Money Saving March: Packed Lunches

I'm on a mission to save money in March! I'll be posting three times a week with ideas and challenges. Free free to join in! :)

Hello and welcome to Money Saving March! I will be taking on various money saving ideas and challenges; some lasting a day, some all month!

One of the common frugal tips is to bring your own lunch to work. I do generally do this, however the numbers are in and last month I bought lunch five times! Granted, the £3 supermarket meal deal isn't likely to break the bank, but that would still be almost £200 a year wasted on me being too lazy to make lunch in the morning!

So, challenge 1 for Money Saving March is to bring lunch from home, every single day, NO EXCUSES!

What makes a good lunch?
I take simple lunches to Uni. I tend to make it late the night before, or in the morning while I'm waiting for coffeeeeeeee, so it has to be quick and easy. Examples include:

• Cheese and pickle sandwiches, a tomato and an apple.
• Couscous mixed with pesto and a roughly chopped tomato, and a banana.
• Leftovers, such as lentil soup.

Yep, you won't find me chopping up 100 ingredients for the world's greatest salad or something in the mornings, but I still manage to eat relatively healthily for a fraction of the cost of a supermarket meal deal!

Back-up plan!
I know me. I know there are days when I sleep through my alarm and wake up with seconds to get ready and go! These are the days when I'd say, "Screw it, I'll buy lunch later". I need a back-up plan.

My solution? Keep emergency food at Uni! I've got cheap-o super-noodles, instant soup, bananas and apples that I can store under my desk. If I forget to take lunch, I won't have to resort to going to the shop!

Savings
If a homemade lunch costs about £1 a day, I should save £10 compared to last month's supermarket meal deals, and eat more healthily to boot!

Anyone else want to take on this easy challenge? How much do you think you'd save?

Becoming Frugal

Thanks for your recent comments. Sorry I haven't been around - we still don't have the internet and I have been writing at home to post at the coffee shop down the road!

It's been about a year since I started this blog.

I had just finished University and once the graduation ceremony was out of the way I was faced with the stark reality of my bank balance. I was pushing the limits of my overdraft, I was carrying a (small) balance on my student credit card and I was just about to borrow a few hundred pounds to replace my car, which I needed to get to work.

I used a budget at University, which worked well when the going was good, but it had no room for error. When anything unexpected came up (car repairs, dental work, a night out, a trip home etc.), I didn't have a back up. The money came out of next week's/month's budget, which of course sent me into a downward spiral of not having enough money at the end of each student loan instalment!

When I got my first job after Uni (a chambermaid in a hotel – top graduate employment!), I wanted to learn how to budget properly. I spent hours learning why my Uni budgets never worked and how to fix it (answer: no wiggle room). I eventually came across some of the Frugal Living websites and blogs. I had never really stopped before to think about HOW to save money, just that I knew I should! (My frugality at University stretched to Tesco Value everything, but that was about my limit!)

When I first began work last summer I was still determined to live away from home as soon as I could afford it. I figured since I was earning I could afford to do pretty much as I pleased. Once I had read up on frugality I swung the other way and entered extreme frugal mode! Have you ever read Mr. Money Moustache's post about how debt is an emergency? He says if you're in debt then you should buy food and fuel to get to work, and the next penny you earn should be put towards debt. Well I was almost that extreme. I felt guilty spending money on ANYTHING that wasn't absolutely essential. I was constantly saying no to invites and learned how to make do and mend instead of buying things.

It did work though and I quickly paid back my debt, despite working for minimum wage all year. Since then I guess I've become a bit more extravagant (if I want a coffee, I'll buy a coffee), but I tend to keep myself out of situations where I am likely to buy unnecessary things. I enjoy reading new tips for frugal living, recipes and avoiding wasting money.

It's easy to slip back into old habits even now. I would like to take a step back up the frugality ladder. Life is much more expensive living away from home, even if it's on a student budget. We're settling into a routine now, and we've got the basic essentials we need (sofa's arriving on Tuesday!). Now the new truly frugal budget starts. Let's see how low we can go!

What about you? Are you frugal or a spend-a-holic? Have you always been like that, or is there a turning point story you'd like to share? :D

The Latte Factor

Do you know how much you spend on little whims? A fiver here, maybe a couple of pounds there. The problem is that it all adds up!

