Money saving and frugal tips for 2021

[bingsulaflop]

Unsure if this is the correct topic for this..

In an effort to make a big push on saving for a house deposit, I'm currently looking for a job (have been a SAHM for 2 years with DS) and my partner works full time (£20k a year before tax)

We have no major outgoings apart from DS nursery fees (£689 a month for three full days) and paying my parents to live at theirs whilst we save (£250 a month)

No debt, credit cards or travel costs/car..

Obviously money is a bit tight and we could do with some advice/tips on cutting costs any where we can.
First I thought of was selling DS toys when outgrown or clothes etc.

Anything else?

Phone contracts are tied in for the next 18 month..

Great thread!

I'm with you, saving up for my jungle garden to be done. So far have £100 saved... I reckon it'll cost about 3.5k so a long way off yet!

My New Years resolution is no more fast fashion. So to just stop buying clothes and accessories unnecessary and if I really do need something to look for good quality second hand. I think this will be really helpful for saving money.

I meal plan each week and try to ensure our weekly shop doesn't cost any more than £45.

I will join in this as I am currently saving for a house deposit too! I have sold everything I can so my only option is now to reduce my spending (which has been horrific recently 🤦🏻‍♀️) let’s hope 2021 is better @bingsulaflop how much are you aiming to save for a deposit and @xmas20 meal planning is a great way of not overspending and well done on the first £100... it’s a start!

Hello @xmas20 and @Isobels !!

I'm currently listing what I have that I'm able to pass on for DS hoping I can make a few extra pennies.. we are hoping for a £10k deposit so a loooong way off!!
On the job search too so that's scary too!

Well done on your saving for your garden! What a lovely thing to look forward too!

I too need to curb the spending on clothes, although I'm more of a George, F&F and primark kinda person I still need to stop just getting something for the sake of it and actually think will I wear it/do I even like it/have I got stuff to match etc - I'm a nightmare for doing this for DS!

Happy saving!

Meal planning.
Sit down and plan a menu for the week and buy just what you need. It saves nipping out to the shop 3 X a week and grabbing extras that can bump up your weekly shopping bill by £30 +

Buy bigger packs and freeze down. A huge pack of chicken breasts works out cheaper than lots of 2/3 packs. Freeze into individual portions then pull out to defrost how ever many you need.

Buy bigger mince & batch cook bol. Pulse & add a couple of carrots & add in and a handful of dried lentils to make it go further. Portion & freeze. Once defrosted you can have as bol or add add kidney beans & chilli seasoning for another meal.

Take packed lunch to work, including a flask of coffee/tea if need be. In fact take a flask & snacks whenever you go out. 2 X cappuccino in Starbucks cost us nearly £6 the other day! Shop bought sandwiches are calorific and a meal deal may seem cheap but x a month adds up.

If you are shopping use cash back sites like top cash back. You are shopping anyway so may as well earn as you shop.

I'm in!
I'm saving for an emergency fund and to pay off some debts, I've worked out a budget but looking to cut costs where I can.
Having to be accountable here will be a great help

I could do with joining in! I would like to have an 'emergency' fund - or just some savings.

My only real plan is to stop buying stuff I don't desperately need, which I assume will be easier in these Covid times. Shopping is no fun, so I won't be wandering round B&M and spending £30 here and there on things that I didn't go in for, but just spotted.

Also, not grabbing a coffee/sandwich lunch out.

I’m in!!! This year has been bloody expensive and a really want a £1000 emergency fund. I am fairly frugal but could definitely cut corners. I will embark on selling clothes and DS toys in the new year for sure! Great thread 🙏🏻

I've had some really positive experiences just popping little bits on the marketplace that are no longer needed..

Absolutely yes to Starbucks and Costa though!! We have one in walking distance and I hate to think what I've spent in there over the years!

I plan to stop buying clothes. I have enough and trying to get more use of what I have.

£700 per month for three days, whilst you’re a sahm? Some part-time jobs only pay that. Does dc need to be at nursery that much?

Can you do something like Avon?

Good luck @bingsulaflop

If it were me in your situation I'd drastically reduce dc's time at nursery. Paying almost seven hundred a month as a sahm would immediately give you a huge boost to savings. Maybe instead you could find a local playgroup and he could go a couple mornings a week for a fraction of what you are paying.

The obvious saving here is the nursery fee - it must be almost 50% of your partner's net income.

I was wondering about take home pay. I’ve just inputted £20k into a salary calculator and it said the take-home monthly pay is approx. £1400. The £750 nursery fee and £250 rent means you have less than £500 per month left over. With that you need to pay for clothes, food, presents, haircuts, toiletries etc. No wonder money is tight.

Hi, are you claiming all the help you can with nursery fees? child Tax credits, help through universal credits. Could you reduce the hours until you get the 3 year old funding. If in receipt of curtain benefits who may even get help from age 2.

I'm pretty good at saving the pennies through years of necessity and now just to see the bank balance grow.
I make use of loyalty cards and use the Lidl app when grocery shopping.

I use receipt scanning apps ( storewards, huyu, zipzero and shoppix ) I'm almost up to £30 Amazon vouchers in 4 months.

I track every purchase which is tedious but highlights overspending. There are apps that do this, money dashboard is good one.

Top up shops during the week were an issue for us so we switched to milk delivery and bulk buy bread to freeze. Now we can eek out a grocery shop to every ten days.

I've put some money into my
Monzo savings today to start the emergency fund. Only £30 but it's a start hey!
I'm feeling determined to start saving and get rid of debts

If you’re not working atm I’d cut the nursery fees . Try to find work which is opposite hours to your partner . Perhaps not possible until we approach more normality?

Meal plan and buy seasonal .
Avoid expensive foods like out of season berries in the middle of winter etc .
Buy in bulk and when on offer as much as possible .
Reduce clothes for yourself esp cheaper items , buy good quality clothes in the sale but only if when you need them .
Buy clothes for your son in the sales in the next size up . The better quality the better as you can resell it .
Buy one pair of properly fitting shoes for your son and perhaps a pair of wellies for wet weather . Children really don’t need a lot of clothes . Can you buy some bundles on Facebook ?
Wear handmedowns from friends’ children and then offer to pass your sons on to someone else .
Buy a good flask for hot drinks and avoid coffee shops like your life depends on it . Bake treats instead .
Buy items in charity shops and sell them on Facebook ( avoids ebay fees )
Have a car boot sale when they start up again . Try to work out what sells well and perhaps try to source your own stock for a regular stall .
Use cashback websites when shopping online.
When shopping online leave items in your basket for a few days to decide if you really want / need it.
Use zipzero to scan receipts . You can put the money towards any direct debit bills such as mobile phone.
Have a read about matched betting . I did it for about 6 months a couple of years ago and made just over £3 k . I used a paid site called Oddsmonkey to help me learn the ropes .

I started using chip earlier in the year and have done really well with it and have a grand saved now, I did have more but withdrew twice for emergencies so I'm really going to target myself to have a £3k buffer.
Think it will take a while but will follow here for tips.
During lockdown I did start a spreadsheet and list all my spending religiously and noticed I have a bad habit on ebay, £5 here £10 there, some things I did need but some were clearly boredom buys.

I'd agree with pp that meal planning is a must. Batch cooking helps to avoid spending money for lunches.

There are things in online banking to help with saving like saving on change so when you spend it rounds it up so you don't notice it's happening. It's something small but it'll all add up.

Shopping around for insurance and utilities bills helps. I saved money on my fibre broadband and went sim only on my mobile contract which was so much cheaper. I exchange kids clothes with friends so I don't spend as much as new ones but my LO gets new things to wear.

Joining also. I'm an impulsive spender. With the shops closed, I just shop online instead.
We're building a house so if i can cut back spending on unnecessary items, i hope to have money towards doing up the garden this time next year.

@HedgieHog

I started using chip earlier in the year and have done really well with it and have a grand saved now, I did have more but withdrew twice for emergencies so I'm really going to target myself to have a £3k buffer. Think it will take a while but will follow here for tips. During lockdown I did start a spreadsheet and list all my spending religiously and noticed I have a bad habit on ebay, £5 here £10 there, some things I did need but some were clearly boredom buys.

Is it easy to use?

Yes @mummyof4kids it’s an app that automatically takes money roughly every 4 days from your bank account, it has different levels of what it takes and the day it’s taking something you get an alert so could stop it happening
I’ve stopped it a few times and also paused it doing “saves” over December
I’ve withdrawn from it and it took about 24 hours
It’s working for me

Look up Dave Ramsey and do a zero degree budget.

Take a look at the £10 a day thread for earning extra money.

I've halfed my water bill by only showering every 2 days to wash my hair and the other days just use a sponge and a bowl of water to wash my body. I also put a bucket in the shower to collect the water rather than have it go down the drain and use it for watering plants and flushing the toilet. Also reuse dishes so we don't have so much washing up and can save water that way too. For example if DS has toast for breakfast I will use the same plate for my sandwich at lunch time or if we are having leftovers one of us will have a plate and the other eats directly from the tupperware that was used for storage in the fridge.

I also try and save bits and pieces for DS to use in craft activities rather than buying loads of craft materials. Especially this time of year we save the colourful wrappers from roses/quality street, nice wrapping paper, cut off the pictures and glittery bits from christmas cards and they usually get used in collages or robot building.
We also save toilet roll tubes, water bottles, tin foil etc and use it for crafts. And DS draws on scrap paper like the reverse side of letters, cardboard packaging, I've saved a fortune on paper.

It isn't a massive saving but I unplug the internet overnight and when we leave the house for long periods of time. Some days the internet is only on for about 6 hours when we are awake at home but if you're working from home there obviously isn't so much saving to be made.

Is it worth paying 689 pound a month for childcare it's over 8 thousand pounds a year for nursery out of your partners wage. if you looked after ds that money could go Into a savings account. When they get abit older they will get their free hours to get them ready for school perhaps you could work then if you work part time now whilst your lo is at nursery are you going to be able to earn more than what you pay in child care. I can appreciate not everyone wants to look after their children full time and also it is really good socially for the child.
I think you would be hard pushed to get a mortgage with a 20k salary and whatever you can make working part time minus your nursery fees when you go to the bank they will ask for your outgoings and make a calculation off of that not just what you earn

Saving for a mortgage was a tough few years.
We had a combined income of £70k + without bonuses & I was pregnant when we applied so few white lies to the bank.....
Struggled to get a mortgage even with a rather healthy deposit (stupid south east) and to get there we did literally nothing.
Few bargain weeks away in the space of 4 years, sold the car & replaced it with a freebee from a friend (1 good commute meant partner could cycle so we only ran 1 car) bought nothing, did nothing & ate a lot of bottom shelf baked beans. I didn't cut my hair for about 2 years & the classiest place we went for dinner was pizza express with a 50% off coupon. Every spare penny went in the saving pot.
2 older kids already made a big difference to what we could be offered so try & be sensible with your spending a long way out from applying so the behaviours stick & the bank can see it.
They look at everything. Good luck with the job hunt. You'll want to be in the job at least a year when you apply as well to show stability with income. Even if it's not your dream job stick it out then once you've got your forever home you can shop around.
Best of luck