Everything changes

foxgloves

Well, I am going to mention food because it is perfectly possible to cut down your £400 a month spend & still eat good, healthy home-cooked food. As a comparison, I budget £350 a month for 2 of us (including big husband with caveman appetite) & food for 2 greedy cats. This also covers cleaning stuff, washing powder & loo rolls. We are not living on cheapo rubbish. We cook from scratch every night apart from a rare takeaway maybe 4 times a year. We also do most of our shopping at Waitbl00m, though use a local butcher & sometimes local market stall for fresh fruit & veg. What makes this work is that I am evangelical about meal planning. I do a monthly master meal plan (with a few gaps for flexibility such as if we have leftovers or see a good bargain) & choose each week's meals from that. We both enjoy cooking new recipes - it's not a case of eating the same 7 meals on rotation by any means. When writing the monthly master meal plan, I always go through the freezer & prioritise things we have in stock or for which we'd only need to buy a couple of ingredients. I also batch cook which can be another good money saver for a smaller household.

So I am not suggesting that you 'cut down on food' at all, but I AM suggesting that you can cut down what you spend on it.

F

Chocolatefund

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81948943#Comment_81948943

Not even cooking from scratch. Even if you lived on oven/microwave food. I barely cook and I spend half this. Unless they are including takeaways and eating out in that sum.

itsthelittlethings

Just making tomato sauce. I seem to have cracked the food budget thing. 4 Asda deliveries at £70 per month plus one cooking meal - £20. Easy peasey.

I’m cutting down on coffee. I had it in my head to do a total coffee detox this weekend but I’ve inevitably cracked. I could hear the thoughts start swirling in my head even as the kettle was brewing. Strange. Very strange.

Today I have a few things to do.

SparFuchs

I only have myself to feed and manage fine on £250 / month. Good quality, free range etc.

Phone is mad, buy a cheap secondhand one from CEX (5 year guarentee) and get on an £8 / month sim only plan with TalkMobile or similar.

Clothing is also outragous. I'm sure you have enough clothes to keep you going. Wear them out.

satchmo1

And everything stays the same…. (to complete the quote).

Mobile phone £48 - is that for the phone… take/send the broken one back … or a data plan? It's outrageously high, go SIM only

Clothes - challenge yourself to spending nothing on clothes for a month

Food - meal planning together with preparing lunch the evening before will shave something from this category. I'm assuming that this category is actually food and cleaning and toiletries?

Consolidation - no, no, no… please don't, please do not, PLEASE do not.

BestnamesRgone

Apologies if I’ve missed something but in your opening post you say you’re very good at paying “fixed commitments like car payments and rent” but at the end of your post you mention you’ve been thinking of getting your driver’s licence? And you own your flat outright so no rent either…

itsthelittlethings

Went out and had a soda (2.50) and bought washing up liquid (1.50) and collected some stuff from Boots. I’m watching Netflix now and going to knit a hat. I’ve had my dinner. I have had 2 cups of coffee today. I might have one more at 5.30 as it is a long weekend.

Tomorrow I’m going to study and then maybe vacuum and knit some more. Monday is gym. Sunday or Monday I’ll do some laundry.

enthusiasticsaver

I can see you have started up a new diary and I would urge you to relook at the soa and actually check your spending rather than guessing it so you know it is accurate.

You have a great advantage in you have no mortgage or rent but you are not using that to set yourself up for the future at present. You could be getting rid of the debt, learning to drive and buying a car or saving for a holiday.

I always had the view that things like holidays and clothes and consumables which are not essential should not be bought on borrowed money so I would not do the course/holiday and certainly would not consolidate debt as that is a surefire way to build up more debt especially without a drastic mindset change.

I agree with your mum that if you are going to use some of your precious spending money to buy wool and take the trouble to knit something you could recoup it by selling it at craft fairs, etsy or whatever. You have some great advice. Make this the year you get on top of your finances and get rid of that debt which is like a noose around your neck. Buying less clothes will make your flat less cluttered too so win win.

itsthelittlethings

I’ve had a good start to the day. I woke up and drank one cup of coffee and then went to the gym. Did a light workout and came home, messaged a few people, put some stuff in the oven to roast for Epic Lunchtime Salad of the week. I reckon I will get four days big portions out of it. It would definitely stretch to 5 days but I don’t want to give myself a bad stomach. I am at a quiet desk all next week, lots of catch up on though.

I have a phone call with my Open University tutor tomorrow at 11. I’ve decided I’m not doing any more study next year. I might do a Geography degree (student loans) long term. I’m going to get a distinction in my level 3.

Right. Need to vacuum.

Today is a no spend day.

beanielou

£400 per month on food is absolutely insane for one person. You don’t seem to have any pets? I’m disabled and can’t really batch cook without a friend helping & don’t spend that much

Did you hear back from the bank?