Making savings before it's too late

tori.k

More savings for me I can't work more than 3 days off with DH outside of July and August, I now appreciate the frustration of teachers and parents with the costs of holidays.
So a staycation for us with will make DH slightly insufferable, with DH and my lads birthdays being within 2 weeks of each other decided to treat them to a lads weekend at Santa pod raceway at £17 a weekend ticket with camping will give them £100 towards food leaving me quids in for birthdays and a weekend at home alone that is priceless

suki1964

trailingspouse wrote: »

I think if you're going to make impulse purchases of things you don't need/can't afford then the method of payment isn't going to make much difference.

It's picking the stuff up off the shelf that's the problem, not the payment method.

Totally agree.

Im back to using a card now I'm in permanent work and wages are paid direct to my account, no more brown envelopes and it's so easy to keep an eye where I'm spending as my bank app is so good. Let's me register a category against every use. Like transport , then I can break that down further to fuel, mot, road tax , insurance. Recreation and leisure breaks down for cinemas, coffees, bars, resturaunts etc etc. I can also see what my monthly averages are for each category so I can plan ahead

At the moment it's not 100% because Ive still cash from the last pay in December which was cash which I'm using as social (me) money ( shows how social I am when I've still got some lol ). I went mad last week and had breakfast in town and bought a much needed pair of shoes

Im quite excited about this app as I've never really kept a record before, I've just always been a tightwad :rotfl:

hunters

kittie wrote: »

Oh dear that sounds a bit condescending although I am sure it was not meant that way

It is nothing to do with age or technology but it is all about being debt free and building savings and the best way is by taking a certain amount of actual cash and that is what the maximum spend would be. Reading bank statements is after the fact, the fact that spending has taken place and I am positive that people who wave a card about make many un-needed spends, a coffee here, a paper there, a pack of sandwiches. No queueing means more impulsive spending

Just a trifle condescending here, please don’t assume because I use contactless/or my phone that I wave it about for un-needed spends. Happy OAP here, debt free and able to save a respectable amount each month without using cash as such.

[Deleted User]

trailingspouse wrote: »

I think if you're going to make impulse purchases of things you don't need/can't afford then the method of payment isn't going to make much difference.

not for those who go out with a list and cash, for them there is an upper limit, which limits impulse buys.

Horses for courses for all of us, whatever suits

hunters don`t take it personally, I was not referring to your situation. I don`t know you and I was speaking generally. Many of us pensioners are very tech savvy but choose to restrict impulse buying, which is easiest done by taking cash

Katieowl

I have a debit card for me, and now following my chat with the bank at the end of Nov re their blasted charges increases, one for the business (a no OD account so I have to keep a small balance in there) but bank woman persuaded me to put the bank ap on my mobile, which i was very dubious about, and OMG its amazing. I can check quickly and easily on the balances, and I do think its made me more careful.

moneyistooshorttomention

To me one of the reasons I don't want to use "cards" for everything also includes a lot of extra checking of my monthly bank statement.

I don't do online banking (too unsafe imo) and I'd rather know I've only got a few items to check each month on my statement - as well as my direct debits.

So - it's quick look at debits/check Amazon spends/only a few leftover items then.

But I hate paperwork with a passion - cue for "telling a firm off" today - as they've cost me a bit of extra unnecessary paperwork (ie because they're not very efficient) and then they cost me another bit of paperwork (further inefficiency by them). Fingers crossed they aren't going to cost me unspecified-amount-of-time on phone trying to get hold of my bank because of their inefficiency....:cool: They hit the "sore spot" - I've already had to spend quite some time dealing with other firms' inefficiency in last few weeks - and they were the "last straw" with their bit...

suki1964

Katieowl wrote: »

I have a debit card for me, and now following my chat with the bank at the end of Nov re their blasted charges increases, one for the business (a no OD account so I have to keep a small balance in there) but bank woman persuaded me to put the bank ap on my mobile, which i was very dubious about, and OMG its amazing. I can check quickly and easily on the balances, and I do think its made me more careful.

Yep the app for the phone is very good, well my banks one is

Our Santander bank app is not so good. But that used for the direct debits, not weekly spends so I'm not too bothered

blackcatsx2

I renewed my breakdown cover yesterday. Was peeved that the renewal letter announced with a flourish that I now had 3 years no call out discount, followed by a paragraph which put my renewal costs up by £10. When I went through quidco and got a quote from the same company on line the rate was last years rate I.e. £10 cheaper than my quote. I rang up and someone tried to justify it by saying the company had to make a profit and my renewal was still good value. Eventually he agreed to match the quidco cost. He then said “ah I can see you rang and negotiated on the price last year and the year before. Would you like me to set up your debit card for auto renew next year?” Errr, that would be a no! It’s onky £10 but we all know the saying “every little helps” plus there was a principal about this too - why do new customers always get a better deal than existing customers? By the way it was still the cheapest cover by far or I would happily have taken my business elsewhere.

Spendless

blackcatsx2 wrote: »

I remember in my Saturday job in BHS way back in very early 80’s that it was quite a palaver to do a credit card transaction when working on the till. There was a small multi layered docket that you wrote the amount on and then pulled this through a machine which printed the store name etc on it. Then the customer signed the docket. One copy to the customer, one to the till and one into the credit card slips box. A million miles from contactless ! I was distraught once when I forgot to get the customer to sign the docket. Still feel bad thinking about that mistake even now nearly 40 years later!

I also worked as a Sat girl in BHS in the early 80s. One day I was on the till, doing the sort of transaction you're talking about when there was either a fire alarm or a bomb scare (latter quite frequent, days of IRA). In the panic to get everyone out as quickly as possible, I forogt to get the customer to sign:o

A week later I heard the supervisors talking about how this unsigned docket had turned up. I didn't dare confess. Thankfully in those pre-computerised days there was no record of knowing at what point it had turned up and exactly who had been on the till.

mardatha

What happens if the customer doesn't sign it?