Making savings before it's too late

[Deleted User]

I just made a rollerball pick me up/face moisturiser, empty bought rollerball and some neroli in jojoba oil. Got some on my face now, makes it so soft and smooth and very cheap to make good products yourself

blackcatsx2

That sounds nice Kittie. Do you have any tips for home made hand cream or hand care products?
It’s the end of a very long January tomorrow. I don’t have any spends planned so I’ve checked my monthly spending and I’m quite pleased with the scores on the doors. I’m not quite at 10% less spend this January than last January but I am at more than 10% lower spend based on last years average monthly spend.
I still need to cut back on my groceries bill and I’m a bit cross with myself because there is so much advice and help on these forums that I’ve got no excuse for spending as much as I do. I blame my cats a bit (in a mature, sensible way it’s obviously ok to blame cats for an overspend). Although they are both rescue cats and the older boy lived on the streets for a year before he was rescued, they are really, really fussy with their food. They will only eat fish in gravy variety from a very expensive range. I need to stock up when it’s on deal as that could save over £1 a box. They do eat dry food too and that is much cheaper so I try to supplement their wet food with the dry. I have managed to shift them down a brand from Dreamies treats to supermarket own brand, saving 40p per packet - I’ve sneaked that change in and they haven’t noticed yet!

trailingspouse

blackcatsx2 - now I understand your name!! I could be called tabbycatsx2!!!

So - it's a month since I started to put all of my money saving ideas in to practice, so time for an audit -

- stop having hair dyed. Yes, still happy with my new look, and all the old dye has now grown out. Someone I work with actually thought I was having it dyed grey (which was a trend briefly I believe, amongst younger women) - I was quite chuffed about that!
- reduce gas and electric usage. Heating comes on at 5am ready for us getting up at 6, and gas fire isn't needed until after 5pm. I often switch it off at around 10 even though I don't go to bed until later, as I find the room is warm enough. Now I'm trying to think how to reduce our electric - I think we're already pretty good at this, but will put my mind to it.
- check that we're with the best supplier. We weren't!! British Gas were wanting half of what our average monthly bill was with Utility Warehouse. Bring. It. On. First monthly payment to BG has gone out.
- I was already an Aldi convert, but tended to go to our nearest supermarket (Sainsbury's Local) for top-up shops. Aldi is only a little further away, so will make the effort. Haven't been to Sainsbury's this year at all.
- make sure we're using the cheapest fuel locally. Fill up at Asda now. OH prefers not to use supermarket fuel in his car, but he isn't doing as many miles as he was last year so that's a saving in itself.
- shop around for the best deals on connectivity - Yes, OH got a better deal on his phone.
- PayPal. OH seems to have a bit of a PayPal habit. It's hard to say what exactly we've been buying via PayPal, and I'm sure it was all a bargain, but nevertheless an awful lot of money went that way. Needs to be brought under control. Still working on this one...
- cash. We spent £87 in cash this month - little things like parking and an emergency bottle of milk, but the big spend was a couple of takeaways. And I was trying to cut down on takeaways!! Fail.
- buy less wine!!! Yes, I'm working on using up the alcohol we already have rather than buying more. Fun!
- keep track of the (monetary) gifts we give to the kids. No cash given to kids since Christmas.
- keep a lid on what we spend on holiday, particularly on meals out. Haven't even booked a holiday yet this year!
- have fewer take-aways. See above. Total fail. But one of them was after a horrendous train journey back from London where we'd been chucked off the Tube due to an 'incident', had to get to Kings Cross the long way round, missed our train and hit the Friday night rush hour as a result.
- keep an eye on best before dates - I'm still working my way through the Christmas leftovers!! I've got a meeting at work today and we all take food contributions so a large bag of upmarket salt and vinegar crisps (which I don't like, but others will) will go into the pile
- use up the alcohol we already have!! Yes, this is happening
- tumble dry everything in one load. I've reduced my tumble drying to 20 minutes per week.
- reduce waste - what are we throwing away? I'm making much more of a conscious effort to use things up before they need to be thrown away.
- cancel the Santander credit card - done. Everything now goes on the Asda card for the 0.5% cashback.
- for things I can't get at Aldi, go to Asda to take advantage of the 1% cashback, and also the cheap fuel. I do this once a month, so it's nearly time and I have my list ready.

There - I think a teacher might say 'A good start but room for improvement'!!

There have been some really great savings ideas on here this last month. It's so encouraging to know you're not alone!

tori.k

Doing well TS, spring will probably make it easier on the take-outs im sure we all start looking for less stogie comfort foods with the lighter evenings.
The mizzel is easing up, I only need milk for tonight's cauliflower cheese so will Welly up and walk to the village, the tractors have dragged so much mud onto the roads it looks more like a picture from the rural far east.
Do me good to get out, as I've pretty much been stuck in a rut of home or work so far this year, so if Saturday is reasonable will talk DH In taking me to breakfast and take a walk out along the coast path to walk it off, I can get DH to pretty much agree to anything if I put the idea of breakfast in his mind
We are simple souls with simple pleasures :rotfl:

trailingspouse

That's a good point tori.k - we definitely need comfort food when it's cold.

I'm going to lay in a stock of Chinese-type starters and so on in the freezer so that we're less tempted. It's pure laziness, if I'm being brutally honest.

I've started to think about what I use electric for, and how I can cut it down a bit. The gas was easy - it's only central heating, hot water, and two gas fires. Electric is more complicated. So far -

- lighting - we're already very good at switching off lights when they're not needed
- heaters in the attic (office) and cellar (man cave)
- cooking (cooker, microwave)
- fridge and 2 freezers - could probably reduce to one freezer at this time of the year
- ironing - I only iron OH's business shirts anyway
- washing machine and tumble dryer
- dishwasher - very rarely use anything other than the shortest (27 minute) program
- tech (things on stand-by, charging phones etc, PC)
- TV - I've got into a habit of having the TV on but using my laptop at the same time. Need to choose one or the other - if the programme isn't worth watching and I'd rather be on the laptop, then switch off TV. If the programme is worth watching, then actually watch it.

mardatha

I think we're doing pretty well re not spending - but a lot of it is down to not being near any shops and hence not being able to spend money easily Although I can spend it online! This week I'm drooling over perfume and need a new coat...

trailingspouse

Just making myself a cup of tea, and I remembered that I hadn't included 'kettle' in my list of things that use electric! How could I forget that?? Also toaster. And hoover. And house phone. I'm sure I'll think of more!!

tori.k

It seems like everything drains electric nowadays, smoke alarms, co alarm, doorbell, home phones it amazing we ever survived before all these things became the norm.

blackcatsx2

Mar! You’ve made me think about a new coat now and I was doing so well. I hadn’t even thought about a new coat for at least 24 hours before I read your post. Note to self - a new coat will not help me with preparing for early retirement.

mardatha

YES IT WILL! It'll stop you getting pneumonia and never reaching retirement! :D:A