WHY are you old style?......

Popperwell

I can/could do a little more at present but know it will be difficult. I am living more thrifty/frugal because income dropped after losing Mum and I do so to make my reduced income go further.

Now I admit some savings will come to me and yes, my benefits will be affected which I accept until I come down to a certain level. It really won't take long for that to happen and no that is not a moan or complaint.

But there is no guarantee the help I need will be available when I reapply. We know things are changing next year for many and I don't think many will be untouched whether you work, are unemployed, a pensioner, ill, a carer to a child or partner 24/7, need to pay for carers to come in etc...have I missed anyone out?

If you own a house you may save on rent but you still have to think of repairs to the property, insurance, Council Tax will always increase, some will see Housing Benefit reduce, Bedroom Tax introduced, some state help reduced, removed or replaced. A lot of unknowns...

So I like being frugal/thrifty/OS but it would be nice to do it through choice and I think/know I will be doing it because I have to in the future.

I am doing so now in the hope that I can get used to how it will be and to free some money for emergencies that we do not see coming and so there is a cushion for when it gets more difficult.

That's why I have a food store, have arranged a fixed utility plan for approx a year and have/do purchase clothes from a charity shop. And no I am not feeling sorry for myself as so many others are struggling and are probably worse than myself. But I have been there as a carer with both Mum and Dad and I have health issues.

Again, who doesn't but writing things on a forum can give a wrong impression and you have to live in someone's shoes to really know the full story. And of course there are those life changing events that no matter how you plan, you cannot control.

I don't mind my life being simple and I only have myself to think of now. All I really would like is reasonable health, peace of mind and financially enough to eat reasonably well, be able to stay warm, have an odd treat(nothing really luxurious)keep the internet going so I have contact with the world and can get most of my entertainment(going out socially may be great but usually costs much more if you need to travel by bus or taxi, I live in an area where there is little if any "Free" or low cost events going on, yet approx 12 - 18 miles away there are two big cities where there is always something going on but the bus service leaves much to be desired)a radio and keep a roof over my head.

tina_malteser

LameWolf wrote: »

A bit of both, really. I dislike parting with money unnecessarily (OK, I'm just tight):D so from that point of view, it's choice; but if I weren't naturally careful with money, it would become a necessity.

Did that make sense? I have horrible brainfog today, and know what I'm trying to say, but not too good in the putting-the-words-together-and-making-sense dept.:rotfl:

I know exactly what you mean, i couldn't have said it better myself:rotfl::T

WantToBeSE

I have just written a long post saying how i am frugal because i have to be, but as the post went on, i realised that i DO enjoy meal planning, being less wasteful and generally being frugal...that just came as a bit of a shock to me, LOL!!

i like that meal planning and only going food shopping once a week saves me TIME as well as money. I like that i use my tumble dryer and electricity less than i used to.

I think the only part of being frugal that i dont enjoy, is having to ration how often i use the heating- i really would love to have the heating on all day and always be snug, b ut i just cant afford that.

bluebag

If there is one frugal thing I would like to give up it would be watching the heating. I have to have heat or I seize up completely and can barely move, but I would love to have it so I could walk round in a t-shirt and be toasy warm.

I watch the thermostat like a hawk. Just enough to keep me warm and movable but not to excess. I'll go and put me fluffy slippers on now.

gibson123

I am frugal through want not need, I am frugal in everyday things so I can spend on luxuries I really value, I have a good job and could afford a bigger house a nice car and to splurge, but I prefer to save on the pennies so I can spend the pounds on holidays abroad, wine and song. My frugality had bought me many holidays and a holiday apartment abroad.

JEEC

We have started being frugal by choice. I use the word frugal loosely as there's still a lot we could do to save money, we do waste an awful lot, but we have started taking steps to correct this.

At the moment as we're both working full time we live within our means, but we spend every last penny. All savings were wiped out when I went on maternity leave, as I'm the higher wage earner, and although OH works very hard he doesn't earn very much. So, hopefully by being frugal we can start to put some money into a savings account.

