Countdown to Christmas – only 1 Money Saving Day to Go - TODAY

I know it will be busy, but this afternoon will be the best time to get your Christmas food shopping done, all at bargain process – supermarkets are actually closing for one or two days, so will be wanting to sell off, cheap, all the fresh produce.

Grab the offers and get out of there as fast as you can!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas

Countdown to Christmas – 2 Money Saving Days to Go

I mentioned the other day about the National Trust and what a great day out I had had at the weekend. We also have membership to English Heritage; both are very worthwhile and allow free entry to their properties.

Great to give as a gift, or just to keep for yourself, usually comes with a free gift or an extended membership period – great for saving money throughout the year on fantastic FREE days out.

Countdown to Christmas – 3 Money Saving Days to Go

People live in all corners of the globe these days and keeping in touch can be very expensive by telephone. So explore free alternatives this Christmas; email, facebook, in fact any internet connection tool that is free, instant and can even talk using skype, if all parties are signed up.

Never accept the status quo, look for the free option.

Countdown to Christmas – 4 Money Saving Days to Go

Yesterday we went to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, a property owned by the National Trust. It’s usually closed for the winter period but specially opens for three weekends in December to show off its spectacular Christmas decorations displays.

Although the Hall dates back to Elizabeth the First times, it was only in Victorian times that the likes of Christmas trees really took off.

I have to say the displays in the few rooms that were reopened for this event were marvellous, and the special Christmas choir in the entrance hall were marvellous too.

We were even treated to a spectacular snow storm while we were there to add to the snow fall that had occurred for the previous few days, although nothing to do with the National Trust.

We have membership to the National Trust and I can tell you that we do get our money’s worth; about four times the annual subscription is saved on admission fees.

The trip yesterday would have cost my wife and me £8.00 but because we were members - it was free, marvellous.

Countdown to Christmas – 5 Money Saving Days to Go

Start today, find at least three recipes for what to do with left over turkey, because if you have a turkey, its always bigger than a chicken you would get at any other time of the year, and unless you have an army of people over to eat it (not recommended if you’re paying) you are going to be left with a pile of uneaten turkey on Christmas day.

So in our house for the few days after Christmas it’ll be:

Turkey sandwiches
Turkey salad
Turkey rissoles
Turkey pasties
Turkey soup

We’ll be gob, gob, gobbling by the end of the week – no more turkey please……..

So if you don’t fancy doing all that, then don’t buy such a big turkey in the first place, but if you do then don’t waste it….waste not, want not I always say.

Countdown to Christmas – 6 Money Saving Days to Go

I know a lot of people have had decorations up for a month or so now, but not me, oh no! I like to wait until at least a week before Christmas day, otherwise you get used to them and they don’t sparkle any more at the right time.

So today I’ve been up in the loft and found them all out, the kids love to unpack them all and decorate the tree.

We keep all our old fragile Christmas bauble decorations in old cardboard egg boxes, perfect to stop them smashing in to each other and breaking.

If you haven’t got any, start keeping the boxes you get for the next few weeks and you should have enough to do the same.

Countdown to Christmas – 7 Money Saving Days to Go

If you plan to have a real Christmas tree this year, get one with a thickish, sturdy trunk.

Then when you are finished with it after the new year, chop off all the side branches, give it a quick rub down with a bit of sand paper to take off any sharp bits and what you are left with is a very useful post, or plant support for the new garden season next year, best recycling there is.

Countdown to Christmas – 8 Money Saving Days to Go

Remember the cake we marzipanned on the 7th December?

Well, a bit later than originally planned, but today we put the icing on the cake, a lot of elbow grease to get the icing right but well worth it..

For the size of cake (8 ½ inches in diameter) and the satisfaction you get from making it all from scratch it really does work out a lot cheaper and is great fun.

(Sorry but my camera’s broke and I’m waiting for the sales to buy a new one).

Countdown to Christmas – 9 Money Saving Days to Go

If you have any large beaded jewellery items lying around you don’t want anymore, either break them up and re thread them on to long pieces of thread or string, or simply use as they are to hang on the Christmas tree.

If you don’t have anything, there are lots of charity shops and jumble sales that always have boxes of mixed jewellery items with odd bits and pieces that can easily be turned into fantastic Christmas tree decorations.

Countdown to Christmas – 10 Money Saving Days to Go

Get a free Christmas dinner!

Volunteer some of your time over the festive season at an old people’s home, a homeless hostel, drop in centre, food kitchen etc, and you’ll be fed with the rest of the crew.

All for giving a couple of hours of your time.

Organisations are on the look out now for people to help them out at such a busy time of year.

Countdown to Christmas – 11 Money Saving Days to Go

If you have friends or relatives that you want to buy a present for, but don’t really have any ideas – then give them an IOU!

An IOU for your free time, some time to do odd jobs for them, or just visit more often, sit and chat, read a book to a sick or elderly person.

Or make a batch of mince pies, people will love them and admire your culinary skills too.

They’ll love it far more than some tacky plastic stuff that didn’t take much thought to buy or anything they really wanted anyway.

And you’ll not have to spend any cash – great!

Countdown to Christmas – 12 Money Saving Days to Go

Do you have things in your cupboards you never use? I do!

Things that were given to you as gifts but you didn’t really want or need? I do!

Can you remember who gave them to you? Some I do and some I don’t!

If the answer is yes you do have things and yes you can remember who gave them to you then you’re safe to ‘recycle’ the gifts by giving them out as presents yourself!

Only not to the people who gave them to you! Pays to have a good memory.

It’s a great way to clean out the cupboards and save masses of cash in to the bargain.

Countdown to Christmas – 13 Money Saving Days to Go

If you’re having lots of people over for Christmas dinner, or any other occasions for that matter, and you have been landed with all the costs for all the food and drink, not to mention all the cooking! Stop!

What I do is ask everyone to make some contribution, I will buy the turkey, then one person buys the potatoes, another the sprouts, someone else buys wine, crackers and so on, I’ve never found anyone to object as it still saves individuals the trouble to do everything for themselves and you don’t really look the meany as you’re co-ordinating and cooking everything.

So make it a collective Christmas get together, after all, why should one person (you or me) foot the entire bill?

Countdown to Christmas – 14 Money Saving Days to Go

Hampers – Scampers!

Don’t fall prey to the many offers to sell you a super duper Christmas hamper, check out what you get for your money and compare what’s in them to how much those things would cost at a normal supermarket.

I bet the price you’d pay is far less than what they are charging for the hamper rather than doing the shopping yourself, scandalous!

