Economising
Five tips to economising:
1. Remember, no amount of Coca Cola lined up in your fridge can make you truly happy - just walk past the 2 for £5, you don't need it.
1. Remember, no amount of Coca Cola lined up in your fridge can make you truly happy - just walk past the 2 for £5, you don't need it.
2. The heating should not be switched on until mid-Novemeber, when the first frosts form. Get another jumper out of the wardrobe.
3. Yellow stickers only work if you have staples in the cupboard to actually make a meal. Remember, a saving of 52p on a packet of steak, millionaires, it will not make.
4. Bulk buying does not work. If you buy 6 bottles of Chateau instead of 1 to save 25%, thinking you will store the other 5, trust me, you will not. You WILL drink all 6 in a week
5. Cancel all direct debits you think are unnecessary. I mean, who needs 4 gym subscriptions?
My wife and I are quite fortuanate, we're part of that demographic; early thirties, homeowners, both at a good place in our careers and, as yet, no children to bleed the bank accounts dry. We have the diposable income to do the things we always wanted to do as teenagers. For example; always having cans of Coke in the fidge and buying two pairs of converse just because I like them in blue and grey, going out for dinner every Friday and Saturday night for no other reason other than it's the weekend.
Of course, this kind of frivolous spending came to a head when we returned from our summer holiday at the end of August and quickly realised that, since we bought our current house 18 months ago, we have accumilated a grand total of £0 in the savings account. At this point I decided, not for the first time in our 9 years together, to put us on a 'financial diet'. This generally involves me cancelling every 'unnecessary' direct debit to gyms we don't attend, for magazines we don't read, for gas we are no longer going to need because I've told the wife she's not having the heating on for the next year...
Which brings me to today. We had skipped the 'big' shop due to many more important weekend activities and subsequently had a pepper and half a pint of milk in for dinner. So, after personal trainer cancelled (insert frivolous spending joke), I seized the opportunity and text the wife to meet me in Sainsburys from work. Rookie mistake.
We had no list. No idea what was in the cupboards. And having skipped lunch at work, I was starving. When I arrived, my wife was stood in the entrance with a basket. No trolly? I innocently enquire. We've nothing in, might as well get in for the week? The eye-roll and yawn said it all. I'm tired, let's just get something for tea. She replied.
Now in all my years of going through these periods of economising, I should have know better. At this point the money police should show up with their calculators and say - you know that 'we'll just get something in for tea' never ends well when your trying to budget. But, alas, they were a no-show and I didn't intervene, I just linked arms with my wife a joyfully skipped around Sainsbury's like I was a child in a penny-mix store.
It started ok. I made a bee-line for the yellow stickers. I'm not a total economising-moron. I follow those feed-a-family-of-12-for-30p-a-year blogs, I know how to play the game! Haha-result! Thin, frying steak, reduced from £3.50 to £2.98. A saving of 52p! I'm feeling positively frugal "Let's have stir fry!" I proclaim, merilly swinging the basket as I sprint towards the veg aisle. I'm pretty sure you can get stir-fry veg, noodles and a sauce for £2. I've cracked it! Never mind feed your family for £20 a week, I can feed two lesbians for £5 a night!
Then she said it. It was almost a whisper at first. I stopped in my tracks and turned to face her, she had a look of mischief in her eye.
"I fancy fajitas."
Oh no. She said it, didn't she? Now I fancied fajitas, and not just fajitas, fajitas with all the trimmings; sour cream, cheese, chillies, salsa, refried beans. Suddenly we even had too many items to go to the short self-checkout! Should of got a bloody trolley. £17.95 later, I'm leaving Sainsbury's with one meal knowing full-well that tomorrow we will have to repeat the entire process again!
My wife and I are quite fortuanate, we're part of that demographic; early thirties, homeowners, both at a good place in our careers and, as yet, no children to bleed the bank accounts dry. We have the diposable income to do the things we always wanted to do as teenagers. For example; always having cans of Coke in the fidge and buying two pairs of converse just because I like them in blue and grey, going out for dinner every Friday and Saturday night for no other reason other than it's the weekend.
Of course, this kind of frivolous spending came to a head when we returned from our summer holiday at the end of August and quickly realised that, since we bought our current house 18 months ago, we have accumilated a grand total of £0 in the savings account. At this point I decided, not for the first time in our 9 years together, to put us on a 'financial diet'. This generally involves me cancelling every 'unnecessary' direct debit to gyms we don't attend, for magazines we don't read, for gas we are no longer going to need because I've told the wife she's not having the heating on for the next year...
Which brings me to today. We had skipped the 'big' shop due to many more important weekend activities and subsequently had a pepper and half a pint of milk in for dinner. So, after personal trainer cancelled (insert frivolous spending joke), I seized the opportunity and text the wife to meet me in Sainsburys from work. Rookie mistake.
We had no list. No idea what was in the cupboards. And having skipped lunch at work, I was starving. When I arrived, my wife was stood in the entrance with a basket. No trolly? I innocently enquire. We've nothing in, might as well get in for the week? The eye-roll and yawn said it all. I'm tired, let's just get something for tea. She replied.
Now in all my years of going through these periods of economising, I should have know better. At this point the money police should show up with their calculators and say - you know that 'we'll just get something in for tea' never ends well when your trying to budget. But, alas, they were a no-show and I didn't intervene, I just linked arms with my wife a joyfully skipped around Sainsbury's like I was a child in a penny-mix store.
It started ok. I made a bee-line for the yellow stickers. I'm not a total economising-moron. I follow those feed-a-family-of-12-for-30p-a-year blogs, I know how to play the game! Haha-result! Thin, frying steak, reduced from £3.50 to £2.98. A saving of 52p! I'm feeling positively frugal "Let's have stir fry!" I proclaim, merilly swinging the basket as I sprint towards the veg aisle. I'm pretty sure you can get stir-fry veg, noodles and a sauce for £2. I've cracked it! Never mind feed your family for £20 a week, I can feed two lesbians for £5 a night!Then she said it. It was almost a whisper at first. I stopped in my tracks and turned to face her, she had a look of mischief in her eye.
"I fancy fajitas."
Oh no. She said it, didn't she? Now I fancied fajitas, and not just fajitas, fajitas with all the trimmings; sour cream, cheese, chillies, salsa, refried beans. Suddenly we even had too many items to go to the short self-checkout! Should of got a bloody trolley. £17.95 later, I'm leaving Sainsbury's with one meal knowing full-well that tomorrow we will have to repeat the entire process again!
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