I need to stop frittering money away on crap. I'd like to have some savings, one day I'd like to be able to take my children to Florida but struggle to save.
So in the new year I'm going to be a superscrimper.
I used to meal plan and was very good at it. But then when I passed my driving test and started actually going to the supermarket rather than doing my shopping online my food bills doubled!
So I'm going back to meal planning and would like to get my food bill down to £40 a week. Even less if I can.
I will be buying all clothes from eBay and charity shops OR just making do with what I've already got.
Cook and bake everything from scratch
I also plan to bulk buy some stuff in January and have a bit of a stock pile, things like rice, pasta, washing powder etc
Is anyone else planning to save/be more frugal in 2014?
I've also been lurking on the money saving expert forums for tips.
And yesterday, instead of chucking some rather soft black bananas in the bin I made banana and white choc chip muffins out of them using ingredients I already had :)
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My new years resolution is to be more frugal. Anyone else?
PublicEnemyNumeroUno · 22/12/2013 13:23
I am trying to save too
I meal plan but it's complicated as we run a nursery from home & DH, DD & I eat 'leftovers' 
My biggest food expense is DD's packed lunches & teas; she is 16 and eats a LOT!! & has packed lunches 7 days a week and teas 5 or 6 nights
I am selling stuff (have been advised to do it on Facebook - but the group hasn't responded yet) that DD is sorted out for me & my brother is selling DH's tandem on a special site
I could do with saving about £7k by next December (falls over laughing) but I did pay off (& cut up) 3 credit cards this last month; but whatever I save means I have to borrow less
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I'm joining in! I have £10,000 in credit cards (can't believe it) and need to get rid of it in 2014. I have just downgraded my Experian from £14.99 per month to £3.99 per month (I still want to be able to check it as I'm going for a personal loan to consolidate these debts once my rating is good enough) and am feeling quite pleased!
fuzzpig and ellietrying - my favourite and easiest way to meal plan is using the BBC Good Food app if you have a smartphone. The meals are healthy and yummy, and it creates instant shopping lists for you. I usually plan for 5 or 6 meals for 7 days, make sure I have every ingredient in the house, and then just choose what I feel like that day. It has saved me a fortune, plus I've been eating better than before 
there really needs to be a piggy emoticon
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I'm desperate to save money and sort our financial lives out! My OH is awful with money so I have to take control of it but he's constantly needing money for this or that. Between us we earn a decent salary and only have one DD. I've drawn up a budget, including all essential bills and added some for saving (which realistically will be used off car tax etc as and when needed) and also a small amount for Christmas (so in theory Christmas shouldn't cost us a lot as it's saved for monthly). I included variable bills (petrol and food) and my plan is to see how we go with those items budgeted and then adjust where necessary. I've also included an amount each for DP and I as our "allowance" so we each have our own money to spend on treats etc. I find that by the time DP has spent what he wants, there is little money left for me to treat myself and I would like I to be more fair. We fritter away far too much money and need to sort this out. I've bought a sainsburys delivery pass and plan to meal plan and try not to go to the supermarket, as others have said it is easy to spend £30 popping in to buy milk!
It's still very new but hopefully it will work! My ultimate plan is, when we get used to staying in the budget, to tighten it more and therefore save more. I don't want to try anything unrealistic so doing it in baby steps!
I also loved the meal plan above. I love how lots of the puddings are home made! Will have a look through recipes and see what sort of thing my family would like! That will save a lot of money too!
Good luck everyone
Just wanted to add some ideas while I remember!
With the saving, we did it by a standing order - previously we'd just told ourselves we'd save what we could - ha! No chance. But for the last year a set amount has come out each month just after payday so I don't 'miss' the amount at all IYSWIM. I agree with what others have said about it being an achievable amount - there's no point stretching yourself if you need to keep taking money back out again, it'll be demotivating.
I think if you can afford it, it's important to still have a little frivolity, but budget for it! For the last 18 months or so, DH and I have had 'pocket money'. We don't have much disposable income so we set ourselves an amount - £20 each per month - that is for whatever games, DVDs, books etc we want (mostly DVDs really as that's our weakness although DH sometimes gets sci fi memorabilia). There's no need to justify it to each other as it's our money, and it's enough to treat ourselves without getting out of hand. We record it all in a cash book, and can pool resources when it's something we both want (eg Big Bang Theory boxsets) and save up cumulatively - I saved all mine for several months to get an iPod. I'd really recommend it - it's like being on a diet, you might get totally miserable if you deny yourself ALL treats and it makes the diet harder to stick to, but having a little moderate allowance makes life a bit more fun.
Christmas - this is my spending weakness, I love buying presents for my DCs in particular! But I did better this year in that when my family gave us some money very close to Xmas (they don't like choosing gifts) rather than thinking yippeeeee we can buy more Stuff, I actually just assigned them to things we'd already chosen, so in effect they 'bought' presents from us IYSWIM? So although we'd chosen all the presents, only a couple were given from mummy and daddy, the rest were from nanny/grandad etc (you'd need to check people were ok with this though - I know some people can be very funny about what people do with money, but thankfully my relatives don't attach conditions to financial gifts as some do)
I think my biggest year-round issue is groceries. That's what we really need to work on. We can't shop around - no car and my mobility is limited - so am happy with tesco delivery but I am so disorganised and, I'm ashamed to admit, an awful lot of what we buy gets wasted anyway. I am terrible at meal planning as I just rebel and want something different! 
Also we are relying on processed stuff more than I'd like to. Our tiny kitchen combined with slightly fussy DCs makes cooking a drag. I just hate the whole thing really. Meh.
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