Also, don’t fall for the pay weekly ones either, thousands of people lost out when one company went bust just before Christmas a couple of years ago leaving them without any funds for food over the Christmas period.

Instead, I work out, in my budget, what I’ll need for Christmas and put away 1/12th into a regular saver each month, I’ll not only have money available to spend at Christmas and also avoid the dreaded debt, but I also get a bit extra in the form of interest to spend as a bonus, we look forward to that each year.

I’ll start to think about drawing up my budget for 2010 soon so I’ll be able to cater for next Christmas – planning is everything to stay debt free.

Countdown to Christmas – 15 Money Saving Days to Go

Why do people shop like the shops will never open again?

They only close for one day for goodness sake!

People I notice have already started the great stock up!

You won't be eating two or three times more than normal, so why buy it all in the first place?

When you shop over the next couple of weeks, buy one or two little extras for the Christmas fare in order to miss the manic trolley dashes that build up on Christmas week running up to the big day – where does everyone store all this extra stuff that is bought?

Countdown to Christmas – 16 Money Saving Days to Go

Remember, Christmas is for December, NOT January or beyond into the New Year.

So keep a close eye on your spending. If you haven’t got it to spend – you can’t afford it.

Never get into debt for Christmas!

Are you listening family?

It is said that the average person will spend £500 - £600 at Christmas, some in the thousands! – It’s madness. Why lumber yourself with debts just to give someone something they didn’t want in the first place?

I cannot believe that debt on a credit card paid off at only the minimum amount will take about 40 years to pay off – and some people are doing this!!! Not for me!

Countdown to Christmas – 17 Money Saving Days to Go

Christmas Food – Generally turkey – if you’re planning to have the traditional turkey this year, make a space in the freezer now. The supermarkets (yes, the dreaded supermarkets), do have reduced prices for turkeys around now to entice you in, hoping you’ll spend on lots more stuff while you’re there, so don’t succumb to temptation.

The supermarkets generally put up prices on turkeys on Christmas week so you have no choice left as you’ll run out of time and resort to the old ‘it’ll have to do’ at any price.

Play supermarkets at their own game, buy the offers and leave the full priced stuff on the shelves, planning is everything when you’re trying to save money.

Countdown to Christmas – 18 Money Saving Days to Go

We always make our own Christmas cake, and it’s been made since October.

Today though, we unwrapped it and spooned a few more tablespoons full of brandy over it (I know, I know, think of the cost!).

Then covering the cake in warm apricot jam, we covered it in a thin layer of marzipan.

In a weeks time we’ll finish it off with the icing and decorations.

Countdown to Christmas – 19 Money Saving Days to Go

Buying Christmas presents, or any other presents for that matter, from a charity shop achieves two effects:

The first is a great saving of money compared to buying brand new goods, sometimes they are so new you can’t tell the difference.

The second is that you are helping the charity to achieve its aims, as I’ve said before, I’m not totally heartless and I do help where I can, but I don’t just give it away.

Countdown to Christmas – 20 Money Saving Days to Go

Make your own Christmas Decorations

Traditionally Christmas decorations were put up on Christmas Eve, and then 12 days of Christmas later, they were taken down again!

Now it’s more like 12 weeks of Christmas. I saw my first house lit up with ‘blinking’ lights in the windows on 23rd November! Who needs to be that early? Who needs to be first?

You can start now to make your decorations though, using any oddments of card, paper, glittery cards etc – just be creative with designs and material use – kids love this time of year, make it more special, more frugal, show them you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a great time, best of all its almost free, (you may need to buy some glue, glitter etc).

What ever you make, be proud of it – we are.

Countdown to Christmas – 21 Money Saving Days to Go

Nip off into the woods and gather a few stems of holly, with some nice juicy red berries still attached.

Using an old wire coat hanger, bent into a circle shape, wind the holly in and out around the wire circle until it’s all covered and leaves a nice hole in the centre. Wear gloves though if you want some skin left afterwards.

Great to hang it on the front door and it’ll last well into the New Year, I’ll be doing mine over the weekend, and the kids love it.

Countdown to Christmas – 22 Money Saving Days to Go

Back to the reuse / recycle box of stuff, bits and pieces that has been saved up throughout the year. This time to wrap some presents, ones that have been homemade or bought at the best possible prices.

Items of all shapes and sizes can be wrapped in any sized pieces and types of paper, (again all has been saved throughout the year), and a mismatch of paper can be made to look attractive so not to offend the recipient.

Gift tags can be cut out of old Christmas cards from last year, the kids love doing this every year.

Every year I pledge not to rush at the last minute to buy any old presents simply because I’ve run out of time and pay far in excess of what I wanted, and so far I’m on track not to do that.

Countdown to Christmas – 23 Money Saving Days to Go

Lighting up the Universe

Why waste money buying light up decorations, stick them on the ‘Outside’ of your house – go inside – and then waste even more money turning the power on so that you can’t see them!

People leave them blinking on and off for hours keeping the neighbours entertained for about 10 minutes and then annoyed for hours.

You cannot enjoy them yourself as they are outside and you are inside, unless of course you go outside and freeze to death just to have a look! Why bother?

What a total waste of money!

Countdown to Christmas – 24 Money Saving Days To Go

If you must send Christmas cards – make sure you send them early enough to use only second class stamps.

Making cards is a real treat and generally free, (best word in the dictionary), using stuff that’s been saved throughout the year (if you haven’t saved anything this year, make a new years resolution to do so). A great time can be had, especially involving the kids to keep them occupied.

If you need to buy cards rather than make them, look at the price first, you can get some really good ones for 20p – 30p, cheaper sometimes, and don’t forget to buy any for next year in the January sales (only if you won't make them for free!).

Spend Free Day – How did I get on?

On Thursday I succeeded in NOT spending any money – BUT the more I thought about it, the success was short lived.

Because I have to tell you that I actually failed in having a spend free day on Thursday after all – why?

The more I thought about it, the more I could see that it would be impossible not to spend any money on any given day. Yes you could literally not spend any cash – which I didn’t, but I did incur costs!

Costs were incurred for:

Gas – even I have the heating on now and then

Electricity – a light bulb (even an energy saving one) still costs money to use

Telephone – I had to make a couple of calls (even if your call package is inclusive, there is an enhanced rental price.

Petrol – I dropped some things off at the post office.

All these things need paying for, so I concluded that I can never have a totally cost free day, and having a spend free day doesn’t mean reducing costs necessarily; you will either buy something before or after the planned spend free day anyway. So you’re not actually saving any money!

So I suppose the only answer to saving money is back in a previous post:

Asking these questions:

Do I really need this product?

