If you remember, I enthused about my upcoming trip to Thailand and Australia a fair bit - however this is only going to take place if some serious saving commences. For total transparency, I do not have 'rich' parents, and they are not contributing to this trip in any way. I work 28hrs a week, which I'm pretty sure counts as part-time, and earn a little above the minimum wage. Out of this I pay rent, run a car and pay the petrol it costs for the daily hour long drive to work. So... as you can gather, I'm not left with hundreds and hundreds to play about with money-wise at the end of the month. (I say all of this, because I think it's something most bloggers just avoid discussing, like, at.all.costs. It's as though we still consider it awfully rude and embarrassing to discuss how much we all earn. Well bollocks to that I say. I spend more time thinking "How the heck does she afford all this crap every month, with out running up a mahoosive credit card bill?!" than I do thinking, "Wow, she looks great in that outfit post!") Anyway... because of all the above, the word 'budget' makes me really depressed. I don't exactly have a £200 a month naughty Topshop habit that I can give up and miraculously save thousands - so for me to save money we're talking overtime at work, and being amazingly strict on what I spend. So, budget-shmudget, I have a new way of saving money, and that's without directing all my spare pennies into my savings account at the start of the month, then spending the rest of it with my nose pressed up against shop windows like the little match girl. It's called the... 'I don't need it' Plan This may seem a bit obvious, and it's a really crap name - let's be honest here, but it's really easy to put down nights out, birthday presents, food on your lunch break and parking tickets as necessities, which they totally are not.
My current action plan:
- Review last month's bank statement. Highlight anything that wasn't a 100% essential purchase. This month, I spent a lot of time colouring in 'bargain' purchases from work, and 'essential' books from Waterstones a bright neon yellow.
- Decide where I can make money saving substitutes. *deep breath* I cancelled my gym subscription and Netflix, and have removed all saved payment information from my iTunes account. Had to be done, people! In all fairness, I never went to the bloomin Gym anyway - and seeing as there's an unused treadmill just next door...
- It's all in the preparation! Which means no more emergency trips to M&S on my lunch breaks, and me actually packing some lunch before I leave for work.
So at the end of my little spending analysis, I worked out that I could have saved £200 last month by not buying lipsticks, book, shoes and food I didn't actually need. Two Hundred Pounds. Shocking.
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