Who wants to join me in a May/June money saving Challenge?

[Starbear]

I need to,some how, break even by the end of the month which means I have to some how save £275.37 which I am overdrawn at the mo. I have other debits but I need to cover this before I deal with them. I don't want to swap my personal finance except above. But I thought we could find cheap deals or pat each other on the back when we don't get tempted to buy useless things or take a packed lunch to work that sort of stuff. Out of the months wages I have to buy Ds some summer clothes and myself and move out while builders are in my very small house. (We can't afford to move) Our budget is going to be tight for the next few years but I still what to some fun.

you're welcome hanreeoak. enjoy your 'break'

abbylou have you had a look on MSE to see if tesco have any free delivery codes at the minute? or even on here? i think tehre is a dedicated voucher topic here.

hanreeoak Museums are always good in this house and with my sister's boys when they were young. We don't force them to look at anything in particular just let the children lead us. I have some fab memories with my nephews when they were little, they are 22 & 20 years now. (I better draw a veil over the kicking of the dinosaur bones We used to look at paintings and make really silly stories! My sister also does a thing where she takes a nature book and you get points for the various things you find/spot. Also we get the kids to read maps (well sort of) on a walk. Little plastic tubs to collect bugs and leaves goes down well too. My Ds is going over to granny's next week my sister and her boys will spoil him.

Thanks Starbear we have just moved to a little village so going on a bug hunt around the fields is a great idea, there are no museums close to us tho so that would mean using the car.
DH was a little miffed yesterday he has taken the day off on fri (has too many hours to carry over to next month) he said lets go shopping, even tho we did our budget together I think he had forgotten how tight money is. He is now going to spend the day tiling the kitchen. RESULT! All the stuff is in the garage waiting to be used, job done and no money spent. I'm a happy lady.

I'm working next week so I've two days childcare for my ds to pay but I have got 2 days free childcare so I shouldn't complain. My house insurance (building & contents)is due for renewal next month so last night I started getting quotes. Ariva will give me free contents and I get cashback as I used quidco. Unfortunatly as I was trying to do this my ds (16) wanted the laptop (can't say no it was for school work), so I didn't get chance to complete grrrr!!
I know when the kids are on holiday our council put free activities or low cost activities on at the local parks, at easter we did an easter egg hunt which was £1 per child.

hi all hope the cutting back going well.i had a cheque this morning from the toddler clothes/toy sale i did recently and made £42.50 so will come in handy to clearing one of my overdrafts, have 2 to clear (tut tut) then i can tackle my 2 credit cards,i am full of determination that I WILL clear my debts asap.

Smiley face

ooops trying to work out how you get to use face icons,as you may gather that didn't work lol

Hi all, Big savings in taking lunch to work and tasted better. Maybe better for my health too as it was a stir-fry packed with veg ( I gave most of the noodles to DH as he needs the carbs) A bit worried about not having a computer for the next few months as this is my only way of keeping tabs. I just know I won't keep it up in a note book as I'll scribble and make mistakes. Yep! our local council runs an Art club on Saturday afternoons.
hanreeoak Oh you can have endless fun in the countryside. One memorable half term got some school friends together 3 mums and my sister 9 kids (not all ours) and we did a nature walk to my brother's house. It rained a bit and the kids really didn't care as they collected sticks & leaves!
I think we saved about 3 other Mum's childcare costs. As I only have one kid my friends know at half term, if I can I'll take a couple extra. (they have to give me kid spending money otherwise this doesn't work) I'm happy as my kid isn't lonely, they are happy and I can ask favours another time it works for us.

debtfreewish Look at the bottom of the 'Add a message' and you'll see how to do smiley faces for example it goes like this [Grin] or [SMILE] I have used captials so you can see how it's done but it's all lower case.
Well done on the clothes sale. I think I'm going to try selling our old mobile phones.

thanks starbear sussed it well i do also have a load of cd's to sell but debating on ebay .play.com or carboot to sell them!! have 17 items on ebay which finishes fri so fingers crossed for that one.

