a not-spending-money thread. anyone up for joining me

[tyaca]

c'mon. you know you want to

I do actually. I want to save up so I can give up work sooner!

What does this entail then?

My main non-spending:

• taking lunch to work rather than buying it from the sandwich shop next door

• not buying anything I don't need (I don't do much of this anyway to be honest)

• cancelling all those subscriptions to things I don't need/use - Boots diet website, Ancestry website, possibly graze

• trying to limit weekly shop to £50

I have just downloaded and analysed the last 12 months' bank statements to see where all my money goes and it's been very interesting.

I average £46 per week on clothes (me, DSD and DS, DH buys his own) which seems ridiculously high. £86 per week at the supermarket.

I have GOT to stop going to cafes and coffee shops

marion, are you talking about an early retirement? if so, i would love to cheerlead you on your way

i want to save up to buy one of these. next summer. seemingly impossible given four of us are living on my husband's teacher's salary. but we're living in dh's school, so rent and bill free. and two of our number are very small .

i spill money. all over the place - but mainly: booze. lack of discipline re food shopping. and treating myself when dh working the one in three weekends in boarding house that puts roof over our heads. then the money just disappears.

i have money ishoos in general. i'm always going to stop spending money tomorrow...

Early-retirement, that would be wonderful. No, I'm keen to try and be self-employed, but need to budget on the basis that it is a complete failure! So I want to build up a pot of money so that we can survive if I bring in zero money for X months.

zero money for x months? that's some precision accounting .

do you have an idea of when you're thinking of making the jump? have you saved money before? i never have. dh and i are always full of saving money type plans, but fact is we (by which i mean I just need to choose not to buy stuff x times a day.

this week i need to fill car with petrol. and maybe do yoga class on thursday. other than that i have no reason to spend til saturday. wish me luck...

i wish

Well, I am an accountant so I should know about precision accounting

I would like to be out by Christmas, perhaps before. I have achieved the first major step which is to pay off all the credit cards. I saved up to pay off the mortgage a few years ago. I would just like to build up as much of a buffer as I can to help with the bills etc.

Today I bought a Twix. I took my lunch with me to work.

I want to save money so I can request to go part time when my maternity leave ends in April. Not sure where to cut the budget though as we already live on a shoe string. Any tips gratefully received.

dylan - will you have more money when working p/t than you do now on maternity pay? i am sorry, i have no tips as yet re budget cutting . there used to be a big thrift thread in the ethical living section of MN - lots of make do and mend and lentil soupery, but also helpful advice IIRC.

marion, xmas is very near. nice tangible deadline for end of austerity measures. i used to hate taking my lunch into work, would always fancy the food in the cafes instead of whatever i had brought. when are you going to cancel those subscriptions?

i need to cancel a phone contract i haven't used for 9 months and is costing me £25 a month. plus i have never got around to sorting child benefit for 15mo ds . see how rubbish i am? if i could do that tomorrow that would be a straight £75 a month extra.

no money spent today.

I have done all of the above. Never managed to get the food shop below £100 though.

I am now of people who go to Cafe Nero or Starbucks. Or read a newspaper. Both things my unemployed single mother SIL can afford (along with her week in NY but that's another thread)

I managed the whole of the 6 weeks holiday on £50 due to the extortionate cost of school uniform and having to pay for this terms swimming lessons.

Any more tips on not spending welcomed!

Well remembered tyaca - I have just cancelled unnecessary subscriptions totally about £20 per month.

Austerity measures will have to carry on of course if I stop work (unless I'm stonkingly successful - I need to have more faith in myself.)

I find saving £2 coins a good way to save up for treats too. Since Christmas I have been putting away all £2 coins I get, I counted today and I have £78

Today I have spent nothing and have spent most of my time at work writing my business plan!

i spent nothing today either. but expensive ten days coming up. three birthdays, a trip out with dh's mum and birthday dinner for my mum here. plus hairdressers. which is in london proper and my first day off from looking after kids for three weeks - so hard not to lose the best part of a tenner on food and coffees.

tsk - writing business plan at work . do you do peoples' personal accounts, small businesses etc? i have a £200 fine to pay inland revenue for a late tax return. we rent out flat we used to live in. i have been avoiding the tax return. keep hoping it will go away.

butterfly effect - a bongo! do you camp in it? well done with the other credit card. food when out is one i relate to. or used to, anyway. now i always have a buggy full of cheese sarnies and rice cakes....i have started buying books on ebay, which helps. i walk around dreaming of my bongo with a silly smile on face.

I read an interesting book: "not buying it" by Judith levine, a Canadian journalist who doesn't buy anything but essentials for a year. Quite inspiring in places.

Anyway I am givin up buying so many junk magazines, books and cafe lunches/coffees that are had out of laziness rather than anything else.

When you have that desperate 'got to go shopping and BUY something' go to a charity shop. Not only is it cheap but you are doing good too.

Cancel Sky and get BT Vision instead - saved us about £30 a month.

Turn the water temperature on your boiler down a notch, my gas bill was noticeably smaller.

Get a car with cheap road tax and good fuel consumption - old car guzzled and cost almost £400 a year in road tax. New car fuel efficient and £125 a year in road tax. We save more in tax and petrol than the car loan costs us a month.

Do a car boot sale and make some money. Check if you can get a cheaper mobile phone contract.
Find out if you are owed anything by HMRC!

That's all I've done so far.

tyaca - yes, I do personal and small company accounts etc. I don't suppose it would be helpful to point out that if you had got an accountant to do your tax return in the first place it wouldn't have cost you any more than £200! It won't go away, the fine will just go up the longer you leave it.

I'd like to join please We waste our money on magazines, takeaways, popping to the shop most evenings for chocolate (always spend at least 10pounds ), and generally buying too much food. We have dc3 on the way and would love to be able to become a SAHM for a year or so (will have 3 3 and under). So my priorites for my not spent money to go towards will be 1) credit card 2) overdraft 3) old loan 4) catalogue. Once that's done I would LOVE to get some savings together!

Today I haven't spend anything! And I'm going to print off 12 months of bank statements so dh and I can shock ourselves!

Me, me! Though today I bought loads of junk (mags, choc, crisps) as was waiting to check that baby was ok (had worrying symptoms and maternity helpline sent me down to hosp). Will also have to steel resolve and not buy takeaway tonight. It is dh and mine's big weakness. We have done better recently buying the supermarket ones for £7 or so. And having naans in the freezer to add to a jar curry.

Most other things we are pretty good on
-cheap car hardly use - check
-£10/£14 mobile contracts - check
-charity shops and cheap bargain shops - check
-groceries full of basics and bargains - check

My problem is when we feel down, we feel like we 'deserve' treats /shopping/takeaway. And at the moment, dh has just started new job with long hours and so we are both a bit knackered and lazy. Will def join thread though, might keep me on track

Haven't spent anything today either! AND I've had a £140 refund from nursery as DS now has his free 15 hours and I've overpaid. Yippee.

Tonight's task is to work out how much realistically (1) I will spend in my first year out of paid employment, (2) how much of that we can cover from DH's salary and therefore (3) how much I need to save up.