Put those purses down and enjoy an austere August instead

[economymode]

A new thread to support those wishing to rein back their spending - come one, come all.

[economymode]

adora, do you think moving back to the UK is really a possibility? It does sound like it would make life a lot cheaper in some respects (road tolls, healthcare etc). Just out of interest, how does the cost of living compare in other respects?

[GilmoreGeek]

My DP is ok with money, but if I send him to the shop to buy three items he comes home with 5 and often forgets some we really needed. So I have now started to make him lists so he doesn't over spend on the wrong end.

We are now renting our first property together. We are thinking of setting up a joint bank account that we can each pay in a certain amount of our wages (which go into separate accounts) each months. I am thinking it might be easier to budget that way as all bills could come out there and we would know who spends what. Otherwise we always calculate back and forth who has spend what on top up shops etc. What do you expert saving ladies say?

[ValiumQueen]

Just working out how much I will get paid whilst on Mat Leave. Just over the limit for free school meals with DHs wage included, which is a bit worrying.

NSD today! Need to post a parcel tomorrow.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

Gilmore when DH and I first lived together, we had the bills and mortgage split across our own accounts, and then we had a joint account which we both put money into to use for food shopping, meals out, things for the house (towels, coffee table etc), holidays, and so on. Meant that we weren't having a discussion about whose turn it was to pay in the supermarket!

Not a NSD here in the end. We had a lovely walk and a picnic, but then I needed milk and apples and a couple of other bits so we popped into Sainsbury's. I had some Nectar points to use, so only cost me £6.

[holler]

Not an NSD day, but much better than it could have been!
Bought mat clothes on ebay, but have listed stuff that should make at least what I spent, so it's like an exchange (crosses fingers!). Just have to upload the photos, so tiresome!
Also spent £15 in M&S sale (mat jeggings), but these may be returned if not right. I hope to recoup this flogging the stuff mentioned above, too.
£6 toy dyson (ebay temptation, pressie for DD). Cheaper than a cleaner...
£10 top up shop. These need to stop, but still within budget.
Friend treated us to coffee and cake. V lovely surprise.

I tried to make a cheap hair appt too. Advert outside said £10 (junior stylist). Of course, the only availability they had is for when the rate goes up to £25. I will stick with my outgrown look for now!

gilmore when I first moved in with DH (then DP), we paid a set amount into a joint account. This was for rent, bills, food and other shared expenses.

[Fluffycloudland77]

We've got a joint account for the rent and council tax.

The daily mirror have an aldi voucher today, £5 off a £35 spend.

[ValiumQueen]

holler is there a college nearby that does hair? I can get mine done for about £6 and they usually do colours etc at great prices. I take DD there, but you need to allow a couple of hours. Oh, and DD2 spends hours playing with her toy Dyson which is about 14 years old!

[nickelcognito]

the two years of my mobile phone contract are up in september.

i've completely wasted it - not using most of the free minutes and only the texts.
i felt conned into it, and the photo messaging has never worked even though i took it back 3 times.

so, come september, i'm going PAYG
i bet i'll spend about £3 a month compared with the £15 i spend now.

[nickelcognito]

(i know that's not august, but i've fucked up august because of all the stuff "my shop" has bough tin anticipation of the gruffalo visiting.

[ValiumQueen]

DH and I have the one account that all money goes into, then we have individual accounts for pocket money with a DD to pay it in each month, such as it is, and PayPal is linked to our personal accounts. DH has only recently been earning. Before then he had to ask me for every penny which was not nice for either of us. He was a bankrupt before I met him, and we always knew if we were going to have problems it would be over money, as we are opposite on the scale. Thankfully he is awesome in the sack, and a wonderful Daddy.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Nickel, carphone warehouse are doing a sony smartphone for £7.50 a month for 250minutes, 5000txt and 500mb web.

DH has one and I ordered mine through topcashback and I got £35.35 cashback.

