For Finally Forgoing Frittering

A question about : For Finally Forgoing Frittering

Who will join me?

I have looked around the boards for a couple of days,and I can't find a challenge quite like this.If anyone can show me,please do,otherwise I will start here .

For nearly 12 months,I have been keeping a spending diary.Now,the last few weeks,I have become VERY aware of just how much I am wasting on the stupid little things that I really could live without.Things that have just become an expensive habit.

I was becoming aware of the fact that I was getting into a (sometimes daily) habit of going to the local shops (ie garage),and buying snacks (mainly an assortment of chocolate ).Sometimes I would go to the local shop with the intention of buying milk and bread(should cost Ј2 for one of each),and coming out with very little change from Ј5 note.

I got cross with myself one day last week,where I went to Tesco to buy milk,apple juice,scones,jam.Actually came out with all those,plus more unnecessary rubbish(junk food),and only 77p change out of Ј20 note .

After that day,I thought I must add up how much I have frittered on chocolate,and bready-snacks (this month it has been bagels ).
Well,I have just done a tote-up now,and in the month of July,I have spent close to Ј90 on rubbish .(Could even be abit more because ATM I don't have my grocery receipts to hand,so can't itemise,but have added up the spends in my book entitled snacks,rubbish,or McColls.

So,who else would like to join me in kicking the waste?It could be anything YOU consider to be waste-junk food,Starbucks at work,new books because it is easier to buy when you see in the shop than going to the library,magazines,etc.
It would be lovely to have some company.

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Best answers:

