Anyone aiming for a more frugal 2018?

[PumpkinPie2016]

I am!

We seem to waste so much money on nothing really! Things like lunches out/topping up at the local shop which leads to buying things we don't really need.

The bathroom needs doing desperately so that is the first thing to aim to save for but to do it we really need to cut down on spending.

So, from January, I am aiming to be much more frugal.

There is only me, DH and our DS who is 4.

Myself and DS need packed lunches for preschool/work. DH is self employed and so can have lunch at home most days. He has a habit of frequenting the local chippy though!

I think my first aim is to cut down the good spending as that is the biggest bill!

Anyone else aiming to be frugal next year and what are you saving for?

Yes, me. Going to try to leave be on one salary whilst paying down debt and saving for a holiday. Partner was made redundant in November and as he works in quite a specific area, it will take a while for him to get re employed. So it’s a good time to see how far we can make my earnings go :)

Yep me too. In november we really focused on our food shopping and I was surprised by how little we could get by on. We went shopping 2x a week instead of a big monthly shop with seemingly never ending top up shops.I meal planned and actually stuck to our £60 a week budget. When you have very little in the fridge it makes you think about it more carefully. Will be doing that again this year.

Yes me. I spend a fortune on our food shopping and on coffee and lunches while at work.

Me too! I overspent at christmas and we desperately need new bedroom furniture so would like to save towards that 😁

I need to meal plan, stick to a set budget and not go online shopping when im bored. I aim to read more instead of browsing amazon 😂

Me. The food shop has been getting more and more expensive as the year has gone on so need to pull right back there. We also want to redecorate both boys' rooms, would like to tarmac the drive and really could do with a new shed the bathroom and kitchen also could do with updating, but that's super long term!!. So basically we want to save as much as possible despite dh not being on a great wage and me only working part time. I've worked out a monthly budget and use ynab. I will be saving for things like Christmas and birthdays. My main goal is to stop the little spends that mount up.

Nah, plan on going mad for once!!!

Me too! Start maternity leave on the 3rd of Feb, so need to get a grip of the purse strings! Big problem for me is the ‘top-up’ shop at Aldi. I know it’s only aldi but I go in almost 5 times a week as it’s in the same retail park that my partner works in!

Yes me it's also the food shopping, I go past waitrose every day not good!! I'm starting January I have a budget book so will try to fill that in. Anyone use YNAB?

Am going to try and have no spend days. Have got a menu planner, so hoping to have one big shop a week. DH managed to save 10e a week, towards xmas, it took some pressure off. Would love to double that for this yr.

Glad there are a few of us wanting to be more frugal!

Good shopping has definitely gone up a lot but I am sure I can cut it back if I plan better!

Yes definitely.

Illness has led to early retirement with very little income.

I am determined to live within my budget and stop spending savings.

So far in the last six months I have become Vegetarian in an attempt to reduce my food costs and this year plan on adopting a 'no brands' approach.

I am also going to try and reduce my expenditure on clothing to absolute essentials. I buy far too many things that sit in the wardrobe and hardly get worn !!

I would also like to join. I plan to go thorugh all expenses to see if we can get better deals elsewhere as I may be facing unemployment due to illness in the not too distant future and so really need to cut back where possible.

Also food shopping every day is killing our finances. We need to start meal planning and stick to a weekly food budget. Am just not sure how best to go about this. What does everyone else do?

Re menu planning and food budget which I'm not currently following, when I was organised!! I used to try to do a 2 week menu plan, then I looked at my finances and worked out what I could spend per month and divided it weekly. When I was particularly organised I would keep all shopping receipts for the month, avoid waitrose and find cheaper placed to top up, Iceland/poundland etc.

I have fallen off this a bit and aim to get back on it, some people find menu planning a chore so a tip I had, was to allocate types of meal per day and work from there, so eggs Monday, chicken Tuesday etc and work around it that way.

Also I'm sure everyone knows this Martin Lewis tip to go down a brand, food shopping even for the basics is so costly that I find Aldi better, I'm just a bit lazy as I used to do online with tesco.

I know my biggest outgoing is food.

I’ve started withdrawing my weekly budget in cash in a bid to keep an eye on spending! I just tap away with the card and don’t see it all
Add up!

It worked wonders for my DP who works next to a BM store and a Costa too so was spending like £30 a week on crap! Gave him £10 a week as he takes a lunch and he actually had change at the end of the week!!

Can i join I became a single mum half way through last year and I'm struggling with the massive drop in money. Food prices seem to have gone up so much so I'm going to try and cut right back on that and pay off some of my credit card debts.

I only earn 12000 a year and after bills live off my tax credits. I really need to save for the switch over to the new system as I don't want to have to rely on help. I have managed so far to get our weekly shop down to £45 a week for the 4 of us but it's not easy.

