Buying Better

I’d describe myself as quite money-savvy. I don’t like to waste my cash - I work hard for it and my purchases have to work hard for me or I end up begrudging them. My credit card is there for emergencies and those occasions where Section 75 protection is useful and I pay it off in full asap. My savings accounts (yes, plural) are in a healthy state and I put money aside every month for car stuff, presents and holidays as well as in my general savings. I’ve finally got round to joining the pension scheme at work too. Gulp.

I’m definitely getting old, aren’t I? I’ve even gone off Primark. Not that I was ever a massive splurger in there anyway but uck, I’m so sick of wasting money on shoddy clothing that is overpriced in the first place and then looks tatty after two washes. Overall I don’t shop as much as I used to and I’m quite happy with that. As you can tell from recent outfit posts, everything is getting reworn a lot more. New stuff is thin on the ground.

Being savvy doesn’t mean being stingy though. Everyone has dream items and I’m firmly of the opinion that if you can afford them and you definitely want and will use them, you should go ahead and buy them. I have always wanted Dubarry boots and a really posh tweed coat but life is what it is. I can’t afford to spend £299 on a pair of boots or £400+ for a coat and although I could eventually save up that much, my thrifty soul shudders at the thought of doing that just to buy clothes. Plus, as it turns out, neither of these much swooned over items actually look that good on me. Such are the blessings of being short and sturdy!



With a bit of compromise, a bit of knowing the right people and a bit of good fortune, I’ve ended up with both boots and coat. Not the dream versions but better than that. It just took patience.

You can read the tale of how I got my lovely, lovely tweedy coat here.

As for the boots, one of the perks of being a Blenheim volunteer last year was a very substantial discount on selected Ariat products. I nearly fell off the sofa in sheer delight when I found out. My Ariat Trent boots (which I paid full price for) are great and well worth their price tag, especially in terms of fitting the aforementioned sturdy calves, and they’re still going strong after more than a year of regular wear. But the Ariat Windermere boots (pictured above) that I bought myself are very like the lovely Dubarry ones and they come in wide fit and they were pretty much half price courtesy of the special offer.

Hurrah for patience and money-saving!

Eating Frugally In January

I haven't made any resolutions this year. I generally can't be bothered with them: changes don't need to happen in January to be worthwhile. There does seem to be a bit of extra energy in the air at the moment though. Maybe it was having those extra couple of days off work with nothing particular to do? I'm inclined to think that part of it is related to taking down the Christmas decorations. The house looks so clean and empty by comparison that you really want to keep it that way! Whatever the cause, things that have been put off for a long time are gradually being tackled and it feels really good.

The main thing I'm attempting this month is Project Mother Hubbard, aka superduper strict menu planning and shopping. The freezer (which badly needs defrosting) was positively groaning with food by the end of December and the cupboards were equally full. Other than fresh fruit & veg, bread and cat food, I was fairly sure I didn't need to buy anything this month.

I sat down in front of the freezer with my handy menu planner/shopping list thingy and got drafting. I'm not going to pretend it's an entirely glamorous way of doing things and I won't be winning Masterchef any time soon with my meal choices (well that freezer needs emptying and the fishfingers won't eat themselves!) but it's making life a lot easier and a hell of a lot cheaper. The rules are strict: no buying anything that isn't on the shopping list, and things are only going on the shopping list if they're definitely required as part of the weekly menu. Buy it when I definitely need it, not on the offchance I may need it.

It's working: the last weekly food shop cost a whopping £23 and most of that was expensive Whiskas for the fussy cat.




Might have run out of ideas for Friday...

Using things up is enormously satisfying. The sight of an empty freezer shelf is causing me almost as much glee as succesfully ticking a completed meal off the menu. My cooking creativity is on the up too. Half a packet of frozen puff pastry took 15 minutes to turn it into sugar, choc chip and ginger swirls (messy looking cos I'm a fool and made them a bit wrong, but damn tasty!) and teeny tiny palmiers (entirely more successful):

In a spirit of random energy, I even had a go at making granola for the first time. If you haven't come across A Girl Called Jack yet, her website is amazing for delicious, low-cost recipes. I took her peanut butter and honey granola recipe, used chocolate peanut butter for an extra cocoa-y hit and sprinkled in some sultanas. It's incredibly easy to make and tastes gorgeous!



I imagine that once the freezer is emptied then the bills may start to go back up slightly but if I can keep up the menu planning side of things throughout the year, I'll be more than happy. It's fun!

Visiting London...On The Cheap

I used to be scared of London. Too big, too loud, too many bloody people.

That's changed though.  I visit it a few times a year now and I can wield my Oyster card and tut at annoying dawdlers with the best of them.

I know half of Blogland lives in London and will probably have no interest in this post but I never fail to be suprised by the amount of people in the real world who treat my London trips as some sort of exotic journey.  Maybe they're all scared to step foot outside the North West?  Maybe they assume it's horrendously expensive? I'm not an expert on everything our capital city has to offer but I think I'm quite good at planning cheap weekend breaks, so here are my recommendations.