Will I use it?

Can I afford it?

Etc etc

Have a Spend FREE Day

Just for one day each week, I'm trying to have a Spend FREE Day, where I will spend no money whatsoever.

If I need something I'll have to go without.

My Spend Free day will be Thursday.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Money Saving Tips – Saving money in the Kitchen

Product manufacturers are very kind to us consumers by putting details of how much of their product to use on the side of the packaging. Don’t you believe it! The details will probably double up on the actual quantity you really need. Take washing powder for example: you can quite easily cut in half the amount stated and it will still clean your clothes adequately.

Try it and see – manufacturers want you to use the product as quickly as possible so you have to go out and buy another pack.

Another tip with any boxed product especially, cut open the sides and be careful to brush out any powder left in the corners and under the box flaps etc, every little helps.

If you use candles, stick them in the fridge until cold, then use. They will burn slower so will last longer.

Orange and lemon peel are often called for when making cakes, keep peel in the freezer when you have those fruits and grate as much as you need, it’ll be easier and cost you nothing.

Forget cling film- invest a small amount of money (yes I did say spend some money – I’ll sit down for a while) in some plastic boxes to store things in, it’s a one off cost rather than a constant cost with a disposable item.

Money Saving Tips – Save Money with everyday activities

Old cardboard is great for use in the garden, so save now ready for spring and then line a trench you’ve dug when planting potatoes. Will help retain moisture and also enrich the soil as it rots.

There’s always plenty of uses for old toothbrushes so don’t throw them out.

Don’t buy clothes that say ‘Dry Clean only’ – it’ll end up costing you a fortune.

Once a week, check your kitchen cupboards for items coming up to their use by dates and plan to use them up before doing your weekly shop.

Buying in bulk usually means cheaper per unit costs – BUT not always, so work it out for yourself and compare unit prices.

Saving Money – More Money Saving Tips

‘A penny saved is a penny earned’ a well known saying and may not mean much these days – a penny! What can you do with a penny?

Not a lot!

But what can you do with a thousand pennies? A lot more – and that’s the point – its not only the individual savings that matter it’s the cumulative result of those savings that count.


Old clothes have many uses – don’t throw them out until you’ve explored every possible use.

Don’t sit and moan that there’s nothing interesting on TV, TURN IT OFF and find something productive to do with your time instead – you won't be bored then.

Old tights and stocking make excellent scourers for pots and pans.

Keep egg boxes to store breakable Christmas decorations in once the festive season is over.

How to Save Money with Garden Tasks

How to save money with garden tasks - well we can all do with a few extra quid and here’s an easy way to do just that and save money.

This is the time of year when jobs in the garden need doing, like pruning bushes and large overhanging branches etc.

But think ahead, when you cut off any decent size branches – is the stem fairly straight? If yes, tidy it up by cutting off any straggly side shoots and save the long stems / branches for use as posts, canes and props in the garden next year.

This year I made a couple of wigwams for my green beans out of large stick pruning from last year, gathered and tied together at the top with a bit of salvaged string – worked a treat and looked great too.

Saves money not having to buy new bamboo canes.

Living in Utopia – A Simple Frugal Life

What does ‘Utopia’ look like? Smell like? Taste like?

Well, that would all depend on who is experiencing these things, one persons heaven (or Utopia), would be another’s Hell!

Therefore, I cannot answer that question for you, only you can do that, but I can answer for myself.

I am striving in my life to be as frugal, as economical, and as miserly, as I possibly can be with my money. Yet at the same time I don’t want to deprive myself or my family of anything that we need in life.

I want to live the ‘Good Life’ just like Tom and Barbara back in the 1970’s, to go back to the land, produce everything myself, live by my own hard work and not worry about not having any money – because I wouldn’t need any!

That is my idea of Utopia.

Ok, its difficult, there are obstacles, but plenty of people have opted for this lifestyle and are successfully producing all their own food, clothes, heating etc relying on mass produced stuff very rarely, if at all.

And as everything else worthwhile, it’ll take time, it’ll take hard work, it’ll take perseverance. One step at a time……….

Home Improvements – lag those pipes, seal that door!

It’s not often you’ll hear me say this, but sometimes it’s necessary to spend some money in order to save some money, for instance:

Draught proofing doors and windows will not cost a great deal but will save money quite quickly.

Insulation in the loft is an absolute must, otherwise you’re letting money just evaporate into thin air – but check with your local authority as there may be a grant available.

Lagging the pipes and hot water tank is another one where you’ll see benefits straight away, and also may just stop your pipes freezing in winter.

Putting silver foil behind radiators is also a cheap way to reflect heat back into the room, thus cutting the costs.

Fit shelves above radiators to reflect heat back into the room, because hot air rises more quickly if there aren’t any obstacles, and allows us to feel the benefit before it vanishes altogether.

Some things however do need to be questioned like:

Double glazing – whilst it’s a proven method to reduce heat loss and save costs, it’s very expensive and it’ll take a good number of years to even come close to recouping any money paid out.

Also, double check any energy saving grants available in your area, not just the local authority as above, but energy companies also. Do an internet search - you can’t lose!

Christmas - A Time for Excessive spending - if you're not careful

It's almost upon us again, the one time in the year a lot of people throw all their good work to the wind and blow any savings they've made, and more, during the year buying lots of things, some that are totally unnecessary at any time of year.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, its a great time of year, but what I hate, is the run up to Christmas, the over commercialisation of what should be a joyous time, not a time for over indulgence that will cost lots of money well into the new year.

So for the next few weeks I will be exploring all ways I can have a very, very merry Christmas for the least possible amount of money.

I hope you will find some ways to save your hard earned cash too.

Wedding Invitations – Watch the cost of wedding gift purchases

A wedding invitation is not an excuse for a blank cheque drawn on ‘your’ account. I’ve always felt it a great cheek giving someone a wedding invitation and attached to it is a wedding gift list being held at the local department store.

If you invite someone to a wedding it’s supposedly because you want that person, or couple, to witness one of the special moments in your life, not because it’s just an extra gift, (that will most probably be argued over at the divorce somewhere down the line! Yes I know a bit cynical but nearly half of all weddings end in divorce, so the odds are stacked against it).

So if you are invited to a wedding, watch not only the happy couple but also what you are buying and do some price research before parting with your cash.

Ten More Top Money Saving Miser Tips

1. Ease up when driving; a light foot on both the brake and accelerator will make for more miles to the gallon.

2. When you throw old clothes away (only if they have passed all possible uses) don’t forget to cut off the valuable buttons and zips to use on other clothes when the need arises.

