Spending less and living more...

[Tightjeans]

That's it really! Dh and I need to save money and we want to start living more within our means and not spending money on crap!!
I am a huge M&S ready meal fan but I have started cooking again and have more than halved our food shop and we are obviously eating better now. I have so many clothes so I am going to really try not to buy anything I don't need this year and also try to have as many free days out as possible! So - if anyone wants to join me in a fun spending less but living more chat then please join!

Wasn't sure if I was allowed to post link but it is this one www.treasuretrails.co.uk/
You can decided on the day, pay and then download and print the trail.
If you had a friend who did a different trail and you marked it in pencil then I guess you could rub out and swap trails. Still £7 for a couple of hours entertainment for a family seems good value to me (I don't work for them or anything like that)

Thank you spababe

Geocaching is a really good free activity. We've just started with the DSs and they love it. Good way to get fresh air and exercise and all you need is a phone.

I managed to get some cheap tickets to a zoo for £5 each. The tickets are that cheap because it's off peak and they have to be used soon.

To keep costs down:

OH nephews birthday is soon, I bought an extra ticket to take him as his birthday present.

We will be taking a picnic for lunch - fried chicken, ham, frittatas, yogurts etc. I will buy a couple of 2l bottles of value water from tesco for under 50p each, to mix with squash.

We will avoid the gift shop, but may stretch to an ice cream.

I'm going to make a little snack box for the journey back home. I may buy a couple of cheap zoo themed toys from the poundshop.

I really need to cut down buying rubbish that I don't need. I am terrible for buying the children more clothes that they don't need! However, I have been good recently and bought my son enough clothes for the next 2 years all in the sale! I find it harder to get girls clothes for some reason (I have a boy and a girl).
Eating out is a big problem with us too. We are always nipping in to the nearest café when out and about. I find it hard to take a picnic in the winter months! I did buy one of those Thermos food flasks last month (reduced in Asda) so I should try taking some soup one day (with a flask of hot tea).
We are National Trust and English Heritage members. We only tend to use them in the spring/summer though. A lot of places shut over the winter anyway. I find Tesco Clubcard vouchers aren't worth a lot these days either.
Ebay is a bad habit of mine too. Again, kids stuff that they don't need.
Ah well, one must learn to control urges to spend!

Chanie44,
Good idea about the £1 shop for zoo themed toys. So much cheaper than the zoo gift shop and you can always pretend that you got them there (children would never know)! Hee hee.

I love the idea of buying £1 "gifts" for a day out - much for exciting for the children!
Thesilverswan I found that adding up what I had spent on "crap" over about 3 months really shocked me and made me realise we could have a much better life if we saved that money and used it on much more fun things - saving for holidays - family days out etc. we were living hand to mouth by the middle of the month but now we really are doing so much more and can save a little each month (even if it's only £10 we can pop it into the savings account and it goes towards Chrristmas etc) It really is a much better way to live

I buy clothes for my children a year ahead too!!! I wait for sales and discount days.

I'm struggling with girls clothes though, as even at full price, the clothes are a bit, meh. The boys stuff is really nice and easy.

We've really cut back on our food shop. I've set a weekly limit and we stick to it. If I don't think I can buy everything I want within the limit, I change things for cheaper options, packet of biscuits often cheaper than cake, cook something simple yourself rather than buying a ready meal. Pop into other shops and look for items you know are cheaper than your usual shop or on offer. We like a bottle of wine on a Sat night, so DH has started making his own and it's not bad - works out approx. £2.20 a bottle. If you use liquid hand soap, buy a large bottle of bubble bath and put it into the soap bottles when empty, it works out much cheaper and no one will notice. It sounds a bit tight, but I've started cutting the ends of tubes when we can't get any more out, and have found there's often 3/4 more uses of toothpaste, moisturizer etc in them.

Over the last year we've used the car a bit less - walking to the local shop rather than taking the car if we only want a few things, walking and cycling a bit more locally - our MOT shows our ave monthly usage is now 500, whereas it was 653 before, so this saves a massive amount on petrol and wear and tear.

We never pay for parking locally. We've worked out where we can park free a bit further out.