Aside from wanting to build up some savings, it might be a necessity to be frugal in the future for a couple of reasons. I work in a field where there is a lot of outsourcing to Asia and Eastern Europe. As a result I have been through redundancy more times than I care to remember, and in my experience, I'd say on average it takes 4 months from being made redundant to finding and starting a new job. If, I were to be made redundant now, we'd have no savings to fall back on. We'd survive, I have several credit cards with high limits and 3 of them permanently seem to have a 0% offer on for balance transfers, so I'd spend on one then just switch balances around (have done this in the past when made redundant). But, if we had to do this I wouldn't want to rack up too much debt, so we need to learn how to be more frugal now so that we wouldn't need to borrow too much if this did happen.

The second reason is that if we were to ever have another baby, at that point we would not be able to afford our current expenditure if I was only earning maternity pay, then nothing for the final 3 months (as I would take the full 12 months).

The ways we have started to be more frugal are:

Overpaying the mortgage by an additional 20% each month (I was doing this for years before I met OH) - to reduce the term of the mortgage and pay less interest overall. It's a flexible mortgage so we can take back overpayments, so although I say we have no savings there is a buffer in place, but I tend to temporarily use the credit cards rather than do this, as I make an effort to clear the credit cards, I probably wouldn't make an effort to repay all the overpayments I'd take back from the mortgage.

Cancelled the Cable TV and bought a freesat dish.

Starting mealplanning to try and reduce the weekly shopping bill (Which until last week was £120 a week for 2 adults and a 1 year old) :eek:

Stopped going out for meals and/or having takeaways once or twice a week. As we are mealplanning we don't find ourselves in the situation where nothing has been defrosted, as we know what we are having we can take the meat out of the freezer the night before.

Shop around for holidays abroad / short breaks in the UK. We still take the same number of breaks, we just don't pay as much.

Edited to add: Oh, and we've also started growing our own veg in the greenhouse to save money, but also because I know it's definitely organic.

Chipps

Choice and necessity.

Necessity, because DH is not on a very high salary (understatement!)

Choice because I am currently not working - I have done some temping part time, but there isn't much of that sort of work available with the hours I need to fit in helping out with family care.

Prudent

bluebag wrote: »

If there is one frugal thing I would like to give up it would be watching the heating. I have to have heat or I seize up completely and can barely move, but I would love to have it so I could walk round in a t-shirt and be toasy warm.

I watch the thermostat like a hawk. Just enough to keep me warm and movable but not to excess. I'll go and put me fluffy slippers on now.

I couldn't agree more. After a sunny spell of a few weeks it has suddenly turned cold. I am limiting the heating as I know it will get colder yet, but hate the house being cold. Other than that I enjoy all things frugal

Pooky

Through choice for us to start, now necessity in a way. It was important for us as a family that I be a SAHM whilst our girls were little and so we tailored our lifestyle/spending/OS ways accordingly to allow this to happen. The plan being that when DDs were both in secondary education I would go back to work part time. Life has a funny habit of scuppering those plans though and 3 months before youngest was due to start her new school, DH was involved in an RTA which has left him with mobility and neurological issues. Hes not been able to work for the past three years and I've stayed home to care for him. Due to insurance/work policies we've managed financially but wouldn't have been able to do so if we weren't as frugal as we are. We now have enough savings to get us through the next 10 years (based on current spends) so the need to keep on OSing is greater than ever.

We love our lifestyle, yes we'd much prefer DH to be well, fit and healthy, but he's not and we're working with what we've got. I'm very privileged to be able to spend so much time with my lovely husband and that we both have the same outlook on frugality and OS ways.

happy35

it is a choice for me, I like to have money to save every month and therefore spend as little as I can on things.

We eat very healthily and I buy loads of fruit and veg which I know that I could cut down on as we have more than 5 a day but I wont cut down on this. i am predominantly veggie OH and DS are not, I tend to buy meat when on offer or YS so can get decent stuff at bargain prices.