September PMS challenge.

Gingham_Ribbon

I am starting this on Queenie's behalf. All the best everyone - details below are from Queenie as always.

Originally Posted by Queenie
This is our "Pin Money Savings Challenge" - a very old style way of money 'saving'. The old adage: "Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves" is as true today as ever it's been and so has the old style idea of "Pin Money" (tucking away pennies to buy the odd luxury - in reality, that pin money literally saved the day when families lived payday to payday or the breadwinner was made redundant!)

Once you've set up your budgets (here's Martins article on the basics of budgeting for those who may not have done so yet) you'll know where you're at with your income/outgoings.
Some of you will already have earmarked amounts to tackle your debt problems (if you have them. Here is Martins article on Problem Debts) and some of you may even have set up regular savings.(Martins article on Starting Saving)

There's a danger that those "savings" are being swallowed up elsewhere and never really knowing just how beneficial those nips and tucks have been in reality or benefitting from them. This is pin money and we should know how much we're accumilating; We should be able to tap into that money and benefit from it; we've earned it by making cost cutting choices!

First, choose a goal. Think about what you want to save for. Maybe it's something relatively small that would actually help you to save more money in the future.

For example: I used some Tesco vouchers in January which saved me £28 on my monthly shopping bill - at the till I got that £28 via cashback and then I bought a breadmaker in another shop which was on sale. The breadmaker is saving me money as I don't go to the shops as often to pick up a loaf and end up tempted into buying extra's while I'm there plus it saves on petrol through less trips.

Maybe you wish for something larger - a family holiday? A dishwasher? A newer car? These items may take longer to save up for, but they are still attainable.

Where is your pin money coming from? A variety of ways ...

Coupons/Vouchers: You can't bank on coupons when you draw up your household budget, so view them as bonus'.
If you normally spent £50 per week on groceries and that week you have coupons which reduce your bill by x amount, that x amount becomes your pin money savings. Put the same value of the coupons into your pin money.

Bogof's: If it's on your usual shopping list and you are able to get it on bogof - put the cash value of the saving into your pin money.

Freebies: I've put some of these into my gift box store; I can't bank on freebies to provide my gift needs (gift purchases are accounted for in my budget planning already) so they are also bonus' - so, the cash equivalent can go to your pin money.

The monthly food challenge:
Take a look through the Storecupboard Challenge and/or the Monthly Grocery Challenge. If you find your food bill reducing, put that extra into your pin money.

Tips from here: Cleaning: E.g. Vinegar as a fabric softener; if you stop buying fabric softener, work out the saving (you'll need to deduct the cost of the vinegar you are replacing it with) and put that amount into your pin money.

Make it from Scratch: Look through the recipe collection and see if you can make it/bake it cheaper.

Research your purchases! - before you buy anything have a look through the Shop but Don't Dropand Quick Grabbit While You Canforums to see if you can get it cheaper (utilise the "search" facility within those forums too). If all else fails, try posting in I Wanna Buy-It, Do-It forum, someone else may know of the best deal on what you're looking for.

At the end of each month, empty out your pin money and transfer that to a savings account (this way it can now begin to earn a bit of interest = more pin money! )
The start of the next month, you will know how much you've shaved off your basic grocery bill (this applies to the food/fabric softener example, not those unbankable freebies/bogof's/coupons) so begin by putting that into your pin money.

Each month we can post what we have saved money on and added to our pin money.

What if things are soooooo tight that every saving you make each week can't be put away because it's needed elsewhere?

Not a problem, you can still keep a record but instead of cash this will be your "virtual" savings. It will be very encouraging to see how much you are "saving" by making small changes, even if you can't put away the actual cash.

Some of you have already absorbed these savings into your budget and recalculated accordingly, that's ok, this challenge still applies because any new ideas/tips that you pick up can now be utilised for your pin money.

Clarification of Virtual Savings

Let me give you an example:

Suppose I've worked out my budget and menu plan for the week and one of the items, I know, will cost me, say, £1.99. Off I go with my list. When I'm at the store, I find a pack of something else, reduced to £1.99 instead of the usual £2.99. So, I snap it up!

I have made a saving of £1

However, I didn't *have* £2.99 in the first place; therefore I would never have bought it. I could *only* buy it, because it was the same price that I had available to spend. (The original £1.99). In reality, I haven't saved any hard cash. But that doesn't mean I haven't saved. That is where *virtual* savings come into play.

By simply snapping up a bargain and not spending anymore than I usually do, I've bought something a little better that I couldn't normally afford.

I don't want to lose sight of the fact that I've saved that £1 by being more shopping savvy.

