My Personal Diary: Thrifting to a better bank balance (longer term goals)

retireby35

Hello all, this is more of a personal diary for me, but I welcome any ideas and tips. About 10 years ago I was very thrifty, I wanted to be a single homeowner and after years of saving, managing budgets, etc, I managed to do this. Now I live with my partner and everything I did like 10 years ago has gone out of the window and I no longer have any grasp on my finances. Well - until now! Last month was the first month in over a decade where my outgoings was ALOT more than my incomings - I try and save a little each month but this has been dire over the last couple of years. This was finally the wake up call I needed and I am determined to not let this happen again. I need to build up my savings for my long term plans so this diary will cover meal planning, vegetable planting, decluttering via fb marketplace/ebay, control my spending, etc. 

I'm starting today with my 'no impulse buying' and meal planning heavily out of our freezer/cupboards. I've been very busy in our greenhouse over the last few weeks but with our poor weather over the last couple of weeks I haven't managed to plant anywhere near as much as I like, so I am determined to spend at least 30 minutes each day (weather dependent) in the garden helping grow our veg which will hopefully reduce our food bill. 

I do use olio, freecyle, community fridge etc and I also give away excess vegetables, time to our local charity, etc, as I feel its important to both give and take. I do partake in veg plant swapping too and sharing seeds. 

I've also switched my bank account to first direct to get the £175 switch bonus and to get a good rate regular savings account. When that comes it will be straight in the savings account. 

No meal planning until Monday as I already have meals planned - all of which using up food in the fridge. I've started to save the ends of our loaves of bread to freeze and either use for breadcrumbs (shamefully I have been buying breadcrumbs and this needs to stop!) or a bread and butter pudding. 

Craving_space

Hi @retireby35, I'll follow your efforts with interest, like you I need to shake things up a bit and focus on savings. Good luck in your mission 

Rosa_Damascena

How much of your extra expenditure is directly attributable to your partner, as opposed to your shared lifestyle? You will only succeed by having them on board.

kboss2010

One of the biggest things that’s saved me money is decluttering our over abundance of clothes and bedding and towels, having the minimum that we need (two sets of bedding per bed, two sets of towels per per + two guest sets, slowly creating a capsule wardrobe from mostly charity shop finds) and organising it in drawer divider storage and by category of use.

Same with food. I bulk buy essentials that we always use (Cheap coffee grounds, ketchup, rice, noodles, pasta, stock cubes and gravy granules etc.)

Reduced veg gets frozen in “grab bags” for making various meals and also when I do meal prep, I do double and freeze it. I do grab bags for stir fries, casseroles, fajitas etc. A grab bag contains enough for a meal for two - everything is sliced/chopped/partially cooked so it can all just be put together without any prep. 

For fajitas I’ll put 4 tortilla wraps, half of a thinly-sliced large onion, a small bag of cooked spicy rice & beans, sliced peppers and a small bag of shredded chicken. I keep packets of fajita spices in the cupboard.

retireby35

kboss2010 said:

One of the biggest things that’s saved me money is decluttering our over abundance of clothes and bedding and towels, having the minimum that we need (two sets of bedding per bed, two sets of towels per per + two guest sets, slowly creating a capsule wardrobe from mostly charity shop finds) and organising it in drawer divider storage and by category of use.

Same with food. I bulk buy essentials that we always use (Cheap coffee grounds, ketchup, rice, noodles, pasta, stock cubes and gravy granules etc.)

Reduced veg gets frozen in “grab bags” for making various meals and also when I do meal prep, I do double and freeze it. I do grab bags for stir fries, casseroles, fajitas etc. A grab bag contains enough for a meal for two - everything is sliced/chopped/partially cooked so it can all just be put together without any prep. 

For fajitas I’ll put 4 tortilla wraps, half of a thinly-sliced large onion, a small bag of cooked spicy rice & beans, sliced peppers and a small bag of shredded chicken. I keep packets of fajita spices in the cupboard.

Yes - funnily enough decluttering is high on my to do list. I am very interested in your capsule wardrobe - how many pieces of clothing do you have? Its something I'd love to have. I've started decluttering and putting bits on eBay, I just find it sells quite slowly! I know people do quite well on vinted so I may move over to them.