Priorities

What would you rather spend your money on?  I know it sounds a bit grownup and boring but have a proper think about what the important parts of your trip are before you go and it'll stop you getting carried away and spending a shedload of money.

As a basic rule, I will happily spend money on an experience that I think is worth it but I won't waste it on things like hotels.  The only thing that was absolutely vital about this weekend was going to see Macbeth.  I was not prepared to be stingy over the ticket price for that so we paid £65 each, sat in Row C and it was wonderful.  All the other stuff wasn't as important, and in total (for return train tickets, my share of the hotel and a ticket for another play) it cost £65 as well.  Not bad, eh?  If you'd rather stay in luxury then you can sit in the crappy seats at the theatre and pay for a nice hotel room instead. The choice is yours.  If you can afford to do the whole trip in style then I shall graciously pretend I'm not envious.

Trains

I am such a fraud writing this section.  I hate train websites with a passion I only usually reserve for hating Fearne Cotton.  They boggle my brain, so I outsource this element of my trip planning and get my good pal Lee to do it for me while I organise other things instead.  He is most excellent.  Ask him for tips if you want cheap train tickets because I can't supply you with anything helpful.

There is technically a £12.50 standard fare from Liverpool to London but you'd be hard pushed to find many of them, especially at a reasonable time and at weekends.  Still, £19 isn't too bad at all and I didn't have to get up too revoltingly early.

Travel

Walk, especially if you're in central London.  It's the best way to get your bearings on the space around you.  I think a large part of the reason I used to dislike London so much was that I never knew where I was.  But guess what? It's really not that hard to navigate, especially in the central areas where you can't move without falling over a signpost. I am still rather vague about the further flung parts of the city but I'm not likely to need to go there so it's not a problem. I can walk from Euston to the Globe without getting lost and I know a few nice pubs and that's good enough for me for now. 

Or y'know, take the Tube. But get yourself an Oyster card. It's cheaper than day travelcards and you'll feel like less of a tourist.

Hotels

My advice is always this: stay in a Travelodge.  They're fine.  They're clean, they have a bed and a bathroom and a tv and a kettle and you can borrow an iron and a hairdryer if you need them. You will probably be in the hotel for about 10/11 hours, 8 hours of which will be spent sleeping. Why pay a fortune when all you need is somewhere decent?  The hotel we stayed in at the weekend cost £35 for a Saturday night and we've had different Travelodges for £18 a night before now.  Stalk their website a bit and grab their cheap sale rates, or have a look and see if anything is available when you want to go. This visit was only meant to be a day trip until we discovered that there were some cheap rooms available.  The same logic applies to Premier Inns which are basically the same but a bit nicer. They have pictures on the wall and everything.

ps - only stay in an EasyHotel for the hilarity factor or if you actually like sleeping in an alcove and/or having a floor space that is literally smaller than a bath towel. They're not that cheap and they're not pleasant. You can't even hang anything up! It wouldn't kill them to put some hooks up, would it?

Theatre

This is mostly what I go to London for. By theatre I mean plays, not musicals.  I'm sure there are loads of places out there that can tell you how and where to buy cut price tickets for the latter but we mostly book our theatre tickets a long way in advance so don't come to me for advice on last minute deals. What I can recommend is signing up to all the newsletters from the ticketing companies and theatres.  Whilst this may occasionally drive you mad (eg when we really wanted to see Our Boys but the timings did not work out at all and about a million emails came through going "Come and see Our Boys" "You know you want to" "What are you waiting for, you Northern morons? WATCH IT!"), it often pays off and you end up seeing some really interesting stuff for less than the cost of a cinema ticket. Case in point: on Saturday night we saw Old Times with Rufus Sewell and Kristin Scott Thomas for just a tenner. Bargain.  They have 100 seats for each performance at that price and it's very much worth it.

Tip - if you're seeing anything at the Harold Pinter Theatre, you still get a decent view on the back row of the stalls.  Unless you're desperate to be in the front few rows, it's a good option.

Booze

Well I don't know about you lot but I won't pay £6 for a glass of wine in a theatre bar. I prefer the rather naughtier (and massively cheaper option) of buying a mini bottle in the shop round the corner for £1.99 and stowing it in my handbag. Theatres always have plastic glasses on the bar so help yourself to one of them and voila! Just pour it out in a discreet fashion when the ushers aren't looking.

Food

You know the usual options for cheap food, don't you?  Of course you do.  Anyone that said McDonalds can go and stand in the corner.  I mean the usual things that work out well for evening meals - vouchers, offers from o2 Priority Moments, Groupon etc.  You don't need me to elaborate.  We didn't actually bother with any of those this time as we had limited time between shows, so we just zoomed to the Wagamama near Leicester Square instead. It's no more expensive than the ones anywhere else in the country and their food is lovely. 



