, I too will have to tighten the belt even more. But, as a result of living below (just) our means we have no debt except for a bit of mortgage left. I will look hard to see where we can economise further, there is always a bit more you can pare off. Like a lot of you, we grow our own, have a wood burner for winter heat, don't go out much, don't buy new clothes (or much else come to it!) In many ways I am looking forward to being home for a little while, it will give me time to do all those jobs that get left, like sewing and double lining winter curtains etc.

[Deleted User]

I have spent most of my adult life being fairly frugal and so its almost second nature to me I just hate waste of any description.Whether its food or anything at all If I can do I recycle almost everything I rarely thow anything away that might have a use in some other capacity.I cook from scratch (mainly because I like to know what I'm eating) and can easily live on what I have I am a pensioner and live quite reasonably on what I have I enjoy a weeks holiday in the spring which I save for and a fortnight in the summer which I share the costs with my youngest DD.I have just come back from my history class I am the only one who takes a drink with me when I go the rest all buy a drink from the machine at 55p a can .Now to those old enough to remember thats eleven shillings for a can of pop.great way to make you change your mind about spending if you can remember to do it ,convert it back to £.s.d..Stopped my buying a newspaper years ago when I realised it was over five bob to read a load of rubbish I get my news from the net or the wireless
Probably my main expense is petrol but that's because I don't walk too far with any ease so without my car I am a bit more housebound.But I can get through the week with maybe only one trip to the shops and the rest I manage by NSDs .
I do enjoy the free things in life like talking to my little grandsons and playing cards or games with them.reading,from the library of course and I don't smoke and only have a G&T if I have company to stay I would never dream of going to a pub on my own for example.No i think I manage very well and can live well within my means I don't believe in debt as at my age I can't do any 'overtime' to make any extra cash so have to manage my accounts carefully.I have already started to buy the odd present to go into my Christmas Gift box so by Christmas it won't be too expensive.I have seven grandchildren and they are get roughly the same amount spent on them plus of course my 2 DDs and son-in-laws

elfyh2000

Being a student on a limited budget, I have to be fairly tight! I think the best things I do are:
1) Never tumble dry anything. Ever.
2) Buy and cook in bulk when supermarkets are selling stuff cheap. Then freeze it.
3) Homemade bread
4) Invest in a thermos. I take mine everywhere, and save a fortune on tea during the day
5) Have the heating on only for a couple of hours a day between November and February
6) Put all my change in a (sealed) pot at the end of the week
7) Never take purse out unless I intend to buy something - it's hard to spend with no cash and no cards

Thanks for all your tips though

meanmarie

I find that the best way to keep my money is to never spend anything unless I really have to....have decided that this year there will just be presents at Christmas for the 5 grandchildren, my 'children' are practically impossible to buy for and can well afford to buy what they want....so that's another few euro to go to the new car fund....hope not to need one for at least another 2/3 years so should be on top of it by then

Marie