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Original poster

Stop wasting money support thread. Lets get frugal!

149 replies

LoveMyGirls · 01/10/2008 12:45

I don't want to cut all spending I just want to cut down our spending so we can pay off the overdraught by christmas but at the moment it's not going well which is why I've decided to start this thread, those that want to join me can, those who don't want to join then your support would also be welcome.

I think if i write on here what I spend everyday I can see where to stop wasting money, it's also public so I'm open to others telling me where I could be saving money too. Any tips on organising our money better would also be apreciated.

At the moment we have seperate accounts (well one is joint but dp has lost his pin for his card)

Joint account is £2000 overdrawn. (reasons for this are I lost part of my income in August/ september and dd2's birthday and my mum's birthday too)
dp's bank - dp has just been paid he has £1000 in his bank.
Savings has £70 (went in by SO today)

Typical monthly spending is £2,470 a month

Typical earnings from next week are £3,100 per month

We have 2 childen and 2 cars (he needs his to travel for work, I need mine for work too) I shop at aldi and meal plan.

Total spend for today..

petrol £20
toddler group £2
brownies £1.50 = £23.50

OP posts:
mamadiva · 03/10/2008 08:50

Flamebat I'm the same but I think frozen veg is nicer anyway, I love the little bags of peas and the steam carrots are lovely! And it does seem a false economy buying fresh if they don't get used.

I would love to buy from the butchers and local farm store etc but I just can't afford it although am tempted to try it and see have never actually went near .

I hate giving my money to supermarkets but economy wins dooesn't it.

Flamebat · 03/10/2008 08:52

Costs a lot less to buy a big bag of value/smartprice mixed veg

I do loooove the steam ones though

lulumama · 03/10/2008 08:55

am buying more frozen veg, doing menu planning and using up all left overs. made DH a frittata last night with left over roast sweet and white potatoes that were lurking in the fridge for a few days. food is my biggest wastage. so if i meal plan, get what i need for those meals, it works out so much better.

mamadiva · 03/10/2008 08:59

I'd definately say food is the main thing we could cut down on too, meal planning is key and I find if I make meals in advance sometimes like I am amking a pot of bolognaise tonight so will use other half of mince to make a pot of chilli and freeze. This way I am less likely to stray away from menu!

Chocolateteapot · 03/10/2008 14:49

My Mini oven has arrived and has an apple crumble in it. It is small and although the instructions show a roast chicken, I think you'd be pushing it a bit. But it will be fine for smaller pieces of meat, sausages, fishfingers, jacket potatoes, cakes, pies etc.

It does get very hot on the top and it works by turning a timer on which then ticks and could maybe get a bit annoying. Have the slow cooker and the little oven on and it uses less electricity than one ring on my electric cooker.

Have spent £10 on petrol, £1 on cat food and will need to spend about £7 on some medicine later.

UnfortunatelyMe · 03/10/2008 17:50

gordonthegopher whats with the vampire bites??!!
I have spent £9.55 today in Iceland.
And £2 in a charity shop, one book for me, one for dd2.

beautifuldays · 03/10/2008 18:14

how on earth do you feed 4 of you on £45 a week

just got back from tesco and am £60 worse off. also the car was playing up and cost me £25 at the garage - but i did haggle them down from £75

Flamebat · 03/10/2008 23:25

I'm not too sure tbh - will look at my menu and get back to you

Original poster
LoveMyGirls · 04/10/2008 08:01

Hi everyone, good to see you're all doing well, still trying which is the point.

It didnt go to plan on thursday ended up spending £40 in home bargains (though the stuff i brought there was needed and it would have cost a lot more somewhere else eg £2.99 for 18 decent loo rolls) the only I brought that I could have lived without was a new duvet for our room but we only had one and it is looking tatty now and was only £7.

I need to go food shopping today and get my mum a birthday card and go for a meal tonight to celebrate so today isn't going to be good but tomorrow I plan to spend as little as possible (although my family have travelled down and i think we're going out to meet for breakfast)

OP posts:
fedupandisolated · 04/10/2008 08:10

I'll be in for this too - am moving into a private rented place next month and will have very little spare cash then.

Original poster
LoveMyGirls · 05/10/2008 20:33

Hi F&I welcome

yesterday was a total write off today i spent £2.50 though

OP posts:
scaryteacher · 06/10/2008 11:25

spent nothing yesterday...today 20 euro for school lunches for the week (will make packed ones for ds as well), have to buy bread today for breakfast and lunches.

GordonTheGhoul · 06/10/2008 19:55

UnfortunatelyMe it was for a thread a while back... we thought dh had been bitten by a snake... turned out to be midges.