My partner is fully on board with this. Both of us seem to work all the time and just get worse off!

My menu for this week is:
Monday - Homemade fishcakes
Tuesday - Beef Roast (We buy big joints from supermarkets and cut them down into portions)
Wednesday - Hunters Chicken (Using up some bbq sauce in the fridge)
Thursday - A quick dinner of pizza
Friday - Jacket Potato with beans and cheese.
Saturday & Sunday - BBQ food. I buy chicken/pork/beef from the supermarket in big packs, portion them up and then season well with spices, let sit in the fridge for a day so the spices mix and then freeze. My spices I buy in bulk.

All of this weeks meals are things out of our freezer - we're having a busy week so its all quick food (I can cook a roast within an hour - I prep the veg throughout the day ie whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, and then leave it cooking whilst I do other things). I did do a top up shop yesterday for things like milk, fruit, buying cereal on offer, etc - we eat cereal most mornings (I know, not that healthy but incredibly convenient) and it came to just under £50!! I have downgraded on cat litter - on a different board people are using newspaper and the cheap cat litter in their litter trays and changing every few days (and scooping each day as well). If this works Ive worked out that it would save me around £6.50 a month. Every little helps and all that. 

I did purchase a book last year from the charity shop called 'Booze for free' - I'm hoping this year will be the year I make wine?! 

Expenditure so far: 99p kindle book (oops), cat food on amazon (I've got the dried/wet food for my cat saved on my Wishlist on amazon and I check each day quickly - quite often they go on special offer and a lot cheaper than the supermarket, plus it gets delivered to my house for free), some eucalyptus essential oil for putting in a spray bottle and spraying round the house to repel flies (we live near horses and get inundated with horse flies). 

Floss

retireby35 said:

   
I did purchase a book last year from the charity shop called 'Booze for free' - I'm hoping this year will be the year I make wine?! 

Bear in mind that there is expenditure if you don't already have a basic kit of demijohn /fermenting bucket /funnel / syphon tube /empty bottles /sterilising stuff (essential to ensure everything is bacteria-free) but once bought, then generally the only cost is sugar /water /time .

mandy47

I did purchase a book last year from the charity shop called 'Booze for free' - I'm hoping this year will be the year I make wine?! 

Try freecycle, olio etc. I've often seen brewing gear going free. 

kboss2010

@retireby35 I have the following:

- 3 pairs of work trousers (black, navy & blue)
- 5 work tops (a mix of black, red and blue/pink)
- 5 pairs of casual trousers (orange, orange & white, black, khaki & navy)
- 10-ish casual tops (mix of t-shirts, summer tops/vest tops and casual blouses)
- 7 pairs of shoes (boots, 2x casual trainers, gym trainers, smart work shoes & 2 pairs of Vans)
- 4 pairs of gym leggings and tops
- 4 sets of pjs
- a few jumpers & a couple of hoodies
- a waterproof coat, a wool coat and a couple of jackets/blazers

I try to buy trousers in block colours and if I buy patterns, it’s usually tops only and in the same colours as the trousers. And I try to operate a 1-in-1-out system where I’ll wear clothes until they wear out or I donate them when I’m bored of them.

It also saves me loads of time for work because when I’m travelling or going into the office when I’m not wfh, I don’t have to decide what to wear because everything goes with everything.

retireby35

Thank you for all the comments - I love the clothing comments especially - its something that I need to tackle but not t this moment.

I abandoned this thread a bit whilst I had some news and was trying to come up with a plan - I sold my house and now live in my partners house and we were expecting to buy a bigger house together. We had a mortgage appointment where we were told that the monthly mortgage repayment was double what we were expecting meaning it is very much so outside of our limits. It was a complete no so we have been trying to come up with a plan in the meantime. We've decided that when my partners mortgage comes up for renewal we will pay it off but will continue to save in the meantime. (his mortgage rate is lower than current savings rates). Our savings pot will hopefully mean we can buy a bigger house in a few years time or more importantly it buys us the gift of perhaps working part time, (my partner works 6.5 day weeks) etc. I know there will be comments on here and in my private life about being mortgage free - but this is all due to the choices we have made along the way. Also we also have quite a small house (a lot smaller than my friends who have maxed out all their credit to get the biggest house and newest car). Another plus is that energy bills will be smaller too.

