My Over 50's Spending Diary 4 January 2018 at 11:45AM edited 4 January 2018 at 12:02PM in Over 50s Money Saving 477 replies 85K views

comeandgo

I’m with Kangoora, I look at what is spent and it is a lot, especially on non essential items like junk food. There is a lot of sweets and crisps mentioned.

sugarbaby125

kangoora wrote: »

I'm genuinely confused by these 'savings'. Some examples:

1. I got a £16.45 refund from Virgin Trains for the Family ticket I had bought and was no longer going to use for my trip from Brimingham ( the 1st £10 is kept for administrative purposes of a refund) - I read this as I spent £26.45 on a rail ticket I no longer needed and then only got £16.45 refunded so I've overspent by £10?
2. I saved £1.70 in M & S buying 2 bags of easy peelers on 2 for £4 offer - or just go to your local greengrocer/market stall and pay 50% less than the M&S 'saving' price?
3. My Buy It Now offer was accepted on eBay which saved me £5 on the price of a 14ct gold and Diamonique ring - or, you know, just don't buy the ring in the first place and save even more money?

I'm not trying to be confrontational but a lot of these savings just don't make sense to me, especially where branded products keep being mentioned?

Now, if they said I didn't buy a 4 pack of Heinz baked beans at a reduced price of £2 (70p off a pack o 4) and instead bought 4 'own brand' for 25p each (cost £1) I could understand the 'saving' (current tesco prices as of today).

I buy branded prducts for certain things (so I'm not trying to be superior about my thriftiness) but I will regularly buy own brand for many items and save money even over 'discounted' main brands e.g. Robinsons shredless marmalade £1.40, Tesco shredless marmalade 60p in last weeks shop - I bought the Tesco one and it tastes fine and saved me 80p on my shopping. Even if the Robinsons marmalade had been reduced by 50% I'd still have saved 10p

I bought the Virgin family train ticket months in advance for one of my niece's wedding which was to take place on 17th February 2018. My niece was forced to cancel the wedding for highly personal reasons. She wanted to refund any losses, but I told her to forget it. I had lots of other stressful things going on in my life, not least health issues, so I just forgot about the tickets until I came across them. I then looked online to find out if I could get a refund for the Birmingham to London tickets and found that I could, minus the £10 administration cost, so I applied for the refund. The London to Birmingham family ticket was non refundable when I booked it because it was £11.80 for the 3 tickets. If you do not apply for a refund for train tickets you lose the money paid, so I counted the refund, as I took the time, made the effort to claim the refund and received the refund. All members of the family who you booked the ticket for has to travel together and if we were not going to the wedding neither of my children wanted to go to Birmingham for that weekend.

I buy branded products where that is my family preference. We will try non branded products or brands which we are not familiar with to make financial savings, but if no one prefers them, we will switch back to the branded products we prefer.

My children like to eat biscuits, crisps, sweets, chocolates etc, so why should I not try to buy them at the cheapest price I can find? (I try to avoid eating these things, because I am trying to lose weight, but indulge sometimes ) They are naturally skinny people and eat a balanced diet. I bulk bought half price offers in Poundland then I put some of them out each week. It is very rare to get any half price offers in Poundland as you are usually making a substantial saving by buying the items in Poundland.

I do not have time to list all of the products I buy from my weekly grocery shop that are own brand or very inexpensive brands, or branded products on special offer, I just put the total saved each week.

My sister who is also my best friend has very large fingers, so when I find a beautiful ring or other piece of solid gold jewellery that will fit her on eBay at a really good price, I will buy it and keep it for her Birthday or Christmas present.

I bought the easy peelers in M & S to treat myself and my family because I had the last few pounds to use up of a £50 M & S Gift Card that I got from my younger son last year. (It was given to my son by the firm of Solicitors he did work experience with in the Summer of 2017 and he did not want it) They are a much superior quality in M & S from the ones I usually pay £1 for in my weekly online shop or from a roadside 'market' stall, so there was no wastage and they tasted much better than our usual easy peelers, so they really were a welcome treat.

maman

Thanks for taking the time (and having the patience) to explain your reasoning sugarbaby. It all makes perfect sense to me.

For example, I can see your reasoning for bulk buying some treats for the family. Bulk buying is a very mse thing to do with the proviso that you can afford to put the money up front and that you have the self discipline not to eat them all at once! I know you have both.:)


I think it's really sad that some people live hand to mouth, week to week and don't/can't avail themselves of the savings to be made. I choose to buy milk in our small local Co-op where the milk I like is actually cheaper than Sainsbury's. BUT that's all I buy there unless they have any YS bargains. What saddens/disappoints me are the people I see in there just buying one day/meal's food at grossly inflated prices.