I almost had a zero spend but ordered ds a bed warmer toy as he's been so cold recently!

expatinscotland · 06/10/2008 20:02

spent nothing today.

will spend some tomorrow as have to go into town for midwife appointment. so will pay council tax (£118), get DD1's haircut (£6), DH's haircut (£6) and about £4 worth of petrol.

Flamebat · 06/10/2008 20:04

Shopping went over the budget this week (the supermarket bit, not done the meat bit yet), and I have no idea how as I think we have less than last week

Spent nothing today

GordonTheGhoul · 06/10/2008 20:05

Expat have you tried cutting their hair yourself?

expatinscotland · 06/10/2008 20:11

no, Gordon, and don't intend to.

i cut my own because it is much, much more expensive than theirs.

DH is very particular about how his hair is cut. i can respect that.

DD1's hair is my crowning glory - it is so beautiful: the colour of chesnuts with golden streaks in it, hangs down past the middle of her back like a sheet and shines like gossamer.

the vast majority of folk here have dark hair, so her hair sticks out even more.

i'd go without meals rather than have anyone but a professional touching her hair.

JustKeepSwimming · 06/10/2008 20:28

oh, dh and i should really join this thread together!
as someone else said, how do you know what he is spending at work, i know he buys lunch, and prob dinner too (as he works funny hours). plus coffees/bacon sandwiches/etc.

today i spent:

  • £1.98 on christmas wrapping paper (cheap stuff for the kids which will be recycled don't worry!)
  • petrol to nursery and back
  • am bidding £3.50 on various Ebay toys for Christmas presents...

so not bad

yesterday was £0 (just remembered papers are delivered, so that's about £3 on a sunday )
tomorrow shouldn't be too bad - petrol to nursery and back, free bf group, jobs at home...

2point4kids · 06/10/2008 20:31

I need a thread like this!

Our incomings are being cut back all over the place and I desperately need to cut back on the outgoings too.

Today was a good day. I didnt spend anything really. It was DS's birthday and we spent the whole day at the in laws with the family.

bobthebuddha · 06/10/2008 22:37

Our overdraft is hideous and dwarfs the OP's . These days I meal plan and buy little and often like in ye olden days - if you have a local veg seller and butcher and get friendly with them they will give you stuff cheap. If we're really skint they even do stuff on tick. TBH I couldn't do stuff like that last year when I was office-bound and grabbing stuff from Tesco on the way home.

Haven't bought a magazine in months - I just swipe them out of other people's green boxes on recycling day . I cannot believe how much money I used to waste on them. I also cannot believe how much DH still wastes on gadget and games mags. They cost loads more than women's ones!

JustKeepSwimming · 07/10/2008 12:28

well, stopped off at charity shop to have a look for some books for me and bought 3 and saw a perfect christmas present of a tractor/digger thing for 75p so:

today:
£2.40 so far...

JustKeepSwimming · 08/10/2008 20:31

yesterday:
£2.40
£20 cash out of machine
£10 of which to babysitter while i went to orchestra (normally £5 but i had let her down the week before and felt bad)
so is that 22.40 or 12.40?
12.40 i guess as 10 was left in my wallet.

today:
0.60 gingerbread man for ds1 for being good at pre-school visit
should include the takeaway curry but dh paid

so 0.60, that looks good!

Original poster
LoveMyGirls · 09/10/2008 08:10

I need to post here daily, my overdraught is getting worse, this was not the plan! Today it is £2,200 the rent has just come out

I can't cut back on food because I need to provide proper meals for dd's and the children I mind I guess I could buy less snack stuff I'll see how it goes this week.

No more big expenditures until my birthday now so I'm going to try really hard for the next few months.

Dp was going to take sandwiches today but we didn't have enough bread so theres money down the drain but if he had taken the bread i'd have had to go to the shop with 3 lo's which is a mission, next time I will make more effort! The annoying thing is he went to the shop last night but I didn't think about bread.

Today I'm only going to spend £2

OP posts:
JustKeepSwimming · 09/10/2008 09:30

LMG - cheaper snacks from cheaper shops, lidl, etc?

Well i signed ds1 up to pre-school from nov so that's added cost, told dh my maternity has finished so he is sorting me out with some cash plus said i need to get a winter coat so he added £200 on top! think i find a cheaper coat than that somehow!!
(he just bought himself a 200 quid one so is feeling guilty)

right, today:
playgroup - £1.20
have to go supermarket shopping, asda as they have the trolley i need for 2 DCs, not going to go up and down every aisle though as only need fresh things, milk, fruit, etc.
may try park this afternoon which should be free unless we go to the cafe

Mercy · 09/10/2008 09:44

Also, stock your freezer with bread. I usually have 5 loaves in there to last us a week/10 days.

Avoid buying breakfast, coffee or lunch as that really uses up the money. Ditto magazines - when I worked we used to bring in our old ones and share them around the office.