Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

Need help making budget swaps

31 replies

Miratea · 07/02/2025 14:24

Sorry if this is confusing, Someone just helped me do a budget but it’s just so I can see where my money is currently going. we haven’t yet properly looked at how it can be changed or cut back on but there are some obvious things. I have £20 a week left over for anything I need like clothes or to save which isn’t sustainable at all. To name a few, I currently spend £70 a month on herbal tea. I get through hundreds of teabags. It’s for my anxiety and I am constantly drinking it. It’s easy to say cut that out but then what will replace it? Anxiety pastilles are £40 a month rounded up, I think they’re £9 for one tin and I get 1 a week, and they enable me to leave my house. I am on anxiety medication now but that enables me to sleep.
next biggest expenses are dog food, can I just give her chicken rice and vegetables or something like that or do I better not?once a week I could cook it all at once

OP posts:
Apfelkuchen · 07/02/2025 17:28

What are your bills like? Your kettle must be in constant use, hiking your electricity bills. Using a teapot or large flask would help to eke out one herbal teabag and one kettle of water, cutting costs in both areas.

Hellohah · 07/02/2025 17:29

Miratea · 07/02/2025 15:01

No she’s not on a raw diet she’s on lilys kitchen.
The £70 figure it just estimated based on if I have a box a day. I easily get through that, even with using twice. It could be more it’s not the brand that’s an issue. I don’t drink water as much and don’t drink juice etc. I am prepared to make sacrifices for things if there’s something that can replace them.

I feed raw but used to have Lily's Kitchen for those times I forgot to get his food out of the freezer :(
It's about £18 for 6 tins, ridiculously expensive.

I've started getting Wainwrights from Pets at Home which is considerably cheaper and he's fine on that when he has it.

Miratea · 07/02/2025 17:48

I have had professional mental health help a number of times in the past and they have always suggested I implement coping mechanisms, anything that helps my anxiety. And tea is one of them. I just want to focus on a few things at a time to stop it being overwhelming, I don’t know if loose tea in a teapot is better. I don’t know how much it costs to heat water for my tea all the time but I assumed that was negligible, I don’t know why

OP posts:
CombatBarbie · 07/02/2025 17:53

Your kettle is a high usage white good so will be affecting your electric bill.

SophieV80 · 07/02/2025 18:46

Disregarding the health issues with drinking so much fluid, get yourself a flask. You'd get a few cups out of one tea bag and one boil of the kettle.

LittleBearPad · 07/02/2025 18:50

30 cups of a tea is a lot!

Get a teapot. It might be more cost effective but try to also space them out. You must be constantly drinking.

Go back to your gp as what meds you’re on aren’t working.

Do you work?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread