To be a little shocked that by not going into town every Saturday with the dc we are saving £100 a month even before buying anything!

[PolkadotCircus]

So we're normally pretty tight but since Christmas we have been doing the no spend challenge in Budget.

To boost my no spend days target I rearranged my week so we didn't need to go into town as a family to stock up on milk,a paper,go to the library ,bank etc.

Omg we're really noticing the difference and after a few calculations have realised how much just nipping into town with a family costs.

Weekly cost:-

£5 petrol
£7 parking
£12 on pasties x 5 (always mistime the trip so end up buying lunch which we never do normally,take water from home)
£5 on papers

Never actually buy anything!

Omg when did things get so expensive?As a child we went into town every week to get the papers,a doughnut and go to the library.

Bit sad that this is now a luxury,did I have blinkers on?

YANBU to be shocked that you spend that much without buying anything.

I know what you mean, OP, about spending money on stuff but not really having anything to show for it. That's where I'm trying to cut back on spending too, thinking that we won't feel the impact so much as some of the other changes eg taking a packed lunch to work instead of Pret

(And a mooch around the shops and a pasty sounds fun to me....)

Yabu not to eat scrotum filled pasties!

Yanbu! We are the same out weekends are always into town then end up spending money we don't have ! You see things you say "oh I will get that , I always wanted one of those" but if we didnt come down here I wouldn't have got my purse out!

Are buses any cheaper as part of a season ticket? If you drive to work etc and individual public transport seems expensive, it is well worth looking into season tickets. For example, it is £4.50 each to get to town for us, but buy a week at once and it is £17. You could also get a family ticket for two adlts and three kids for an entire day for all of tyne and wear for £11.

Cor I wish pasties cost £2.50 here. Took dds into town yesterday and nearly fainted. £4.50 EACH. And that was the takeaway, not eat in. But all was well, ketchup was only 20p per tiny sachet. Chuck in 2 bottles of water and a tub of wedges for ds, it was about £20 for a quick bite to eat as we hurried round town getting stuff I had forgotten in the week. I don't usually take the dc to town at the weekends mainly because they get bored but it just costs a bloody fortune. I can totally understand why mcdonalds does such booming trade. Might be tasteless but at least its still cheap :(

Cor I wish pasties cost £2.50 here. Took dds into town yesterday and nearly fainted. £4.50 EACH. And that was the takeaway, not eat in. But all was well, ketchup was only 20p per tiny sachet. Chuck in 2 bottles of water and a tub of wedges for ds, it was about £20 for a quick bite to eat as we hurried round town getting stuff I had forgotten in the week. I don't usually take the dc to town at the weekends mainly because they get bored but it just costs a bloody fortune. I can totally understand why mcdonalds does such booming trade. Might be tasteless but at least its still cheap :(

Ah, you need an Iceland. 8 (smallish) sausage rolls for £1.50. Cold, obviously, but cheap.

Took the kids out for the day on Monday (inset day) and couldn't be bothered to make any sandwiches, so just popped into Iceland for sausage rolls. Juice and other snacks was whatever I could put my hands on in the cupboards. :)

Did the day on the cheap too as I have a county wide travel pass instead of a second car, day tickets at £1.10 for each of the kids and a free museum in each of the two towns we visited. And the kids were happy.

We don't go into town much as a family at all these days. Maybe if town centres want to get more people in they should implement a flat £1 or £1.50 parking charge on Saturdays as well as Sundays.

My big spend day is Mondays.

Bus - £3.00
Lunch/Dinner - subway so £3.00
Coffee/ tea - £2.00

Though that is because I left for college at 3 and dont get home till 10 so I need something to eat.

Also when im with my grandparents on Thursdays we tend to go round b&m etc and spend about a tenner.
Worst expenses are when I buy tabacco I usually get a few magazines and a drink with it so goes from £3.55 to around a fiver.

We have cut back on going to town a lot but do still go a couple of times a month as we 'enjoy' it and you have to do some things you enjoy even if you don't have anything to show for the money.

Seven pounds on parking???? How long did you stay? And where do you live?

I'm deducing Truro from the expensive parking, the reference to a city and the pasties. Just call me Holmes.

I once spent £10 on parking in a certain city centre, we were only there about 4 hours too.

I'm in Berkshire and £7 can easily be spent on town car parking for a few hours.

Make sandwiches to take with you.

Mm a habit best stopped for all sorts of reasons. Apart from spending £12 a week on pasties (which I didn't know was possible ). It's hardly a great weekend for your kids going into town every single Saturday. Why do you all need to go just to buy a paper and pasties? Can't one of you just get those and plan a trip to the park?

Ebersneezer I am in berkshire too and agree £7 for parking on a saturday is normal. We got the train in on Saturday, it cost £6.80 for Dp and I and the children were free. So no petrol costs either. Just as well seeing as we had the expense of buying wedding rings that day.

It's amazing how much you can spend without even realising.

Parking where we are is expensive too, especially when all the town centre streets are parking controlled. It would cost a fortune for us to pay to park, for the shops or even the local green space park. Luckily we live in the town centre so we can walk everywhere.

Shocked at the mean-spirited responses on this thread.

OP has realised she used to spend money without realising it, is a bit but chuffed with herself and wants to share.

Cue 50 posts of "you spent too much in the first place," "parking in a car park? how lazy are you?" "what a bad parent you are for taking you children to the < clutches pearls > shops, " and "Why can't you get your newspapers out of a bin, or whip them off a homeless person sleeping in a doorway, you profligate woman?"

OP - Good for you. Thread has given me food for thought.

everlong i'm outraged! I hope they valet cleaned your car for that!

Agree everlong... We never park in manchester city centre any more.

If we have to go, a family pass on the tram is so much cheaper and more fun

if we walk to town to do shopping and the whole family goes then we get a taxi home, the bus for five of us three ranging from 5 to 10 and us two adults costs twice the amount of a taxi round here, its very bizarre. I usually do shopping in the week though I spend loads more when we all go even with supermarket shop

We paid £20 for 2.5hrs parking in Brighton a couple of years ago.

OP, yanbu and well done. There's nothing wrong with a family mooch round the shops. I used to love going to Lewisham with my mum and brother as a kid (yes, Lewisham, jewel of the SE ). Sometimes we even used to go for a Wimpy. It was the highlight of my weekend! And she was a single mother on benefits, so even more shocking and wasteful than you

Actually this thread is bringing home just how much town centres are being used as a cash cow by local authorities. This can only be a bad thing for business, but councils are so intent on short term gain, they will charge as much as they can. It's bad for businesses, shoppers and tourism. Along with sky high business rates it's causing towns to become homogenized chain store replicas or rows of empty shops and charity shops. The recession is being blamed but councils could be doing far, far more.

£21 for parking? Bloody scandalous.