David Bach, author of many personal finance books such as The Automatic Millionaire, discusses the concept of the “Latte Factor”. This phrase describes small but regular spending, for example a daily latte on the way to work, which slowly adds up into a huge annual expenditure.

Is a daily latte really the end of the world?

Will small, regular expenses really break the bank? Maybe you buy lunch at the shop around the corner from work every day, at a cost of £4. That's £20 a week, which is £1000 a year, and over the course of a working lifetime that's a significant amount of money that you could have spent in other ways. It also works out as 7 weeks' worth of work a year at minimum wage.

It's important to keep your life balanced though. If you can't spend a planned amount on things you want but really don't need then you might spend all your life waiting to be allowed small luxuries.

Xin Lu made a good point in her article on WiseBread; “I believe that saving money should not be a punishment, so when you deprive yourself of a tiny expense that makes you happy, the whole exercise of saving money will become a negative experience ”.

If you add a small Latte Factor to your budget and use it as motivation to save money in other areas, it might actually be saving you money in the long run. You may well be less likely to rebel against an oppressively-tight budget and go on a mad spending spree!

Conclusions

I believe as long as you have the money to do so (not a credit card!) a small weekly budget of “fun money” can be a worthwhile use of your cash. You can use it to go for dinner with your friends, or save it for a trip somewhere, or just spend it on a latte, whatever you fancy. It's your money to spend as you like, so you don't have to wait until retirement to enjoy what you have!

Who Cares About the Joneses? Be Yourself!

Frugal people tend to save their money for the things they find the most important. They usually don't give a monkeys whether everyone else has a swanky smartphone or a brand new car. 

That's why I was so surprised to read an infuriating article on the frugal living site Wise Bread called "Passing for Middle Class". Writer Philip Brewer gives people tips on how to keep up with the Joneses on a budget, which sounds fine in principal but ends up listing ways to get things you don't need whilst avoiding paying top whack for the privilege.

One of the options Brewer suggests is to choose the cheapest “lifestyle cluster” (suburban house plus two cars vs. urban apartment closer to work) which will allow you to pass yourself off as middle class whilst avoiding the items you are not “required to have (to count as middle class)”.

The other alternative is to get all the things you are “required to have” at the cheapest possible price. The most ridiculous of these for me was a university degree. In the US, University education leaves a lot of people struggling with huge student debts that can really harm their financial future. If you need a degree for your chosen career then fine, but Brewer states that a Bachelors is a required “middle class marker” and seems to suggest that you should just get any old degree from your local state's school. To me, it sounds like if it's not allowing you to get a better job, you're just paying thousands of dollars for bragging rights and entry into the middle class status!

Why does this matter? Who actually cares??

People can feel criticised for the choices they make. Why do you live in such a small house? Why save for tomorrow when you could get hit by a bus today? Why do you drive an old banger when everyone else is paying off car loans for the next four years? Why do you not follow the crowd?

The thing is, frugal people decided long ago not to bother trying to keep up with pointless class status symbols. As financial guru Dave Ramsey says, the Joneses don't want you to know they're actually broke!

Possibly the most infuriating line in the whole article is the following: “Sometimes, even when your values aren't middle-class values, it's worth making some small adjustments to pass for middle class”. No no NO! Stand up for what you believe in! Live well within your means and spend your money on what's important to you!

Please don't try and “pass for middle class”. Be who you are!

Things You Will Never Need to Buy

There are some things that just sit in your house gathering dust and taking up space. If you've got good neighbours/relatives/friends, stop buying these once-a-month/year/decade items and borrow when needed!

Suitcases – One third of my wardrobe is taken up by a suitcase, which in turn contains holdalls and a hiking rucksack! The person you borrow it off will be glad to get theirs out of the way for a week!

Lawnmowers – Save yourself some shed space and borrow next door's mower when your lawn starts looking like a jungle.

Books and DVDs – You can borrow books and films from the library or friends. I don't know about you, but my bookshelf is stuffed to the brim already! No more room for new purchases!

DIY stuff – No-one needs instant access to a cordless drill or wallpapering table. Borrow as required. (The Boyfriend is already accumulating a lot of random power tools. I would like to put a stop to this before we live together!)

