2026 Frugal Living Challenge

mama67

fionaandphil said:

@Mamma2004 I'm assuming he can't get a free one with a student bank account? 

If not I'd probably go for the clubcard option as it's only £17.50 instead of £35.

It may also be worth looking on Trainpal as I'm sure they have offered discounted rail cards in the past and I think you also get money off your first ticket. Once the first ticket is booked you can use your Railcard anywhere if I remember correctly

Also if anyone you know has a blue light card can get a discount on trainpal for railcards.( we did that last year for Dave’s using son’s blue light plus trainpal disc) made his senior only £22.50

Mamma2004

maryb said:

Are you likely to get a £6 off a £30 spend voucher anytime soon?  If so and you combine it with Clubcard offers that could give you the biggest saving ie £30 worth of goods for £6.50.  Add in the railcard and you've paid £32.75 for things that cost £65 full price.

If you use those vouchers towards the railcard, you presumably still have to pay £17.50.  Then you have to pay £24 for your shopping (assuming you get the £6 off voucher in either scenario).  That comes to £41.50

I'd use the discount code because I know Tesco will send me a voucher at some point

Thanks for your reply 😊

The £17.50 clubcard vouchers double up to cover the £35 rail card. 

kimwp

Mamma2004 said:

May I ask the group's opinion on something? 

(Sorry if it seems a silly question!) 

My son needs a new annual railcard.  Full price it is £35.

I have two choices:

1. Use £17.50 of clubcard vouchers (used a partner reward this doubles up to £35) 
2. Use a 25% off discount code, and pay £26.25

Which would you do? And why? 

Many thanks 😊

I think you do it by opportunity cost, which I think is:

If you use the vouchers, the railcard will cost you £17.50 of shopping (or however much shopping £17.50 clubcard vouchers gets you, I don't have a clubcard)

If you use the discount, the railcard will cost you £26.25 of shopping.

So using the vouchers means more in your pocket (the Railcard will cost you less). 

Arrietty

Good morning all,

just popping in to declare I have just reached the halfway point of my Four Day Fund. 
102 weeks to find the remaining half!

Although, this last week has had me wondering if I could simply quit work altogether in 102 weeks.
Would need some zeros on the end of my figures though so I guess I just plough on...  

Mamma2004

kimwp said:

Mamma2004 said:

May I ask the group's opinion on something? 

(Sorry if it seems a silly question!) 

My son needs a new annual railcard.  Full price it is £35.

I have two choices:

1. Use £17.50 of clubcard vouchers (used a partner reward this doubles up to £35) 
2. Use a 25% off discount code, and pay £26.25

Which would you do? And why? 

Many thanks 😊

I think you do it by opportunity cost, which I think is:

If you use the vouchers, the railcard will cost you £17.50 of shopping (or however much shopping £17.50 clubcard vouchers gets you, I don't have a clubcard)

If you use the discount, the railcard will cost you £26.25 of shopping.

So using the vouchers means more in your pocket (the Railcard will cost you less). 

Thank you 😊 that makes sense 

Prudent

@Arriety that's great progress. I found I needed a lot less money when I stopped working. I didn't need work clothes, commuting costs and money for all those endless collections at work. I also saved a lot through having more time for frugal activities. You might be able to just do a couple of days at that point. 

Nelliegrace

It was the £30 a week extra diesel, the parking charges, and the cost of regular short haircuts, the professional magazine subscription, textbooks, and full union membership and insurance, yes, and all of the collections and sponsoring, and the coffee fund. There are far fewer deductions on my pension than there were on my payslip. I reclaimed tax on work related and uniform items and laundry. 

Skint_yet_Again

Well done Arrietty you are smashing that 4 day fund target 🥳

Willow1983

Hi, just putting my Tuppens worth in re giving up work.  I went down to 4 days just before covid, then covid happened and I was furloughed for over 4 months.  This really made my mind up that I had had enough of working. We have worked since before leaving school, no kids and no time off sick etc.  We saved as much as possible and we both finished up at the end of last year.  It’s early days but I weighed up our options, we have no mortgage or debt and we could either keep spending money on things we don’t need or do more to the house or we could invest in ourselves and spend the money on freedom from work.  My husband has a small pension and I have none but between what we have saved and watching what we do I am sure we will be fine until we get state pensions in 4 and 5 and half years time.  At the end of the day we see a lot of people we know not even getting to 60 and life really is too short. 

MrsCD

I left my part time job at 57, due to health issues. My husband had his work pension, then the old state pension. We found we could manage nicely on that income as we'd paid off the mortgage and cut back on non essentials. I now have my two very small work pensions and my new state pension, so we can build up our savings for emergencies. If you decide to 'retire', it is possible if you work out what your needs and wants are and budget accordingly.
One thing I would encourage everyone to do is get a pension forecast before retirement age to see if your NI contributions are up to date, or if you can pay extra years to increase the state pension. I paid for one year to get me to within a pound of the full amount. It wasn't worth paying for another year. The woman I spoke to was very helpful.