I've got loads of clothes, so have really cut back my clothes spending over the last year. I now only buy things we really need, not because we fancy it or may need a new one of something in a few months.

When you go out for the day, there are times it's nice to eat out, but others it's equally as nice to have sandwiches etc. We always take drinks and snacks in the car anyway as you have them to hand exactly when you need them. DH and DD always take a packed lunch to work and school.

I often have coffee and cake in town, but have tried to cut back on this, but times when I do give in I now go into Weatherspoons - a filter coffee is £1.15 and it's nicer than M&S coffee. You can buy some biscuits if you want, or they usually have a cake.

Whatever you cut back on, I think it's still good to get yourselves out - today we're going on a short walk locally (probably about an hour), having lunch at home and then playing a game.

Madmog,
We have 2 cars and I seem to be forever forking money out for one of them. We both need a car for work (unsocial hours/work different towns) so we have to pay for them.
Our older car is 10 years old and it is a smashing car (Skoda Octavia Estate). Diesel and very economical. We have just paid to have a back door fixed (as it wouldn't open), the MOT and service. Other car had tax due in January but, luckily, only £30. Seems weird not getting a tax disc anymore!
Good idea to walk more though! Or cycle!

I have a weekly set amount for food shopping too! I tend to do meals around offers as much as possible.

I need to live a bit more but cut back too. When we're good about cooking we're really good, but it doesn't last long. I'd like a happy medium between really good food and just basics so that I don't lose the mental energy to meal plan after one week!

We have National Trust memberships. Not free, but we've been on the under-25's rate for the past two years so under £50 for 2 years membership each, which is great when our local attractions are around £10 each to get into and we could go back again and again!

We'll have to pay full rate this summer, but it'll still be worth it IMO. We're hoping to have enough put aside from bonuses/birthday/wedding/Christmas money by next summer to get a lifetime family membership, so that'll cover us and any kids we end up having :)

We use our NT memberships more when we're on holiday than at home though, we can visit five or six places on a 10 day camping holiday so it pays for itself there.

How old is your DS? Board games are brilliant and you can adapt many to kids. DP and I love Settlers of Catan, Dominion and Carcassonne. I play uno and top trumps with my 6yo and 8yo charges quite a bit too :) I haven't yet got them to have a go at one of my board games but they are interested (every time I've taken my game to work with me their baby sister makes it clear that she won't be left out )

I'm currently trying to make a list of small things that I can buy in bulk to save money. Things like teabags, which, when bought at £5 for a 240 pack from Asda cost 2.08p each, whereas buying a 460 pack on Amazon at £8.63 is 1.87p each. It's not much but it's just over 50p per 240 bags. DP is a tea monster. We go through a lot of tea.

We save a lot of money by buying our rat food in bulk and making the mix up ourselves too. For a bag (of the type of mix we make) that would last 10 days it's cost us £6, so 60p per day, for me to buy it in bulk and make it up it would work out between 30p and 50p per day depending on what I throw into it. I could get it cheaper to most likely. So if you have small pets it's worth thinking about making up your own muesli style mixes if that's what you buy!

Both of our cars are economical. I have a 52 plate Astra eco and it is amazing on fuel. I'll be gutted the day it dies! DP has just been forced to 'upgrade' as we had a shit situation with a bad dealership. He now has an 07 plate Astra which has some issues, but seems good, also brilliant on fuel. Fuel is a massive expense for us (I have a 12 mile commute to the countryside, DPs commute is 50 miles currently) so to have economical cars cuts that cost a lot. I worked it out to be about 11p per mile between mine and DPs car over one month of usage.

We do have an expensive gym membership though, it's £140pm between us I have health issues and swimming is about the only exercise I can do much of, and a gym membership for me worked out cheaper than going swimming twice or three times a week plus bus travel (our gym is a mile away, so I can walk on good days or park for free on bad days!)

Madmog I think you've got it
There - it is the best thing to get yourself out! Spending less and living more - not spending money on crap and getting out and about more having picnics, walks - anything!!
Rattle we have a gym membership that we cancelled once but missed it so much - we really use it so see it as a good use of money (that's the thing, finding the things that are WORTH spending money on) we use it for swimming, kids clubs, gym, classes, a lounge for a very reasonably priced coffee, tennis, somewhere for dh to watch the sports - we can spend all day there using the whole place.

