anyone cutting back on their spends?

[Krystal]

Yeah my food shopping bill has gone up to about £100 per week, we managed to reduce to about £80 so far cos we thought that was too much. I rent so not worried about increased in mortgage btu do need to look at my energy most definately

 

[Geordie&Bairn]

Sherlock can i pick your brains about cooking and preserving food please
as im not very domesticated Id be most greatful

Sure drop me a PM

Thank you Sherlock
i will do so tonight after my anti-natal class
sarah

 

[lauramumof2]

I've found that one of the things that really helps me is to write a menu for the whole week and then follow on with a list of only the essentials to make those meals plus the other necessities (sp). My shopping bill has been cut enormously by shopping this way

oh definately that. I can save a fotune planning and being carefull and sticking to the list.

 

[lauramumof2]

my combined gas and electricity bill went up from 122 a month to 150 because of our useage over the winter period. I feel thats a bit much.

 

[Happybunny]

Another great site is https://secure.petrolprices.com/login.html

You register (free) and then type in your postcode. It tells you where the cheapest petrol is that day in your area. V.cool!

Bank rang us today and offered us a lower interest rate for some giggery pokery on our account. We've ended up saving £6 a month. Not oodles, but works out about £1000 over the term of the mortgage. Better than a kick in the shin I suppose!

 

[Geordie&Bairn]

Another great site is https://secure.petrolprices.com/login.html

You register (free) and then type in your postcode. It tells you where the cheapest petrol is that day in your area. V.cool!

Bank rang us today and offered us a lower interest rate for some giggery pokery on our account. We've ended up saving £6 a month. Not oodles, but works out about £1000 over the term of the mortgage. Better than a kick in the shin I suppose!

Yeah the site above is very good My James uses it to help him with the cost od fuel.
thats great news about the Bank and yes a reduction of £1000 over all is much better then i kick in the shins

what bank are you with if you dont mind me asking?
we are trying to save towards our own home we've saved as much as we can and any extra we can do to lower the costs will be helpful. We are worried that due to the economic crash house prices may fall but banks are now being tighter about who they loan to.
so the lower the over all loan we ask for the more likely a bank will except our application
sarah

sarah

 

[Minxy]

We've conciously reduced meat consumption to 3 times a week and have recently discovered the wonders of tinned bean varietys (not baked ) and tinned fish, so cheap!

I will be growing again this year. I don't waste space on spuds and carrots, just the 'how much is THAT a bag' stuff like spinach and rocket. My lifestyle means it has to be low maintenance and that's suits us.

We're a one car family. We both work miles away but there are trains and buses.

Our main way of coping with the credit crunch is to increase income since we can't cut back much more. OH is looking for a evening job waiting on and I recently took on an extra day at work.

 

[trixipaws]

im trying my best not to piss my money away on sweets, fizzy pop and magazines! not doing that great, but iv improved!

 

[Minxy]

im trying my best not to p*ss my money away on sweets, fizzy pop and magazines! not doing that great, but iv improved!

Hmmm....what's the going rate for floral gums these days?

 

[Misslarue]

minxy I couldn't agree more about the 'how much is THAT a bag' stuff! I eat loads of rocket, which you can find growing along the sides of roads! Whether it's good to eat is another story! £1+ a bag and I go through 2 bags+ a week! It's one of the main things I'm planting this summer!

 

[Babylicious]

i've noticed a huge increase in our food shop we used to spend around £70 a week but now its more like £90, but thats all from tescos, so i've started going to farmfoods for the frozen now.

We only have one car (mine) and despite being a 1.6 it's not a guzzler. OH goes to work on his bike so I rarely fill up more than once a month.

gas & elec is £66 but we had the boiler optimized, cavity wall insulated and the loft lined so reduces our bills.

We use reusable nappies and wipes as well and we have a water meter

 

[Happybunny]

Another great site is https://secure.petrolprices.com/login.html

You register (free) and then type in your postcode. It tells you where the cheapest petrol is that day in your area. V.cool!

Bank rang us today and offered us a lower interest rate for some giggery pokery on our account. We've ended up saving £6 a month. Not oodles, but works out about £1000 over the term of the mortgage. Better than a kick in the shin I suppose!

Yeah the site above is very good My James uses it to help him with the cost od fuel.
thats great news about the Bank and yes a reduction of £1000 over all is much better then i kick in the shins

what bank are you with if you dont mind me asking?
we are trying to save towards our own home we've saved as much as we can and any extra we can do to lower the costs will be helpful. We are worried that due to the economic crash house prices may fall but banks are now being tighter about who they loan to.
so the lower the over all loan we ask for the more likely a bank will except our application
sarah

sarah

We are with The One Account. It is a great system, basically you have an overdraft as big as your mortgage and then all your money goes in to the account every month. You pay bills and living expenses as normal, but any extra left over at the end of the month goes towards paying off your mortgage.
It means the more you leave in your account at the end of the month, the more of your mortgage/interest you are clearing (in essence, over paying to clear the debt quicker.)
It can work the other way too - if you are having a really tight month, you don't have to pay as much on your mortgage. (But best to make sure you over pay again when back on your feet)

You can get really clever too. You could get a 0% interest for 6 months credit card. Get the full balance of the card and stick it into your account. The money would sit there for 6 months (DON'T SPEND IT) and the interest from it goes towards clearing your mortgage (a few hundred pounds - not to be sniffed at). At the end of the 6 months you pay back the credit card and cut it up. You have to be ultra organised to do this though to make sure you don't spend the money and pay back the credit card before they charge you interest.