Canning or preserve making stuff – A lot of people have this equipment burrowed away in the back of a cupboard. Ask around and someone will probably be happy to get some use out of their stuff!

Gardening tools – Many a part-time gardener is not going to need their fork and spade all day every weekend. Ask them when they'll be doing their work, then borrow their stuff in the down time.

Top tips for borrowing

• LOOK AFTER IT! You'll remain friends and be more likely to receive a favour again in the future.
• Never borrow anything that you can't afford to replace if you do break it.
• Borrow it for a set period of time. (“I'll get it back to you by Friday”) Even if you haven't finished with it, ring/visit your friend and ask if you can continue using it.
• Don't forget to give it back! The whole point is to reduce clutter, so you don't want someone else's kayak taking up room in your garage!
  
  

One more tip, for future students; if you're going into a Halls of Residence, DON'T TAKE SAUCEPANS OR KITCHEN UTENSILS. Everyone buys a new set for their first time living away from home, which means you end up with six sets of everything!

Anyone got any more suggestions? Do you borrow anything expensive from relatives?

Decluttering: My First Freecycle

Today I entered the wonderful world of Freecycle. I can't imagine there are many frugal people who've never heard of it, but just in case...

Freecycle is a global network of local groups, where members post items to giveaway to others. Basically the idea is to get out of the consumer cycle and reduce waste. It's a way of recycling. Things offered on my local group today included a wardrobe, working dishwasher, top soil, lots of baby clothes, a small TV, a trampoline and a 3-piece suit of sofa and chairs.

Honestly, my post wasn't all that exciting compared to that stuff!

I've been having a bit of a declutter. I advertised that I wanted to be rid of a big folder full of plastic wallets that I used to keep my Uni work neat. I would never use them again; they are expensive, environmentally damaging, and you have to keep pulling the sheets of paper out to be able to write on them!!

Within a few minutes of the post going live I had four e-mails from people desperate for my second-hand plastic wallets!

I decided I wasn't too keen on the idea of someone coming to my house to collect them, so I asked the first replier to meet me outside the pub in the village. It must've looked a strange exchange; two cars pulling into a dark carpark, exchanging an unmarked bag with few words exchanged, then each driving off in a separate direction.. Hee hee!

Have you ever got anything exciting from Freecycle? There is certainly a lot I would've liked today but the point is to REDUCE my clutter, not add to it! The Boyfriend once got a load of educational books he needed for free, which I thought was amazing at the time, considering the cost of them.

Would you list your things on Freecycle? Would you let someone come to your house to collect them, or am I just paranoid? :)

Unfestive

I just got back from town. I drove there happily singing Christmas songs to myself, but came back moodily staring over the steering wheel.

I was hoping to pick up a few bits I need to make my Christmas presents. The plan was to slowly mill around, absorbing the beginnings of the festive cheer whilst picking up some bargains. Town was packed, and it's a Tuesday afternoon! I had to park sooo far away from the shops to get a free parking space (hey, I could use that £4!) and wandered down into the city centre.

Slowly picking my way through the crowds, I went to the market. I'm making my young cousin a stuffed toy and needed fabric. I couldn't find any patterned polycotton for less than £9 a metre!! What?! I only need about that but it'd be cheaper to BUY a toy at that price!

So then I thought I'd go to the charity shops and find some skirt that I could cut up and use. In Plymouth the Red Cross shop was having a £1.99 or under sale a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't know if we had one of those in Truro so I went to Oxfam. The cheapest thing I could find in there was £4.99, and it looked as though it had cost about that to buy new!! Most of the stock was priced around £10 or £15! Since when do charity shops have prices as high as the highstreet??

I was getting disenchanted by the whole affair as walking through town makes you feel like you should be spending hundreds of pounds on each family member or else you're a terrible person. I actually heard someone say, “I got ... for ..., but I still have to spend another £30 at least”. Not “I would like to get them something they'd like”, but “I have to spend this much on person X”. I'm sure I've thought similar things in the past too, but if you stop and think about it, that's an awful way to look at Christmas. Even if you are not religious but celebrate it for the traditions like me, the spirit of Christmas is still the same, and it ain't about the £££!

I Braved the High Street!

