Smart shopping tips revisited

Thanks to those who commented.  From feedback received, my own ideas and habits, and some reading I have done, I have come up with the following:

• Buy-one-get-one-frees: only buy if you have cash, space to store, and the items won't go off before they can be used.
  
• If you haven't much space to store bulk-bought items, consider clubbing together with friends or family to buy them between you, and share the benefit of the discounts.
  
• Consider own brands vs branded items: compare the price per 100g, but generally own brands will be cheaper, and taste just as good.
  
• Plan meals, even roughly, before you go shopping, bearing in mind how many meals you need to cater over the week, and buy only what you need for those.
  
• If you eat a lot of ready meals, consider cutting those down and cooking more; this will be cheaper as well as healthier.  Something on toast, e.g beans and poached egg, will cost less and be quick to prepare, as an alternative to a ready meal.
  
• Keep a running shopping list on the fridge and add to it as you run out of things, so you don't forget anything when you go shopping.  
  
• Don't go shopping when you are tired, hungry, or in a hurry.
  
• Set a cash budget for food per week; take cash out at the beginning of the week, and use this to pay for groceries until it runs out. (This will help with budgeting, and also it is psychologically harder to spend cash than use cards.)
  
• Try to last one day longer than you think you can manage without going food shopping, and make that last meal with what you have left in the cupboard.  
  
• Try and make enough food for two or three meals, in one go: e.g make enough spaghetti bolognaise to turn this into chilli the following day, or freeze half of what you make for another day.
  
• Pick-your-own fruit and vegetables when it is cheapest, and store in the freezer or use to make jams or chutney.
  
• Even if you don't do PYO, then still buy fruit and vegetables that are in season.
  
• Keep cleaning products to the basics: supermarket own-brands will generally be much cheaper and no less effective than branded products.
  
• Buy Christmas paper, cards, and birthday cards when you see them on special offer, if you can store them.  (Or make your own.)
  
• Check washing instructions before you buy new clothes, and avoid those which need dry-cleaning.
  
• Buy shoes with soles which can be repaired or replaced.
  
• Sign up to receive nectar or clubcard points, don't buy things in order to get extra points, however. 
• Processed cereals are expensive and not very nutritious; porrige or homemade muesli are filling, cheap and healthy.
  
• Avoid, or minimise, fizzy drinks.  Squash, or one nice idea I read, lemon juice and sugar, make an alternative soft drink.
• Compare prices online before you go shopping, e.g at http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/
• Watch the cash register and look at your receipt before you leave the shop, to avoid mistakes.
  
• If you are going to the shop to buy a pint of milk, don't pick up a basket; if you are planning to buy a few items, take a basket rather than a trolley.
  
• Toiletries will likely be more expensive in a supermarket than chemist.
  
• Check whether loose or packaged fruit and vegetables are cheaper; loose generally cost less.
  
• If you do buy bags of fruit and vegetables then weigh them to ensure you are getting the correct weight.
• Instead of cooking large portions of meat, cook pasta, rice or beans to accompany a small amount of meat. 
  
• If you are a meat-eater, try having a few meatless days a week.
• PS - If carrier bags are charged for where you shop, take your own.  Otherwise, use the free ones for reuse as bin liners.

Budgeting for the not-very-budget-oriented

I dislike spreadsheets, and it might be said of me that I am 'better with words than numbers'. The concept of a budget, as described by some experts, is therefore mildly horrifying to me. However, I am interested in making sure that my finances add up, and that I am able to pay for things that are important to me, and also to save for the future. My preferred approach is therefore as follows:

Every year or so, or whenever we have a significant change in our finances, we review and update an ongoing list of our fixed monthly direct debits, for mortgage, electricity and so forth, and make sure that this is up-to-date, looking through our bank statements to check that we have captured any changes, and giving some thought to any direct debits we might want to cancel or amend. The list of regular fixed payments includes a separate allowance for each of us, as well as payment to a 'fun', 'holiday', and 'car' jar.

The list of direct debits includes one to an 'annual bills' jar, which is calculated using a list of those bills which need to be paid less often than monthly, for instance car servicing, insurance and car tax. These are added up and the total is divided by twelve, to come up with an average monthly amount. (Money is transferred from the annual bills jar to the current account as these irregular bills need to be paid.)

We then check that the amount we have estimated for non-fixed expenses like travel and food is still appropriate, by looking through our credit card expenses for the last few months, and taking an approximate monthly average.

We check, and update as appropriate, the amount we have listed as income.

Once this has been done, we have an approximate idea of how much money we have spare each month, once essentials have been paid for.

This is where our system becomes rather chaotic; we have never found it practicable or helpful to allocate fixed amounts for different types of expenditure, but instead prefer to operate the 'pay yourself first' system. Under this, and taking account of the calculations above, we transfer out a certain amount of money to savings each month as soon as we have been paid. Sometimes we need to transfer some money back later for particular purposes, but as a general rule this works fairly well, and because the money is not sitting in the current account, it cannot be spent quite as easily. And as both savings and regular payments have been accounted for, the money spare can be used however we see fit, without us having to worry about whether we have over-spent on travel, or entertainment, or eating out, that month. (Over the last month or two, however, I have been trying to get a more precise idea of our spending, by tracking our expenditures on a spreadsheet.)

The paragraph above assumes that there is some money left over for saving once essentials have been taken into account; I will look at the question of reducing monthly outgoings in future posts, as well as the subject of self-employment and budgeting for taxes. I will also include some more expert opinions than mine on budgeting, and its value.

