To cut costs by reducing my family's food quality rather than give up my expensive haircuts?

[Tortoiseonthehalfshell]

Ok, ok, deliberately provocative title for a basic WWYD. And I'm asking for financial advice in AIBU, so I am prepared for Opinions, capital letters.

We've happily lived within our income for years and years, but borrowed against the mortgage to reno our kitchen, so we have a debt to repay, albeit as slowly as we like.

There aren't a lot of areas we can cut back on. I could squeeze every area slightly but it would be a lot of effort for really not much money. I just deleted a long explanation of how cheaply we live because it was dull, but neither of us has expensive hobbies, buys CDs or computer games or expensive clothes, our social life is parks/picnics/free toddler activities/dinners with friends, and we're both DIYers. This is all just because we are boring sods naturally frugal; we lived like this even when we both worked fulltime.

There are two areas where there is some real fat to cut. One is food, and the other is my hair. If we cut one or the other, we'd add enough to what we currently save in order to pay down the debt fast enough.

Food: we cook from scratch so the budget isn't taken up with processed meals, but I spend around $200 (150quid) a week for two adults and a toddler. Our meals are meat or seafood heavy, which is made worse because I buy from a local butcher who sells free-range, ethical, great quality meat which is probably 150% of the price of other butchers. We tend to have good cheese, pate and posh crackers in the house, mineral water, wine, etc. My two year old is familiar with smoked salmon, olives and Brie, which is ridiculous because she'd be just as happy with cheddar and pickles but she eats what we do, and this is how we eat. We don't have junk food or snacks, but everything we do have is unncessarily good quality. I'm pretty sure I can cut this by a third without compromising on fresh ingredients and well cooked meals, it would just mean going to a cheaper butcher, making a couple of vegetarian meals a week, buying cheaper cuts.

Hair: I spend a fortune, frankly. It's long, and only gets cut every 3 months, but I go to an expensive hairdresser. The real expensive is the colour; it's coloured and streaked, and that happens every six weeks. I spend about 100 quid a month on it, all up. If I coloured it at home and found a cheaper cutter, it would go down to about 20 quid a month since it's only cut every three.

Here is the justification part: I couldn't do anything like the streaking at home. I'm mousy with a lot of premature grey, so the blonde streaks help cover the roots much better than any solid colour ever has. The cut is the first cut I have ever been really happy with, it's very low maintenance and looks classy but funky, and professional enough for my job. I've never found a cheaper hairdresser that can do as good a job, maybe I'm unlucky? I'm not particularly slim and not particularly pretty, but the one thing I do have, now, is great hair. It makes me feel good.

I prefer to cut down the food budget, but AIBU?

We're pretty much in the same boat as you. I think your best bet is to trim a little bit off both budgets so that the impact feels less.
Try a more junior stylist at your salon, they're often a lot cheaper and tend to work under the supervision of the seniors any way, I saved about £40 a month doing this and the hair is pretty much as good.
As for the food, I found setting a budget and planning what we're going to eat for the week really helped. Our biggest expenses were buying lunch at work and the food we wasted at home so now we either eat the previous night's leftovers or make sandwiches. This has had the bonus of not only cutting down our expenditure but I get to feel all thrifty and smug

Cross post Fiveisanawfullybignumber, great minds think alike :)

I sympathise. We need to cut back and my hair is my own personal expense. It is cut every 6 weeks at £35 and every other cut I have it streaked so it comes to nearly £80. I don't spend much if anything on clothes these days as can't afford it but am loathe to give up my hair cuts and colour - mainly because I am grey underneath and a block colour from a box does nothing for my very pale skin - need the highlights and lowlights to give me a bit of colour!

I fiqure that it is my one luxury left from the days when I had disposable income.

I think you are spending too much on food though.

Cut the food budget. You dont have o compromise on quality much but eating simpler foods will help...chicken, beef, lamb frozen fish not smoked salmon!,

We eat well but dont buy luxuy foods like shellfish and olives and good cheese are a treat.

Don't cut your hair budget...crap hair makes a sad Mum and sad Mum's are rubbish.

OP, I think what a lot of people have said about the food is a really good idea- eat more vegetarian meals, bulk out with lentils etc.

We tend to do that, and have a "cheap meal" a couple of times a week (savoury pancakes/posh beans on toast/homemade pizza) as well as only having 1 cooked meal a day. Lunch is often sandwiches or a salad.

If (like me) you're a slave to the local deli when you're at work, only go one day a week for a treat; but the hair? Keep it. It makes you feel good, and it's cheaper than therapy evry week!

Plus watch what you have with your meat etc....baked potatoes and lentils, brown rice and pasta and bsic salads are cheered up with homemade dressings.

I know my hairdresser really well and she advises me how to make hair dos a bit cheaper, whilst still looking good. Perhaps you could mention it to hairdresser and see if there's any way colour could be eeked out or made a bit cheaper.

Sounds like there's scope for cutting back on food whilst keeping it ethical. More veggie eating has got to help - both financially and health wise. Lentils are fab!!!

Having your hair 'done' professionally really is worth it, in my view. I used to use box colours and they're just not as good.

Your meals, as you've already identified, are really meat-heavy and from a health point of view, that's not so good. If you ate less meat, either in volume or frequency, you'd save money - more if you make meals using meats from your good butcher, but cheaper cuts.