I actually went into a shop on Wednesday! I have no idea when the last time I strolled along a high street was! To be honest it was a bit of a shock to the system. I went to Plymouth on the train with The Boyfriend for a date, armed with a Christmas shopping list of bits I need to complete my presents.

I have two major flaws in my reasoning and judgement ability; firstly, I'm gullible (you'd get away with telling me the most ridiculous lies) and secondly, I am horribly easily swayed by advertising! I mean I see an advert on TV for Coca-Cola and immediately think (or even say to someone) “I want a Coke”. I want things I have no need for just because an advert says I do, and it really is a battle in my head between logic and consumerism!

Just walking along the streets of Plymouth was sending swirls of “you need this because of the BARGAIN PRICE” or “how could you let your mum go without THIS for Christmas?!” round my brain. I walked into one of those pop-up Christmas tat shops; you know the ones that sell novelty pens, personalised calendars and pasta shaped like bottoms? I was shocked at the pointless stuff for sale, yet I had frequented these shops in Christmases past to find some humorous but ultimately never-used gift for friends. Clutter at a premium price!

Grr, just thinking about the amount of money I must've wasted over the years on pointless crap is driving me crazy!

The Boyfriend is very good at not spending money. He's not as easily influenced as I am! Luckily I didn't fall for any clever marketing tricks by chain stores. I bought 12 cinnamon sticks (£3) for making mulled wine sachets to send to friends, an ugly top made of a nice patterned material to cut up and use for Christmas gifts (£1 from a charity shop), 4 Christmas shape cookie cutters (Father Christmas, a star, an angel and a Christmas tree) to send cookie-mixes-in-a-jar to The Boyfriend's nieces and my cousin (£2.50), and two packets of Fizz Wiz (popping candy from back in the day), which will be a present for my mum (40p). The only thing item I got for myself was a green jumper for £1.50 from a charity shop.

Having said that, our main trouble was food. We should definitely have packed our own lunches! We each bought a pasty for lunch and some cheap fast food for dinner. We also got bored when the shops started to close and the train wasn't for another 90 minutes, so went to.... Starbucks. I hang my head in shame. £2.50 for a coffee is definitely a waste of money, especially when The Boyfriend and I had been talking about how strange it is that people go to a shopping mall with the sole purpose of blowing their money! My report card for the day reads “must try harder”...

The Good, the Bad and the New Job

Everything's up in the air at the moment. I'm supposed to be starting a research job but it's a new company and they're still in the process of sorting out funding so I have no confirmed start date. It could be next month or in several months! In the meantime I've been working in a hotel (chambermaiding) but the hours are starting to decline now that the summer's officially over.

So I decided to get an evening job! I am now working three or four evenings a week in the local Chinese (two villages over, but still closer than the hotel!). I had a trial shift last night and it was a nice place to work. It's bloody difficult from one respect though – you have to learn the numbers for each different item (there are ~85) AND how much it costs! Eeek! I kept having to turn the menu round so I could look it all up! Apparently you pick it up really quickly though.

My black trousers for work were getting a bit raggedy, so I thought I'd keep those for the hotel and get some new ones for waitressing. I took myself off to town with £15 in my pocket. I tried on a few different pairs but the ones I settled on (and fit best) were only £6!

Walking towards the checkout with my trousers I felt the strangest sensation though. It was a large shop with a lot of different clothes, all fairly cheap compared to the high street shops. As I was walking through, the voice in my head started up again.

You could treat yourself with the money you've saved.

I was tempted but resisted. It almost felt like I SHOULD spend it though, since I'd allocated it towards buying clothes. But then later I was given a £10 tip from work. This was too much for my fragile will to take. I blew it on an evening out with The Boyfriend. I felt so guilty even whilst I was spending it. Argh, I'm so frustrated now!

Earlier in the year I told myself that all money I earned from tips I would be allowed to spend outside of the budget, but I think I've been spending it without really thinking about what I'm doing. It's this sort of wasteful spending that was one of the problems that got me into this mess!

So, new rule: All tips must be saved in a jar as a temporary emergency fund. Whilst I'm paying off debt I can't really start saving properly, but this can be a basic back-up in case the car breaks down, the hours get reduced even further at work, or I lose my job completely.