So, I record it as a *virtual* saving ...
... not *real hard cash* but a saving nonetheless.

The term, *virtual* saving, is a bit like "virtual reality" LOL

It can be quite demoralising if, week after week, some of our MSE'er are really working at pinching those pennies and squeezing those pounds - this way, at the end of the year, they can still see that - hey, it's working!

Now, should I find my budgeted £1.99 item reduced to 99p THEN I have £1 in cold hard cash that can be put away into the pin money savings.

I hope that makes it a bit clearer. If not, don't hesitate to ask any more questions

JillD_2

woops just posted on Aug PMS thread, but this one makes more sense for me as my Sept has already started:

I think I'd like to give this a go. My month runs from 20th to 20th. Not sure exactly how I will do it, probably start by saving leftovers from various budgets we have set up.
We are lucky enough to not be in debt but have several "virtual debts" where we took money out of savings to tide us over when really we should have just cut back. I think therefore I will put the PMS to topping up savings once more. We also had some money come in that we should have saved, that just got swallowed up in the noise.

So my first goal is to save up against a car tax rebate we got 2 years ago. It was for £114.58

Not sure of how I will do the mechanics of this yet. I think I'll read through some of the old PMS threads and see what others do.

Wish me luck!


Oooh I just thought of one! I bought a new ScoobyDoo tshirt for DS today, it was marked as £5 but cameup as £2.50 at the till. Can I save the £2.50 it was reduced by then ?

spendaholic

I've remembered that I don't need to open a separate bank account for this. My Barclays account has several "savings pots", inherited from the Woolwich, so I'll use a couple of those. One for the garden and one for the ballet.

I have 2 budgets where the leftovers will go towards garden pots and stuff ("going out" and "change jar"), and 1 budget where the leftovers will pay for a ticket to the ballet on the day I complete my OU exam ("shopping").

So far I'm over spent on the shopping budget, so no sign of a ticket for the ballet yet.

However, I just counted what was left of my going out budget for August, and there's £8. And I just counted some of my change and got £10 in 20 pences. So there's £18 towards the garden pots.

JillD_2

I went to pharmacist today to try and get something for my DS's scalp problem, but the pharmacist said to go to the GP. So whatever I get will be on prescirption ie free so I saved myself whatever I would have bought in Boots. I checked on their websites and prices for scalp treatments vary from £2.40 to £8:eek: So I will average it at a fiver. So I am at £7.50 already this month, how cool is that!!!

Now I just need to decide on the mechanics of recording it and actually saving it.

spendaholic

Oops, posted in the wrong thread ... sorry.

My night out's budget was £10, I spent less than £6, and that was with an admission fee too. It's always cheaper when I drive. People don't mind buying me a drink. So, there's another £4 in my pms pot. The loose change went in my money boxes.

Moniker

Hi everyone. I would like to join in officially for September. I managed to put £31-34 away for August, but don't expect this month to be as good (but you never know).

Mainly I saved on a big spend in Boots with lots of bogofs and the free mascara offer (neither of which will be replicated this month). I found it helpful to put real cash into a separate purse and was amazed how it built up. I am going to take the cash along to the building society on Thursday and put in in my mini cash ISA.

Good luck to everyone in the challenge - you are a real inspiration - thanks!

JillD_2

ooo I am on a roll, found some dollars that hubby brought back from US that he didn't spend, $20 so should be around a tenner!!! Dead chuffed!! Will take to PO on Weds as if I remmeber correctly they don't charge commission ?? will update sig once I have the cash in my hand!

spendaholic

Another night out and another £10 budget, and I came back with ... £8.50. Yup, I managed to spend a whole £1.50. (People really do buy you drinks easier when they know you're on pop.) So, £8 has gone towards the pms pot and the remaining 50p has gone in my 20p and 50p money box, giving me a grand pms total of ... £30. Not bad less than one week in.

JillD_2

spendaholic, I came on to read the PMS stuff and just saw you sig - your current debt compared to highest debt is FANTASTIC :j :beer: :T

scuzz

I'm back in. Still waiting for the final bits from the bank so I can get the cash in an account. The card's arrived, but no pin or paying in book as yet:rolleyes:

spendaholic

JillD: Thank you very much. It was a hard slog and ultimately involved selling a house and splitting the equity, but it was like a huge weight had been lifted.

I've just added £3 to my sig in my ballet pot, which is my money towards a ballet ticket in October to celebrate finishing my OU exam. I've been and logged into my ciao account and there's £3.10 in there. I expected about double, but apparently some surveys can take up to 2 weeks to be credited. So I'm keeping an eye on that. When there's more than a fiver I can claim it and have it earn me interest instead of ciao.