I like the bug hunt idea. We often do scavenger hunts with the kids for a cheap idea. We live near the canal so we go for a walk round there and they have a little plastic bag and a card with pictures/words of things they have to find eg a small pebble, a leaf, a petal, a twig etc. I might include a living creature next time!! They love doing it and they don't realise they are walking so far!
I got paid today and I've done my Tesco online shop because i got a £10 off voucher if you spend £50. Code is XXLCFG if anyone wants it! I have ordered my neice's birthday present from Amazon early so I can get free super saver delivery so that's good.

Thanks for that AbbyLou I've been debating if I should do an on-line shop this week and you've just helped me decide!! I've had a very successful ebay night I sold lot's and while it won't make me a millionaire it will help.

Also halved my house/contents insurance and got £45 cashback.

I'm also half way to another £10 on valued opinions.

I was feeling a bit down about my finances this morning but I'm def going to bed happier.

I hope everyone is feeling positive.

Thanks Abbylou I like quidco I'm going to have a look now. Dh is going to see if he can borrow a laptop from school so I might be able to keep this up and keep in touch. I'm also debating if I should change banks to Co-op. I fed-up of feeling as if I have been had over by the bankers. I'm with First Direct I must admit that the staff on the end of the line have been great but their bosses are scum (they give slum dwellers in India loans with 40 % interest and say that it's okay because the loan sharks would charge them 70%) I don't think voting has helped but maybe voting with my feet might get the banks to sit-up. So while we are saving money lets just say we are also sticking up two fingers up the big corporations and Robber Barons. hey! Does it make you feel better to say you are saving money on principle and not just debt

Don't get me started on banks!! I was shouting abuse at the TV on sunday when a certain sport was on. The models even had dresses with my banks name on.

hi all.

everyone still seems really motivated. i had a bit of a lapse today as a few things happened which meant my schedule was all mixed up so we had mcdonalds for dinner in between a run to asda and viewing a house. not exactly sure what my spend total for today is but i have receipts so will add it up. didn't spend anything yesterday.

also have loads of stuff to sell but i am going to be moving house soon so will have the perfect oportunity to sort it all out then.

BooyHoo Some days it's going be just impossible to save. Today I didn't go out except pick drop off and pick- up. Only spent £1.00 on a newspaper but we have no milk now

While sorting out under the stairs cupboard found the box to my 'never could get the hang of' phone (I use a very cheap one now) and I have the phone in a draw. I have just sold it for £31.00. I'll tell you if the money comes through. Not keen on the idea of ebay so have to accept I'm not going to make money via that site

hi all well today met up with some friends for lunch and spent £5 for something to eat n drink then went for a look round shops and i didn't spend a penny just watched my friend spend £35 on make-up (which she didn't really need) did try to put her off but no luck.oh well i'm getting into this no spend lark

Hi everyone, I would love to join this thread. As I am in desperate need to tighten our spending. Since moving, we have been struggling in trying to do up a house and coping with our bills.

For the last few weeks, I have started to save £2.00 in a piggy bank every Sunday evening, which isn't a lot but I figure it will certainly help when it comes to Christmas spending. We never spend a lot on Christmas and the children often have just one present from us.

I have also been taking out £100 in cash every Friday. This cash is used to for the weekly food shop and petrol for myself and covers anything else that I need to spend with the children. This has been going okay, I have been shopping in Morrisons but can't get my shop under £60 (but this doesn't include laundry, paper etc.) so some weeks the shopping is a lot more.

I am planning on trying a large shop (fortnight shop tomorrow morning first thing in the large Asda in the city. I am hoping to spend just over £100 for a fortnight for the 4 of us and this will include washing powder/toilet rolls/dishwasher tablets etc. Won't include nappies as we are okay for a fortnight for these.

I would love the option of being able to shop at Aldi or Lidl. However, my nearest ones are in the city but the other ends of the city. I am unable to use their washing powder and diswasher tablets due to us being on a septic tank (new one we installed) and can't use the cheaper products in it. So rather than waste any petrol am hoping to drive to Asda and get the one shop. Have looked online and worked out it should be just over £100. I will probably use my debit card for this shop.

We have stopped using credit cards as well, and for the last 6 months have no longer got the number of credit cards we used to have. We transferred all over to one card and have about 10 months left to pay it off at 0% at the moment. I find it a bit annoying that I can't buy anything on ebay unless it is local and always ask if they will accept a cheque.

We are always in overdraft and have found out that we were also charged 50p a day for the overdraft everytime we are overdrawn. We have all our bills come out at the beginning of the month, so guess what we are overdrawn for the rest of the month and have to pay a whopping £7.50 each month.

