It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

nannygladys

There's no way I can spend any voucher amount in one go, so I give mine to my dd, who has a family of 5.

Brambling

My sainsburys vouchers were either £4.50 off when you spend £30 or the following week 7p a litre off petrol when you spend £30 I don't shop weekly but did with the help of cat food and some shopping for my sister use one of each over the month but the rest were shredded

I agree Waitrose are usually the worst and I think my last lot i would have had to spend £600 over a month to get back £60 so they were all binned. Not only do you have to spend a lot with them but usually within a short period of time

TheAble

EssexHebridean said:

My T3sco vouchers came through at £6 or £4 off £40 and I even put those straight in the shredding pile! 😂

But why? Surely you're throwing money away. £4 or £6 off a £40 spend is a fantastic saving.

Rosa_Damascena

nannygladys said:

There's no way I can spend any voucher amount in one go, so I give mine to my dd, who has a family of 5.

I know people that split their FarmFood vouchers. I can't imagine spending as much as £25 in there!

TheAble

Wicked_Lady said:

My W*rose vouchers were worse: £11 off a £70 shop!
No way will I be spending that much in any supermarket

The only good reasoning for this is that Waitrose is overpriced, which may be true.

But as a general principle, all else being equal, you're throwing money away because you've decided you won't spend that much "in one go". So you'll spend £35 weekly (say) rather than £70 fortnightly. Result: you pay £140 in 4 weeks rather than £118.

How is this good financial sense?

TheAble

Rosa_Damascena said:

nannygladys said:

There's no way I can spend any voucher amount in one go, so I give mine to my dd, who has a family of 5.

I know people that split their FarmFood vouchers. I can't imagine spending as much as £25 in there!

Because...why? You won't eat more than £25 of frozen food for the rest of your life?

JIL

TheAble said:

Wicked_Lady said:

My W*rose vouchers were worse: £11 off a £70 shop!
No way will I be spending that much in any supermarket

The only good reasoning for this is that Waitrose is overpriced, which may be true.

But as a general principle, all else being equal, you're throwing money away because you've decided you won't spend that much "in one go". So you'll spend £35 weekly (say) rather than £70 fortnightly. Result: you pay £140 in 4 weeks rather than £118.

How is this good financial sense?

You answered it in your opening sentence.
I used to be sucked in by the waitrose vouchers, until I realised even with the savings and buying the bargains, my shopping was still a lot cheaper in aldi.

-taff

I got a fifteen off a ninety pound spend, which doesn't sound bad except I'd just spent 90 on the months shopping and the voucher had to be used in a week. It got composted.

London_1

These vouchers are to me a total waste of paper and I rarely if ever use them. I certainly dont spend £70 in a month let alone a week last month (I closed my budgetting book last night ) I spent £36.55 in total in two shops One Aldi and the other was Tesco's.

 I am eating down my freezer at the moment and trying to use up a lot of my cupboard stores as well. In January I spent just under £49 and February under £45. Buying only stuff that was essential and needed around my existing stuff in store. Rolling over the excess onto the following months £60 budget At the end of the year I should have a reasonable amount in the pot to go towards Christmas
So out of a three month budget of £180 I have so far only spent just over £130 odd and have just under £50 saved.  it won't be possible to do it every month but that £50.00 is not a bad amount tucked away . My food budget is exactly that and I list everything I spend on anything edible. Its surprising how you can find alternatives when buying stuff and keeping an eye on the cash.

I live alone and cook from scratch I suppose about a third of my budget goes on fruit and veg and I have cut back quite a bit on meat since prices started to rise. I am lucky that I go to my DDs every Sunday for a meal, but I usually take the pudding or a cake for the family in exchange .I do get a good deal of free fruit from friends who swap their apples etc for HM cakes or biscuits . Also foraging for blackberries in season. 

I was watching TV yesterday and a chap was saying how the price of potatoes has risen and I am tempted to get my gardener who comes once a fortnight to dig me a patch so I can get some spuds in.I do grow a couple of tomato plants in pots on the patio which help. 

Reading through it seems as though we will all be tightening our belts another notch this coming year. But if it means less food waste its not such a bad thing and I am definitely of the waste not, want not brigade  

sammy_kaye my DGS Henry is at Essex University and he was so pleased to get a bit of help bless him He texted me to say it was snowing hard there yesterday, and he had a day at home to study so he was doing it in bed wrapped up warm and would get his new shoes today if the weather improves bless him he's such a nice young man and is never afraid of grafting and will help anyone if he can He said they are having a 'house meeting today to sort out the bills as the chap who has been doing it doesn't seem to have a great idea about it. henry should be able to put him straight as he is an economics student and does his best to eke his grant out. But yesterday he was just so sad that he couldn't streetch his cash anymore than he does. But he's only got until his finals in late May then he will be home for good.

His younger brother Mikey has got a place at Essex to start in September and bless him he has been grafting all the hours he can, and stashing his cash away like a 6ft blonde squirrel that he is I shall make sure he has a good box of stuff to start him off when he goes.

Right well time for another cuppa I think 
have a good day chums and chin up we will all get through this bad patch  

JackieO xx

Spendless

London_1 said:

Auntycaz said:

@London1 the problem for your grandson is the fact that he is house sharing with 3 other people so even if he is really frugal with energy etc he can't guarantee the others will do the same. Would it be possible for your grandson to do his Masters degree remotely while living at home?

No sadly, he would have to be at his Uni and its just not viable at the moment His next brother down Mikey, starts his Uni course this September 

My understanding of a masters is that unlike a 3 year degree where you can borrow the tuition fee in full and the maintenance loan depends on the household income of parent(s)/ (step) parent/s where student lives, is that you can borrow a max of £11k-ish for everything. So it very much depends on how much his Uni charges for the masters (some offer reduction in fees if already a student) and then what's left over to pay rent and live on.

I'm guessing from your comment about a younger brother that parents have to help out subsidising living costs and with 2 at once it's just not viable. We have found it tough with having both studying at once and have had to dip into savings, which concerns me because it's a lot tougher to put it back.

My sister has twins and worried about the same thing. Thankfully they went through a 'life sorted it out' situation. My Nephew didn't get onto his desired course initially and had to defer for a year. He spent that year working  f - time and saving all his wages so at the end of it he had £10K. My Neice also worked f-time having missed by a few weeks the age requirement to apply for her chosen career. She went through the selection process a year later, was successful  and is on an apprentice degree where her employer pays for her degree  whilst she earns a wage, so she lives at home as she's based locally and this meant my Nephew could pay his rent from his loan topped up by parents who were now just paying for 1 and he has his savings to live on. It's a course with a lot of hours which is why p-time work around studies is difficult.

If your Grandson finds he's going to need a Masters to get into his desired career, here are  my suggestions. Talk to his Uni about the tuition cost of it, see if they do a reduced rate for current students and if so do they offer the same deal for former students and for how long. Take a year out and work even in any field and save the deficit. Check the contact hours to see if commuting is viable. Ask if any hours will continue to be on-line. For the 20-21 academic year DS had already signed up to a house share. For the amount of times he actually went into class, DH remarked that it would have been cheaper for him to live at home and send him the 100 miles to his Uni by taxi on his days in than pay his rent!  

Can't believe they're all grown up. The amount of times I used to read your posts saying you were looking after them after school. Re older previous posters on here, I am in touch with SarahSaver on social media, she is doing well, working with 3 of her 5 children adults now.