Making savings before it's too late

Spendless

Not a great week. New exhaust cost me £179 I did get warned at my MOT last Oct that it was on it's way out, but 'forgot' about it. Last Sat it started sounding bad, but decided to put it off a week, so could have another pay-day. By Sunday evening (after everything had closed) it sounded worse and has done all week. I work in the sticks and have to get DD to an exam on Monday, so had to take it today in case it dropped off (happened before with diff car years ago) got told it had broken - not entirely surprised with noise it was making.

Had lunch in canteen 3 times this week, 1, wasn''t organised enough, 2, had no bread in, 3, thought they'd do their 'special' day because it suits me to eat a main meal at lunchtime that day - they didn't do it!

On the happy side, I managed to get some Boots bargains at their 70% off sale both today and yesterday. Though this has cost me, that will pay off later in the year when I have stuff in for birthdays and Christmas.

Haven't got grocery shopping - spent too long at the garage. Instead went through the fridge, and tidied up the veg/salad box. I bought a shed load of leeks the other day for 16p, from Mr T. Topped and tailed them and made them into a very delicious soup using the potatoes that were starting to sprout. We had that and a Thai Green prawn curry. DS had initially complained that we'had nothing in' but I said that just because there wasn't anything to readily munch on straight from the fridge didn't mean there was no food! Anyway he was happy with the meals made.

I have plenty of veggies in and meat, so think roast dinner tomorrow.

YORKSHIRELASS

Spendless my teenagers are like that too. Then again the 17 year old thinks making a sandwich is cooking which requires effort.

Money is very tight in our household at the minute. DH is self employed and is struggling to get outside jobs done because of snow and ice. We have had two car bills since Christmas (one for DSs car as he is on apprenticeship wage, cant get to work without a car but cant afford repair bills).

Very pleased that I managed to draw up a mealplan and spend £50 in Li@l for the week. Now all I have to do is not go back in there until next weekend!

Also pleased that we didnt spend anything else today, nice jog down the fields with the dog in the snow for a bit of fresh air and free exercise.

Will be looking for ideas and inspiration on here!

[Deleted User]

oh yorkshirelass, that lack of income to your dh, reminds me of my parents, the whole time I was a child/teenager (50s early 60s). I remember when there was just 6d (old pence) for the whole week and we lived on potatoes, carrots and fermented milk. January was such a tough month after the christmas spends. No-one had any money and dad was self employed in a poor area in liverpool

We don`t stop looking out for our children, even when full blown adults with their own lives. I had a surprise meal out with them yesterday (significant birthday) luckily in a good but not expensive restaurant and luckily I had grabbed my backup cash-storage purse, because I insisted that I would pay for the meal. All had gone out of their way to get there, one couple flying from scotland with hotel expenses plus flights and car hire. Thank heavens I had enough cash, so have not had to decimate my careful online plan this month

Next month however, I need to re-build my cash back-up purse, even before I add more to my savings pot. It is a bit like the old days, taking from peter to pay paul at the moment and somehow, this month cannot go fast enough

[Deleted User]

I was browsing the online papers and have found a very very good article. Took me back to yesterday, dd and her hubbie had sold something big and the cash was in the bank, hubbie said `we can buy so and so` she said `no we have to pay the christmas cc bill`. It must be so hard if there are two `non savers` in a relationship, must be so easy to spiral downwards and this is the time of year when the descent begins. A mix of wanting to spend out of january weather gloom and needing to pay off debts. I know that dd does keep a spreadsheet

The article says to have cash in the bank for three months essential bills. Personally that is my strategy but I cannot start that for another 4 weeks. This time next year, I should be on a rolling programme
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/cardsloans/article-5292053/How-avoid-perfect-storm-debt.html

tori.k

Happy birthday Kittie, glad you had a lovely meal especially since you were paying, nothing worse than paying for a meal you know you could have done so much better yourself.
Month is back on track for us haven't spent any money since the 16th other than milk and fruit and with 4 days to payday all is well.
I've done pretty well on petrol this month as well I'm about £7 down on what I have been using I know it's nothing on the grand scheme of things but Ive been raised to take care of the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves.
Once we move our fuel costs will plummet, with both of us reducing our commute by half so this move can't come fast enough.

