What’s an “unpopular” spending or money decision that actually works well for you?

Me too! I save whatever is left at the end of the month. Have been a bit more stricter about how much I'm expecting there to be leftover to save every month so that has helped to cut back on frivolous mindless spending for the sake of it.

Have paid off mortgage but drive a cheap 2016 electric car. Prioritise great family holidays and trips as realise our kids won’t always want to come away with us! Always get good deals though.

It’s definitely not the end of the world. You’ll still have time to pay off a mortgage by the time you need to retire. I started earning late because I did a post grad and lived abroad for a few years. That all cost a bit too! So I accept that I won’t be retiring at 50 like some. I’m fortunate to love my job though which helps!

Yeah I won’t be buying before 50 but that’s cos of poor money management on my part. So that is one piece of financial advice I have not followed - I did not get on the property ladder early!

I do agree massively with the point on travelling and flights. I remember being in Israel years ago. On one of our tours was an older Colombian couple with their daughter. They had waited most of the working life to travel in retirement and then the mom could not finish the tour as her knees could not take the walking. Her daughter said their have had to change a lot of their travel plans as her parents struggle with many of the activities and the long haul flights.

I buy lunch whenever I go into the office (2 or 3 days a week) - occasionally I'll go for the Sainsbury's meal deal but more often than not it's pret/leon/itsu or similar. I also buy coffee from either work canteen or outside coffee shops. It all costs a fortune but I don't care - we can afford it and with two young kids, nursery/ school runs to think about and meal plan around I really really cba to plan ahead to bring food in. Occasionally I'll buy breakfast on my way on too.

I also do multiple food shops per week. I find if I try to do a big weekly shop, inevitably the youngest will be invited to a playdate after school, or the teen will go out for Nandos with their friends and not want dinner, the eldest will decide they're going to stay at their boyfriend's house that night, and all the food I've meticulously planned for the week's meals just goes to waste because DH and I can't eat it all. It actually saves money to go out and buy what we need every day. Luckily we live walking distance from a supermarket.

I lived in a rented house for my whole adult life until I was 47.

It meant I could live somewhere beautiful and which suited to my ( very specific!) needs but which I could not have afforded to buy. Also the landlord paid for house repairs, groundwork etc and I liked the security and convenience of that, not just the expenditure but not having to find/ chase tradesmen was brilliant as LL had dedicated maintenance staff.

I have now bought somewhere and although I will be 60-65 by the time my mortgage is paid off, many of my peers will have bought at 25, then scaled up / remortgaged for improvements etc. Many won’t be mortgage free until the same age.

Renting isn’t always a terrible idea but I’m sure it’s v unpopular on mumsnet 😬

I turn my heating on whenever i want, a warm house is a huge comfort to me and i like my kids to wake up warm or come home from school to a nice warm house ( in the winter)

I would cut back on what i need to have a warm house.

We've just booked and paid for a holiday using a credit card as we don't have the money atm. We've had some big, unexpected expenses and so our savings / holiday money were swallowed up. I know everyone bangs on about not booking things you can't afford but DH has a big job coming up in May (self employed) which will pay the holiday off and wanted to get the accommodation and flights secured so thought fuck it. I'm not working all year to just sit at home for my annual leave!

Same.

I told my husband to move out and he did. Worst financial decision of life. Best decision for my physical and emotional health.

The point about a sudden death is becoming more relevant now that nearly everything is done online. At least a decade or two ago, if the worst happened, the surviving spouse (or next of kin) could just sort through drawers/boxes of paperwork to get a handle on the household finances if they'd not been involved. There'd have been bills, bank statements, bank pass books, share/dividend certificates, etc and a pretty good picture could be gathered pretty quickly. But now with everything being online, there's none of that. Even if you knew the passwords to the deceased's phone/laptop, you'd still only know what was obvious via their apps etc., and not necessarily know things that were accessible via a web browser unless they were book-marked. At least with joint accounts, the surviving spouse/partner can gain immediate access via their own login/app, bills continue to be paid, there's access to funds, etc. I really can't imagine why any couple, especially married and especially with children wouldn't have at least one joint account to pay the household bills to ensure continuity. Surely if you trust someone enough to have a child with them, to live with them, etc., you'd trust them enough to use a joint account for household finances. Having a joint account doesn't stop you also having your own account(s)/investments.