3. If you have an open fire or log burner, invest in one of those log makers that use up old newspapers, a bit messy but great for a cheap source of fuel.

4. Look to the American pastime of quilt making, it’s a great tradition and not only uses up scraps of material but will keep you occupied over the coming winter months.

5. Don’t throw away tea dregs down the sink, put the tea bags on the compost heap and water the pot plants (indoors or outdoors) with any leftover liquid.

6. When making tea, (or coffee) boil only enough water for your needs, but cover the element in the kettle otherwise it may blow up! If you boil more than you need, put the rest in a thermos flask for use next tea time.

7. Forget electric blankets, a couple of hot water bottles will do a treat (you could use the spare water you’ve been saving throughout the day).

8. If you like a tipple or two, make your own beer or wine. The library or internet are great places for free recipes, get together with a friend to share the costs and produce. Still drink in moderation though!

9. Add a drop of vinegar to brown sauce bottles when you are trying to get the last drops out, works a treat.

10. When shopping, just because a product has a big sign saying ‘Only £x’ doesn’t necessarily make it a bargain – look for the catch!

Wanted – your tips – let me know how you save money.

Top Ten Money Saving Tips

1. Waste not, want not – you have to think about this for a while to understand its true deepest meaning! But, only buy what you need, use what you’ve bought and nothing is wasted.

2. Don’t buy – borrow! If you need a piece of equipment or special tool for a DIY job, don’t buy it so that after you have used it once it’ll sit in the shed or garage for the rest of eternity, ask neighbours, friends, colleagues at work if they have what you need. If all else fails, contact a tool hire shop, but try all other ‘free’ avenues first.

3. If you’re not satisfied with a product, write and complain, 9 times out of 10 you’ll get decent money off coupon or voucher to spend in store.

4. Prolong the life of your carpets, take off your shoes as you enter your home, and get visitors to do the same too, saves getting the carpet dirty and saves on wear and tear too.

5. Don’t throw out old bed sheets or towels etc, cut them up into decent sized squares and use for cleaning cloths.

6. Clean windows with warm water and a splash of vinegar, wipe off and buff up with a sheet of newspaper, watch them sparkle.

7. Always write a shopping list for the weekly groceries, but not on new paper – check out any junk mail you’ve received, bet the backs of letters are blank for you to use?

8. Use envelopes from junk mail too, use a sticky address label to cover the printed address on the envelope – great free envelopes.

9. Use a tube squeezer to get every last drop of toothpaste from tubes (any tube products really) and then when you think its empty – cut open the top and sides and scrape out the remaining contents.

10. Never throw anything away before thinking of alternative uses.

Being a Frugal Dougal and a Wiser Miser

One of my aims is to be totally frugal in all aspects of my life; it certainly helps being a miser as well.

There is a distinct difference though, so I feel I will never truly be one or the other to the exception of anything else. So if I can strike a balance between the two I’ll be happy.

To be frugal means looking at what you are spending your money on; do you need the product or service? And if so, is the asking price the cheapest you can find? Can you do it yourself, better and cheaper? It’s all about getting the most from every pound, making it work the hardest it possibly can do. Living a frugal life doesn’t mean living in poverty either, it may mean actually living better than you did before, because you are conscious of ‘How’ you are spending your cash, so may have more of it for the more important things in life that you ‘want’ to do.

To be a miser on the other hand means trying not to spend anything – period! I do begrudge spending money on ‘stuff’ that doesn’t really add any value to my life. I find that if something takes my fancy and tell myself that I simply must have it; I walk away and tell myself to think about it, what would my life be with and without this product? Can I justify spending £x on this product? Generally, I come to the conclusion that I don’t really need it after all, it was just a ‘want’ rather than a true need, and ‘wants’ easily pass, thus saving me money.

By the way, no one should become solely obsessed with becoming a miser ‘a hoarder of money, a stingy person’ as this could lead to becoming ‘Miser-able’ and being unhappy is not my aim. So I’m aiming for somewhere in the middle between

Frugal – Miser

A happy, quality life whilst spending the least amount of money possible.

Bonfire Night – The Stars Are Bright (and very expensive)

It’s nearly here again, bonfire night, although a great event and tradition, celebrating the defeat of the gunpowder plotters, it’s become yet another commercial excuse to part the unwary from their cash.

When I was a kid, fireworks were only available on sale a week before the event (or so it seems) and disappeared the day after, fireworks were only for bonfire night, now it’s any excuse for goodness sake!

Rockets, bangers and the like have been going off around us for the past week or so, where do these people get all the money from? Because they certainly aren’t cheap.

I’ve nothing against bonfire night, I’ve nothing against fireworks, and I’ve certainly got nothing against people having fun, but I’m not paying upwards of £100 for a paltry box of fireworks that last 10 minutes, if you’re lucky, and then what?

There’s generally a free bonfire and firework display in all areas (some paid for by the council tax payers) so there’s no need to buy your own, they will be paying whether I watch or not, so I may as well enjoy the free show. You can even just stand in your own back yard and watch the neighbours’ displays, because they’ll go up in the sky for the entire world to see anyway.

Have a safe and ‘free’ bonfire night.

Cooking from Scratch – Healthy Cheap Meals

Cooking meals from scratch is a great achievement when it is so much easier to succumb to supermarket pressures and buy ready meals.

But done correctly, cooking at home from scratch is both healthier and more cost effective than processed rubbish.

The secret is to plan ahead:

Keep the freezer topped up with ingredients, don’t run it on empty or partially empty (or partially full whichever point of view you may have), as it’s a waste of energy and cost.

Cook extra portions and freeze the spares so that you always have an odd meal in for days when it’s not practical to cook for only one or two people.

Fill the oven when cooking too, eat and store according to your needs and menus for the week.

When cooking always use the correct sized saucepan and don’t have the flame licking up the sides (if using gas that is, if there’s flames and you’re using electric I’d call the fire brigade). Also, put pan lids on when cooking to speed up the process and save pounds.

Pressure cookers are great for saving both fuel and time (and again money)

Slow cookers are brilliant, but clue in the name ‘slow’ can take 8-10 hours to cook a stew, so you have to start at breakfast time to get an evening meal – but oh boy! Is it worth the wait! A fantastic way to use cheaper cuts of meat and uses only the equivalent of an electric light bulb – fantastic value.

It’s not always possible, but I try to ensure everyone is having the same meal at the same time so I’m not having two (or more) lots of cooking costs and reheating costs etc.

