09 January 2012

2012 Resolution #5 - Spend Less Save More

Here I am at the last of my 2012 New YEars REsolutions! Ths last one is another one of those things that everyone sticks on their list with high hopes and great expectations. Even more so more in this World's economy.

I noticed that a trend that is growing in America is clipping coupons. There is even a TV show caleed Extreme Couponing that I see every once in awhile shown here in the UK. My daughter Aurora and I love it. People buying hundreds of dollars worth of stuff for under a tenner. WOW! Here in the UK there isn't much in the way of coupon clipping but there are ways to hunt out bargains... such as Groupon and Wowcher.

But all that is fine if you actuall BUY stuff. I love buying stuff...I have more stuff than I need really...so along with the spend less I want to buy less AND get rid of the clutter. My hubby loves this idea but he spends as much as I do. We are in our mid 40s and for the first time in our lives we have the income to buy what we want when we want it without having to scrape up for it. But just because we have the money doesn't mean we should always spend it. I also want to direct any extra spending on my crafting and ink for my printer.

Things I'm doing to curb spending is:
For gorcery shopping - Don't we all LOVE grocery shopping? (eye roll) Well here in the UK we are so lucky to have home delivery available from all our big name grocery stores, Tesco, ASDA, Sainsburies, Waitrose (Ocada). I cannot tell you how much I love this. I don't have to wheel around busy stores on weekends, don't have people smashing their trollies into me, no bag packing and no impulse purchases. Another perk is, because it does take a bit of time to do, I end up buying less food. What we also do is create a meal plan for one to two weeks and buy only what we need for those meals. On my frig is a notepad for a shopping list to write things we run out of or stuff my daughter needs. It all works.

Banking - To stop my online buying so much, I am leaving very little money in my personal bank account that is joined to my PayPal account and has a debit card. That is so I cut down on spending there. I move the money over into a savings account, I happen to be pretty good at saving money so I leave it in there and don't move it back. I have credit cards but not lots of them...if fact I've always been pretty good with those as well. I just have one Visa that I use and mostly use it for large purchases only or for places that do not take my debit card. To be honest, I am not really that bad, my hubby does like to spend money too and he's not as good at keeping track as I am. This is why he gives money to me to take care of for him...lol.

Saving - This is where I want to concentrate our money on. We own our house and it's gets to a point where things start breaking down. Big things....like the boiler, roof, garden, house painting, etc. One day we will need new windows and doors (all ours are less than a year old but ya never know.) We also haven't had a proper holiday in a couple of years and that would be nice. Since I'm in a wheelchair, we can't do those cheap all inclusives, we have to drive places and stay in hotels as there are few disabled access places to stay other than that.

Thank you for joining me for this year's list of resolutions. I hope it inspired you or at least made you want to check in with me every once in awhile to see how I'm doing...lol. That was alll I could think of for this year...although most of these resolutions should be kept all year every year, I know I will do better at some of them than others. I've already slacked a bit on the exercises...ugh. I've been pretty sick this week so didn't do them. I couldn't breathe so I figured to give myself a break. Tomorrow though...back to work...lol. Please let me know what you think andif you've made any progress in your resolutions. Heck I'd just love to know if you've made any breakthroughs in your life..so if you have any good news, drop me a comment anytime!

Here are two cool coupon organisers I found online, some are paper and some are sewn. they all are pretty...lol:

This is an Etsy shop where she sells sewing patterns and other fabric crafts. She has lots of coupon organisers here (image linked):


Here is a tutorial to make your own our of cardboard and your fave papers (image linked):






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