Spring cleaning finances

After some lots of thinking time on our holiday recently Jed and I decided it was time to buckle down and get ourselves out of debt.

I have written a list of expenses with having the most important at the top and the least one the bottom. The least important was getting the paper home delivered....Jed is devistated and says he misses it. hmmm I dont know how he could cause he only use to read it every second day and somenights it was still wrapped up on the kitchen table.
SO have decided it is on expense that is GOING!!!!
WOrked out that it is $4.40 a week = $17.20 a month = $114 a year
now whilst that doesnt look like alot..that small amount can wack the interest on our car loan quiet a bit.

What other no essential expenses do you consider choppable?

For us it's Basketball. DH used to play 4 times a week at $8 a pop! He also used to travel an hour for 1 game a week. So when you factor in petrol etc it got quite expensive. I've just worked out that he was spending $1664 a year on bball :o not including petrol. Now he plays twice a week.

take aways ... got the chop from us aaages ago ... unless we are desperate

cleaning prodcts were a waste of $$ for us , so we do enjo now

toys & clothing , we now buy once every 3 mths , instead of here and there .

magaziens

i agree with the paper , DH gets it every day ! i reckon its a waste when you can read it online these days

Been thinking about it here too. The newspaper is a waste too for us, I can't remember the last time I read it but DH is adament he *needs* it. Lunches out at work are a big spend, the project car that hasn't been touched for 3 years, Foxtel (no time and nothing on) hmmm what else?
Mobiles have been changed to prepaid as we don't use them much, signed up for loyalty rewards with gas/electricity companies recently, reduced our internet plan to match usage.....
My DH feels like it is all his stuff that is getting the chop (fair enough too as it is, but I don't exactly spend stuff on me very often) - tricky to balance the needs and wants isn't it? Good luck on your quest - I am slowly chipping away....

The one magazine DH refuses to live without we now subscribe to, so that has saved us about $80 a year as there is a 47% saving to subscribers. Just trying to get him to stop buying another that he barely reads.

Have put my foot down with juice. I buy 2 bottles a week and when they are gone, they are gone. DH loves his juice with dinner (his waistline is hating though) and to me it is an extravagance.

We use to have takeaway every fortnight but with 6 of us in the family it was costing us $50+ (3 boys eat like horses)
SO I now make our takeaway and the kids love it. It will only cost us $10 max and the kids get so much out of making it.
Pizza with pita base bottoms, taco's another night, our own KFC.

Probably much healthier too :lol:

I cant get over $8 a game of basketball tink...OMG that is unreal!!!!
Niklolaus played last season and it was $4 a game....ive decided to let him do the after school sports program through the school again....it cost nothing and he's nice and itred when he gets home after school ;).
Ive also taken to doing bingo duty at school to save $60 per boy attending of our school fee's.

I might have to look into enjo now.

Mak - I joined the loyalty programs throught my gas/electricity...should be coming into fruitition this summer to put us ahead :)

Ive gotta get at jed to finsih cleaning down the side of the house so I can expand my vegie gardern too
Ebay might get a big influx of some of my excess goodies too...im on a mission lol

School canteen. It might happen once in a blue moon here, say every 3 months if someone remembers.
I only buy new clothes etc for christmas & birthdays. Everything else comes from op shops...unless its a bargain sale & I have spare $$.

ETA: After school sports are great aren't they!! We have it twice a week here!!

:hide: Baking more and buying less lunchbox snacks.

Besides wanting to be rid of the additives, I'm saving stacks! I almost died from shock when I had a slack attack and bought museli bars and le snacks before school one morning and they cost a bomb!

The kids love getting a cupcake or a cookie too.

I need to cut down badly, but I dont know where.... :doh: We are getting pretty far into the red at the moment...... :redface:

We dont do takeaway, I clean the whole house with bicarb and vinegar, cried poor and got a reduction of school fees.... I just dont know how to cut costs anymore, the accounts are going backwards!!! :rolleyes:

Ad is trying so hard to get any work, he applies for at least 2/3 daily.... poor thing.....

We did this ages ago. Andrew used to complain that while we cut the crud we still had no money. Little did he know an extra $90 a month was being put onto the home loan. The mortgage is our only debt. He only just found out last week about the extra $90, and I have been doing it now for a good year or so.

We dropped Thursday night take-away, hiring DVD's, & buying magazine's willy nilly including the TV Week. I also stopped impulse buying. The "oh I might just go to the shop and while I am there I might buy a game for the PC, or a brand new DVD or something the boys just have to have but really don't need"

I also at the time cut up Andrew's ATM card. I would notice $10 here $15 there go out of the account once or twice a week. He has since re-gained an ATM card (we changed banks) but I am thinking of doing it again as it is starting to happen again.

Have credit card debt here, but it is actually cheaper to pay the interest on DH's max out card than to pay it off. :rolleyes: Him with a clear credit card is just plain dangerous, I was clearing it every month and it ate all our savings. He would draw cash our of it constantly and also at a local ATM so we were getting hit with so many fees, all because he wanted lunch with a damn juice!!