Save Energy – Reduce Energy –Save Money

Aren’t energy prices shocking? When the oil price rocketed, energy companies put up the prices to unprecedented levels, now oil prices are falling again, have the energy companies reduced their prices? Well yes they have, but not by the same amount as it went up by! It is nothing more than pure profiteering by the energy companies, how else do they explain their billions profits?

But what can we do? Us mere mortals? Not a lot really, except to vote with our feet and make sure we change our supplier to the cheapest available and also to reduce our energy use to the lowest level possible, thus cutting our costs and their profits.

Here are a few ideas on how to cut the costs:

Make sure all bulbs are energy saving, last longer and save masses of energy.

Only switch on lights when needed and never light an empty room.

Turn central heating on only when absolutely necessary (unless you have small children and/or elderly living with you).

It’s never really necessary to have heating above 20oC, if cold put a jumper on.

Draw curtains when it gets dark and put them behind the radiator or else the heat will escape up through the window.

Don’t block radiators.

Reduce hot water temperature to no more than 60oC.

Always be on the look out for wastage – it’s a constant battle.

Water, water, water – Check out the Savings

Don’t we pay enough for our water not to waste it? Water is the only utility that we can’t swap supplier; you’re stuck with the one serving the area where you live. Fair enough! But the cost also depends where you live as all the companies seem to charge different rates? There’s not a lot you can do about that, but there is a lot you can do about usage!

We are on a water meter so its obvious when our usage clocks up on the dial, I’m constantly aware of water usage, “turn that tap off” I need to shout every morning when kids are brushing their teeth, I puzzle over the kids today – aren’t they supposed to be the ones learning all this stuff at school, the need to save resources (and my money)?

We simply cannot live without it, so we have no choice, but we can lower the costs:
1) Take a shower instead of a bath.
2) Don’t use ‘new’ water for washing the car; use it from the water butt.
3) Get a water butt, check your water company they sometimes have subsidized prices. I fitted some guttering at the side of my shed leading to it, works a treat and the rainwater is free - great.
4) Don’t water the lawn, although not a problem at this time of year, it may go brown in a hot summer but mine always recovers shortly after a quick downpour, hardy stuff – grass.
5) Don’t waste money buying bottled water either, in my opinion its only tap water anyway. If you’re concerned about the stuff from the tap get a filter jug (it’ll cost a bit of money but will be far cheaper than bottled stuff) or just fill a jug with tap water and put in fridge for a bit and will taste just like bottled water (just like tap water too!).

Keep the money in my pocket I say!

How to be Debt Free, Live Within Your Means and be Happy

It’s a great feeling, knowing that you don’t owe anyone anything, and that whatever you have is yours!

One thing debt does is to deprive you of choice, choice gives you freedom to do whatever you want (within your financial limits of course). So debt deprives you of your freedom! And if you don’t have freedom you are a prisoner, so debt keeps you a prisoner – I didn’t want that, and I’m sure no one else does either.

I managed to get out of debt, and stay out of debt, by making a plan, a financial plan (sometimes called a budget – but don’t let that put you off).

First, I looked at all my expenses, what was I paying for each week, month, year; gas, electric, telephone, water, clothes, food, car, holidays, and so on, the list goes on. But the trick is to identify every single item that costs you money.

Keeping a record helped, but only for the day to day costs that happened without noticing sometimes, the odd paper, the odd cup of tea, etc. then you need the regular monthly items, direct debits and so on, the ad hoc yearly payment, insurance etc. I checked out bank statements, cheque book stubs for full details.

What I was after was a monthly figure for each item, or a monthly equivalent if I paid yearly, so that I had a monthly amount either that was due to be paid and was what I needed to cover bigger bills.

Then I listed my debts, in descending order so that the highest interest ones would be paid first, so I listed the minimum payment for each and added this to my expenses total. At the time I had a personal loan and three different credit cards with total debt of around £5,000, not a huge amount, but too big when you cannot pay! And that was my worry that I wouldn’t be able to make a payment and will lose the house!

Then I listed my income…….

I took away my monthly expenses and debt repayment totals………

No surprise result:

Income less than outgoings = debt increasing each month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Result MISERY

Solution: live within my means and cut outgoings to less than income.

First, I looked at each expense – was it vital?

If yes, was this the cheapest price I could pay for this item?

If no, I cancelled it.

By doing this exercise I was able to free up some extra cash to take my outgoings to below (not by much, but below) my income, which allowed me to increase slightly the payments to the highest interest rated credit cards and continued until all were paid off.

I was amazed to read recently that if you only ever make the minimum payment and are charged around 17% it will take about 40 years to clear the debt! Astounding! And think of all the interest wasted too.

So after four years of sticking rigidly to my plan, not only did I manage to pay off all my debts and build a small savings pot, I managed to stay debt free for when redundancy did strike last year, the worry wasn’t as great and I was so thankful I had done so too.

Result HAPPINESS

Living within My Means – Being Debt Free and Happy

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness.

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery."

Mr. Micawber – David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

Never a truer statement made I feel!

Think on this for a minute, if you have £20 a week to live on, but you spent £21, you will have to borrow £1 to pay for the shortfall – ok not a big deal you may say!
But the following week, you have £20 but you have to pay back the £1 from the previous week, so you pay it back and are debt free – great! You now have £19 to live on for the week, but you still spend £21, only now you are £2 short and have to borrow again (all this borrowing by the way is ignoring any interest that would need to be paid). The following week you pay back the £2 but are left with £18 to cover spending of £21, so you borrow £3, then £4, then £5 and so on, and by about week 20 you would need to pay back £20 borrowed from the previous week so you would be skint before you start, all this just by overspending by £1 per week!

The answer? Simply don’t spend more that £20 (or however much you have available).

When I was threatened with redundancy five or so years ago I did have quite a few debts and the prospect of losing my job scared me, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to pay them off, would my house be repossessed? And would we face being homeless? All these questions whirled round my head for weeks.

Fortunately, my job was saved and I breathed a huge sigh of relief, but I had had such a scare that I never wanted to be in that position again. So I vowed to be debt free as soon as possible so that if, or when, the next round of redundancies came around I would have no need to worry as much.

Sure enough they did, last year in fact, and this time I wasn’t so lucky, my job disappeared and after 20 years with the same company I was out, just like that!

Fortunately, due to the previous scare I was, and still am, debt free, I have no consumer debt, and all had been achieved by simple adjustment to my lifestyle and to ‘live within my means’ over the previous years and gradually I made it and paid off all the debts, it wasn't always easy, but I kept focused on the end goal.

Until next time: What would it mean to you to be debt free?

