Tigers advice about the standing orders the day after you get paid is excellent. Can't spend what's already been moved and it allows you to plan exactly how much you save and what you have left over each month.

It's probably a good idea to have a target amount, goal, and time frame for your savings to help focus them. And doing that in conjunction with keeping track of your personal spending will highlight other ways that you can potentially increase the savings each month.

Don't make yourself miserable though. Keep on getting those sandos if it makes you happy.

poprock wrote:

I was skint for a long time, and getting out of that hole is hard - but once you get past living month-to-month and have the tiny cash cushion you always wanted, the rest gets a lot easier.

Didn’t want this to get lost, as it’s something that feels so far away but once the point is crossed everything seems more comfortable - saying this as someone who’s point was seemingly way out of sight not that long ago.

Interest rates are rubbish now so there’s not many decent savings accounts, but Nationwide have one that has a £100 prize draw every three months for c.1 in 50 savers that put in £50 a month every month that we’ve had going in on pay day - it’s been going fifteen months and although we haven’t got lucky yet we’ve ended up with a pot of £750 without really noticing (that’s not meant to sound as privileged as it might, just that little habits soon start accumulating behind the scenes).

For me the big ones were:

• Giving up my car
• Moving to a cheaper flat
• Cutting back a lot on booze

Smaller things were:

• Food shopping weekly instead of daily
• Socialising at weekends instead of every night
• Not buying any ‘stuff’ at all (basically going digital - reading websites instead of buying magazines, etc)

It was the small stuff that added up.

Also, prioritise. I wore shoes with holes in them for a couple of years, but continued to go to the pub on a Sunday. Choices, innit. Got to still get pleasure somewhere.

poprock wrote:

[*]Not buying any ‘stuff’ at all (basically going digital - reading websites instead of buying magazines, etc)

Not deliberately picking out poprock's gems, but this is another really good one...at the start of lockdown I remembered I'd signed up to our local library...

A (free) Kent library card gets you access to Libby and PressReader absolutely free, which basically means any magazine I've ever previously purchased and loads of newspapers are available to read for nothing (including lots of back issues). Game changer, and I think most local authorities offer the same.

Audio books too, although they're often checked out. I use the 'newsagent' apps pretty regularly though.

regmcfly wrote:

Stuff is the main one for me

Stuff like the signed copy of the new Manics album you mentioned in another thread?

Not meant as a dig, and I hope not taken as one. Just … sometimes making a public statement about wanting to change habits means friends can help by ribbing you about it. A lot like when someone quits smoking.

Can also consider if you can get something second hand or not if there's stuff that comes up in your mind that your brain tells you you need to buy. A lot of things like jars, or chairs etc we've just decided to get second hand. Will of course depend on what you can get local, and it's not always cheaper, the closer it becomes to "vintage" the more you'll be paying, but I often have a look at local groups (facebook, next door, garage sales) for things that I don't really need the new version off.

Or tell yourself you can only get something if it's on sale. I usually have a few games that I know I want to buy at release (MH and Metroid this year for me), and if I want anything else I'll look for second hand or wait for a sale.

Also the feeling of guilt that I'm pretty much spending B's money on things I don't really need helps question everything I buy.

For me, when it comes to shopping or buying stuff, its all about adopting the mindset of "will this product enhance my life? Can I live without it? Do I have something that serves this purpose already?"

And if any of those tick positive I then ask the question "what will Mrs Wookie think of this and is it worth the argument?"

I just tell the wife I won any big expenditures in a raffle on Twitter. She thinks I'm just incredibly lucky. This works brilliantly as it ties into her thinking I'm lucky to have married her, and seems all the more convincing due to this.

#tigerstips

I think you lot might upgrade my TV for me. You generous lot

MattyJ wrote:

What my wife and I do is pay into joint account X amount of money. That money covers all the house bills, but also include 'spending money' each month for stuff like if we get some food out or need to buy something for the house. It includes joint savings as well. That way whatever we have left in our own account is entirely ours to do what we want with. So if I want to buy a pair of trainers or a new game or even something bigger like a games console, there isn't any argument to be had as all the house stuff is taken care of already. Obviously I'd still tell the wife that I'm planning on getting something bigger (like when I bought the series x) but otherwise it's fair game.

That's how we do it in our house too.

Going through the same frustration Gav
Was hoping to be out of here 4 months ago. Still here. Keep missing places, let them contact you, and they will though it's all automated stuff, but be vigilant on getting back to them. However even then it won't always work. I was to of the list for a place for 7 weeks, then the morning of my viewing it was cancelled due to having been reserved, bunch of cunts mate

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

If you need any help with the vetting then just pm.

OK, so weeks later we still don't have a quote from that Rhys who I really liked.  To be fair, he says his girlfriends Nan just died, but still, my Mum-in-Law died in May and I had to be back at work serving customers within a week (hope that doesn't sound harsh).

Next up:

daVally Landscape & Garden Maintenance based in Hillsborough Sheffield.

Been out today.  Seems to be a bigger, more "proper" company.  Sent a guy out today who again seems likeable and knowledgeable.  there website has a great gallery, but I hope their landscaping skills are better than their web skills, which are a bit "ooh Dreamweaver 2.0 can do rollovers".

The very first thing i asked him was, what's you're availability?  His response was, "January, because we're not shit" lolz

x

Aye. It isn't cheap. We spent 20K on ours. Fucking bonkers.  

That did include quite a bit of construction as Wifey wanted walls built with lights in them etc which means plasterers, electricians etc.  Large patio, couple of seating areas, path laid etc. It included our smaller front garden getting sorted out with a new driveway laid.

(I'm making our garden sound huge - it isn't).

Still.  A bloody garden.  I have no idea how much we spent on plants and trees. We got rid of a few that had got out of control so we planted some new ones.

What I will say though is that it has been a boon during lockdown. Biggest room in the house and all that. We more or less lived May/June outside this year.

Yeah @Lord_Griff, this is exactly what I'm thinking now.  There's nothing to stop me getting a skip myself, getting rid of all the small trees and shrubs, take the summer house down, rip up all the decking etc.

The garden would be a bomb site by the end of it, but certainly less for them to do at that point!

Several trees taking out at roots
New retaining wall build and the lawn extending / flattening
A ton of Ivy and plants to be dug up
New patio laying between the house and the new wall
Summer house and decking at the top ripping out
New patio / decked area where the summer house was.