So the aim is still to get a bigger house but for it to be more affordable to us (the mortgage repayments was nearly £2k a month and on our salaries we don't understand how we could afford it). So we'll continue to save. 

I have to admit after finding this out we both have felt more stingier with our money. I do feel very privileged to be in our position (I shall leave a separate post about my past below) and I never take for granted where I am now but we do very much feel like our pounds should stay in our pocket rather than spent frivolously. 

retireby35

My Past:
Gosh I don't know where to start.. me and my then partner were living in a cheap rental (bit of a long story) knowing that certain things didn't work in the house and it wasn't carpeted either, etc. It was what we could afford and we were very happy with it. I was on minimum wage whilst I started my career and my partner similar (although he wasn't getting paid alot of the times as his boss had cashflow problems - he would get given the payslip but never the money!!). The amount of times that we couldn't afford the rent/bills/food/etc and had to rely on food parcels from family, handouts etc. We should have gone to citizens advice about it all really but we were young and unexperienced and scared. My partner never did get paid what he was owed! 

I can remember our normal meal would be eggs and bread (we had access to free eggs), the heating didn't work but we managed to get hot water. We had ice on the insides of our windows frequently and I can remember the food freezing inside my kitchen cupboards. I used to get changed under the duvet as it was too cold to do otherwise. We had 2 open fires in the house and we went out 'wooding' to get free wood ( easy to do when you know what to do - always always talk to local landowners and never take without permission - all were happy for us to go pick up dropped branches, etc. We also spoke to local furniture makers etc for their scraps). We both ate for around £10 a week which was hard - I can remember crying because my partner had burnt our dinner the rare time he did cook and it was completely inedible - I was so hungry. All my clothes came from hand me downs/charity shop/ebay before it was cool. 

I can remember getting absolute tat for Christmas which infuriated me! We'd have loved things like food/hats/gloves/clothing/makeup/toiletries etc. We were given a bear that danced when it heard noises like you walking into a room, we were given strange board games that stayed in their cellophane wrapping, we were given a talking beer can opener (even though we could never afford the beer in the first place). I can remember waiting 2 months and then the whole lot going on eBay/carboot sale - I sound very ungrateful I know!

We had to bring our own tea and coffee into work and this does sound bad but most of the time I couldn't afford my own teabags/coffee. I used to scrimp sachets when I could but.. and this is the first time I've admitted it.. I used to insist on making the tea every time for my team because I used to make their teas and coffees and then re-use one of their teabags again for me. 

I used to go out with friends and get tap water and pretend it was vodka and lemonade. They were too drunk to notice the difference. 

retireby35

I used to cut my own hair (no way I could afford to go to the hairdressers) - back when I didn't know anyone else do it so I used to spend ages in my bedroom in secret trying to give it a trim. I've since gone to the hairdressers when I could afford it but since covid I've been cutting my own hair with the help of YouTube videos or getting my friend to cut it (she's told me she cuts her own now). I go to the hairdresser probably around once a year now (it costs £50 and looks no different to when I cut it). 

One of the things I've learnt over the years is working out how much you get paid per hour after tax/ni etc and then working out how many hours you have to work to get your nails done/hair/etc etc. Its really put me off buying a lot of impulse things! For example I recently went away on holiday and I would have normally gone to spend 2.5hours spend to get my nails done - I decided to do them myself with my own nail polish and then packed the polish for any touchups. I didn't feel any different and felt just as special on holiday if I was to have my usual gel nails. I've spoken to a friend about it as she always has stunning gel nails - she admitted she brought herself a kit over covid (the cost of 2 normal appointments) and did them herself ever since. (You can get gel allergies so you have to be careful and do your research before hand - at the moment I am happy with normal nail polish but this is something I would love to look at some day).