The screens a bit smaller than my iphone but I can at least sell that to make up for the miele cat and dog vacuum I've just bought off John Lewis. .

In my defence, I am frugal so that when I see a bargain I can get it rather than fritter money away and not have anything for the important stuff and the cat is about to moult his summer coat all over everything so it is needed.

[AdoraBell]

economy

Moving back would save us a vast amount as things stand now, but right now we are not liquid as so much money went into the house. Education here is not of a high enough standard to use state schools, and a Uni qualification from Chile isn't well regarded. Healthcare, we could spend less but the Medical staff in the state hospitals are not as well qualified, facilities not good and we'd be charged private prices anyway because of being foreigners.

General costs, petrol is a bit cheaper, road fund licence is a percentage of the car's value, servicing is astronical. utilities are hugely expensive. We built our house, as steel peaked at over 3 times the price we budgeted at, OH insisted on UK type insulation so our bills are practically nothing. Our friends and neighbours on the other hand can pay up to £1,000 for one month's worth of gas in the winter. The last house we rented, before prices rocketed, we were paying between £500 and £600 per month to heat the house in winter. Water is expensive too, although were we built we own the land rights relating to the water, so it's cheaper than other areas. Vet bills are cheaper though. School uniforms about the same. We have to buy things like hockey sticks , and the text books each year.

Food, it really depends what you eat. OH likes to have meat/chicken at every meal and I haven't found a butchers that I could trust. In summer you find the butchers by smell. Fish isn't kept on ice like in Britain other than in the supermarket. Fruit and veg is still cheap away from the cities and locally I buy shelled walnuts and almonds for £9 a kilo. I have to be careful with other things, cereals, bread, fruit juice etc because of the amount of chemicals a lot of them contain. 2 of us are allergic to tartrazine and it's in most locally produced cereal, biscuits and sweets and a lot of yoghurts, ice-cream and bread too. I'm working towards changing our general diet, DDs don't like it but resistance is futile!

Food prices have gone up here the same as everywhere else, both food out and food in the shops. About 5 years ago I was paying 60p for a coffee, now the same is nearly £2. Everything else has raised along the same lines. OH was under the impression that you can still buy a litre of fruit juice for 50p, he drinks gallons of the stuff at about £1.60 a litre and complains if it runs out.
I avoid imported food as much as possible, can't bring my self to pay £7 per kilo of plums from the US when local ones are less than £1 per kilo when in season.

A lot of people think of South America as being cheap, but Chile's economy has been booming for a good few years and the bubble looks like it's about to burst.

The poorer people here just don't use heating, or Drs, dentist, vets. They don't eat meat, at all. The very rich don't notice. We had a lady working for us once whose mother was dying from diabetes because between 10 adult DCs, all working, they couldn't even afford the bus fare to get her to the capital to see a properly qualified Dr. Local Dr couldn't help. We gave her the money to get the mother the care she needed and sort out her insulin doses.

[ValiumQueen]

adora I am not sure I could live there it sounds so romantic and exciting in theory.

[AdoraBell]

Valium

Exactly how I'm feeling. It is a beautiful country, has a lot going for it but the rich/poor devide is becoming a chasm. That's why there were student protests last year and now they are occupying schools in the capital, trying to bring about changes to give everyone access to the standard of education in the private sector. Crime is increasing at a worrying rate too.

Anyway, back to penny pinching all I spent today was £3 on road tolls.

[economymode]

It sounds like swings and roundabouts in Chile, adora. And you sound like a very nice person, good for you for paying for that lady's healthcare.

Big purchase this morning - was the high bidder in an ebay auction for a double buggy. So that's £250. EconomyBaby isn't due until the new year, but getting big purchases out of the way now as December is always expensive with Christmas (although am getting ahead of the game this year), car insurance, tv licence etc etc.

Need to do Aldi shop today. Gutted that I missed out on the voucher yesterday, fluffy. By the time I read your post I was in for the day (knackered after biking to/from town and pushing EconomyBoy up/down a massive hill to the park). Sent my husband to Sainsbury's on the way home from work on the off chance they had a copy of the Mirror left, but nope. Still, it will encourage me to keep the total under £30!

