Welcome to the thread anjananathan.. Vow the idea of maintaining a spreadsheet sounds good to me.I have created it now and recorded everything item that we bought from the last three days.Will follow it.. Shopping clothes is one thing which almost all of us fail to control.We can save a good amount of money if we can control this one habit.
Hi Puppala, Nice thread started by you to check our wasting of money. I am really crazy about books, greeting cards, things for creative arts. I can't resist myself without buying and whether I use them or not is a million dollor question.:hide: My DH being more cautious in spending always checks me and it propels me to have a cut on my spending. You know since few months I didn't wasted a single penny on anything.:bowdown If I wanted any book, my DH will be ready to get it for me by downloading it for free (maybe by some other author but on the same subject). If I want any creative art things, he cautions me to utilise the things which have occupied the dark places in my house first and then go for any other thing.:bonk Before I used to waste on hair accessories for my kids but made a fullstop for it now as so many things have pooled up and I am fed up trying to arrange them in place everyday (my kids will be misplacing them always after removing from the hair/sometimes they play with them and throw here and there).:spin But these days I am enjoying my WINDOW SHOPPING very much and pampering my SENSE OF SIGHT with that. And to pamper my craziness to books, sometimes I will be settling myself in the library nearby and pamper myself for hours together when my kids are away to school.:thumbsup But no worries, am happy for restricting my unnecessary wastage.:cheers Regards, Latha.
Hi Latha, Yes..We tend to buy so many things which we don't use at all.Today I bought a shirt which looked fantastic in shop and after wearing it at house I felt that I should not have bought it as it looked avg for me..Not sure how it looked great for me at shop Thats ok yar..books and crafts are not a bad choice for spending money.But as you said,if we can download,its a better choice.Oh..thats great ma..you are trying to resist yourself ..and your H is also helping for that..As for me..Dh always supports me in buying clothes and then look away at al..Myself only taking steps to avoid it.. Yeah ,kids misplace things and in term they will be ,ost here and there.Actually its better to impart some education to them also in terms of saving money..from childhood itslef..I meant they need to understand the value of money.. you reminded me of my college now...I used to go to library every day without fail to read the newspapers and magazines.. You gave really good ideas ma..Thanks for enlightening the thread with your tips..Keep posting..
hi spuppala thats really a wonderful thread to make confessions and slow down ourselves just to make the necessary changes my biggest weakness is whenever there is a sale i buy cloth material a couple of metres and there you go i sometimes dont find time to finish the project. eating out even the food is cooked (weird habit) DH wants to eat out side even if the food is cooked just becuase he wanted to eat a particular kind of food right at that time and finally the glass ware and crockery items in the initial days of our marriage i used to keep an aim of saving atleast 200$ but we used to be in credit with double the amount. but reality struck us in the form of our dear FIL who took us on a joy ride regarding financial matters and the very sorry treatment towards me made too reluctant to spend money on his whims and fancies... there was a time where i used to walk for 4kms to save 2$... so infact i learnt my lessons in a very hard way.. but then these are the changes i made to ensure a constant financial saving and of course no matter of wasting money... rules are framed and are adhered strictly.... the most important step we took towards this journey are 1. DH used to have too many credit cards and he has got a wonderful hobby... swiping the card... to encounter it all the multiple cards are closed and minimised to only one card with a 2000$ limit... we are adhering so strictly to this rule even the bank gives us a platinum card as a free upgrade we outrightly rejected it 2.buying things only when they are on sale no matter what ever it is...say clothes electronics, food items from super market,shampoos, creams and even baby nappies as well... 3. in the month of jan i buy all the groceries in bulk like dals, rice,oil,etc becuase most of the indian shops offer the christmas sale, sometimes i buy them early as well if there is something like diwali sale... 4. we started taking 500 $ as monthly expenses and started working on it, before since we only 2 i used to take off 100$ towards electric charges and the rest i need to run the show that made so conscious about what i am buying, since there is a limit i need to plan properly... plan the weekly menus and buy veggies accordingly, reduced the amount of milk we buy as well... just a thought if we want it it tases only 10 mins max to go and get them instead of spending money, and wasting it... 5 since the weekly menu is planned going and eating out is reduced if we want to go out i dont cook anything, and we did set a limit about how much to spend on a meal that made us to pick the choices available with in our set limits... 6. still i buy cloth material and of course crockery but now i dont regret buying them because there is lot of pain in disciplining my self to save every dollar from the 500 monthly expenses and also need to wait for the upcoming sale as well.. so when i buy them its a joy for me... and it gives me enough time to rethink whether i actually need that item or not instead of buying it in an impulse would post the items i got as such with the original pricing and when i got them in sale soon that gives how much we save when we buy them in a sale will come back soon regards lifeisajourney
Am in the same boat myself. Yor article acted like a cold shower on me......time for realisation and act immediately to curtail all unnecessary wants !!
Lifeisajounrey! Such a beautiful name!! Dear you are awesome..You have succeeded in identifying where you are wasting money and chalked out a plan early.Thats very gerat..Hmm..your points really made me dumbstruck..each and every point is very much justified and thanks a ton for giving so many ideas which are very simple yet we fail to follow.. Yes its good to buy things when there is a sale,as we get everything for very low prices..rice,wheat we will buy like that only Ahh..the way you control your DH for using only one credit card is good.Also try to cook good food at home in whatever way he wants..and plan to go outside dinner once or twice a month..according to your comfort level. Hmm..well if you are buying a cloth piece next time make sure you have completed stitching the earlier one . Very useful tips given by you dear..Keep going gal..You have achieved so much!! Keep posting such useful tips and your experiences..
Thanks to lifeisajouney once again for such a wonderful post with lovely inputs.. Sudha mam,glad that it worked for you All the best for your little savings