The peripheral foodstuffs that you eat could also be cut down in volume... pates and cheeses are heavy and full of fat rather being very nutritious. A bit now and again as a treat tastes much better.

In a nutshell... your hair trumps your food bill... I wish I had great hair...

YANBU to look at cutting either or both of those. £150 is a really large weekly food bill for such a small family - we're 2 adults and a 3 year old, and our weekly shop is between £50 - £80, depending on what staples we get in at different times. I also make every single meal from scratch with fresh ingredients. DS isn't on brie and smoked salmon, but he's still got an exploratory palate, and isn't adverse to a bit of pesto or chorizo!

You can make some really lovely veggie based meals that will save you a tonne of money, and you can frequently by raw seafood (like king prawns) frozen and on "Buy One Get One Free" deals.

Ultimately, cutting the food bill will save you just over £200 a month, whereas cutting your hair bill only saves half that. You can still eat well on £100 a week food...

NEITHER

It sounds like you have a handle on your life entirely, you are naturally frugal apart from in these two areas.

Ignore the fact it's your hair and instead think of it as the one thing you spend money one - you could easily spend far more on a load of crap.

Food - I'm a big fan of ethical if possible to afford it - you clearly can.

Just pay it off slower, you are clearly 'handling' it and are pretty frugal.

Only if it's giving you a ton of stress (doesn't sound like it at the moment) should you consider a change.

Salon's are quiet at the mo and offering good deals (mine has just introduced a loyalty card..after five visits, the sixth is free).

Could you contact them to cancel your next appointment, telling them you can no longer afford it? They might offer a discount.

that is a lot on food.
we've got 2 adults, 1 dc plus one baby in nappies and average £100 a week without budgeting. plenty of meat, fish, cheeses, tropical fruits etc. i do make the most of BOGOFs, and get cuts of meat that will do a couple of meals though (eg a whole free range chicken rather than free range chicken breasts). i bet you could get it down to £100 per week without even noticing.

The main reason that it looks like the op is spending so much is because the dollar is unusually high. A few years ago $200 would have been more like 80 quid, or even lower.

There is no cheap fresh fish here. Fish is $25 - $35 a kilo. I spent $26 today on lamb for stew and I'm hoping it will stretch to two meals. Food is expensive. We do eat lots of eggs, lots of pasta and shop at aldi and it is still expensive.

If the hair is your one treat then IMO there'll be a bigger payoff in resentment than the gain in savings.

So I say keep the hair, maybe spread treatments out a bit, and cut down on meat. You don't need three meat meals a day.

Cut the food budget! You're one who cooks the damn stuff.

I'm not one for spending a lot of money on hair and beauty stuff, but I had enough of bad/mediocre haircuts. Yesterday I drove for 1 hour to a highly recommended hair saloon and paid a fortune just for the cut.
Today I am a new person, absolutely LOVING my new look (very unusual for me as I'm not normally bothered) getting lots of compliments and feeling very chuffed with myself :)
All this in the context of a dire (temporary) financial situation.
Didn't think I was ever going to say this but HAIR DOES MATTER a lot!
Brie and olives matter too though... tough choice... maybe reduce the quantities of the really expensive foods?

The thing is, is that you can't do like for like on $ & pounds for food. It doesn't work.

Food is ridiculously expensive here. Good organic, ethical food even more so. I spend $200 for a family of 4, and don't buy anything like the luxuries that OP does.

I would ditch the mineral water first, unless your tap water is actually horrible. But you are in Australia, not some third world country.

The one think I would say is that it's probably not very healthy to eat so much meat. I'd say only have meat once or twice a week for main mel, and substitute with veg/pulses/lentils which are cheaper and healthier. Keep to the fish

My cousin had the same problem re: cost of hair as you and she got a Sat morning reception job in the salon, she worked for free in exchange for haircuts/colours! I appreciate you may not want to work Sat and they may not need someone but worth a thought? Or let the trainees do your colour for cheap/free under the guidance of the proper colourist. IME they do just as good a job but it does take aaaaaages

I'm not convinced that colouring your own hair will actually save you that much money in the long run.

I was having highlights but decided to "economise" and dye my own. My hair is also long so it takes two boxes of colour, then there's the fact that I'm doing it every 2-3 weeks because the greys came through quicker, and there're the towels I've ruined, splashed and stained the loo seat......... So I got it highlighted last week .

Your shopping bill made me too, my dh is forever moaning about ours, but he boxes and needs to eat loads of protein and just loads tbh!! Ours is about £90-100 a week for us and dd (4).

As you have an office dress code, you could consider the hair a necessary work related expense. Won't save money but might stop you feeling guilty about it.

harrassed can I just say HAIRSPRAY...

Gets all hair dye out of textiles, spray it on the stain, liberally, then wash as normal...

Cut down on your quantity of meat meals but don't compromise on the quality if you don't need too. There is no need to eat meat three times in one day!! Certainly not red meat. I'd introduce one to two vege nights per week. Limit the cheese and pate, it's doing you no dietary favours anyway.

I'd try a mobile hair dresser if you could who could to the cut and colour at your house, ask around and try some recommended. Or jut go to the salon for the colour and go to a cheaper place for the cut if it's a straight forward trim.

I colour at home but am already dark and just covering the odd grey, so no need for highlights/streaks. The other option could be a cheaper way to do the streaks eg not a full head or half head but (underneath) slices which grow out without the regrowth along the part. (Don't know the technical term for this, sorry!)