Be Debt Free – Clear Your Debt Burden

Debt is the one thing guaranteed to keep someone in poverty. Debt is something most people cannot afford, yet the vast majority of people are in masses of debt, why?

Following the austere years of World War Two, people were fed up with the ration books, with the make do and mend mentality.

The 1950’s saw a big increase in the buy now pay later sales tactics, leading to mounting debt and burdening families for years to come.

Escalating through the 1960’s, people saw their neighbours getting new furniture, all the latest new fangled mod cons, not really knowing how it was to be paid for, they just knew they had to keep up and have these things too.

But the 1970’s saw some pay back for the ever increasing debt balloon – the balloon burst. Escalating oil prices, miners strikes, led to three day working weeks, unfortunately I’m old enough to remember the regular power cuts, reading by candle light (if you could even get candles), no television or radios (games consoles and the like hadn’t even been invented then so we didn’t moan we couldn’t use them), we didn’t even have the luxury of a battery operated radio.

Then, ‘BOOM’, the 1980’s were upon us with all the excesses of the rapid rise in wealth, share ownership, but very soon - ‘BUST’. It soon fell apart and everything went into freefall, mass riots, repossessions, another miners strike (although this time there would be no victory) mass job losses. But, who was to blame? Lenders wanting to make a quick buck? Or the borrowers for over extending themselves with debt without really having a clue of how they were going to repay it?

That last paragraph related to the 1980’s, but could equally apply to today, the 2008/2009 period is equally, if not worse, bleak and we find ourselves again in recession. But whoever you blame, whatever the cause, we are here, we are in it and no one is coming to our rescue, we have to find our own way out!

The answer is simple: we have to ‘Live within our means’

Until next time: what does living within my ‘means’ mean?

Free Books from your local Library

I don’t know about you, but I do love a good book, it doesn’t matter whether fact or fiction, I love them all. But I recently calculated that over the years I must have spent thousands of pounds (pre miser days) on buying books, and apart from a very special handful, most would have been read just once and then relegated to a bit of bookcase shelf to gather dust.

Obviously now I’m a bit more wiser (or should that be miser) than I used to be, but there is a certain pleasure to be had from just the handling of a book, reading every word, turning page after page, and whilst the internet is a great source of information and entertainment, it’s not the same as holding that book in your hands.

But, being a miser, a wiser miser, doesn’t deprive me of that pleasure. In Britain, and a lot of other countries too I suspect, but don’t know for certain, there is a great resource, free resource, at the local library where you can get these books for free, great! (on loan obviously) you can also get access to magazines, cd’s, dvd’s, etc although they sometimes do make a charge for these items, so I won't be borrowing any of them then.

I have always used the library, and have encouraged my children to do so too, although it's not the same today as it was when I was young, as instead of having a plastic card that was scanned you literally had six small cardboard tickets, little pouches to hold the library card inside that was kept inside each book, so they knew who had which book, these cards were then returned to you when you returned the books.

And you had to be ‘silent’ a short sharp ‘Shhhh’ from a sour faced librarian terrified the young socks off me, but now, crickey, what a racket, it ain't the same, noisy beggars”

Until next time: I’m going to check out the online search facility at our local library to see what new books they’ve had in recently,

Free some cash from Christmas

It won't be long now, one of the biggest expenses of the year, bah humbug! Christmas is nearly here. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and as I've said before, my name is not Scrooge, I’m just Scrooge like (in some things), what I detest though about Christmas is all the excessive consumerism, Christmas now starts in August for goodness sake, just how much stuff do they think we need to buy that it has to be available for 5 months – nearly half the year!

“How much did you spend on Christmas?” asked one person
“We spent £600 this year” the other replied,
“Oh is that all? We spent £2,000 this year” the first replied smugly!

There are always people who think it’s a competition, it’s not, it’s a celebration for the birth of Jesus, and to show love and affection by giving and receiving of small valuable gifts, ‘valuable’ in terms of sentiment rather than cost. Each gift should be something meaningful, not just a box of something grabbed from a late shop at 11 o’clock on Christmas Eve and a thought of ‘oh it’ll do’, well I’m sorry but it won't do, for me that’s not good enough.
If you really want to start thinking of Christmas early, start in January when the sales are on, buy all things like cards, wrapping paper, etc, for a fraction of the price and save them (that’s only if you really must send cards and wrap presents, and that’s if you give presents!).
But, on the subject of cards and presents, why not make your own? Throughout the year, bits and pieces suitable for card making will be thrown away, bits of card, foil etc. I’ve opened my eyes a little to rubbish and alternative uses, well a lot really, as I want to eliminate all waste from the bin, but that’s for another day.
So from now on I’ll look for a Christmas use from waste bits and pieces with the view of making my own cards.
As for presents, I’m seeing if something handmade would be more beneficial to someone rather than an over priced something or other from the vast cavernous evil den that is the supermarket, that may be used once or twice then relegated to the cupboard ready to be brought out and dusted and sold at a boot sale in a year or two (or worse still get it back as a present sometime down the line because they've forgotten who gave it to them), No thank you. Call me mean if you want to but I’m stepping off this Christmas commercial train and letting it pass me by.

Until next time: I’m going to search the loft for anything I may have bought in the sales last January that I’ve probably forgotten about.

Money Saving Miser Tips – Cash in the Pocket

So far this week I’ve looked at some areas of my life that can be changed to simplify things and make them better for me and my family, to make my food choices more healthy and cheaper, but I haven’t really dug deep enough with money savings tips and actions and that was the biggest reason for starting this in the first place.

So, today, I’m looking to immediate things I can do to save some money and make things cheaper or even free – even better, so here goes;

I think the easiest way to do this I think is to go from room to room and assess what’s costing me money in each of those rooms.

To start – the lounge – standard fare – TV, TV recorder, dvd, freeview box (I’m too tight to pay monthly subscriptions to get more drivel I don’t want to watch), standby lights glowing happily, what! Lights left on when there’s nobody there! TV blaring out! Central heating thermostat mid twenties, cor blimey, do they think I’m made of money?

This is not open to debate; I’m turning down the heating to 20oC (to start with, then it’ll be down to 18oC or less – put a jumper on if you’re cold for goodness sake, when I was a young lad there was no central heating for us, we had two coal fires downstairs, one in the front room, rarely used as we kept to the kitchen/diner/living room where we did most things. When it was bed time you rushed to get into your PJ’s and slipped shivering into a very cold bed – we were used to it – we didn’t know any different. Kids of today eh? Don’t know they’re born really.

Anyway, heating turned down, television off, all off unless recording something, will start to read the meters to see what difference this is making.

