Six Months in to Project Goodbye Magpie, How are the Bank and Life Balances Looking?

The 'things have got to change' moment came six months ago, when a financial review showed how unsustainable our family spending had become.  Outgoings were double Incomings; something had to change and fast!  12 months previous to my epiphany, I had given up my stress-inducing, illness making, all consuming job to concentrate on home-life and find a better way of living.  But, up until six months ago, that better way of living had entailed lots of visits to coffee shops, enrolling in costly adult education classes and lusting after a long list of 'must have' goods!

So, Project Goodbye Magpie was born, giving me a solid 12 months to attempt to control spending, get rid of my many consumer desires and actually find a better life for myself.  So, six months in, how's it going?

Challenge One: Stop Going to Coffee Shops
What a revelation, I thought this was going to be soooo tough, but it has actually been really easy.  I still have the odd slip, but my coffee shop frequenting has gone from a couple of times a week (minimum) to a couple of times over the entire past six months.  I either have coffee at home, or take a flask out with me, even to meet up with friends. Saving £250.00 in the last six months.

What I've Learnt So Far: Making friends with my trusty thermos flask, means I now know the delights of the local park bench.

Challenge Two: Stop Spending Money on Birthday Presents
I seem to have a mass of birthdays to cater for each year, which were costing us a small fortune.  So, I stopped buying and started making.  I also mixed in some cheap charity shop buys and the results have actually been really positive.  After some doubts over how welcome my gifts would be, the most recent present went down really well with my little nephew, his mum wrote to me and said "amazing birthday card! Wowzer! Yes, he was very chuffed, and those books are a hoot to read too".  


Getting creative, although very time consuming, has saved £630.00.

What I've Learnt So Far: Make your own birthday cards and presents, or rummage in charity shops and the back of your own cupboards!  Even if the creative results are dubious, people will appreciate the effort!

Challenge Three: Garden for Free
I am a pretty hopeless gardener, and have been so frustrated with spending money at Garden Centres, only for the plants to die a few months later.  The Challenge therefore, was to garden, but without spending much, if any, money.  So far I have propagated a few plants, encouraged self-seeded holly trees, and even saved some mature plants from our neighbour's skip!  I have just bought a load of seeds, ready for spring, so watch this space.  Amount saved: £200.

What I've Learnt So Far:  Not every self-seeded plant in the garden is a weed, it just might be a lovely plant that is currently in the wrong place. I cringe at the amount of self-seeded plants I have oiked out and chucked over the years!

Challenge Four: Reduce the Grocery Bill
Being at home with my cook books makes it very tempting to whip up lavish suppers every night.  But, while my family's stomachs might appreciate it, the bank balance doesn't.  So, in the face of rising food costs, I have been attempting to slash almost £2000 off of the grocery bill.  Through a combination of using more fresh veg from our local farmers market, using more tinned and dried pulses instead of Quorn etc. and by making friends with my freezer, I have managed to save £508.04, so far.  But, things need to go further, as I now only have £300.00 left per month in the food budget, which needs to feed three adults and three guinea pigs!  Time to get creative!

What I've Learnt So Far: Keep bread for your morning toast in the freezer, taking it out a couple of slices at a time and sticking it directly into the toaster.  It saves bread going mouldy and being wasted.

Challenge Five: Cut Christmas Spending
Similar to the Birthday Madness situation, we had spent a colossal amount on Christmas and needed to seriously cut back this time around.  Because we live quite far away from most of our family, it is really tempting to lavish gifts on them, to make up for not seeing them very often.  But, we just couldn't afford it.  So by buying smaller and making a lot of home made presents, we saved £946.28 on the previous year, spending only a couple of hundred pounds in total.

What I've Learnt So Far: Christmas does not need to have anything to do with the amount of money you spend.

 


Challenge Six: Reduce the Household Maintenance Bill
Okay, it's confession time.  This challenge isn't going so well...  We had spend £2692.00 on household maintenance in 2010/11 and my aim was to get that down to around about £1000 through Goodbye Magpie.  But, this just isn't going to happen. We have had two major repair bills, for central heating and roof repairs.  (In addition, we had yet another break-in attempt and as a result had to fit security cameras and an alarm upgrade. My parents kindly paid for this work, but I want to eventually be able to pay them back).  Putting aside the security upgrades, we are about £1000 over what we spend in 2010/11.

But I mustn't beat myself up too much.  As the spend in 2010/11 was mainly for improvements to the home, such as a loft ladder, a patio table and chairs, a new heated towel rail and the like.  They were almost entirely voluntary and cosmetic costs, rather than the vital repairs we have faced this time around.  