 

[Geordie&Bairn]

Another great site is https://secure.petrolprices.com/login.html

You register (free) and then type in your postcode. It tells you where the cheapest petrol is that day in your area. V.cool!

Bank rang us today and offered us a lower interest rate for some giggery pokery on our account. We've ended up saving £6 a month. Not oodles, but works out about £1000 over the term of the mortgage. Better than a kick in the shin I suppose!

Yeah the site above is very good My James uses it to help him with the cost od fuel.
thats great news about the Bank and yes a reduction of £1000 over all is much better then i kick in the shins

what bank are you with if you dont mind me asking?
we are trying to save towards our own home we've saved as much as we can and any extra we can do to lower the costs will be helpful. We are worried that due to the economic crash house prices may fall but banks are now being tighter about who they loan to.
so the lower the over all loan we ask for the more likely a bank will except our application
sarah

sarah

We are with The One Account. It is a great system, basically you have an overdraft as big as your mortgage and then all your money goes in to the account every month. You pay bills and living expenses as normal, but any extra left over at the end of the month goes towards paying off your mortgage.
It means the more you leave in your account at the end of the month, the more of your mortgage/interest you are clearing (in essence, over paying to clear the debt quicker.)
It can work the other way too - if you are having a really tight month, you don't have to pay as much on your mortgage. (But best to make sure you over pay again when back on your feet)

You can get really clever too. You could get a 0% interest for 6 months credit card. Get the full balance of the card and stick it into your account. The money would sit there for 6 months (DON'T SPEND IT) and the interest from it goes towards clearing your mortgage (a few hundred pounds - not to be sniffed at). At the end of the 6 months you pay back the credit card and cut it up. You have to be ultra organised to do this though to make sure you don't spend the money and pay back the credit card before they charge you interest.

THANK YOU
I'll talk to James and show him you advice when he come's home on Friday
it sounds like some grest advice and will look into your bank and the credit card thing
thank you agian your a star

 

[lisa&alex]

i worked out that we should have 800 quid spare a month.. lol.. i need serious belt tightening! worked out all our bills re-directed some of my direct debits.. and im going to save money for the mot and repares every month..and alex is starting driving lessons so thats 200 quid pm gone. if i can save 200 quid pm il b really happy.. that leave us 50 quid pw for extras.

 

[Minime]

I dont have a credit card but have been watching money saving expert about the cashback credit card so might go for one of them.

Also I'm a sucker for BOGOF's so I've set myself a challenge next month to buy ONLY things that are BOGOF or special offer which will mean trying out new things instead of getting the same old each shop.

 

[kalia]

We don't have a TV so we don't have to pay for a TV license (or sky) and I don't spend my life hypnotised by the shiny box of lights If we had one, I would sit down to watch for 15 minutes and then 3 hours later realise I had wasted an evening and watched nothing interesting. We buy DVDs of what we want to watch, which works out much cheaper for us, and it is perfectly legal to watch BBC iPlayer without a license (I checked) so we will have children's TV on demand if we want it for LO.

We are only a 15 min bus journey into town so we don't have a car. If we ever feel we need one we hire - it costs £35 to hire a corsa for Friday to Monday, including insurance and road tax.

We don't use much electricity - OH is obsessed with turning things off at the wall (which I often don't do ) and I'm obsessed with switching lights off if there's no one in the room (OH often leaves a room and doesn't switch off the light). So between us we're pretty energy efficient.

I got a deal through my gas and electricity supplier for insulation so they did our whole attic (around 25' by 25') for £26

I grew potatoes last year but that was just for fun!

My money is in high interest accounts and I regularly over pay my mortgage so that when my fixed price deal is up I don't have a huge shock and have to pay lots more each month. Or at least I hope I won't.

Our main extravagance is food. We mostly shop at M and S and Sainsbury's. I know Asda is cheaper but it's also further away and more hassle to get to. And we spend a lot less if we do several little shops a week as when we do big shops it all seems to go wrong and we end up throwing out lots of food.

 

[leckershell]

At least it's not just us that are struggling... in the nicest possible way. It's crazy - between us we have a decent income coming in but it all still goes out and we wonder where it's gone at the end of the month! I haven't noticed food going up in price, but this month we were landed with £40 a month direct debit of water (instead of £45 for 3 months in the old house), 2 new car tires, and the past 2 months we've paid out nearly £400 in gas and electric. The utilities really have become extortionate and it makes me so miserable to feel poor when we bust our asses so hard to get the money in. I'm probably going to have to get an evening job... it's so crap, I feel like we are working to pay the bills and the amount of time we actually get at home together as a couple is not a lot and we always have no money to spend! It's crazy. Maybe I should give up work and go on benefits, at least then I'd be poor but get to stay at home with Ryan instead of busting my ass off at work.

 

[Princess_Puddles]

The goverment will soon realise when more people go on benefits cause they cant afford to live, cause then you can sit on your bum be happy and not struggle, alot of people become ill over worrying about money, & quite a few relationships break down or suffer through it, I know I'm bl88dy stressed at the moment, I want my Son to be happy and have luxuries! Its not fair that people have to work all day everyday to survive, we only have one life and I think we should be able to spend more time with out families cause one day they wont be there. Its ridiculous what this world has come to, everything revolves around money!

 

[lisanat]

We are taking drastic action and moving in with the inlaws!!!
Dh works quite a long way from us and it's costing us about 300 a month at least in petrol- he's a teacher and as there are no jobs down here at the moment theres no choice. We just keep going over our overdraft and its just going to get worse if we don't do something. I just can't believe how mch things have gone up. The potatoes I normally get went up to 1.99 from 1.39 in the space of a week- Im going to start growing my own!!

xxx