Sammi - yourve inspired me to bake...the kids would go nuts over muffins and thank god we dont have a school canteen.

:ROFL: Kathryn...im the one that needs the cards cut up..im a self confessed shop a holic but im slowly getting better....hehehehe

Ive gotta get back to shoppingonce a fortnight to...I find going to the shop's every 3rd day for just one or 2 things ends up costing $100 a trip.....I do buy bread and milk in bulk, the looks I get when I have 12 loaves of bread and 4 bottles of 3L milk in my trolley

i was also going to suggest cutting up credit cards and using debit only, we have mastercard debit so if we dont have the cash to get something it waits.
we shop at aldi which saves heaps, buy meat in bulk

We really watch the little things we add to the shopping. DH is the worst for seeing personal stuff he thinks he needs and throwing it into the trolley like deoderant. He has about 6 deoderants going at the moment. Even foods like pasta, bin bags, tissues and tinned stuff he's alway putting in and we have about 4 packets of pasta, 6 boxes of tissues...I'm sure you get the picture! I have told him to stick to the list now!
We were also using the dryer alot through winter even though we didn't really need to we just got really lazy. So now we make sure we only use it if it's raining or if things aren't dry.
We looked at our internet and phone contracts to see if we could get better deals. And our electricity and gas too.

DH takes lunch to work... saves us heaps, not just because he doesn't buy lunch (well.. he does once a week I think) but because he doesn't feel the need to get so much cash out all the time!

We went through the credit card and got rid of 'forgotten' subscriptions. Things like Choice, various software licences, and other online subscriptions that we had but don't really use or need anymore. It was surprising how they all added up. in doing this I found out that we'd been paying insurance on the car we sold a year ago! LOL.. so that was a bonus.. got $700+ back from NRMA for that!

I buy a regular amount of petrol each tuesday, for some reason buying $30 a week is cheaper than actually using up the tank and refilling it... haven't work out why yet LOL.. but it stays within budget this way. I do need to remind DH tho when he gets fuel not to fill up.. just to get the $30.

I've been getting good at doing weekly shopping and planning the meals for the week. Not sure it's necessarily saving money.. but I can budget for it better. Trouble is having people round for dinners and stuff that throws in an extra shop.. which then has various nibblies and extras in it. LOL. Maybe I need to budget for entertaining.

I'm also going to do proper menu planning and budget what I need and shop for that to see if it helps to budget better. Going to try to keep my grocery shop at $200 or less. Some weeks I don't spend that much in one hunk but then we end up going back for more stuff and end up spending more :rolleyes:

Does Jed take his lunch or buy it?

Jed didnt do lunch for 2 years :rolleyes: although Ive now gotten him to take mixed nuts and cuppa soups to work. I dont know how he does it not eating until night time.....would make me :sick:

I like filling the car with petrol with a certain amount...that makes so much sence. I might start doing that now too

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I buy a regular amount of petrol each tuesday, for some reason buying $30 a week is cheaper than actually using up the tank and refilling it... haven't work out why yet LOL.. but it stays within budget this way. I do need to remind DH tho when he gets fuel not to fill up.. just to get the $30.
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Yes, do the same here and it really helps. Took awhile, but now DH will ask how much to put in. Before he would just fill her up and expect me to have the money for it, often it would result in us having no money for milk etc. I do get angry now if he uses my fuel for the week on the weekend for something trivial.

Hiya, great ideas here....this is what works for us...

Set up a veggie patch & herb garden. Its tastes better, costs hardly anything and is great fun for kids to help look after.

Meal plan for one week / fortnight and shop accordingly. Also helps you 'roster' cooking meals in your house for you, partner and kiddies if they can help

Do you eat meat? If so, check out your local butcher and buy in bulk - we buy half a cow (sometimes a quarter) every so often. Red meat this way works out to be only about $6 a kilo and you get very nice cuts of meat, usually from a cow that's had a good life. YOu do need freezer space though.

Buy things like pet food, toilet paper, washing powder, toiletres & other sundries in bulk at a discount place. This stuff costs a bomb at the super-duper-market.

Make your own cleaning products.

Do a big bake up on the weekends of cookies, slices, cakes, muffins for snacks etc.

LOok at your mobile and home phone plans, internet etc, assess whether you're on the right ones for your usage.

Turn of power points, lights when not in use. Get door snakes to keep drafty winds out. What are your blinds & insulation like in your home (helps make heating & cooling more efficeint).

Join up at the library instead of buying new books & toys, or recycle and sway thru a second hand book shop.

De-clutter and have a garage sale.

What frequency do you make payments on loans? Simply changing your payments to fortnightly instead of monthly makes a huge difference on the life of a loan.

Good luck!

