Before we bought our first house we barely spent anything. We had a tiny food and eating out budget and shopped at Aldi religiously. I used to add up items in our shopping trolley as we went along so we didnt overspend. Also, we had a small eating out budget which did us alright but also 8 years ago a meal out for 2 was £25-£30 and now its closer to £50-£60 which blows my mind.
I want to go back to the extreme frugality mode but cant find the motivation. We have had to double our food and eating out budgets since saving hard core for the house deposit. And our salaries have also increased a little since then but I feel like we're failing by spending "lavishly" and going out to restaurants. We don't really go on holidays but spend a lot on house renos atm. And had a lot of other random expenses recently. Like a selling and buying a house (relocating for work), lots of dental work, some car issues etc. So we are just not saving as much as I would like if anything
Is there a way back to a more frugal lifestyle or should we just carry on living as we are? Thanks in advance!
I don't see frugality as a goal in itself.
I want to save enough money that I can spend on the things I want to. I'm frugal about some things, splash out on others.
The key is a balanced life.
One thing you might do is look at how much you'll need for retirement. I'm sure it all seems very boring (to most people) but you could look at /r/UKpersonalFinance's investing resources - they have a wiki at https://ukpersonal.finance - and project out how much you need to save for your old age, and then there's really not much wrong with spending the rest, as long as you spend it on the things you want.
A good motivation is to pay your mortgage off early, if you can overpay on your mortgage you can save many thousands down the line.
Depends on your interest rate . If it's low you'll earn more investing 9 times out of 10
Maybe trade the nights out for a night in? Get some nice steaks or a nice piece of lamb or something so it's about 1/4 the price of a night out but a bit step up from your normal dinner
Take the mental load off for the night in and buy a 2-can-dine offer from your local posher grocery store.
Or cut out meat altogether.
Yea the equivalent to going out for dinner is giving up meat isn't it...
I mean if we're on a frugal sub then cutting out the most expensive part of your diet is going to help save you money regardless of your view on it. And its not necessary.
I would argue that fresh fruit is more expensive than meat..
Morrisons chicken is about £6.73 a kilo while their strawberries are £8.75 a kilo - both Morrisons savers vairents and only chose Morrisons because I knew it was easy to Google.
Who the fuck replaces meat for fresh fruit?
I wasn't talking about replacing meat with fruit (I'm a carnivore id never give up meat) just that I think fruit is generally more expensive than meat so it's likely the most expensive part of my diet, but it could just be that I was raised to eat a lot of fruit and often don't eat a meal at lunchtime.
You are comparing one of the cheapest meats to one of the most expensive fruits. Bananas are about 5 times cheaper than chicken.
Thank you! Made perfect sense to me ....but sense and Reddit don't exactly go together 😍
8 downvotes for daring to suggest giving up the most expensive and unnecessary foods on a frugal sub. Reddit folk outdoing themselves yet again 😂
15 now 🤣
I guess it depends what you replace it with. I don't eat meat but I also don't really like beans that much which are great proteins replacement. Meat alternatives, tofu and cheese are not particularly cheaper options.
They are slightly cheaper though. Chicken is still cheapish.
I get why meat is expensive, it should be, it was a living creature.
Fortunately I like beans, chickpeas and lentils etc. TVP is ok too and pretty cheap.
don't know why you're getting downvoted when your comment makes perfect sense. To be even more frugal I have a huge bag of vital wheat gluten to make seitan with which you then get to control exactly what flavours you want in it and is packed with protein. Fun and easy to make, saves a fortune, covers whatever protein concerns anyone would have, tastes amazing and no one was killed for it. All round win.
Probably because the point being made was having a nice meal at home to replace going out would save a decent amount while still feeling like a special night together and then saying "or just sit and eat beans" was pretty pointless in that context.
But they didn't say "or just sit and eat beans".
Yeah I was being sarcastic, point being what they said had no relevance to the point they responded to. It would be about as relevant as saying looking around for a cheaper phone contract or buy each other less xmas gifts this year - it has nothing to do with having a night out together.
I think the point of this sub being frugality it is absolutely relevant.
If you don't have the motivation then there's no point. My motivation comes at looking at savings number go up brrrr
I don't have motivation if I'm not saving for something, so I spend more. When I'm saving for some then sticking to harsh budgets is easy.
What do you want to save for? What do you want to be frugal for? It's just money it's not worth cutting fun out or your life for.
IDK if it helps but there’s a horrible lurgy going round the UK right now, you’re probably better off not trusting anything you didn’t cook yourself.
Gamify it. Make targets. And deadlines.
Journal it. That helps too to build motivation.
Ultimate hack? Turn it into an Instagram page if you are that way inclined and make £ from it!
I’m sharing your journey 100%.
That said, we all start a frugal way of living to reach financial independence. It sometimes happens that we become comfortable on the way, and start annoying the life.
Is that an issue though ? Life should be enjoyed !
In anyways, you use tools like scanmyspendings or even AI tools to help you identify where could you cut on your expenses.
Hope that helps !
Personally, it takes treats. If I'm going to eat in instead of eating out, I need dessert with my meal. It works out cheaper overall. I need to anticipate my cravings and energy levels and meet them better. After that I can be frugal.
yeah it’s called loving life. remember money only exists so it can be exchanged for goods you need, it serves no other purpose. relax, subtract your age from 80 and accept you are actually living how many years you have remaining
Have you tried having your savings in a completely separate bank account with a direct debit that automatically removes money from your current account each month?
I set one up and I low key forget I even have this bank account and since it’s not something I log into regularly I don’t know what’s in there- out of sight out of mind savings. I have a £25 monthly direct debit and I just discovered that I have £500 in there, exciting! Meanwhile my current account is managed assuming that £25 direct debit is just another bill and not my money at all. The £500 doesn’t sound like much but I managed to save that whilst I was doing gig work between jobs. Without the separate account I would have certainly spent it and not been as frugal.
I do have “dip into” savings which is with the same bank that my current account is in just fyi
Have you checked your utilities bills? FYI, if you don't renew your contracts or check for savings every 12-18 months you would most of the time get rolled onto a more expensive contract... hence I would say keeping an eye on your recurring contracts/utility bills is a good way to start. I know it can be painful or that it can take time but I think it is worth it....
I have developed a tool which can tell you how much you can save in seconds if you upload your bills (it is powered by AI hence you don't have any manual input), then you can actually do the choose to switch in one click. If you want to check, the name is Moley AI, it really takes no time and can actually help you realise good savings.