Lazy LAZY magazine writing on "being frugal"

[Bathsheba]

See if I see another magazine article where their ?top tip? for ?beating the credit crunch? is ?Give up your daily lattes ? that will save you £500 a year and loads of calories? ? I?m sure the same tip is given twice in this month?s Sainsbury?s magazine and has been the mainstay of such articles for years?

Do people really believe that everyone

A ? has a daily latte from a coffee chain
B ? hasn?t thought about giving that up

Okay, I?m a SAHM who doesn?t work in an office directly above a branch of Starbucks, but I?d say that 90% at least of the working population aren?t in Coffee Republic every morning for coffee.

Its lazy, lazy magazine writing..!!

lol at missingtheaction attempting to knit electricity > lol

I do not drink lattes, buy handbags over £20, employ staff (not even necessary ones), go out every night (or even 2 or 3 times a week )

I do do clothes swaps to some extent (my sister and my mum are the same size as me so )

I dont even waste my money on crap magazines!

AND I AM STILL SKINT!!!

I dont get it? Surley I should be so rich I dont know what to do with my money and have to pass it on to other MN members

And here is a classic example

One of my favourites has to be the one about taking out a subscription to Which magazine (£6+ a month) to find tips on how to save money. Why not just save the £6 instead?

how about dont actually buy magazines that tell you how to save money? just read them in the supermarket then put them back

or go to the library and rent books instead of buying (I have lots of books only read once)

Excellent Coppertop

'and replace broken handbags with your boyfriend's funky guitar-strap.' wtf?

Well thank god, that's me sorted through the cc then...the sleepess nights I've had on that subject

Not sure what dh is going to say though about me attempting to find a funky guitar playing boyfriend in the first place mind you.

Number 31 on the Telegraph's list is actually illegal:

"31 Give up your television licence Get rid of your television and watch programmes on your computer using the BBC's online iPlayer (www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer) after they've been broadcast."

Oh gosh, well done DT, I've saved 145 quid on a TV licence and now I have a 1000 pound fine. Whoops.

My handbag cost me a tenner!!

Having a read of that "50 ways to save money"
Beauty treatments... umm is there anything cheaper than plain water, and using baby wipes to take off make up (on the rare occasions I actually bother with it?).
I buy a coffee from a coffee shp maybe a bout once a month.
I don't have many clothes, ones I have bought recently have been from charity shops!
Been taking a packed lunch to work for years!!
LOL at the cheese thing - cheese never lasts long enough in our house to get dry

rest are just plain stupid or I'm doing anyway - e.g. never had Sky, do not want Sky.
Journalist don't live on the same planet as us.

it's cos mgazines are mostly written in London and in London some working people really do have a latte every day

I totally agree. Another of my bugbears is the suggestion I've seen that you "only" have 1 holiday this year, perhaps "foregoing the skiing", or, alternatively "as the pound is so weak against the Euro, why not holiday in the UK instead ?"

FFS - what planet do these people live on when their heads are stuck so firmly up their own arses that they have no idea about how many many families really live ?

"The Credit Crunch" has become a catch-all euphemism within the last few months to describe "feeling the pinch" (a notion which is of course highly subjective depending on your circumstances), instead of its original meaning, which refers to the ever decreasing funds available to borrow (loans, mortgages etc). So many journalists write as if this is a new phenomenon, which has suddenly cropped up out of the blue from nowhere. I know, from personal experience, and from talking to people I know in a similar position to myself (and I'm sure many Mnetters also know) that we were "feeling the pinch" long, long before "Credit Crunch" headlines had even begun to appear in the press. We were all too aware of increasing food prices and punitive "additional fees" on just about every service you can think of well before it became "fashionable" to plead (relative) "poverty" in glossy magazines and Sunday supplements.

And I am sure there are many families worse off than my own - of course there are. Yes - this sort of journalism is incredibly lazy, but it is also very insensitive. How many 100s of 1000s of families would think all their Christmasses had come at once if the only cutbacks they had to consider were handbags and takeaway coffee - as opposed to food and/or heating ?

i have to say this is a good one, didn't realize i could freeze wine, the rest though are a pile of poo!

Freeze leftover red wine. Put the remaining half-glass in an ice tray - the cubes can be added easily to sauces, and will save opening a bottle for cooking

Draw up a will using a DIY kit (£14.99 from WH Smith) instead of paying a solicitor to do it for you.

this one is particularly BAD advice as one of my best friends who's solicitor says he makes more money sorting out DIY wills than writing bespoke ones.

Yeah, it's a good suggestion, but who actually has left over wine? I don't have left over wine. If I have wine, I drink it. Don't see where the leftover part comes into it.

I worked in a coffee store. Loads of people have two large latte's a day if not more. No, I honestly have no idea how they manage this. One of them worked in a bank (not a head honcho though) so not sure I really wanted financial advice from him ever again!

lol at 49. Work out a budget!!

Think you are going to be in a loooot of trouble if you haven't been budgeting already...

Wine doesn't freeze that well in my experience. Stays 'slushy' (or maybe that's just the 14/15% ABV aussie reds...)

Planet London Riven.

'Buy kitchenware from catering suppliers rather than department stores. It's markedly cheaper.'

150 paper napkin dispensers, anyone?!

I lurve this thread. Reminds me of Sherezade what's her face's one.
Anyhoo, must take my five pound notes out of the tumble drier (am recycling our toilet paper)

The wierd thing about it is that most of the jounralists who write these sort of features are broke themselves: the pay for magazine journalism (unless you'r a big name) is shit.

mysterymoniker, the only thing that really works is: buy less stuff!!
But if you want to make it more sophisticated, then the tried and tested 'write down everything you are spending' is the best way to identify which less of which stuff you can most easily do without.

That freezing left over wine tip I first heard from Nigella.

I don't have a handbag. I have a black rucksack that dh got for free at a training day a few years ago.

Perhaps these ridiculous ideas are so ridiculous to you because they're not aimed at people who are already skint and managing on less? It's the Daily Telegraph FFS - it's not exactly known as the paper to read if you're a family with two adults, 3 children and living on benefits!!!

While I agree - "cut back on your daily latte" seems like pretty obvious advice, you'd be amazed at how many people don't realise how much they spend on things like that because they've always been traditionally middle class with good salaries etc. Some of the younger women in my office constantly surprise me because they'll be out buying expensive new handbags saying, "oh, it's my bonus money" but they haven't had a bonus yet and in this market, they'll be lucky if they do. But they've never had to worry about it before and it comes as a shock them.

You don't have to be sympathetic, but try take these things in context.

Oh, and most journalists I know do not get paid particularly well so cutting their salaries wouldn't help much.

What's with all this left over wine then...?

Or the old classic 'give up your car'...

Yes OK - I'm a community worker (in my contract to have a car) and my husband is a chauffeur....