How do i save money?? Help

[lisad123]

My wages are due to go down to half pay in month as im currectly off sick and will go down again once my maternity leave starts.

Im not planning on going back to my current job but will take some part time hours with angency, but wasnt planning that till baby is about 9 months.

I have been looking at my incomings and outgoings and things will be really tight for a while.

Any hints on money saving please. I can get my food shopping down to about £65 a week if i plan all my meals and dont buy "extra's". We will be going down to one car, that has low insurance. We dont smoke or drink.

We would have been ok apart from intrest rise has put our morgage payements up by about £120 this year alone Anyone know if they are coming down soon??

Help me please

Lisa

lisa - tis tough being "on a budget"! lol at that euphemism!
have you been on the websites that compare insurances, gas, electicity, etc?
it's tough being broke.

Its been a long time since i have been broke
Dont get me wrong we will have a little spare at the end of month, maybe £80 but doesnt leave a lot for surprises

I have been to that site, do you mean u switch?

Thanks for support, its going to be hard me and dh both have good jobs, and i could do mine with just one dd, but not possible with 2 kids.

Lisa

is there anyway that you can fix your mortgage? This will at least ensure that you are not subject to anymore change if the interest rates do go up again.
Also - shop for bread etc at the end of the day if you can - you can often pick up reduced items and they are fine if you freeze them when you get home. I can't remember the last time that I paid full price for bread !

yes. sorry i can't offer any more tips! dh, ds and i work to a very strict £100 cash a week for shopping, petrol, toileteries and anything else we need. it works well if you stick to it. other than friday morning, the cash card is out of bounds! we got used to it pretty quickly though. like yourself, we did have a few years of plenty disposable income and you do miss it when it's gone. it was fun while it lasted!

good luck with the thriftiness!

can you get that food bill down any lower. that is for 3 of you?

That is for 3 of us, but soon be 4. We eat a lot of fresh fruit and veg, and dd has packed lunches as we arent entitled to free school meals.

Lisa

could you take DD out of nursery for a few months till she starts nursery at school?

do you buy it pre-packaged?

its cheaper to but loose, and from the market as well at times. also frozen can be cheaper and just as good.

thanks Sparkley but she only has 4 weeks left there, so not much point, especially as i cant do much with her at home right now
I buy lose veg, not prepacked, petrol is a pain but dh needs car to get to work.
L

Just gone to U switch and saved about £400 a year, should have done that sooner thanks

Lisa

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It's also worth talking to your mortgage bods about whether they would consider a 'holiday' from payments. You do have to add the money to the exisiting loan and extend payments with interest to your account. If you're anything like me you will just decide you'll be loaded at that point in time and go for it anyway.
I sympathise. Dh and I are absolutely SKINT in a way we haven't been for years. (Both freelance, I've been off ill after maternity leave and his payments are patchy at best). Amazing how inventive you become with pasta and a few veggies... and how appreciative of the times you do have a little bit of spare cash. Happy economising!
P.S. The kids won't notice!

We had morgage holiday a while ago after we were hit by uninsuranced driver and needed to save for new car, and i was off sick We are still waiting for any money from the crash

L

Good Luck! Theres a great little book i was given recently called thrifty ways for modern days...i learnt:

that you could clean most of your house using white vinegar, bicarb and cheap flat coke

How to make my own gel air freshener (though to be fair i haven't done that as i have never used them)

and that cheese freezes....so buy enormous blocks and cut them up. Milk freezes as well

are you a member of macro?

When my income dropped i got into homemade soups/bread (the breadmaker has paid for itself 10 times over)pizza and cakes and learnt how to make a good curry (takeaways were a big vice)

I did that thing where i wrote my outgoings down every day for a month....it amazed me how much i spent on mags, drinks and sandwiches when i was at work

Do a boot sale ...its amazing what you store away

Get a friendly "tight git" (mine was partner) to have a look at your daily routines to see where you can cut corners

I've had to cut down as left dh and on benefits. Went from very comfortable to this but happier now.
Anyway, I agree re: cheese and freezing. I used to throw loads away
I also get the odd (free with code) delivery from tesco and buy in bulk for loo rolls, washing powder etc
go to Asda and Lidl for the rest.
I don't have a car so walk and bus it everywhere.
Also get lots of veg and fruit from a stall.
I do more home made food now, kids help too. They're eating different things now too. Do a fair bit of baking.
I still manage to afford some organic things, i.e. apples.

Lisa, I can really agree with polly about getting a mean git to look at your own expenditure. They can be sympathetic, but objective, in a way that you may struggle to be so.

When Iwent on professional training for two years, my income plummeted, but still with a mortgage to pay etc. A buddy went through my spending, initially half jokey. But then it got serious. He kept asking 'do you need to spend that much on that?' ' Do you really need that?' ' Imagine you had even less, say a third less. What would you do?'.

People live inside their financial skin for years, without having to analysing it.

Best wishes to you and yours.

Get a slow cooker if you haven't already got one - that way you can thrown in cheap cuts of meat and fresh veges and volia! A fab meal that'll last a couple of days
I wouldn't be without mine

This is my favourite site and I even bought the book! www.moneysavingexpert.com cut down on bills, helped get a good deal on mortgage and all sorts. My best advice is to have a seperate acc for petrol and grocery, shop with cash and take list

get box of wine not bottles