Are you ever embarassed by your money-saving ways?
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If we ever go out, or OH & DD does, I always encourage them to take home sachets of sauces etc we dont use and I put them in a bag for when we go away.
If there is any meat left on our plates, then I wrap in a napkin and take home for the dog.
I re-cycle presents we are given and dont like/need.
If anyone asks me what gifts we would like for Xmas, birthdays, anniversaries etc...I always ask for stuff we need or money towards them or a giftcard. They would all prefer that we get gifts we want or like than not. Mum spends money like water, but even she has changed what gifts she gets us and am now proud owner of a few Radley items which she has bought as they are too expensive for me to buy.
My friends know I have changed my spending habits but they still get great quality presents, but they know I get them on offer or part of a deal or use points etc to pay for them. I am lucky that I have good friends who dont judge.
I would have taken the cheddar back to the room and had with some wine and crackers, but buying them on the way home, so not mini bar prices.
PP
xx
I remind them that this is how we can afford more holidays and treats. I feel I am teaching them the value of deciding what is worth spending money on (good quality stuff, things that give pleasure) and what is not (unnecessary outings, drinks "just because my mates are doing it", rubbish stuff that gets broken quickly etc...).
Now that the kids are older (20) I can see my teachings applied in their lives, DD is good at saving and planning with her earned money (nanny/babysitter) and is very good at spotting charity shop bargains. DS chooses to buy very good quality things (clothes) and has stopped going out with friends as a matter of course and only goes out when he really wants to. He is a musician and loves buying music and he has been investing in a few interesting LPs that give him much more lasting pleasure than the odd pi**-up at the pub just out of boredom. He also tells me that in summer he prefers buying a few cans and sit watching the sunset from the park, than go and spend a lot of money in the crowded pub.
There is no shame in being OS and as someone else pointed out at the start of this thread, being frugal is very different from being mean. We love it!
Some other things I do, most are obvious but hopefully someone can get some use from them:
Take sachets of sauce, small tubs of butter/jam etc home, we have a box at home for these that we use when going on a self catered holiday. In fact, have just had a blueberry muffin (kind of vacumn packed so it didn't go off) that I took from a Travelodge the morning of a work conference - I was a bit hungover so didn't really fancy eating much so I took what I would have eaten normally! Came home with some packets of cereal, blueberry muffins, teabags etc. Even brought some jars of honey, small bottles of Tabasco and packs of cereal back from a week long conference in Texas in the summer!
Always buy up decent offers and glitches in Boots etc - made £30 Boots points from the recent Ruby and Millie glitch that cost £1.50. I won't use the lipsticks but the points will pay for next year's birthday presents in the post Xmas sales, and the lipsticks will go to the Women's Aid shelter along with all the other bits left over from my present giving this year.
Re the previous - the Boots post xmas sale is amazing for stocking up on not only birthday presents but toiletries for myself and OH - some of the gift sets end up costing much less then the contents would have.
Saved up out Clubcard vouchers for the past year and we have just paid for our honeymoon hotel with them - £380 worth! So we only had to pay for the flights, and as we are going to Jersey got some very cheap flights on Flybe. Didn't pay extra to prebook seats together as it's only an hour's flight and we have the whole week (and the rest of our lives!) together.
Love making "leftover" stew or pasta the day before the weekly shop!
Loving reading all these ideas, hope to get some more great ones!
My debt free diary
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Pasteurised eggs do have serious uses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasteurized_eggs
I am with you on battery farming , but eggs / chickens arent the only animal subject to this conditions . Pigs are intensively reared too , so you should also be sourcing your bacon too
I am a teacher and twice a year we get a book fair in with frankly ridiculous prices. I teach (and live) in a quite poor area with high unemployment and I don't think it's fair to ask children to buy books for £5 upwards. My own child goes to my school and I never buy her book fair books - I usually let her order a pack of books from the Book People instead. Plus the book fair books tend to be quite gimmicky, rubbish rather than proper books to read.
I'm another one who is a bit embarrassed at how much I've wasted over the years.
When I first got married I was a bit embarrassed of OH's money saving ways but over the last 12 years I've grown more like him. I used to hate him taking little packs of salt etc when we were out, but think nothing of it now. He uses them to take to work for his bait.
Plus I'm quite happy to accept hand me down clothes for the kids rather than paying out most of my salary to Next. I have a cousin and a best friend who both have children slightly older than mine and they pass on bags full of stuff from Gap, John Lewis, M&S, Little White company, Osh Kosh and Monsoon. The only stuff I buy is from Asda or the odd things from Next sale.
We don't throw any food away; any leftovers are recycled for lunch the next day or frozen and we buy anything that doesn't matter (tinned tomatoes, fruit juices, salt etc) from the value range, though my mam is always commenting upon the white labels in my kitchen cupboard.
I look for discount vouchers for anything we need and use price comparison sites to make sure we get the best price. All our electricals (TV etc) are ancient and I'm quite happy to buy some toys etc from ebay / local paper. Last Christmas we got a Fisherprice bounce and spin zebra (retailing at £54) for £13 from an advert in the local paper. It was spotless and our 1 year old has loved it. I'll probably resell it when he's finished with it.
I used to spend a fortune on books that cluttered up the house but now I look in bookshops, note down what I'd like to read and order from the library - it costs 30p to reserve but that's a lot less than buying my own copy.
We're hoping to teach our children the value of money and that they can't just have anything they want. They have a budget at Christmas and if they want anything other than at Christmas and birthdays they save up for it. Both our older children have bought nintendo DSs and DS1 bought a Nintendo Wii and a bass guitar with money they saved from odd jobs or pocket money from relatives.
Hopefully we aren't mean. I look at it as economising on the things that don't matter so much (eg I used to spend £75 on getting my hair cut. I use a much cheaper, local salon now and my hair looks just the same) in order to spend on the things we like eg travel, but even then I make sure we get the best deals on flights, hotel rooms etc.
Oh, and when we were in USA earlier this year, it was quite common practice to bag up uneaten food to take home. Shame more UK restaurants don't offer this.
I have to watch what I say at work about my MSE ways. The other teachers have similar views to my own - I introduced one to Freecycle and she loves it but I did overhear a teaching assistant and admin staff discussing how I wouldn't pay full price for anything - though they were actually right! I have tried to tell them about quidco but it was dismissed as "too good to be true" even after after I explained my car insurance for kast year ended up being around £20 after cashback. I also tried explaining to a staff member who was sayiing she was broke about surveys but she said it was too much bother for nothing. That's as may be but I've made over £250 in vouchers this year.
We went walking with some friends recently and after the walk went to the pub for a drink. The pub was selling cream teas and some of our friends decided to have one (DH and I had had home made cake and a cup of tea in the car so were full) The jam and the clotted cream came in small glass jars and somebody remarked that it was a pity to throw them away but she couldn't think what to do ith thm if she took them home.
I asked if I could have the jars as I use them for mint jelly, salad dressing for DH's packed lunches,coffee and sugar in our picnic basket and for storing home dried herbs.AfterI'd listed that lot some of the group decided to keep their jars but I did get a few.
My debt free diary
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However i was recently discussing with a friend of mine how much we were spending on our children for christmas. We both have 3 children, she was saying she's going to spend about £140 on each child! I didn't like to say we were only spending £45 each on ours. I was a little embarrassed then!
I have a relative who does the shopping in Aldi/Lidl then transfers it all over to M&S bags in the boot of the car...... just so the neighbours don't find out she shops in Aldi..... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: