Hello, can I join? I've been taking a long hard look at my budget and spending this year, and going through old MN Credit Crunch threads to take advantage of the collective wisdom of the hive brain to get frugal tips.
It is very motivating and encouraging! I had already adopted many of the good habits mentioned (Aldi shopping, meal planning, switching
energy and insurance providers regularly, bearing down hard on discretionary spending,) but there's always new ideas here. Just in the last couple of weeks I've changed my phone contract to SIM only, saving about £12 a month, started cutting a helping or two out of meals for the freezer to make the food budget stretch, and - just this morning - been inspired to email various hairdressing and beauty colleges to see if they offer discounted prices for practice models.
My targets for 2021 are:
pay off £4800 on 0% credit card (loan to pay college course fees for eldest) - i.e. £400 pcm
save £500 - £700 per month to build up personal slush fund
save enough money out of the joint housekeeping account to pay for a slice of redecorating in February, another chunk in July and build up boiler replacement fund for this time next year.
My new frugal behaviours in 2021 on top of the ones I already have, will be:
- no new clothes for self (2019 was pretty sparse on new things, but I did replace a coat, a jumper, some underwear and buy a couple of new pairs of shoes this year - so I think I"m done for 2021 - unless I see unmissably bargainous new boots, in which case I shall beg as a birthday present)
- replace salon visits for cut and colour with hairdresser college
- halve my contact lens costs by wearing my glasses every other day.