credit crunching

[ramtops]

perlmonger and I have decided that we're going to try to live frugally for a while. We don't spend much on going out but we do seem to get through a lot of cash, and I'm not entirely sure where it goes. So I have started recording what we spend on food, cutting out eating out, books, dvds, clothes, and so forth. I also have two demijohns of home made wine glooping away in he kitchen, but I hadn't realised that fruit wines take about *six months* before you can drink the wretched things, so that's not going to be an instant saving.

We started this on Tuesday, and already it's a huge success. Not. We blew 40 quid on a pair of tickets to see the incomparable Richard Thompson in January (well, we had to, didn't we?) and yesterday, despite our very best attempts, we spent 3.70 on two lamb burgers innabun from the very good butchers on Gloucester Road.

And i really want to go and get some plants for the hanging baskets. I don't think I'm going to be very good at this ...

Still, I'm going to sort out stuff to be eBayed and Freecycled, so we might be clutter-free, at least.

Comments

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

the typical way to do it is (pointy end grandma!) the journal you're doing to see what you spend on, and then the budget of what's coming in, what has to be spent and what you want to spend (mandatory and discretionary spending, fixed costs, variable costs and frivolous costs). And then you make lists before you go shopping and stick to them - or only take a certain amount of money when shopping and stick to that. And you take cheaper options like planting seeds and swapping cuttings rather than costlier instant gratification (pre-grown bedding plants). it's dieting for money!