Getting a second car. We have a setup where 1 of us commutes each day the other wfh or locally those days. We survived on 1 car for years and saved a fortune. However our eldest has some health issues which makes transporting him difficult and trying at times. So I saved and got a second car, a tiny, old rattly runaround and I love that car. I feel free in her in a way I don't anywhere else. My husband was against it on environmental grounds but also now acknowledges the second car more than pays for itself v

This actually saves me money. I always did it when I was younger but with two kids we just don’t have the time now, so I buy bulk and there’s always food waste. It’s annoying.

Maybe this is my sign to go back to a daily trip.

This is the same as us. I don’t think it’s unusual? Lots of people on here don’t even have a joint account despite sharing a mortgage which I find odd.

But do you ever worry about what would happen if he suddenly died? I have no idea where to find his savings account, pensions etc.

Exactly the same here. Meal planning is absolutely not for me 😆

Lol no, that would be my worst nightmare! I've asked for my post to be deleted.

I do multiple food shops a week as I can't be arsed doing one big one and having to think of every single meal for a week in advance.

And... we buy alcohol in our food shop 😱

Hopefully you aren’t an Economics or Maths teacher.

😂

I buy everything on credit cards or use things like PayPal credit
Pay in full before 0% interest period ends and keep my unspent salary in savings

@Clogblog Yes, I see what you mean. And I wasn't taking into account compounding the interest.

But it's a bit of a moot point, since very few people will have the advantage of an economic climate that facilities a crazily low mortgage rate of 0.68%, at the same time as a high investment rate of 14%! Generally, the banks make sure they get the better end of any deal with the public.

I’ve always been a spender. I’ve always had the attitude that life is for living and I’m going to enjoy mine. Covid changed my mind on that. I was amazed how much we were able to save. It really changed my attitude to money

We've always not maxed our mortgage, we’ve always lived in a smaller house rather than the big one we could live in. We’ve stopped takeaways and restaurants. We might have a takeaway twice a year for an occasion and tbh both of us confirm that we didn’t like it for the money. I think we’ve both got used to not having them. Restaurants are really rare too now. Maybe once a year because we’re doing our Christmas shopping. We used to eat out regularly, and casually but not anymore. The longer you go without, the less you miss it, in our experience. We also used to go out for all our adult kids birthdays and take all the family. When it was your birthday, it was your choice of restaurant but I do stuff at home now.Its much cheaper for us, all the grandkids enjoy it more, having the run of the garden and house.But I don’t think any of this is out of the ordinary, I think lots of people have given up takeaway, restaurants, coffees and food out.

when I was working, I made a conscious effort not to spend any money mon to Friday. I’m now retired so I find that harder. It’s hard to go out and not spend any money at all, and equally I don’t want all day, every day, in my house. That’s quite isolating. I now make a conscious decision not to spend Tuesday, wed and Thursday. I also don’t go round the shops. I love clothes and fashion but I stay away from the high street. I have enough coats, shoes, bags, jeans, jewellery, whatever to last me a life time and then some. It’s hard, I can’t lie….i do buy occasionally from Vinted though when I have that shopping urge.

again I don’t think it’s rocket science, we’ve run our car fine without getting the urge to get a new one. We went from two cars to one recently We’re careful with what we buy on our food shopping. I’d love a new sofa….id love to change our double bed to a bigger one….but really in reality all these things are fine. I’m not chasing all these things because I don’t want to spend the money.

some will say life is too short. Maybe it is. But I do know that at my grand old age now…all these things are making a difference to us. We can see the savings we’re making each month. My husband and I love to travel. We much rather our money went on that.

I think I understand where you're going wrong.

You're comparing the wrong things - you're comparing the entire interest on the mortgage to the return on 10k when you should be comparing just the interest rate on the 10k.

If you have £10k, and your mortgage interest rate is 0.68% and your investment return is 14%:

I put those figures into the MSE calculator here and what it tells me is you are better off investing

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-overpayment-calculator/

I agree there is risk appetite and behavioural stuff to think about too but I think some people are just not understanding the maths.