Wasting money on a taxi

Last week, on fireworks night, we arranged to go to the fireworks display in our village with my sister and brother-in-law. As I was due to be in London that day, and had a fairly late meeting, we arranged that I would catch up with the others later, if I missed the train home which would get me back in time to see the fireworks. My meeting did, as expected, end late, but instead of accepting this, and settling for catching a later train, I asked a taxi driver how long it would take him, and how much it would cost, to get me to the station from which my train left. (I usually take the tube.) His answer suggested that we could make it, so I decided to make the attempt. In fact, the traffic was so bad that I ended up missing the train I was aiming for, and catching exactly the same train I would have caught if I had taken the tube as usual. And the cost was several pounds more than the driver's estimate.

I thought later about what I could learn from this, and decided that my mistake had been my unrealistic expectations of the time and cost involved in getting to where I needed to be. I should, had I been sensible, have accepted that I could not make it home in time, and carried on on that basis, but I had attempted to solve my problem with money, and had ended up just wasting it.

Book Review: "A Guide to Elegance" by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux

This may sound like a frivolous book to be reviewing for a blog supposedly about personal finance, but actually I found the advice it contained extremely useful and practical, assuming that the topics of clothes and style are of interest to you in the first place. As I have mentioned before, I find clothes-buying an area where I am naturally inclined to spend money.

This book, whose full title is "A Guide to Elegance for every woman who wants to be well and properly dressed on all occasions" was originally published in 1964, though was updated and re-published in 2003. Though some of the advice, written as an A to Z of clothing-related themes, harks back to a more genteel era, with the suggestion of different outfits for morning and afternoon, cocktail parties and weekends away, sounding in many cases more like 1934 than 1964, much of it remains entirely applicable.

Mme Dariaux considers that Frenchwomen tend to have far fewer clothes than their American counterparts, partly because they are less exposed to advertising, but that the garments they do own tend to be of far better quality. She notes, and this was one of my favourite points in the book, that a woman's aim should be to own a single perfect outfit for every possible occasion, and that there is no stigma attached to wearing the same dress on many occasions.

Other advice is to invest fairly heavily in a good quality, and ideally colourful, winter coat, possibly bought with a skirt in a matching colour, as this should last for several years, and to take the opportunity of a prosperous phase in life to acquire some good jewellery, handbags, a gold compact, a nice umbrella - rather than to buy fashionable dresses which will not stand the test of time.

Under the heading of "budget", is the surprisingly short list of items that the author considers essential to a woman's wardrobe; this is expanded upon in the "Ideal Wardrobe" section.

Her advice on bargains is that whether an item is really a bargain has little to do with its initial cost, and everything to do with how much use and pleasure you derive from it over time. The author also wisely counsels against buying anything, particularly in a sale, because it is bound to be "useful"; you should love it.

In summary, I thought this was an excellent, and very encouraging book. It left me feeling that if I could manage to take a long-term view, plan, and save up for clothes that I really wanted, I would end up better dressed, without having spent too much, and with less clutter in my wardrobe.

Planning

I've been working quite hard recently, including some time away from home, and consequently haven't been as well-organised in various respects as I might have been. As well as being inefficient with time and energy, my lack of proper forward planning has also led to some financial inefficency.

For instance, I recently ignored the telephone calls from the car insurance company about my renewal until the last possible moment, meaning that I didn't have time to shop around properly for a quote, as I had intended to do.

I've also forgotten to take my packed lunch in to work a couple of times, and therefore had to buy lunch out. I used to feel that a bought lunch was a nice treat on those days - two or three a week - when I was away from home. Nowadays, except on these few recent occasions of forgetfulness, I am in the habit of taking a packed lunch, and save buying lunch for a special occasion, usually a social gathering.

If I am in a hurry I am also more likely to leave making travel arrangements to the last moment, so not being able to take advantage of cheaper rail fares, as well as more likely to eat out for convenience rather than pleasure.

When things are going well, I enjoy planning ahead, and find it quite easy to do so, but I have noticed that my natural instinct is to put my own affairs on hold if feeling under pressure, and find myself living from one day to the next. I'd like to think it is partly the result of a conscientious nature, but is probably not ideal for my own health and happiness, and this is something I am resolved to work on. (A classic example of this is my old habit of leaving my expenses claims to languish for months before submitting them - though that is one habit I have now more or less broken.)

Clothes shopping - clippings file

I love clothes shopping, and find it easy to spend money on clothes. I am making a conscious effort to do so less, partly to save money, and partly to reduce waste; it is so easy to find oneself accumulating excess possessions, and does not feel particularly healthy or environmentally friendly to do so. I find planning ahead a bit does help, and this is a topic which I will address in future posts.

When I receive mail-order clothes catalogues in the post, I have adopted the habit of quickly skimming through them, and tearing out pages showing any looks I like, and putting them in a clippings file. When I have time, and feel inclined to do so, I review the torn-out pages, analyse what about the pictures appeals to me, whether the outfit is one that would suit my shape and colouring, and then try and work out how to create a simliar effect with my existing wardrobe. I generally find that I have most of the components for a similar ensemble already, or I may decide that the addition of one or two small items would make a difference. In that case, I write a note in the notebook I carry with me, for future reference. For instant, this week I admired an outfit which was essentially a smart shirt, tank-top, and trousers - a combination I wear often - but with a patent belt added. Rummaging through my wardrobe, I found a patent belt belonging to another dress, which I decided would work well for this.

I do something similar with online sites, looking at garments that appeal to me as part of a combination, where the website allow this function. I then bookmark the page concerned for future reference. I have, though, recently unsubscribed from the all clothes-shopping e-mails that I used to receive, so that I now make a conscious effort to visit websites of interest, rather than finding myself drawn into them unintentionally.