What fantastic ideas. I've been looking for ways to cut down our spending since we are on one wage but haven't had any success as I honestly had no idea how to go about it. Thanks ladies.

just subscribing...we're trying to figure out a way for me to be a SAHM.
One thing we have done is ditch one mobile. DH was only using it for silly calls so now we're sharing one. Saving me over $100 a month.
PHI is the next thing on my hitlist. Either cutback or cut off.

newspapers (we have internet instead)
magazines (dont remember last time buying one)
Coffee at shops... must have been now about 6 montsh since before that was like 4 or 5 times a year maybe.
We dont buy take out.. if at shops and kids are hungry ill buy a loaf of bread and some ham and cheese and make them a sambo.

We take water when we go out too.

hair dressers dont go to one but if i did i would extend the time between visits, get hair cut about once a year or twice :( No hair dying or coloring or blow drying here just mess up look lol.


manicures pedicures waxes NOPE dont get these lol a cheap manicure pedicure kit and an epilator is all i got.

We dont go t o the movies or out on holidays we do picnics and i buy stuff to invest in our selves for activities for kids like glue glitter wool arts and crafts stuff. Kids love it.

Cooking recess at home can save you heaps too we make muffins and all sorts and freeze them.

Something you wouldn't scrap but can make a difference is this... if you shop every week for food thats every 7 days try the next shop in 8 days.. then try the following time in 9 days we shop every 3 weeks here sometimes monthly bar form bread and milk but most fo the time we have this in freezer or long life variety or frozen.

if you eat meat 7 days a week drop off one day that would also save you.

We also turn our hot water unit off when not in use and make sure washing machine is OFF when not in use.

hubbie walks kids to school so we dont use much petrol eithor.
We buy our fruit and veg in a large box at very low prices. look for smaller markets to do this.

hope this helps maz xoxo

EDIT

we have voip for calls and i spend about 6 dollars a month in calls also me and hubbie are with virgin mobile and we text each other for FREE. we charge for 6 months at a time think thats 30 dollars or is it 15 hrmmm...

We just switched to prepaid mobiles.. it is SOOOOO much better value. We did have group savings and free calls to each other etc, but the bills were still too high for texts & stuff. Now we've got good rates on txts i won't be using much talk time at all, so my mobile bill should be down to about $20 a month, if not less.. just gotta see how much talk time I need each month, if not much, then it'll be less per month. woot!

having gone over our bills the last month...we have actually saved more.
I use to take the boys to and from school. Jed drives nearly exactly the same way everyday.
We decided that Jed would drop the boys of near the school so they could walk 10mins..getting a bit of exercise and independances in the process.
By doing this we only have to fill the Kia once a month instead of every fortnight..AND cause im not out in the car that time of morning thinking..oh I'll just get such and such quickly, im saving fuel, buying useless shiat and SAVING MONEY!!!!
We are saving a minimum of $70 a month :o and for the first time in years we actually have a $1000 in savings again. I knowit doesnt sound alot to some...but just learning to curb our spending, to buy if we really need instead of wanting and staying focussed is part of that first $1000.

WOO HOOO im on my way to getting clear of out debt!!!!!!!

Great news Maz :clap:

We don't have luxuries. Used to have takeaway once a fortnight but now i'll buy a stirfry veg combo think from the frozen section. just as fast as jumping in the car and waiting for it to cook.

I check out the junk mail from the store i shop at to buy what's on special and try to bulk buy and freeze meats when cheap. I buy one magazine a month for sanity reasons (miss melb shopping). we have NEVER had credit cards!

I used to be really careless with my money and buy loads of make up i'd use once and forget about. learnt quick not to

:clap: Well done Maz..

I never thought I would have to worry about it. (I had no plans of being a SAHM before I had DD, now I have another, and not heading back to work till DD is at school :p)

We have started a vege patch, but still waiting for the benefits, but DD helps DH water it and check it every day. We also have a herb garden.

We shop at Aldi for most stuff, bulk butcher for meat, fruit and vege shop, and I take note of catalogues.

I am also a believer in paying a bit more for something that will save money in the long run, e.g we bought a $40 garlic press over a year ago, but considering we were buying cheaper ones every few months as DH kept breaking them, this has saved us money..

I have only just started doing my supermarket shopping online. The prices don't seem to be any dearer than in the store, and we have free delivery in our area. I am finding this is saving my sanity by not having to take 3 kids to the supermarket,and also easier on the hip pocket because I am not buying all the random things that we don't really need.

Lunches for Shel at work! I had to work at that because she loathed taking sandwiches because they go soggy or hard but for a few months now I've been baking and making dinner go further so I have enough to chuck in the freezer for her lunches. They were charging $10 for a toasted sandwich. One sandwich, not including a drink, or morning tea! And thats with a staff discount!!!!! Outrageous!

Meal planning and buying in bulk is a HUGE saver.

We treat ourselves regularly. Not on huge things, but we find if we give ourselves a little treat every now and then, like if we're lookinf forward to takeaway night or buying a new DVD or book, we're less likely to go and blow out on other things or buy takeaway on other nights, because we're looking forward to what we've already bought.