Katieowl

My OH was self employed, he used to get paid in three dollops for his work (he was a joiner/Cabinet maker) the first dollop was mainly materials for the job, then the second part way through and the final payment on completion some of his projects ran over a good few months. I got into the habit of filling up the store cupboard (the Armageddon cupboard) with tins, and dry stuff any time I had any cash and we'd eek that out between payments. I always have food in the house even now, although I am trying to reduce it a bit,as stuff can get lost in the depth of the cupboards!

Sometimes I look back at how we lived our lives when the kids were small, it was very stressful on occasions, and I think no wonder I am exhausted and sick of scrimping, and I have literally worn my fingers to the bone making everything from scratch (I have thumb arthritis now) but I thank the Gods that our no 1 priority was always paying the mortgage, as effectively we are now in a 'free house' (OK we have to pay council tax).

My DD's are both renting privately and have ended up as single parents with very smalls and neither of them could find somewhere to rent which was entirely covered by HB, both of them are really struggling and it makes me sad that they will probably never be able to afford actually own a house. Nightmare renting with animals too (I've ended up with an extra dog because of it) no wonder the rescues are rammed with hand in's.

mardatha

My youngest son is the same Katie, he's a self employed joiner/cabinet maker and he does a lot of Victorian sash windows, makes them himself. His life seems totally stressful to me and I couldn't cope with it. Never knowing when or how much you're going to get paid - no good.

blackcatsx2

Very interesting article Kittie. Both OH and I were spenders not savers. We always had good intentions to save or pay off our credit cards but this never happened. We were experts at talking each other into spending “we need x or y or we deserve x or y or x or y are not really very expensive”.
When his cancer diagnosis came and I added up our debts they were horrific. I remember trying not to let him know the full extent of the debt and trying to re-mortgage without him seeing the figures I was providing the broker for household expenditure which were mainly paying loans and hideous credit cards.
One of the better decisions we made was for him to give up being self employed and get a job in the public sector. Our spending habits made us very bad managers of a self employed income because we lived the famine and feast lifestyle. Good weeks we spent and bad weeks we borrowed. Along with a regular public sector wage meant that we got access to sick pay, holiday pay, and pension.
I really do feel for self employed people as I think that their customers sometimes can pay but delay or weather etc impacts or people put off getting work done and January is usually the perfect storm of those things.
And cars seem to have an uncanny knack of going wrong at exactly the wrong time too.
That’s why an emergency fund is so important but I know both my children have very little in the way of savings as the cost of living for them is so high.

Spendless

Finally caught up with reading the last pages. I too 'baulk' when I end up doing a full shop at a 'main' supermarket. Got too used to Aldi prices.

I'm at a different life stage to many on here. My kids are coming up GCSE/leaving sixth form age. We need to be supporting them through HE. I'm aware of several friends and relatives having to say to their kids that they can only go to Uni if they go to one they can commute to as they can't afford to help them out.

In a way we are fortunate in this respect, because we've only done really 'big' holidays occasionally and still live in the semi we bought shortly before prices shot up. As I've been in and out of work, we've never come to depend on my wages either, so anything I've earned has been extra.

Feeling a bit happier today. DS had left an empty bottle of deodorant out, so nice to go the bathroom cabinet where I stashed the half empty tins I found a few weeks back and get the next one out, instead of having to add it to my shopping list.

Ditto, I've been having a tidy up of my kitchen cupboards and seen everything I have already in and can meal plan around.

Finally got DH to knuckle down and work out some money owed to us - short break we had with friends (they're aware it's owed, just DH hadn't done the bill) and the money means we can buy an electrical item DH wants to get and send DD on the residential trip, she'd like to go on.

[Deleted User]

I am glad I paid my tax early, the internet has been down for hours, just come back on. I go cold when I think I could could miss the tax deadline if I waited to last minute