No more random spending for 3 months...........any takers?

[Collision]

Starting from 1 September DH and I have decided that the only things on the cc bill will be

food

petrol

car insurance (due 7 Sept)

We are no longer randomly spending on ANY clothes at all. The boys have their uniform and I have new NEXT-sale boots and a warm waterproof coat and we do not need ANY MORE CLOTHES.

Proper meal planning and shopping at ALDI and Sainsburys.

No more Costa lotta coffees.

No more takeaways or cheapy McDonalds/KFC for the kids.

We will use the library for books so no need to buy any.

Packed lunches

Coffee in a flask if I take the children out along with snacks and drinks bought from supermarket and not random cafes.

The boys are pretty much ECO anyway and brilliant at turning off lights and water etc and they only have showers and not baths.

We want to cut down on spending to see how much we can save over time. DH has a great job and I work at school FT so it will be interesting to see what we can do.

GULP!




Anyone want to help join me??

[KinkyDorito]

Living with our income should be more than possible, but I have a compulsive shopping streak that seems to rear it's nasty head every now and then, especially when I am fed up. Since posting I've been on Ebay again...

OKAY, starting now!!!!

Work have been very good. I am lucky to work in a profession that does have sick pay attached. However, I just thought we were getting to a stage where I could return, but then she ended up in hospital again for 8 days. Her blood counts are really low at the moment which means she has very little immunity. I'm going to try and get her into school this week, but I'm dreading her picking something else up and ending up back in hospital again. It's hard work. I would love to be back to normal, working FT and knowing that she was okay and financially things will be okay. Finger's crossed it won't take too much longer. And, at the end of the day, at least she is at home and okay for the minute, and that is by far the most important thing.

As for shopping, I am so easily distracted by shiny things especially when I have the excuse of being allowed to buy for other people. Christmas displays are fatal. I am going to have to stay away from the shops, and step away from Ebay and Amazon.

[JKSLtd]

Kinky - welcome & good luck, I like that you've managed it before, we really want to pay off all the CC debt & learn to live within our incomes for once!
How is your DD? Work sounds helpful though paying you sick leave?

68p at the PO, didn't get distracted or wander into any other shops

(& gave loads of hangers back to the dry cleaners - a small part of my ongoing decluttering plan)

[KinkyDorito]

I am very late to this thread, but please can I join?

Two years ago I had a super frugal year and paid off lots of money that I owed. However, this year has been the YEAR FROM HELL and I have found old habits have crept back in. (Saying 'sod it' and buying whatever I fancy, treating the kids and mounting up a fair bit of CC debt again.)

However, things must change. There is a very good possibility that I will not be returning to work as planned, so my pay will drop to half of what it is currently. (I am off long term sick as DD has leukaemia.)

So, I need to get myself together, start being frugal and stop buying Christmas presents for DS (lots of bright plastic tat) before DH divorces me!

I too had just decluttered the house, so DH is not best impressed that I am already having a good go at refilling it again .

One of our weaknesses as a family is being self-indulgent when it comes to food. This is in part because we have no social life at all, and don't really drink anymore, so treating ourselves to nice bits has become very ingrained. Takeaways, meals out, popping out for coffee/cake, buying something nice from Tesco. I am also very fat so curbing this habit will be of benefit both financially and for my waistline. We tend to start picking up the odd Christmas bit at this time of year, then we eat it early! This means double (or more ) the expense, plus by the time we actually get to Christmas having no interest in any of the nice things then as we've been eating them for the past 3 months. I am determined that this will not happen this year.

Must behave... must put down the credit card... must, must, must, must stop looking on e-bay for 'deals'.

[JKSLtd]

Hi Bird :)

£1.69 on food bits, not entirely necessary, mostly an excuse for a walk.
& £99 on Ocado shop coming tomorrow. Went through Quidco though so should (eventually) get some cashback.

Library, PO, type stuff tomorrow, nothing major planned.

[BirdFromDaNorf]

Hi, can I come to this albeit late on?
My problem is that I think I deserve a reward for working my nuts off in the week, managing boys when DH does night shifts on the weekends and getting through the week. It's got to change, so I want to see how other people are doing it, so get me on the right track.... It's not what I'm most proud of and I want to make sure it's not passed on to the boys ie: weekend = treats in a financial/money/toys/clothes sense..

[Collision]

Had a pretty good week so far.

Took boys out for dinner on Thurs as a treat which was planned so not random.