What I've Learnt So Far: We really need to put together savings money, which is available for major repairs when they crop up.

Challenge Seven: No New Clothes!
This has been surprisingly easy.  I have only fleeting desires for new clothes.  Instead I am managing to work perfectly well with what I have.  I have used up old wool to make a new jumper and have made repairs to holey jeans.  I even decked myself out for a wedding in entirely my own clothes, by rumaging around at the back of the wardrobe.  I came out with things I had totally forgotten I had! 

I have completely gone off the idea of shop bought clothes. This is amazing for a girl who would have previously spent many a happy afternoon spending squillions on clothes.  So far I have saved £315 by not buying any new clothes.  I do wonder how much my lack of desire for new clothes is tied up with not buying women's magazines anymore??

What I've Learnt So Far: Go clothes hunting in your own wardrobe, you might surprise yourself!

Challenge 8: Get my environmental crudentials back on track
This challenge has been great!  Being thrifty often goes naturally hand in hand with being more environmentally friendly. Because you aren't buying so much, you naturally aren't using up so much of the earth resources.

In order to live a greener life, I have: reduced the amount of rubbish we produce; turned down my thermostats; got rid of my tumble dryer; reduced the amount of plastic bottles I use; stopped using paper tissues; started using washable sanitary pads; swapped sythetic skincare products for natural alternatives and, oh, lots of other stuff. 

I just wish I hadn't had to take that flight over to Ireland for a wedding last month (alternative transport was way too costly and lengthy).  But, I was under the duress of an insistant husband...

What I've Learnt So Far: Being greener is pretty easy, you just need to get it sorted!

Challenge 9: Get more involved in my local community
This got off to a really bad start, by attending a horrendous local community planning event.  I left feeling demoralised and down-hearted, and so shelved the idea of community involvement for a good few months. 

Come the turn of the year, and I felt a bit more in the mood to give it another try.  And so I enrolled in a local river clean up event, which was really great.  Getting stuck in and picking up a load of rubbish made me feel really good; especially as it is one of my particular bug bears.  I plan on making this a regular activity (I am off on another pick up this weekend) and am looking out for other opportunities to get involved in my area.

 What I've Learnt So Far: Volunteering makes you feel good!

Challenge 10: Cut Back on Holidays
Okay, here is where we end up in family 'discussion' territory.  We spent £2000.00 on holidays in 2010/11.  That includes all spending- money, transport and accommodation.  It wasn't even on anything fancy! Four weekends away (Paris - ok that one was a bit fancy-, Scottish Borders, Inverness and Aberdeenshire) and two weeks self catering in the wilds of Scotland.  There were no Carribean cruises for us!  But isn't it amazing how it all adds up?

So, under Goodbye Magpie, we were trying to stick to a £500.00 budget.  But, what with the trip to Ireland (mentioned above), and a trip to visit my parents who live abroad, we are already £200 over budget, at just under £700.00.  

I have stomped my feet and said that we cannot go anywhere else or do anything else.  But JW is sulking.  He wants to go on the annual family gathering, which this year is to London.  He wants another two weeks self catering in the Highlands.  He wants to go on his annual family fishing trip with his Dad.  And I emphathise, I really do.  What is life all about after all, if not to spend time with your family and do things you enjoy?  But, it is simple.  We...cannot.....afford....it.  Will JW listen?  To be honest, I doubt it.

What I've Learnt So Far: Negotiating holiday time is difficult.

As well as everything above, we have also implemented other Money Saving Measures
We have called a halt to:
1. Eating Out (apart from one off treats) Saving over £1,500 so far.
2. Bus and Rail Travel (I walk, bike or don't go now!) Saving £150.00 so far.
3. Haircuts (I cut everyone's hair now!) Saving £120.00 so far.

4. Cinema trips, only allowed when we have enough Nectar points or Natwest Points.  Saving £415.00 so far.

So, you would think that with all of this, we should be really on track to be getting back into the black.  Alas.  It is not to be. 

We have still managed to spend £1816.20 more than we had coming in over the last six months!!  It is very frustrating, to be cutting back so much, but still over spending by about £300 per month.  So, what's not adding up here?  Well it turns out we are consistently overspending on 1. Petrol and 2. Groceries, most months.  Plus, one off overspends on Holidays (£200 over), all add up.

But I will not be deterred, we have made brilliant progress, (remember last year the overspend was double our income!), and we will keep on ploughing on.  What is for sure, is that I am finding a lot of happiness in simple things like baking my own biscuits, keeping the house organised, being out in the garden and riding my bike.  Having no money to go and mooch about in shops forces you to find 'something else' to do.  And that 'something else', is a whole lot better than shopping!