When it comes to daytime eating, never have a hotel breakfast (unless you've ignored my above advice and are staying somewhere swanky). I mean, I love a good cooked breakfast but a) the ones that hotels provide you with aren't good and b) HOW MUCH? £7.95 for some lukewarm bacon and mushy tomatoes? I think not. My solution: £1 for a pot of fruit salad from the shop round the corner to tide you over until later in the morning.  Then, instead of the aforementioned overpriced breakfast, spend a few extra quid on enjoying a really lovely brunch in the company of really lovely people instead. Much more fun all round.



Lee and I met up with Chloe on Sunday and we went to Salvation Jane which was conveniently close to our hotel and really, really good.



Salted beef hashcakes with fresh spinach, poached eggs and smoked tomato relish. AMAZING.

And that, dear readers, is the nicest soy chai latte I've ever had. (I'm not a pretentious nobber btw - I just can't have normal milk)

It wasn't particularly cheap but I'm not into money saving for the sheer hell of it. I like to save money on some things so I can spend it on others.

Free Stuff

Speaking of saving money, go and do FREE STUFF. Free stuff is great and there is really quite a lot of it in London - Time Out has a handy list. I like to explore and could quite merrily walk around looking at roads and buildings and suchlike all day (it's all due to growing up around my mum who likes to go "Alex, LOOK, a chimney!"), but blimey, did you see the weather at the weekend? BRRRRR. We went for a good yomp around the V&A instead.

International man of mystery and his shortarse sidekick.

I love museums.  I can play my favourite game of Thing I'd Most Like To Take Home for hours.  This time I narrowed it down to:


A green Chippendale chair.

A green bonnet.

A most beautiful (and not green) piece of papercut art.

Next time we're going to the Natural History Museum to look at dinosaurs. Raaaar!



So, that was my cheap(ish) weekend in London and those are my suggestions for what to do if you don't want to spend a fortune. It can be done cheaper but I think you've got to strike a balance and I wouldn't have missed out on those Macbeth seats or that delicious brunch for anything.

Do you have any good cheapskate tips for visiting London, or any other cities?

The Great Book-Buying Ban

I was set a seemingly simple challenge in August.  Give up a vice for a couple of weeks and see how much I saved.  Well that sounds easy enough, doesn't it?  I'm fairly strong willed: I can give things up.  Picking the vice in the first place was the difficult part.  I am quite the goody two shoes.  I don't smoke, hardly ever have big nights out, don't fritter money on magazines or Starbucks.  I don't even shop that much.  I've never really been wasteful with my money but the last few years have seen me thinking a lot more about paying off debts, saving for the future and even joining a pension scheme (I know, I know, I should have done it years ago.  Better late than never).

I do still have one downfall.

This has to be the most evil, enabling thing in the whole of the internet.

To clarify, it's not just Kindle purchases - I mean buying books in general.  But I've been trying not to buy piles and piles of stuff (books included) from charity shops just because they happen to be cheap, so more of my recent book purchases have been from Amazon.  I seem to ponder the purchase of a paperback more than I do a Kindle book.  Things are cannily priced in the Kindle store - if something is 77p or 99p then I quite often think "oh I'll give that a try" and before you know it I've bought four or five of them without realising.

The rules I set myself were simple.  For three weeks, no money was to be spent on books, in any format, from any shop.  Free Kindle books were allowed but there were two conditions. 1) Read a review of it from a trusted source first and 2) use the sample feature.

Giving something up for a short period is all well and good but you only change your habits longterm by, well, changing your habits.  Glomming on free books is no better than glomming on cheap ones.  Don't get me wrong, there are some good free books available but they're massively outweighed by badly written, poorly edited rubbish.  Life is too short to read terrible books and so I really need to make myself start reading the sample chapters in order to filter out the crap.

Did I manage it?

Yes!  *pats self on back Trevor and Simon style*  I picked a terrible time to do it - there were at least 4 books released at the end of August that I was desperate to read and I'm not known for my patience - but I summoned all my willpower and didn't buy any books at all.

How much did I save?

Well... I'm going to estimate my monthly spending in supermarkets/charity shops/second hand bookshops at £10-20.  It can and does vary depending on how much I'm in the shops and what bargains I see. I can work out my Amazon spends more precisely - it's an average of £19.06 a month (and that was with me already being very restrained on my spending).  So that's about a tenner a week: not exactly wildly extravagant but a certain amount of it is definitely wasteful.  Three weeks of buying nothing and I've saved myself £30, plus I've hopefully started to train myself into not wasting my time and money on rubbish books.  Nowhere near as much as if I'd given up smoking, but then I'd have had to have been a smoker in the first place.  I'm pleased with my success.

Note: I was asked to take part in this challenge but didn't receive payment for it.  Now Pensions are making a donation to a charity of my choice instead.