I'm enjoying reading your diary. I'm quite a canny shopper myself and it makes me feel good seeing the amount of money being saved by not paying full price whenever possible.

chanie

maman wrote: »

I think it's really sad that some people live hand to mouth, week to week and don't/can't avail themselves of the savings to be made. I choose to buy milk in our small local Co-op where the milk I like is actually cheaper than Sainsbury's. BUT that's all I buy there unless they have any YS bargains. What saddens/disappoints me are the people I see in there just buying one day/meal's food at grossly inflated prices.

I agree, it is sad. Some of these people probably don't even have kitchen facilities either. I remember watching that 'slum landlords' programme on the television and I think its outrageous that landlords get away with it.

sugarbaby125

Free Evening Standard newspaper last Friday and this Monday 40p

2 hopper bus journeys worth £1.50 (20th Jan) and another 2 on 22nd Jan worth £1.50

Free cinema ticket for Vue Piccadilly to see a film preview worth £13.49 I really enjoyed the film, but I am not allowed to talk about it until it has been released

I got a Free standard bucket of popcorn worth £4.85 when I bought a bottle of flavoured water for £2.09 at Vue Piccadilly with a voucher so I saved £2.76 ( I only ate a little portion of it, I took a large zip lock freezer bag with me and poured the rest of the popcorn into it and brought it home for my children)

Current total = £!751.78

sugarbaby125

I found 2p roadkill on my way to Karaoke and I was thrilled. I found each 1p separately and they were wet as it was raining earlier before I left home, but I had my black leather gloves on, so I could go ahead and pick them up.

I picked up a Free Evening Standard newspaper on the bus 20p ( I claim 20p because that is the price of the cheapest newspaper I could buy. Before we Londoners started getting a choice of free newspapers, I would buy newspapers only occasionally as the ones I preferred to read like The Times are not cheap but they are the best read)

My friend gave me a lift home from Karaoke which saved me the 75p bus fare home and she also insisted on buying me a bottle of water at Karaoke £1

Current total = £1753.75

I finally got paid my Council tax refund of £207.86 so I then decided that £200 of this refund needed to be spent wisely, so I paid £200 in advance of my Thames Water Bill for 2018/2019. It is always less than £300 for the year, so I will pay small amounts each week and have it fully paid in advance before the bill arrives, then I will have one less bill to worry about.

sugarbaby125

I bought 3 Big Macs and £ medium fries with 3 vouchers from the Metro newspaper on Tuesday for £5.97 saving me £6.57

Boots Bargains:

3 X Boots Vitamin D (90 tablets) on £ for 2 offer. I used my Boots Advantage card points to buy these, so I saved £14.97 :T

Boots Tea Tree, Witchazel and Charcoal Facial Wash was reduced by a third so I saved £1.26 and I saved another £1 with an online voucher which I had previously loaded onto my Boots Advantage card

Poundland Bargains:

10 x Woolite Extra Dark 750ml £20 saving me £19 compared to buying them online from Wilko as they usually cost me £3.50 each and I have to pay £4 P & P. :T I was going to order them in the next few days, as I was running low on Woolite Extra Dark and Wilko is the only place I can usually buy it from, so I took 2 trips up to Camberwell Green to buy the 10 bottles of Woolite

2 pairs of reading glasses for myself saved myself £1.98 compared to the next cheapest similar product in Savers ( I like to have all funky coloured frames to match my outfits)

Mr Kipling French Fancies & Mini Battenburgs, both half price saving me £1

11 X Tubes of Minstrels half price saving me £5.50

Vaseline Original Jelly 50ml saved me 50p compared to the next cheapest price for this item in Superdrug ( 2 doors away) I have started to get very dry lips and a couple of days ago they actually cracked which was painful and this always works really well for me

Terry's Segsations 250g saved me £2 compared to buying the same product in a supermarket


I picked up a free Metro newspaper on the bus 20p

I found 17p roadkill on my Estate. 2 X 5p and 7 X 1p. I was well chuffed at this small haul of coins

Current total = £1803.73

sugarbaby125

I saved £33.31 with special offers and price reductions on My Weekly Online Grocery Shop today

I got £5.06 Bank Account Interest this month

Current total = £1842.10

sugarbaby125

I bought 2 X 30 Sharpie Limited Edition Sets from Tesco Direct for £12 which saved me £32 and I also got them delivered on Next Day Delivery which saved me another £5.95 because I am a Delivery Saver customer and I had spent more than £10 on my order (They will be presents for either my grandchildren, nephews or nieces)

3 hopper bus journeys on 25th January worth £2.25

Current total = £1880.05

maman

Thanks for the heads up on the Woolite sugarbaby. I'll definitely take a look in my local Poundland. I find it's worth buying the special washing liquid as it's really good for black jeans in particular. My current pair have stayed smart so much longer.


I'm also a big fan of the Boots Vantage card. You do have to be sure that what you buy isn't cheaper elsewhere though so I always compare with Superdrug. I buy my Benefit make up there and when I had my new glasses I got loads of extra points too. I'm impressed with Boots Opticians as they do my favourite Rayban sunglasses.