Evening lovelies!
Anyone else finding the beginning of the year a bit of a come down after all the manic hype surrounding December/Christmas/New Year? In our house all the major 'milestones' like birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Valentines Day etc. fall between the months of October and February. It can be abit of a strain but at least it gives our savings plenty of time to recover! I would hate for October to come around again and to be worrying about not having enough money to pay for everything!
I wouldn't consider myself exceptionally 'frugal' or 'thrifty' especially not compared to the lovely Vintage Vixen or A Thrifty Mrs but I do believe in not spending more than is necessary and not getting into debt just to 'buy' something! There are a few simple things I do to help save the pennies including:
Putting back some money for a rainy day
For the last few years I have strictly put £10 a week from my wages into a separate bank account. A bank account that I do not have a card or pin number for, so it is very hard to get money out of there unnecessarily! It comes out of my bank account the same day as my wages go in, so I don't even notice that it has gone. I do notice though that when it is time to tax my car, pay an unexpected bill or start buying Christmas presents I am not quite so worried as I know I have a little pot of money stashed away for such an eventuality.
Using restaurant vouchers
If you want to go out to eat and a restaurant you like has an offer/voucher deal on then why would you want to pay more than you need to for your meal?! I think I can probably count the amount of times I ate out without a voucher in the last year on one hand! It always seems to taste better when you know that it probably cost you half of what the lady at the next table eating the same dinner will pay for it!
Not going food shopping without a list
I am pretty damn forgetful and indecisive! So going food shopping without a list is largely going to result in purchases that you cannot rustle up 1 decent meal from, never mind a weeks worth of dinners! Cue several more equally disastrous and expensive trips to the shops throughout the rest of the week. Now I sit down and work out a weeks meal plan, make a list, buy it and know I will have food for the week and not spend an age deciding what to have for dinner each night or have a cupboard full of food I will never end up eating!
Do you have any simple money savings tips that you now wouldn't be without?
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I do the meal plan/shopping list thing. Very little gets wasted at all. It also means the cupboard remains bear of all the treats I would scoff, so its win-win
ReplyDeleteFab post m'dear! My Mum and I save all our silver coins for a guilt free shopping spree a couple of times a year. Last time we had £100 each in 4 months without even noticing we were saving! x
ReplyDeleteI meal plan weekly which saves us a fortune. I also shop for gifts whilst the sales are on.
ReplyDeleteX x
Some good tips. I 'waste' a lot of money on food. We don't have a freezer and have 3 supermarkets at the end of our road so we go shopping every night without a list...so you can see how we make unnecessary purchases!
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Great suggestions - I always encourage people to set up a direct debit into a savings account too as it makes saving so easy - you don't even need to think about it!
ReplyDeleteCurrently I'm trying to take a packed lunch to work instead of buying something as it works out so much cheaper!
Great post, and some good tips.
ReplyDeleteI do the same with putting money into an online account to avoid nasty bills wiping out my wages.
Changing clubcard points for money off vouchers for spas/days out is my top tip, especially for birthday presents etc.
xx
Wise words and great points. I do the same and years ago automatically set up a standing order to transfer money into my savings account at the beginning of each month, that way i never have to save for a holiday as it's there already.
ReplyDeleteLists are brilliant, too. x
I agree about the grocery list! We spend a lot lott on groceries, especially when we're hungry!And that piggy bank is adorable
ReplyDeleteI work my savings slightly differently but it's stacking up nicely so I'm happy :)
ReplyDeleteThe big thing I do is work out roughly what car tax, insurance and MOT costs per year, divide it by 12 and put that amount away per month in a savings accounts called (cleverly) Car. It means that the dreaded car insurance bill doesn't have to bankrupt me cos the money is already there and waiting and it doesn't get mixed up with my other savings. Plus paying car insurance annually rather than monthly saves a heck of a lot of money!
Great tips, I always meal plan and only buy what I need from the Supermarket, it makes life so much easier (and cheaper) to do it that way! xxx
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