[ValiumQueen]

economy what buggy did you get? I love buggies, and having just bought a double I am interested in them in particular. I got a PnT and am bidding on a raincover for it. I also have a Mountain Buggy Terrain Double to use from the house as I have lots of steps the PnT cannot manage. The other will live in the car. I should be able to sell both on for more than they cost me as they were bargainous. We all have our weaknesses

[holler]

Oh now I'm worried about buggies! Was going to sling the baby and keep 18mo DD in the buggy (she'll be 21 mo when baby arrives). We have a spare buggy, so with DH both DC will have one. Will I need a double when alone? Will keep an eye on freecycle/ebay perhaps.
NSD so far (well apart from weekly shop online, but nothing in excess and I had ocado voucher and quidco cash back to use), and as I'm home alone working, this should stay this way!

[ValiumQueen]

holler a sling would be the frugal thing to do DD2 will be 2.5 when DS arrives, in October. If she were a bit older, or he was a summer baby I would probably not have got a double. It is the cold (Scotland) and her being that bit younger, and liable to run away, that helped me decide. There are some good threads on Pushchairs about deciding what is best for you. I got both mine from eBay, both new, but at crazy prices. I was very lucky. It is worth looking out for local pick up only ones as they are often cheaper. It is best to view a double as a rental, unless you have twins, or very close in age.

[ValiumQueen]

I look fat in a sling as well

[ValiumQueen]

Look fat full stop, but even fatter in a sling.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

holler - DS1 was 2 and a half when DS2 arrived, and I managed with a sling and a buggy board but he could already walk quite well although was prone to bolting off across carparks if I didn't have a firm enough grip on him!

Adora - it sounds amazing, but expensive if you want to have Western standards of healthcare/school etc. Would it be straightforward in terms of jobs?

Waitrose delivery came this morning, £99. Have got loads for that though, 2 big chickens, 1.5kg of mince, 1kg of pig cheek to use for casserole - £3.49! plus pizzas, milk for the week, cheese, bakery, cleaning and store cupboard stuff, and enough fruit and yoghurt to last until about Wednesday I reckon.

[ValiumQueen]

alibaba I am slightly fearful of pig cheek. Is it nice? Never even heard of it tbh.

[economymode]

Valium and holler, I got a P&T Vibe. Our son will be 21 months when the baby comes and, although he walks well, I walk a lot and he won't be able to manage the 1 1/2 miles into town (and the same back again). I imagine he'll also be a bolter (he definitely is now) so want to be able to strap him in if needs be. Oh, and it'll be January/February when the baby comes, so I won't want to hang around in the cold and wet waiting for him while he just toddles off to explore this and that.

To be honest, if I'm just going down to the local shops then I'll just sling and buggy, or buggy and toddle, but for the longer trips, or days out when there should be napping, then I want the option of him being able to have a seat.

I did think about doing without a double buggy, but decided to go for it, for the reasons above. Plus, when he's not in the buggy, the spare seat will be fab storage!

The buggy itself cost £230.66 and then I found the cheapest delivery quote to be £11 something. Then a couple of extra £s for time and packing materials. P&Ts seem to do really well on the second/third hand market, so I should be able to sell it on when I really don't need it anymore.

But, if you think you can manage it, then I think definitely save on money and just sling it! It's a completely personal decision - one mum I know very rarely used her buggy and just carried her daughter round in a sling all day. For me, a double buggy is best, but for you, it might not be.

[ValiumQueen]

economy vibe is lovely. I only have a sport, but I am happy.

[economymode]

Thanks, Valium. It's what my sister in law has - we test drove it at the weekend and liked it so decided to look for one of those. Not sure what the difference between all the models is, tbh! Now getting confused about whether the cocoons all fit this model, or if I need to look for a Vibe-specific one - a query for the pushchair people, I think!