I want to stop wasting money.

sleepygirl126

I think eating out may be your key...try and set yourself a goal, when my first £250 was in my premium bonds account...I was so proud that i finally had savings that it was a light had flicked on and I finally started to sort my self out...

Towser

Have I done any better? I have an Autistic son that is why there is so much eating out, he likes to have everything exactly the same. I have mentioned the problems this has caused in a few threads but have received some useful tips. I do a lot of driving to get to the places my son likes. I am in a family of four so cook a fair bit for the family to keep costs down. I still have a lot to learn though and have had some really good tips from you guys. This is only a partial set of income/spends as my husband pays the mortgage and electric. We have a log burner so use free wood for hot water, cooking, heating and drying. I have to put a lot of money into my pension now as I did not (only the bare minimum) when I was younger.


02 Nov 17 PENSION DD 220.00
550.58

02 Nov 17 Wages SO 475.00
770.58

02 Nov 17 Wages BGC 272.98
295.58

01 Nov 17 COSTA COFFEE- TRI DEB 9.60
22.60

01 Nov 17 Council tax BC DD 161.00
32.20

01 Nov 17 MCDONALDS DEB 6.28
193.20

31 Oct 17 ALDI 110 775 DEB 38.49
199.48

31 Oct 17 GREGGS PLC DEB 6.45
237.97

31 Oct 17 THE SNOW CENTRE DEB 5.50
244.42

31 Oct 17 THE SNOW CENTRE DEB 2.40
249.92

30 Oct 17 MCDONALDS DEB 7.77
252.32

30 Oct 17 ALDI 110 775 DEB 27.91
260.09

30 Oct 17 GREGGS PLC DEB 8.75
288.00

30 Oct 17 Wages BGC 62.70
296.75

27 Oct 17 MCDONALDS DEB 8.77
234.05

26 Oct 17 MEAD OPEN FARM DEB 7.00
242.82

26 Oct 17 MEAD OPEN FARM DEB 2.10
249.82

25 Oct 17 ALDI 12 775 DEB 19.26
251.92

25 Oct 17 MEAD OPEN FARM DEB 10.75
271.18

25 Oct 17 BURGER KING BARRIE DEB 5.69
281.93

24 Oct 17 LONDON MIDLAND TIC DEB 25.25
287.62

24 Oct 17 LONDON MIDLAND TIC DEB 7.90
312.87

24 Oct 17 WCT CATERING DEB 4.60
320.77

24 Oct 17 UPPERCRUST BARRIER DEB 4.29
325.37

23 Oct 17 GREGGS PLC DEB 4.90
329.66

23 Oct 17 ALDI 12 775 DEB 63.53
334.56

23 Oct 17 MCDONALDS DEB 7.77
398.09

23 Oct 17 TESCO STORES 2825 DEB 6.85
405.86

23 Oct 17 Wages BGC 62.70
412.71

20 Oct 17 MARKS&SPENCER PLC DEB 9.00
350.01

20 Oct 17 KFC - RS DEB 2.99
359.01

19 Oct 17 Window Cleaner FPO 36.00
362.00

19 Oct 17 Cashpoint CPT 200.00
398.00

19 Oct 17 CAMELOT LOTTERY DD 36.00
598.00

18 Oct 17 ALDI 110 775 DEB 59.72
634.00

18 Oct 17 MARKS&SPENCER PLC DEB 56.00
693.72

17 Oct 17 SUBWAY DEB 7.50
749.72

17 Oct 17 Wages BGC 310.60
757.22

16 Oct 17 GREGGS PLC DEB 6.95
446.62

16 Oct 17 MCDONALDS DEB 10.76
453.57

16 Oct 17 SWIMMING DEB 8.10
464.33

16 Oct 17 MARKS&SPENCER PLC DEB 10.20
472.43

16 Oct 17 ANIMAL FRIENDS INS DD 3.14
482.63

16 Oct 17 Wages BGC 62.70
485.77

13 Oct 17 ALDI 12 775 DEB 25.79
423.07

11 Oct 17 TESCO STORE 3309 DEB 11.83
448.86

10 Oct 17 GREGGS PLC DEB 3.50
460.69

10 Oct 17 Wages BGC 137.60
464.19

09 Oct 17 ALDI 73 775 DEB 70.93
326.59

09 Oct 17 Wages BGC 62.70
397.52

05 Oct 17 ALDI 110 775 DEB 98.40
334.82

05 Oct 17 Wages BGC 166.03
433.22

04 Oct 17 MARKS&SPENCER PLC DEB 16.50
267.19

03 Oct 17 PAYPAL * DEB 47.95
283.69

03 Oct 17 PAYPAL * DEB 47.95
235.74

03 Oct 17 PENSION DD 220.00
187.79

03 Oct 17 GREGGS PLC DEB 3.65
407.79

03 Oct 17 GREGGS PLC DEB 2.85
411.44

03 Oct 17 MCDONALDS DEB 8.86
414.29

02 Oct 17 ALDI 110 775 DEB 95.30
423.15

02 Oct 17 PAYPAL * DEB 47.95
518.45

02 Oct 17 PAYPAL * DEB 47.95
566.40

02 Oct 17 PAYPAL * 7.95
614.35

02 Oct 17 PAYPAL * 7.95
622.30

02 Oct 17 CLEANING FPO 56.00
614.35

02 Oct 17 Council Tax BC DD 161.00
670.35

02 Oct 17 Wages SO 475.00
831.35

02 Oct 17 Wages BGC 62.70
356.35

02 Oct 17 COSTA @ TESCO DEB 10.30
293.65

02 Oct 17 MCDONALDS DEB 3.59
303.95

29 Sep 17 TESCO STORES 2041 DEB 9.60
307.54

29 Sep 17 SUBWAY DEB 11.30
317.14

29 Sep 17 PRIZE PAYMENT 3 BGC 9.60
328.44

28 Sep 17 TESCO STORES 3309 DEB 6.48
318.84

28 Sep 17 Shop DEB 9.76
325.32

27 Sep 17 TESCO STORES 3309 DEB 10.34
335.08

26 Sep 17 LONDON MIDLAND TIC DEB 9.45
345.42

26 Sep 17 MCDONALDS DEB 8.86
354.87

25 Sep 17 ALDI 12 775 DEB 54.81
363.73

25 Sep 17 MARKS&SPENCER PLC DEB 20.46
418.54

25 Sep 17 Wages BGC 62.70
439.00

Tropically

I started going through your expenses:

25 September - £75.27 spent at the shops
26 September - nearly £10 in McDonalds
27 September - £10 at Tesco (what happened to the food you spent £50 on at Aldi?)
28 September - £7 at Tesco again, and another bit of shopping
29 September - £12 Subway, £10 AGAIN at Tesco
2 October - Both McDonalds and Costa spend, AND Aldi AND 4 random shops?
3 October - Both McDonalds, Greggs and Greggs again, and two random shops

I think you are in a great position because you should find it super easy to saved loads. You are living an unhealthy lifestyle as well, no one should have so much junk food in one week. Can you find from-frozen food that your autistic son likes? Does he eat anything homemade? Can you make a bunch of freezer meals and then reheat for him?

