Have a frugal Money Saving 2010

Money Saving Plans for the Year ahead

Happy New Year – another one over, another one starting – but what does it mean? Is there any significance in a calendar change?

It’s a good time to take stock, look to what the priorities are for the coming year. I like to view it as a blank canvas, what do I want to do with the coming year? How much will it cost? Can I afford it?

I always start with drawing up my plan for the year, my financial plan and a ‘doing’ plan.

The financial plan consists of going through all bills, bank statements and the like for the previous year and making a list of all income and all expenditure that I received and paid out last year. Then I ask myself, and my family:

Can we do this cheaper?

We scrutinise every single penny spent and ask:

Was that spent wisely?

We then draw up our budget for the coming year, listing every source of income (but only if its 100% guaranteed), we don’t bother to include any odd overtime payments etc, as these are not guaranteed and may not be received.

We then list every item of expenditure we are likely to incur.

I have a savings target of 10% of all income and that goes straight into a savings account.

So that leaves 90% of income to be spent!

I allocate all the fixed spending items first, I know the value of these from my records, and if any rises are planned.

Then I look at the variable spending I have control over and see what funds are available to cover these costs.

We then have a challenge to see if we can save a further 10% on these items to add to our savings pot.

I want to get more out of every pound, I will go to any lengths to achieve the same, or higher, standard of living, for the same, or less, cost than the year before.

I may not buy my kids all the latest gadgets, they may not have the latest £100 trainers, but they have everything they need: food, clothes, a home, for a wonderful life, living a frugalistic, non materialistic, way of life, leaving behind a minimal eco footprint too.

I try to concentrate on what I have rather than what others have, therefore, I ignore magazines that show glamorous lifestyles and the ‘things’ I cannot afford. It only makes you dissatisfied with life and can lead to ruinous mountains of debt with no hope of ever repaying. So I’m grateful for what I have and I work hard to hang onto every penny as long as I can.