We are not spending anything else on the house now and nothing else for us apart from food and petrol.

We are going to overdrawn again in June, I am going to really see if I can get away with reducing the overdraft and not spend so much. It would be nice if we were just a couple of hundred overdrawn this month,as the aim is to not be overdrawn from July and start off the Summer holidays not having an overdraft - as we want to change banks as soon as we sort ourselves out.

Any other tips for saving money ???

Thanks

hi poppy. welcome to the thread

if you want to buy on ebay, you can link you debit card to your paypal account.it can be worth doing, especially for children's clothes that you can sell again when they grow out of them.

i also was living in my overdraft for a few months and it cost £1 a day!! i was so relieved to be able to get out of it at last.

debtfree i have a good friend who really doesn't earn alot and she and her husband are always on about how little they earn and how little money they have but every saturday without fail they go into town and will buy at least one item of clothing each, jewellery, make-up, and quite often a new tattoo for the husband. i was out with her one saturday and we were walking around the shops and she was really shocked that i wasn't buying anything. she couldn't get her head round the fact that a) i dont actually need anything and b) if i did i would try the charity shops, ebay etc before buying off the high street. she just didn't understand it at all.

boohoo i so know what u mean when we were shopping she was so suprised at how good at not spending i was (i used to be a bad spendaolic) n she was more amased at me not using my credit card nomore since march (n that was because we needed to tax the car)thing is she has 4 credit cards with 2 of them maxed out and would imagine other 2 are not far off and she was saying over lunch that she was struggling paying the monthly payment.then goes n puts £35 0n credit card for makeup .

well today i am having a no spend day,takin little man to toddlar group later which is free and will avoid any shops

I will definitely look into buying items and going for some of the value range in Asda. Times have certainly changed, with the first child we only feed the little one on Organic food, now we have to look at basic smartprice range. I feel a bit guilty about this, but to be honest, my second child eats so much food compared to the first that we would seriously wouldn't be able to eat if I spent what I used to spend on first.

We have also converted to planting our own veggie patch in the garden,and my husband is making his own wine ??? Don't know what that will be like.

I really don't like the idea of linking a debit card to paypal, do you know of any other way that I can get funds to the paypal account ?? I have also found using the catalogue really expensive for clothes. I used to think I will order on the credit card, but now we aren't using it, it is really tricky to get certain things for the children, as the local village/town isn't great for high street shops, plenty of charity shops which we use.

I made the suggestion of downgrading the toilet paper last night to my husband !! He said we couldn't compromise on that !!! otherwise he would have to go in work only !!! and referred to the value range as sandpaper. !!!! That did make me laugh, and we agreed that is something I won't cut down on !!!

I have also gone and recycled birthday presents from my little ones last birthday and wrapped quickly, so the little one doesn't realise what I have done. They would never miss them and never asked about the presents since last year. So haven't had to pay out for a friends party, which is this weekend. A bit tight really !!! but the only way I can do party gifts for school friends really and it is a completely different set of children.

Any other tips would be useful !!!

Thanks

haha debtfree. it amazes me how people dont get the connection between their spending and then having no money!! how can they not see that it is a cause and effect?

poppy i am not sure of any other ways to link to paypal. i have only linked my debit card but TBH i really dont use it very often.

FWIW i use asda smartprice toilet roll and it is fine. it isn't soft and luxurious but it is fit for purpose and with teh amount my dcs go through it is as well i haven't paid a fortune for it!!

oh yes. i have had to part with £60 today for car parts as it is up for MOT in july. necessary but not nice!

Hi all, glad to hear people are still on track and welcome to the new people. Yesterday I had to fill up the car which cost £40 but hopefully it will do me for the month. Today I have been to the pub with work for lunch so £5. We do it every Friday and it's something I really don't want to give up so it's always budgeted in. I treated dd to a magazine and ds to some Match Attax tonight on the way home as it is a tradition that they always have a treat when it's a school holiday!
The Tesco shop is coming tonight and hopefully it will last us a whole week! Nothing planned for tomorrow that will cost. Ds has rugby (already paid for) and after that we will spend the day at home. Hopefully the weather will be nice as the garden desperately needs some attention!