Stay out of the shops! What are you buying? What are those four paypal purchases in one day?

Silence101

I'm pretty sure Iceland do a greggs frozen range, so that might save you some money, but if you can't give up the eating out, then your groceries should be a lot cheaper as you don't need to buy food for meals you are eating out. Do you meal plan or end up with lots of food waste? Also, seeing the amount you spend at fast foods, do you only buy for your autistic child or do you end up buying for everyone? It just seems like a lot of money at greggs, when most things are only approx £2 ish. Maybe you can try just buying for your son and everyone else needs to eat at home.
The thing I'm trying out in regards to non food shopping is to give myself monthly "pocket money " so I have to be careful not to waste it on random stuff but actually write a list then wait a few days before buying it, most of the time I've forgotten why I wanted it. If I didn't do that I'd be spending every day.
Another thing is to tell yourself you want to OP or save a certain amount and try and last the month without touching the amount you've set, start small and every month you manage to save/OP the amount you could up it until you slowly reach your goal. We started with £100 goal, and will move to £150 then £200 and so on.

Silence101

Ok, I've gone through your statement, these figures are rounded up or down to the nearest £5.
Take away: £145
Supermarket : £600
Snow centre (I'm not sure what this is) £10
Open farm (again not sure, is it food?) £20
London Midlands (again, not sure what this is) £40
M&S (I didn't put it down as "supermarket" as it might be clothes? If not you need to add it to your supermarket total) £115
And that's for just over one month. Could you try and keep groceries under £80/a week, including top up shops? And greggs is the cheapest option it seems, could you stick with that instead of costa/McDo etc?
A meal plan would really help I think, as there seems to be a lot of top up shopping happening.

Silence101

And there's also the £200 in cash. Was that for more food? I don't think your other spends are too bad, in comparison to the food shopping. And it should be the easiest to cut down on.
I found recipe books really helpful, to start with, and if you're eating out of boredom, you might have time to learn simple dishes. There's also some "one pot" meals which are great as there's hardly anywhere to go wrong with them, just put everything on the hob or in the oven until cooked and voila. The internet is full of recipes, you could try traditional foods first and then expand once you're more confident.
Do you always buy branded food? We mostly buy value stuff and it's so much cheaper, and fine to eat too.

Towser

Wow

Another thing is to tell yourself you want to OP or save a certain amount and try and last the month without touching the amount you've set, start small and every month you manage to save/OP the amount you could up it until you slowly reach your goal. We started with £100 goal, and will move to £150 then £200 and so on.

I have to do this and get an Iceland account. Do I need a chest freezer or would a small freezer do? We purposefully have not got a bigger freezer because the food goes in but never comes out. Only when we have had a power cut and then it is thrown away.

Does anybody have an example of a family of four Iceland shop I can copy? It's true, I am so out of touch of what is healthy. I am overweight but I have three skinny boys to feed.

Jelllibeanz

We go to Iceland approx once a month some times bi monthly. We have a tendency to pick up the following: Pizzas, frozen pre cooked diced chicken breast (these are great for in sauces, wraps etc), some of the Greggs pastries (MrJ loves pastry), fish pieces and some frozen veg.

The rest of the frozen food in the freezer is often ys items, fresh things we've bought that haven't been used are popped in there for another time before they are spoiled and wasted, and a few home made bits like lasagne, shepherds pie, fish pie, apple crumbles (we use our own apples), stock, soups.

We have an under the counter freezer that we keep in the cupboard under the stairs. If we have a power cut the freezer is usually good for a fair few hours provided no one opens the door.

getmore4less

Iceland also deliver.

the trick to avoid the put in the freezer and forget issue is meal planning only buy stuff you have planned to use within the next week to start with.

then you build up storage of the things you know you will use and can stop those random shops because you have nothing.

One of our fall backs we keep a stock of is Pizza quicker than a takeaway when not sure what to have.

wymondham

use your boredom to learn how to cook, then don't eat out.... two birds with one stone!