What’s one small thing you could give up that would save you a LOT of money long term?!

[early30smum]

Coffees in London are around £4 now. I definitely don’t get one myself every day, but between me and my husband we definitely average out at spending this per day just on coffee. We just worked out, spending £4 a day on coffee every day, is almost £1,500 a year. Just on takeaway coffee. Insane. Over 20 years, that’s just under £30,000…

Lunch out at work (pret, itsu, even a cheap meal deal is a fiver now).

I need to suck it up and accept making a quick sandwich or salad of a morning, or bulk cooking a pot of soup and freezing it in portions. I think i can make a basic lunch for £2 a day, so save £3/ day, 3 days a week in office, 46 weeks a year.... over £400.

Not getting up early enough to walk to the station and driving/parking. £8 a day. 3 times a week, 46 weeks a year. Over £1000.

Diet Coke quitters -it helps if you cut down on sugar in general and level off your insulin spikes. Also remember the 10 hour effect of caffeine so you can only have it less than 10 hours before you go to bed. Every day you forget and miss the window is progress.

Yep, wine.
My Land Rover 😬

Good luck with ivf! Don't give up Pilates

My husband is giving me up.

Actually my Land Rover is quite big…

My child is pretty small…. 😂

Paying the mortgage?

The children 🤣🤣🤣

Nahh seriously:
Mine and dh gym memberships. Work out at £100 a month, however we take the children swimming every weekend and it's free because we are members.
Subscriptions - amazon prime, kindle unlimited, netflix, Spotify, box of stories, steam, and whatever other platforms dh uses. We spend in excess of £120 a month.
Maybe one of the cars, but only during the school holidays.

Looking through my spreadsheet (I like to keep track) we live within our means, very much on the edge. We have dipped into the savings more recently most months for things that are outside of our disposable income, but thats because the food shopping bill keeps going up each month 🤦‍♀️

Me too.

Cleaner, gave up at start of Covid and haven’t restarted. £10,700

Nails, gave up 2019. £3600

Hair, gave up highlights 2013 and only have it cut every 5-6 months now. £7800

Alcohol : gave up three years ago. £1000

Daily Costa coffee and breakfast. Gave up 5 years ago. £13650

Added up that’s an astonishing £36750 I saved on bad habits and treats. 😮😮😮

Gardening - I will soon be ordering lots of bulbs for my planters
Having hair coloured at hairdressers
Freddie flower subscription
And I've just started mounjaro
But actually my biggest expense is having 4 DC. Oldest 2 now working but still need help occasionally. 3rd DC at uni and youngest doing driving lessons 0(l poop

Easy one for me coffee smoking and holidays.
But its just me so i dont care.

Poping into Home bargains, you know just for a quick look.

Sky. £50 a month certainly adds up. But I’m a massive sports fan and the idea of being unable to watch the England cricket team is unthinkable. It’s my treat, my reward for working FT and as long as I can afford it, it stays.

Nappies!
£1500 per year!

Definitely getting my hair highlighted.

I went back to work after maternity leave in April- and haven’t bought lunch once! I’ve been taking my own ! Saves a fortune

This is gross but I used to smoke a pack of Marlboro Golds a day. Saved so much since I quit. I from 2015-2020, quit before we got married because I didn’t want to be stinking on my wedding day and also didn’t want to have to nip out mid vows for a cig. They’re about £20 a pack so if I calculate how much I spent on them I will spontaneously combust.

Now it’s probably the pub. Me and DH do darts and pool a lot and we’re in our locals league. I don’t drink right now because I’m pregnant (he doesn’t most of the time out of solidarity) and we’ve saved a fortune. Also we are fucking killing the competition because we’re not half cut (humble brag).

Also, the cat. She’s DDs cat, but I don’t like her spending all her pocket money on Miss Kitty Kat, so I buy her most things. DD is only six, but she does research on what’s good for the cat ect. She has salmon oil for the coat and has pretty nice cat food. I’m glad DD cares so deeply and to be honest I’m impressed with her diligence - but Jesus this cat eats better than some kids. When I was a kid I didn’t eat as well as Kitty Kat.

You can't read library books on Kindle in the UK. You can on Kobo though.

Bookbub is brilliant for bargain ebooks.

Nails and hot chocolates at the local cafe probably! But they both make me happy Nails are £32 every three weeks, hot chocolate is about £3 and I maybe have two or three a week.

Our cleaner perhaps but that doesn’t feel like a ‘small’ thing as it is quite an improvement in our quality of life.

Like you, take away drinks - over £500 a year

Hair colour. I tried going grey but didnt like it so box does it is. Saving over £700 a year.

Visits to the work vending machine about £250 a year (I eat a lot of crap snacks).

Recently I would take my daughter for lunch most Saturdays. That will be stopping naturally now but that will save over £1000 (🤯).

My addiction to M&S Raspberry Jellies - recently went up to £4 a pack and it just feels like too much for the fleeting pleasure they give me.
Kerastase hair products - however I’ve got better over the last few years and have a major stock up in the BF sales which lasts me most of the year. It’s the one part of my body I actually like.

Wine and paperback novels. Especially wine.

I gave up diet coke. Was knocking back 4-6 a day. I'm saving a huge amount!!