Better than us, we use it for a swim twice a week I need to join a couple of classes but I've never done one before, so I've been avoiding it

Ridiculously, going swimming twice a week is still cheaper there than going to my local pool when you factor buses in

We had a day out at an attraction today. We took a picnic of sandwiches, crisps, cold meats, cakes and squash.

The only money we spent was on a cup of tea and two ice creams for the children, for under £5. I really wanted a second cup of tea, but in the interests of being frugal, decided against it.

.

Chanie

We will bring a packed lunch & a flask. And that way if I still 'need' a nice cup of coffee I can have it as the treat.

I second the geocaching. Very good even though we only did it twice lol

The national trust do two free days per year. I think the next one is in March.

A friend and I split a local zoo membership between us. So saved on that. We did obey there guidelines and it was all above board.

We have had to cut down, not through choice because we've lost my full time wage which was the main wage coming in. I had a difficult work situation and decided it was better for my mental health to leave than fight it all (would have been years). So I've become a freelancer and temp worker now. And I have to say it's not as bad as I feared. I am starting to get freelance work in and I get to temp doing some really cool stuff, I was helping a sonographer last week!

I'm finding that now I'm less miserable from my work situation I comfort buy a lot less and we've gone from being in constant overdraft to being in the black. We still eat well, we even have occasional treats. We just can't buy loads of clothes and we won't get a holiday this year, but we'll still have some days out.

My top tips are, meal planning, watch for mark downs, shop in local ethnic shops, pound shops for toiletries, Aldi and lidl for main shops. Look for free things to do, walk wherever possible and take lunches. And don't let yourself get miserable - if you're like me you'll spend more to compensate .

The international/ ethnic food stores are a huge saving... I get big bags of spices every couple of months and a group of us divy them up. Pays for my spices and bus fare to get to the shop. At christmas I make up spice boxes as gifts.

If you are a crafty person look out for sewing or knitting groups - loads of people who are more than willing to teach newbies . At my sewing group I could show people how to do the geometry to make their own patterns and they taught me how to sew them up.

What were you doing helping a sonographer sportinguista? Sounds interesting.

It's ds 5th birthday soon and we are inviting his whole class to his party. Here's how I plan to keep the costs down:

The party will start around 2pm and end by 4pm as this is when the hall of free. It means most children wont be hungry.

Oops, hit sent too soon.

Food wise - it will be few snacks like crisps and fruit, plus some frozen pizzas and Iceland party food. Pudding will be cake.

I've raised the poundshops for decorations and party bag fillers.

Music will be iPod and a large speaker.

We have been living frugally on and off for 6 years. We book days out but always bring a packed lunch. At the very minimum our dc have snacks and a drink when we step foot outside the house.

Buying snacks on a whim is expensive - one Ribena carton for £1 and a packet of crisps for 60p!!!

I meal plan and shop in Lidl. Our shopping has halved and I really cannot taste the difference in the quality of food.

Top tips
Make the most of sunny days - take the kids on their bikes/scooters or let them run around in the park.

Always pack snacks and lunch - be adventerous with the food!

Look on council websites for free events during the school holidays .

Go to the beach. You only need a packed lunch, petrol money and change for ice cream/doughnuts.

We used to have what we call "The Camping Kit"
It was inherited from my father-in-law.
It consisted of a kettle, mugs, bottles of water-re-filled from previous uses!!-teabags & sugar from kitchen at home & a 1 ring camping gas ring, where you can get refills of gas to attach underneath the ring!
All of these came from a hardware store/Wilkinsons or a camping store & our own kitchen!!
We used to take a packed lunch & the camping kit for a cup of tea or coffee for not a lot of money, all to be had at the side/back of the car as part of lunch
The amount of jealous looks we got as we brewed our own tea & coffee were spectacular
Sadly we lost "The Camping Kit" in a huge garden fire about 4 years ago, which took out about 8 neighbours garden sheds including our own & have never got round to replacing, which we should!!
A HUGE money saver!!