RE: Saturday Savers Club with @sally-saver | Savers Club Extra Edition - No Buy Month September 2023

[alonicus]

I'm going to be a bit contrariwise with this one ! I think the only thing that'll change is that I don't plan to buy any crypto in September, but I'd already decided that.

In terms of the rest of my life, most of what I would do is already done. Over the last couple of years, my wife and I have looked at just about every expense and worked out what we can improve.

I work from home and my wife is incredibly talented at making meals from scratch. We grow a certain amount ourselves; that'll be increasing next spring, but for the last 15 years every plant I've put in the garden has either given us an edible crop or been bee-friendly. Unnecessary subscriptions have been cut out. Any expenses that are left are either necessary, or for luxuries which we've decided we want to keep just to make life bearable and enjoyable.

But this is the kind of idea I still thoroughly support, so I'll still be doing my ongoing routine of looking at each cost as it happens and going "do I need to keep paying this ?"

Comments

[shanibeer]

Great that you already have this hand, @alonicus 😍
Do share any tips you have!

[alonicus]

Thanks for your reply ! I reckon the answer is different for everyone, but it mainly comes down to just stopping and thinking for a second each time you spend money, as well as regularly reviewing what goes out of bank accounts. Also, you have to have a sense of balance; cutting so much out that you stop enjoying life is a guaranteed way to back-slide !

A few specific things I've got into the habit of doing include;

• Learn to cook ! I admit I'm not a great cook, but during lockdown my wife taught herself to cook South Indian food - the delicious healthy things they actually eat, not the stuff you get in restaurants. It's cut our food bill by over 30%.
• Paying for everything possible with cash. While there may be plenty of anti-surveillance arguments for it, that's not why I do it. It's just that paying by card is deceptively easy but spending real money makes you think about how much you're spending.
• Try to avoid online purchases that set up a CPA (continuous payment authority). It puts control of when and how much is taken into the hands of the provider.
• Setting up storage areas for bulk commodities. Toilet paper from Costco comes in massive multipacks, making it significantly cheaper to buy in bulk (we joke that it's "white gold" and next time there's a national emergency we'll put our stash on eBay at £5 a roll 😁).
• If you need new clothes, don't buy cheap stuff from Primark or markets; it's a false economy, it'll look shoddy and fall apart after a few washes. Instead, buy brand label clothes from Vinted or eBay. It takes time and skill. My wife has a great eye for this - she likes up-market brands, and regularly spots items that were worn once and are still as-new for crazy low prices (her best buy was a mint-coloured woollen coat by a top-end French label, around £600 new, she got it for £30 from someone who bought it in France, and only checked to find it if fitted when they got back to England).

I'm sure there's more, but the main thing is that when my wife's business was closed by government diktat during the pandemic and neither of us got any support whatsoever (Rishi lied...), we just got into the habit of being continually mindful about both our spending and our lifestyles.

[shanibeer]

Some great ideas, there, thank you 😍
Continuous payment authorities are one of my bugbears!