• Anyone??
  I have been having a little think,and what I will do,is actually set aside the cash I know I would have spent,so I can physically see what I have saved.For example, it seems I spend,on average,Ј3-4 every couple of days on snacks at the local shop.So I might pay a few pounds across whenever I feel tempted to go out to the local shop/Tesco/etc just to buy "rubbish.
  If I set it aside,seperate from my purse,it becomes a physical reminder of how much I would have spent.Then every couple of weeks I think I will add it to my sealed pot.
• hello
  I have noticed I am terrible for this, I pop into shops all the time and buy things I don't need.
  Although I am on holiday and don't shop as much or shouldn't as I won't be pooping out during my lunch hour! I am dreadful on Amazon.
  77p here, 1.86 there. I have cut down my subscribe and save orders for the animals but the kindle........that is a different story!
  So I pledge to confess spending or tell when tempted
  thank you
  xx
• Oooohh,welcome Buffythedebtslayer (I have read parts of your diary,it is on my subscribes list).Thank you for coming out to play .Well done with cutting down.I look forward to your confessions conquests.
  We are going on holidays in two weeks,and I wonder if that will affect my impulse-buying.Maybe I won't do any.Maybe OH will buy all my treats .Maybe,with him being around, my chance of being nagged by 4 kids for ice-cream/sweets/souvenirs/toys will be halved
• I also think there might be folk interested who don't check the challenges pages? Are you allowed to post a link on the DFW main page ?
• Saver-upper I did have a look at your thread,just before going to bed.I'm mostly very good about not deviating from my food budget,but sometimes glitches still happen.Also,my food budget is quite low,as I batch cook,make my own cakes and bread and don't eat meat.
  I stupidly bought a magazine the other week-what a waste of money that was. I never usually shop for magazines,but was feeling a bit flush,so thought that I would treat myself. There was an article that caught my eye.I probably could have read the article online.
  As for having a coffee/snack/getting the odd lunchtime sandwich-it just doesn't happen,ever.I'll take water out with me,and a banana usually,sometimes a piece of cake.
  One thing that makes this so easy for me is that I live on my own.
  Do you have a food budget?One other way that you could use all the money saved from 'frittering',and say,depending on the amount put aside,use it as budget money for another week (almost like getting a week free,if you see what I mean).This is what I do sometimes.
  I plan to keep an eye on you...
• I've just been reading your first post again.
  Well done on keeping a spending diary.Do you shop using a shopping list?That can help enormously with avoiding impulse buys.
  Ј90 spent on 'waste' is a lot of money.That's just over Ј20 a week.What would/could you have done with that sum if you hadn't spent it ie what else could you be doing with that money?I think that having an extra Ј90 a month is a huge bonus.I presume that you haven't gone into the red spending that Ј90?You don't mention that anyway...Do you use budgets for food etc?That could be a way forward.We all like chocolate from time to time-can you maybe buy on special offer or in bulk,so that there's always some in the house?
  I don't live in the UK,so don't really know what Ј22 can buy in snacks/chocolate.I think that trying to cut out completely any spending of this kind is going to be quite hard.Can you not decide on having a smaller amount of cash each week to spend on the odd treat?Even spending Ј10 a week is an improvement.If you set the bar too high,you might just find it too hard,and slip back into old habits.
  Just a few ideas.Good luck!
• This is definitely an area I need to sort out so I'm in. I do meal plan but always seem to run out of one thing then end up buying Ј20 worth of stuff when I shop to replace it. What is it with Ј20 notes. I'm not successful with spending diaries but perhaps if I have to confess on here daily it will help.
• I have ended up buying a three pack of Toffee Cr1sps today because I would have had to pay 50p for using my card in the shop when buying the items I wanted. I get really annoyed when shops do this but I would rather get something than pay 50p for nothing.
• Hey,thank you for coming out to play,boys and girls-very encouraging .And already it has paid off,because there are a couple of brilliant ideas,which I am going to pinch .
  I hope you come back,Sazzie23.I wonder if I would have been better off posting on the DFW pages.Might,as you suggest,do a link,thank you.
  Hi marmiterules,thank you for stopping by.Your idea of thinking of my waste as enough for another whole new week (free week) is inspired!LBM right there,thank you
  I never go into the red.The way it works is that my very modest wage covers a couple of direct debits.Then each month OH transfers across money to my account,to pay for running the household (I guess it IS housekeeping,though that sounds very old-fashioned and under the thumb,but it's not like that-I only have to ask and more money is produced-usually only happens on birthday months/Christmas.)It covers groceries,petrol,school holiday activities,school trips,scouts,school dinners (once-a-week-treat for 3 youngest kids),clothing,school uniforms,days out,birthday presents for school friends,ice-creams after school.....basically anything that is not a bill.Sometimes,if I have had a really good month,there is even enough left over to pay a chunk off my next month's council tax,which is nice-that does feel like free money.
  I do sort of use a list,but I know I MUST get back to meal-planning,which was going really well in the new year,but has slipped,so find alot of "popping to the corner shop" going on between grocery shops.Not good.
  I have thought about physically setting aside,say Ј40/50 for the month for frittering,and when it's gone,it's gone.This would include my after-the-kids-have-gone-to-bed snacks ,after school snacks(Friday afternoon treat),and anything else that takes my fancy.
  parsniphead and buffythedebtslayer I don't know what it is about "breaking into" notes.It seems once we have broken them,we feel thay must be "thrown away" all in one go.As if they are too untidy in our purse . I have heard/read about this being a recognised phenomenon.I read an article recently saying that as a nation we would save more money if there were smaller denomination of notes(am guessing Ј1 and Ј2's.They probably won't invent a Ј3 note .) It does make sense to me.The nipping out for "bread/milk/marg" is what knocks my budeget sideways too.
  I must get back to meal-planning today!
  Right,off to browse some more MSE,do housework,and meal-plan .
• Three hours later......Am really off to do housework and meal-planning,oops (but no spending,hooray)
• I am the same here.
  I started compiling a backdated spend diary based on my debit card statements (I have 2 I can spend on) and I realised how much I'm spending on food and work lunches, as well as shoes, clothes, going out, drinking.etc
  In May I spent at least Ј70 on work lunches!! and last month at least Ј80 in eating out. This month I know I've spent more than that (brother's wedding means her in laws came over and we went out eating a lot!)
  From August onwards I am on a frugal mission to cut unnecessary spends. I will make my work lunches, spend less in general on food, reduce food wastage (I throw out a lot of fresh stuff like bread, fruit, salad).
  I am looking to move house soon, which will increase my rent by about Ј200 a month so need to start finding that from somewhere!
• . I have heard/read about this being a recognised phenomenon.I read an article recently saying that as a nation we would save more money if there were smaller denomination of notes(am guessing Ј1 and Ј2's.They probably won't invent a Ј3 note .) It does make sense to me.The nipping out for "bread/milk/marg" is what knocks my budeget sideways too.
  I miss the old Ј1 notes. I still feel that they seemed worth more than pound coins. I found an old 1/2p in the house the other day. I remember when they were phasing them out and spending a pile of them on one of those sachets of temporary hair colour.
  This is making me a certain vintage.
• I got my pocket money in pound notes. fond memories of the toy shop, Harvey's and Sindy doll clothes .
  I did spend today- I went to Sainsbury's and spent 35 quid, however much of this is for my friend's birthday tea/lunch thing tomorrow so was not frittering. the rest was guinea pig food.
  Am resisting wasting money on the guinea pigs..........
  Maybe if I sell something I might allow myself to buy the stuff but realistically I should not.
  Hope everyone is having a good Sunday xxx
• I still have a scottish 'Ј1 note tucked away somewhere.
  Here's a thought,of the Ј90 you would normally fitter away, why not take what you would fritter each week, spend half and save half, then save the 'savings' for six months or a year and see how it adds up. You could then have an annual family treat perhaps.
  Or, for every spend fritterd, you have to save the same amount, I bet that would be an eye opener to see how it adds up.