I'm definitely aiming to live off a lot less for the coming year. We need to save so I can go on maternity leave again in a couple of years, we need to replace our bathroom, we need a new car, we'd like to be able to go on a nice holiday at some point and DS is off to nursery at the start of January which is costing more than half my wages each month. Food is 100% our biggest spend so we're starting there.

Me too! I mean to start with no spend on beauty products in January and take it from there. I'm single, have no children and am comfortable financially but suffer from a dreadful shopping habit and money seems to go on nothing much really. Also, the house is groaning under the weight of 'stuff'. So yes, being more frugal sounds appealing.

Me! I moved house 4 weeks ago and have realised that I've been going for convenience far too much. Had takeaways too often and have been buying lunch at work (plus breakfast some days too). Am planning on making a big batch of leftover veg soup on Sundays for the week ahead and making sure I have breakfast at home.

Yes me. We bought a house in September and there’s loads we want to do to it, but we wiped all our savings on the deposit!
I need to balance the shorter term ‘projects’ (painting the master bedroom etc) with the longer term ones (I’d love a new kitchen).
I rarely spend money on myself but am a nightmare for picking things up for the DC (4 and 2)... clothes, books etc. DH is the king of wasting money on top up shops (goes out for bread, spends £20).
I’m starting with a ‘no spend’ Jan! I won’t spend any money on anything except food and petrol. As a SAHM to 2 pre schoolers that means finding lots of free activities to do locally!

Re meal planning I like the idea of allocating types of meals per day rather than specific meals. This should make it easier to take advantage of whatever may be on offer that week but still have a general plan to make sure to use stuff up. Will give it some more thought.

Yes me too!

Household has gone from two wages to one wage so definitely have had to look and finances and make adjustments.

It's so hard to find ways of saving so far in past 3 months...

I've cancelled sky tv saving £100 a month. Ordered Now tv for one off £50 payment for 6 months of sky entertainment and movies.

Eon were raising my bills by £34 after many infuriating phonecalls I downloaded their app to do a comparison and managed to maintain my current monthly payment.

In process of remortgaging which is looking like I'll save £124 per month when the switch takes place.

Cancelled my mobile contract and using my work phone saving £34 per month.

I read somewhere how a woman stopped buying toiletries, unless desperately had to, for a year and used up stuff around the house that she had accumulated. I'm definitely going to try this.

Messages and shopping is the next area I need to be aware about.

I am somewhat ahead in that I had to cut back severely at the end of Oct due to an unexpected tax bill. It will take 18 months to pay this off and means there is no room for any extra expenditure. A couple of things I have done so far:
Analysed last year’s expenditure
Made a (rather optimistic) budget
Put 95% my expenditure on a 0% credit card and analyse it at the end of the month.
Shopping - make list (of course!); go to incredibly cheap local shop first; then Lidl; then Sainsbury’s as a last resort.
No clothes shopping; I have plenty (as do most of us!)
Coffee/tea in a flask, also make & bring lunch & snacks
Avoid “shopping”. Only go out to a specific shop or shops with a list, and stick to it.
Restaurants only for birthdays if that, certainly less than once a month.
Entertainment is a stack of Cineworld vouchers.
Only have freeview & netflicks, but that’s plenty.
Mend & repair everything possible.
Constant price comparisons to find best deal on everything, all the time.

We had a frugal Christmas -tree was free, bought a salmon for £10 which carried us through Christmas meals. D.C. were informed of tight Xmas so minimum gifts, but they were fine about it.
I agree that food is a big expenditure, but so many prices are creeping up. My mortgage fix just ended so new rate is around£25/mo higher; domestic fuel deal best I could find but still £20/mo more than last year; car fuel prices going up. It is a long, long tunnel til I see any light, but am grateful for a house that I love, and for DCs and DP.

Come join us on frugaleers thread this is exactly what we do Frugaleers thread

@mammymammyIRL done. Thanks.

Yes, over the next 3 months I want to save as much money as I can. We are in the middle of winter, so I won't be buying any more clothes, I have everything I need. I have a lot of toiletries, some of them half used, which I will be using up. I have loads of books to read so I won't be buying anymore.

A few years ago I paid off my credit card debt, and got into a more frugal way of living. But in the last few months I have slipped into bad ways. I am having a bad time at work so I think I have been buying stuff to distract me. But of course, it just makes me feel worse, the lack of control, the excess of buying stuff I don't need. Because I have not been sleeping well I have been buying lots of highlighting primers, highlighting powders etc to restore a bit of glow to a sleep deprived skin, which does not work! I have spent an eye watering amount and I feel bad about it. So it's back on the frugal path.