That reminds me, I must look into changing the utility companies to see what savings I can make there.

Until next time: I’ll stand in each room in the dark to check for little standby lights shining back at me, as they are not all obvious when its light, and unless they are essential like the fridge, then off they will be turned and save me some cash.

Glorious Tea Time – always time for tea and maybe a slice of homemade cake

The Americans didn’t know what they were doing (and ultimately missing) in Boston in 1773 when they dumped the tea over the ships side.

Tea, greatest discovery ever in my book, always have a cup on the go, but my love of the stuff has cost me a fortune up to now, its not cheap, well, the ‘dust’ you get in some tea bags can be, but they’re putrid. No, I’m talking the quality stuff that actually looks like and tastes like, tea!
Being the person that I am, I have very rarely paid full price for any product and tea is no exception, always buy when on offer, 50% free, 100% free, buy 1 get 1 free, 3 for the price of 2 etc but the sneaky so and so's need watching, don’t just take the supermarkets word for it that you’re having a bargain - check it yourself, I recently came across an offer where you could buy one for £2.85 or have 2 for £6.00?????? Who fell for that one? I’m sure a fair few did - you have to watch for things like this, just because it’s got a big flash sign saying offer doesn’t mean you are getting the best deal.
These offers are all well and good, but sometimes you have to go beyond offers and use the products more than once to get the best value from them and tea bags are perfect for this, coffee is dissolvable so is useless for repeat use, but tea can be used over and over.

Making the most of a tea bag

Cup 1: boil the kettle with just enough water for your needs or enough to cover the element in the kettle, don’t want the kettle to explode, (I need to investigate which is cheaper to boil a kettle – gas or electric?), put a new tea bag in a mug and fill with boiling water, spoon the tea bag out after a few seconds and put into a different mug and set aside for later, then you can add your milk to the tea, don’t do it before as the tea bag will start smelling of sour milk after awhile.

Cup 2: boil the kettle again, but this time pour onto the previously used tea bag you set aside earlier, fish out the bag after the water’s turned the colour you want (bear in mind it will get weaker as you go on so you’ll need to leave for slightly longer each time) and put into another mug and set aside for later, now add milk (if you wish).

Cup 3: repeat as for cup 2 but this time fish out the tea bag and put into a tea pot, or mug again if you prefer.

Cup 4: pour boiling water into the teapot, or mug, and leave for 5 minutes or so, then pour and drink.

I find that if you squeeze the tea bag each time it does retain some flavour for the next one, but by cup 4 it’s starting to get pretty weak so you may have to add a few used bags together – (that’s why I use the teapot as mugs get full pretty quick if you’re trying to use two or three bags at the same time), but only use them from the same day otherwise you’ll not enjoy the experience.

Loose tea works to a similar extent but you’ll need to use one of those tea ball thingy’s and you’ll only get 2 or 3 mugs from each spoonful but as I do prefer loose to bags I will indulge now and again and splash out on a spoonful of loose tea rather than a bag.

And that’s what I’m after, making every last thing earn its keep and go as far as possible, saving me money into the bargain.

And then when you’ve finished totally with the tea bags, throw them on the compost heap which will rot them down for compost the following year. Great!

Until next time: I’m going to try for more than 4, we’ll see how that works – aim: one bag per day!

What are we eating today? Hidden dangers in processed foods.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to trust the food we eat, the very essence of life itself. The debate has raged for years:

‘How do we know what the manufacturers are doing to our food before we tuck into it on our plates?’

Processed food has been blamed for a variety of illnesses from allergies to fatal cancers, maybe not the food itself but the chemical additives added back to raw foods they have messed about with.
Therefore, the only way to by-pass all the potential deadly additives and pesticides etc in and on our food is to ‘Grow our own’! and indeed, there is a growing (pardon the pun) resurgence in organic gardening: people all over the country are growing their own food, some using no more than a few pots on the patio to grow carrots, salad leaves and the like, and highly productive it can be too.
Others are going the whole hog down on the allotment, growing a whole array of fruit and veg, maybe not to be wholly self-sufficient, but as near as can be with the amount of time and land available, which obviously varies from person to person. This then provides them with valuable fresh, unadulterated, food for their efforts.
The two main benefits people are getting from all this work, hard work at that, is to get the freshest food, without chemicals, and best of all very cheaply, in terms of money but not necessarily in terms of time. (I’m only a miser with my money and not my time so that fits nicely).
One of the aims with my blog is to document my journey from being reliant on huge, impersonal supermarkets and food flown thousands of miles ‘food miles’ across the globe all year round, and get away from processed food altogether and try to produce as much of it as possible by my own efforts and at the cheapest possible cost. I know this may seem like an impossible dream and a lot of hard work and will definitely take many years to accomplish, but hey! The way forward I feel is to approach this philosophically and take one small step forward each day knowing that it’ll be worth the effort in the end.

Until next time: I’ll be taking a look at all food labels and asking a) what am I eating and what do all these numbers and long unpronounceable names really mean, and b) can I produce something similar to this product from scratch which will be better for me and be cheaper?

Live Simply with Less Material Possessions

Having finished sorting through the cupboards, I realised I was approaching this the wrong way entirely. What we needed to do was to see what we had in the cupboards (and fridge / freezer) then decide what the menus for that week were going to be, not the other way around as some things in the cupboards may never get used.
So, we have changed things a bit and we are working with what we have and adding pieces as we need them, and when we go shopping we’ll only buy things on offer and try never to pay full price for anything ever again.

I have long been fascinated by the concept of simple living, downshifting, living the good life, etc, whatever tag you want to put on it, it all comes down to the same thing, escaping the rat race, jumping off the treadmill, living a more enjoyable life without the constant 9-5 scramble to work to earn more money for more material things, that only have a short life before being discarded for the next whim, want, fad, etc, that don’t really add any value to my, or anyone’s, life.

There are numerous websites I’ve come across advocating this as a way of life but none of them give a complete package, so what I’ve had to do is take bits from each and piece them together to fit my situation and paint the picture I want to create for my life and that’s exactly what I’ll continue to do as I add bits, take bits away, redraw my picture as things change, develop along the path. I realise my picture will never be finished but I have a rough idea of what I want it to look like, how about you? What does your picture look like? What would you have in your life that you don’t have now? Drop me a comment; I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time: I’m going to be thinking, thinking about how to redraw my picture, and fit in all the elements that I want to do rather than have to do. Why don’t you think about your life too, do you want your life to stay as it is right now, forever? If not, then it’s up to you to paint your own picture and see what you really want out of life!

