Making savings before it's too late

Chandelier.

So it's been half term week here and somehow we've had minimal spends which obviously looks better for the bank accounts.

To be honest we've spent a lot of time visiting family members and having catch ups which my son seems to have enjoyed.

I spent £6 on having my eyebrows waxed which is a monthly treat for me and makes me feel so much better. I put off other further waxing until next time I have them done.

I then had a couple of appointments one in which I used a taxi to take me to and from as I'd left my car at home when we stayed at a friends. I didn't want to ask my friend for a list but spent around £12 there. I'm due to fill up my car with petrol which I'm hoping to hold off until Monday.

I'm working tomorrow and then having a week off where I'm hoping to get some of my bedroom decluttered and sorted. I'm also going to start watching what I'm eating and using up leftover food in the house to minimise waste.

I'll probably also have a catch up with a couple of friends and this may involve going for lunch or a coffee. It will all come out of the entertainment budget though.

We're throwing my mum a 60th birthday party in April so I've been organising aspects of that and trying to keep it as cost effective as possible. Hopefully splitting costs between my siblings so it shouldn't all be down to me.

That's really it money saving wise. I'm trying to watch the pennies to look after the pounds whilst also maintaining a lifestyle that suits me.

This year is an expensive year but hopefully shall all be budgeted for.

I've finally got a ball round figure for what our holiday will cost and I'm saving up spending money in a seperate account to cover all aspects.

mardatha

I absolutely agree with your mum Katieowl - women should all have a secret stash of money. Men seem in general very good at spending our money but hanging on tight to their own..

PollyWollyDoodle

My mum always had what we jokingly called her 'running away account'. She had no intention of running away, but she had given up work when she married, and she liked to have a little bit of money that was hers and that she didn't have to account to my dad for. Every woman should have one.

tori.k

I have so many stashes of cash for this that and the other, DH knows I have money aside for things but has know idea of the actual running total, he's just not interested, he's a numbers man but only thinks of the here and now, where I plan forward. He's always been comfortable having manageable debt, where as I don't sleep well with any. He's much more laid back then I am, I'm very lucky really as I wouldn't want to live with me most of the time:rotfl:
Took a trip out yesterday and hit up farmfoods spent £41 with the leaflet voucher which was almost twice as much as I planned to spend, downside of taking DH shopping with me.
So it will be some random meals this month.
With the savings we have made since January I will have enough saved by March to pay the council tax in full this year :j it's been years since I've been able to do this, it's not a biggy as it doesn't cost any more to pay monthly but I can set the money aside in a regular savers for next year's bill and make a little ( very little) interest on money I have to pay out anyway. We've been working towards that end for two years now.

Spendless

Ha, ha Tori. My husband is very similar. He knows I have different savings accounts and I don't keep them secret from him and every so often will run through what's in them, but he's not overly interested either. Over 20 years we have at various times paid off cc and ran them back up. His work expenses was a nightmare until they supplied him with a company cc. Last month he wanted to pay off a cc with savings due to the interest charged, which is fine but at the same time he wanted to spend some money on a few things which we didn't have the cash readily available for and this was a stumbling block because I wasn't prepared to pay something off only for us to need to spend again. A month on and we do have the money for the items he/we want to get and he acknowledges what I said, it cost us another months interest but worth it if he now grasps what I mean!

Teenage daughter is causing issues with my toiletry stash. :mad: Instead of using the generic mini bodywashes, she's had my good stuff that I was saving - told her got 'sorry' that was yesterday morning. By evening on her next bath/shower, I discovered she'd now taken a fancy handwash that was a xmas present and I'd also stashed away because it's 'frankincense perfumed' so I was keeping until it's Christmas again.

Waiting until 10 when the shops open to go grocery shopping. I have a list prepared. I'm also first calling at a charity shop because I think they have a Ted Baker handbag in the window for £6. I spotted it last night but couldn't completely make out the brand. If it is, I'm having it.

caronc

For any gardeners looking for bedding plants - 15% off at Van Meuwun , it's valid until the end of April and no minimum spend to get it.

I found it on Voucher Cloud. I've tested it and it works whereas the 20% off one isn't being recognised.

ETA- Got my fingers rapped for posting the discount code so have removed it!

[Deleted User]

my mother always said to us to have our own secret stash of money and like others above, I had several accounts, was always straight with dh but he was never interested . He gave over his income to me a week after we got married and I handled everything ever since.

maryb

Back in the 80s when we got married, the tax system still treated married women's money as belonging to their husbands. If the wife worked he had to pay tax on her earnings but HE got tax relief on an amount equal to the personal allowance. (As tax rates were still quite high this bumped DH up into a higher tax bracket)

So in theory, a woman should have disclosed to her husband any interest earned on her running away account so he could include it on his tax return. I can't recall if anyone ever got done for this but there was a case (not tax related) where a woman had saved from her housekeeping (probably a running away fund) and there was a judgement saying it wasn't her money - even though the husband had given it to her, if she had money left over from the purpose it was given for she was not entitled to keep it.

And that is not so very long ago ladies. You know, whenever I hear people saying the 1950s were a golden age it's usually the case that they weren't there or they were damn lucky

maryb

Oh and there was never any requirement for the husband to disclose anything to his wife. Course not.

mardatha

Always always keep some things to yourself - some money, some opinions, some secrets