Two top up shops that were unnecessary though and I should have thought before I went.

[JKSLtd]

Nothing spent today :)

Dh took the boys to the playground this morning and we've done lots of arty-crafty type stuff instead - have loads of bits in the cupboard as DS1 used to be really into it but not done much recently.

[poppyandsneeze]

Well not so good this week, spent £40 at the Joules Big Sale this morning, and dh is getting a pizza from pizza hut this evening when he comes back in.

Have got to try and get through the rest of next week until Thursday without
spending any more money

[JKSLtd]

Well on the one hand didn't go to the cafe so spent nothing there :)

Then went to the library to pay fines...£1.80 :(

But, saved potential spend on DS2 sch uniform as mentioned to another Mum I was going to the uniform shop and she said she was too & her son is bigger than mine, so...tadah, handemedowns sorted

[JKSLtd]

Had a few days away, DH paid for everything so I'll count that as no spend from me

£5.50 in the post office &
£1.07 on rice cakes today
=
£6.57

Tomorrow, cafe for breakfast, school coffee morning & friends after lunch, so a low spend day, or it should be.

[FootballFriendSays]

You're doing really well there, C&C.

[Carrotsandcelery]

I had a no spend day in the end yesterday as there were no flowers for sale locally (small village and Sunday - I should have known)

I will have to spend £30 on ds at the optician today. Not random though. The challenge will be not to buy a whole heap of other stuff while I am near the shops. I have made soup for tea so there is no temptation to take them out for tea at least. They had birthday cake yesterday too so I can wriggle out of buying them a treat too . I must remember to take snacks though.

[Carrotsandcelery]

I am hoping for a no spend today as well. I may relent and buy my SIL some flowers though as I suspect she has had a bit of a rubbish week. Some random spends are acceptable I think

[FootballFriendSays]

I'll get them started. Doing dismally otherwise, my downfall continues to be almost daily topups for food and fruit. If nothing else, this thread has highlighted to me how much I spend on not-necessarily-useful things, I'm by no means a spendthrift but perhaps not quite as sensible as I imagined. We're moving shortly and this has to stop, money'll be tight till we get used to new mortgage payments (1/3 more than now).

[Carrotsandcelery]

Far more manipulative power

[FootballFriendSays]

Who needs to bring back the cane when you can just Ebay their posessions instead?

[Carrotsandcelery]

That might get a reaction Football

[FootballFriendSays]

Thank you. I can also threaten DS (11) to put his PS games on Ebay :)

[Carrotsandcelery]

Just take it a step at a time and, yes, manage their expectations if your dcs are old enough to get excited about how much they might make. Look at completed listings of similar items and you will get an idea of the likely rewards.

[FootballFriendSays]

Thanks for the encouragement. Maybe I can rope in the kids to take photos etc. I work FT so not a lot of spare time to go to the PO so I'd need to manage expectations carefully. Let me sort out Paypal first.

[Carrotsandcelery]

I would give it a go Football - listings are free this weekend and Sunday evening is supposed to be the highest earning time of day for an auction to end. Have a look on the ebay section - you could join us on the £350 by Christmas thread. I won't make that much but there is a lot of knowledge and experience there.

[FootballFriendSays]

C&C - also good idea about only a couple of things at a time on Ebay.

[FootballFriendSays]

C&C - that's just the kind of things I've been wheeling to the charity shops. The older the kids get the more difficult it is to pass on clothes & toys for fear of somehow offending people, which is bizarre.

[Carrotsandcelery]

Football it is mostly outgrown clothes. I used to give them to friends but we live in a wealthy village and I suspect everyone has more clothes than they know what to do with. As I said, folk round here are well off, so I suspect we need the cash more than they need the clothes, as we are not so flush.

I also sold a toddler bike and some outgrown jigsaws, games and books.

It is amazing what sells well and what doesn't do so well. If cash is tight then I would sell stuff Football - I can't knock making £76 in a week on stuff I would have given away.

I just put one or two things on ebay a day so that I don't get overwhelmed and look out for local sales. You could also try car booting - a friend is doing that for charity just now and is making a fortune.

[FootballFriendSays]

C&C - what do you sell? We're moving house and I come across all sorts of unused stuff. I just bag it for charity or bin it but I wonder if some would be worth eBaying. I don't suppose anyone would be interested in the DCs nursery artwork but some is good stuff that I can't be bothered Freecycling or phoning around to see if anyone's interested.