Healthy Food from Scratch – without processed food Part 2

OMG – you’d be amazed, nay shocked, in what I’ve found lurking in one our kitchen cupboards, Christmas cake stuff, (we always make our own Christmas cake - which we need to be making around now actually), Christmas cake stuff, almonds, dried fruit, half packet of marzipan, all almost a year out of date! How can this have happened? No one knows! Anyway, after I wipe away the tears (I absolutely hate wasting anything – don’t you? I think it’s the war time influence of my mother and grandmother and the make do and mend and waste not want not philosophies coming through there), I say that that must be the last time that happens and allow ourselves to waste stuff and have to throw it away.

I think the process is getting a bit more involved than I at first thought it was going to be, anyway, we’re on the road to freedom (so to speak), more healthy food and hopefully more time to sort the other stuff I need to look at.

Until next time: I’m checking out the recipe books again before they go on Ebay or the car boot.

Healthy Food from Scratch – without processed food

Well that was fun! We have about twenty or so recipe books gathered over the past 10, 15 years or so (what a waste of money – I’m making a note of the recipes I like then I’m selling them), and I’ve been through everyone looking for dishes that we would like. There are plenty that we each like, but very few we all like and can agree on, cooking several meals at each sitting is a no no because you are just increasing your costs, not necessarily in food costs (if you keep the portions under control) but with cooking costs, (it’s the same when someone is eating later and needs something warmed up, eat it cold I say and save me money!
One thing I’ve tried to do over the years is build up my own collection of recipes, that we would have more than the once, that I’ve cut out of magazines and the like, these I’ve inserted into plastic wallets and put into a folder (saves space and the plastic wallets are wipe cleaned after use).
We have finally agreed on some recipes that could be put together for a menu for the week, and as I’m trying to eliminate processed foods and save money I need to have a clear strategy for the shopping trip. There will undoubtedly be some products that we can’t make ourselves from scratch but we’re going to have a good go and only resort to processed products when all avenues have been exhausted (I know it’s not all going to happen overnight but you have to start somewhere).
For the list of recipes we have some sort of menu for the coming week and from these we’ll have a list of ingredients for the shopping list, now is the time to see what’s already in the cupboards so we don’t buy anything we already have.

Until next time: I’m making sure I don’t duplicate anything we already have so not wasting money.

Food shopping – for the frugal

I want to say straight away that my name is NOT Scrooge, I am NOT mean, despite what people say, I am just careful with money (what little there is I want to hang onto for as long as possible and see that it is spent wisely (or not at all)). My childhood years were spent in the sixties and seventies and there just wasn’t the money around then. There were no credit cards to use if you were a bit short, if you didn’t have the money – you went without, and although times were tough I have to say that we never went without food, there was always something on the table, and that’s where I want to start on my frugal journey…

Food – the biggest expense for the majority of people. But a lot of money is spent buying the wrong type of food – the dreaded processed foods, and yes, we’re equally guilty on this one from time to time, but no more.

There are lots of things you can do when food shopping but the main one is not going unprepared, and by writing a list.

I have been trying, for years, to get my family into the habit of doing menus each week (and for a few weeks ahead too to save some time) so that shopping becomes easier, because if you know what food you’re going to be eating you know what food you need to have in the house each week! (And making the process of shopping easier has only to be a good thing surely!).

After the menu has been written, the list of ingredients automatically comes from that, but before tripping off to the supermarket – stop! Check the cupboards and see what is already in there because otherwise you may end up with duplicated stuff and that could mean waste!!!!!!!!

But this will only work if all food is fresh, dried or frozen (and I don’t mean ready meals from the freezer), we have always been big advocates of unprocessed food and very rarely resort to them – but occasionally!

You don’t have to sacrifice quality either, having a frugal lifestyle does not mean living a life of poverty and living on tins of 10p beans everyday – but now and again! Sometimes you do have to wonder what quality of food is in processed foods though when everyone along the manufacturing chain has to make some profit – it makes you wonder. But quite often it’s actually cheaper to avoid processed food and cook from scratch, that’s my aim anyway.

As usual there’s no one around so it looks like I’ll have to do menus myself, so I’m off to the kitchen to search out the recipe books.

Until next time: One of the key things is to monitor the product dates; use by date means just that, use the product by this date or throw it out (wipe away the tears, it’s not worth getting ill for but remember not to do it again). Best before date means just that too, but you can use after this date (providing it’s not gone off) but there may be some deterioration in quality.

Save Money - Spend Less - Live More

Save Money, Spend Less – Live More!

Credit Crunch, Redundancy, Reduced Income, Higher prices, Rising Debts, Home Repossessions, etc

Greedy Bankers, Big Bonus payouts, Golden Hellos, Golden Goodbyes, Fat Cat Salaries, Big Cars, Fancy Houses, etc

The first group of words describe the vast majority of people in the UK today. The second group describe a much smaller group of people, smug people in my view, who aren’t too affected by the problems the recession of today, are causing, and general opinion is that the second group have caused the problems for the first group by their greedy ways.

I don’t know about you, but I have definitely been affected and am definitely part of the first group, and it’s simply not fair, it’s not moral, it’s not……

But, is there anything we can do about it? About the problem – probably not, we are where we are. But, there is one thing we can do and that is to fight back (not literally) by protecting ourselves from some of the effects. There is a better way to approach things by changing our lifestyles so that we get to keep more of the cash we earn rather than spending all of it, lining the pockets of the ‘corporate unconcerned’. They don’t have to cope with the same stresses and strains the rest of us have to cope with day in day out.

Supermarket chains, Oil companies and the like all make obscene billions of pounds profit each year – ‘at our expense’! Yes they have to make profits, Yes they have to survive, I accept that, but do their profits have to be so big, so huge? ‘at our expense’ (yes I know I’ve repeated myself but I am astounded by the size of these profits) I think not, and I for one have had enough and do not intend to contribute to them anymore that I need to from now on.

My new stance, My new Lifestyle, My new blog starts now, here today. I intend to look for the cheapest, if not freest, way to live. So I’ll be checking out the frugal, the simplistic ways to live, and acquire the things I need to live day to day in places outside the big impersonal supermarkets and hopefully I won't need too much cash either (not that I’m mean you understand!), so I get to keep whatever bit of cash I do have in my pocket and not put it into theirs.

So why not join me on the journey in search of a better way of life, right now?

Until next time:
Before I spend any money I will be asking:

Is this something I really need?
Is this something I will really use?
Is this the cheapest price I can get the product?
Can I afford it?
Will this product add value to my life?