How We Cut Our Food Shopping Bill In Half

On September 28, 2019January 10, 2020 By A Way to LessIn Finances, Frugality, Optimisation1 Comment

Over the last few years we have gone through the process of optimising almost every aspect of our spending. One of the biggest changes has been to our food shopping bill. We managed to cut our bill by more than half!

Food shopping is one of the biggest items in most people’s budgets. If you can manage to cut this in half like we did, it can have a huge impact on your ability to save more. All of these savings can really add up and help you to retire earlier!

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Frugal Four – Episode 1!

On September 14, 2019January 10, 2020 By A Way to LessIn Finances, Frugal Four, Frugality, Optimisation2 Comments

Welcome to the first in the series we’re going to call the Frugal Four! We wanted a way to share the frugal tips and tricks we’ve picked up over the years. The aim is to provide a brief summary of a few little hacks we’ve enjoyed using in the hope it inspires you to save some money yourselves!

Without further ado, here goes!

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Monthly Spending – August 2019

On September 7, 2019January 10, 2020 By A Way to LessIn Finances, FIRE, Monthly Spending1 Comment

Summary

This was a strange month for spending because we were in Africa for almost the whole month! We had already paid for the vast majority of the trip in advance. You can see the damage in previous spending posts!

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Inheritance

On August 17, 2019January 10, 2020 By A Way to LessIn Finances1 Comment

A Divisive Subject

Do you plan to leave an inheritance? What about receiving one – do you factor this in to your financial plans?

Inheritance is a divisive subject and people have very strong opinions on what ‘should’ be done. In this post we will explore what inheritance means to us and how we plan for it.

We will split this into two parts; leaving and receiving.

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Monthly Spending – July 2019

On August 3, 2019January 10, 2020 By A Way to LessIn Finances, FIRE, Monthly Spending1 Comment

Summary

There was a lot going on this month – we even got engaged!!! Excluding the engagement ring and the £500 spend on US dollars for our Africa trip this month’s underlying spending was very much in line with our monthly averages. An annual insurance premium increased our usual housing spend slightly but we were broadly in line with our expected totals.

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A Frugal Engagement

On July 27, 2019January 10, 2020 By Mr WayIn Finances1 Comment

As we keep saying on this blog, our general approach in life is to CHALLENGE EVERYTHING!

Because of this, the topic of engagements (and more widely, marriage) is one that immediately makes me feel unwell. The whole process is drowning in so many ‘customs’ and expected behaviours . Many of these come with a large financial impact which really challenge my frugal tendencies!

Something that should be a celebration of your love for each other can easily become an incredibly stressful time. You can find yourself constantly trying to please anyone who might be offended!

That is why I wanted to write about my experience proposing to Miss Way. Hopefully this helps others in a similar situation.

I was determined to make our engagement a special occasion, while still meeting our frugal habits. By following a few simple steps, I think I managed that!

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Monthly Spending – June 2019

On July 6, 2019January 10, 2020 By A Way to LessIn Finances, FIRE, Monthly Spending3 Comments

Summary

This month was slightly over our ‘normal’ spending of ~£2,000. We had an annual membership fee to pay, as well as a couple of big outlays for our Africa trip added to the total. See below for more detail!

We break our main expenses down into broad categories starting with the big 3; housing, food and transport. Everything else falls into the entertainment category, with any large inclusions explained in detail.

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Monthly Spending – May 2019

On June 8, 2019June 8, 2019 By A Way to LessIn Finances, FIRE, Monthly Spending3 Comments

Summary

This month’s spending is a little different because the balance for our Africa trip was due. As you can see, this meant we shelled out over £6,000 on this alone! We’ll go into more detail on this below.

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Why We Keep Our Finances Separate

On May 11, 2019May 11, 2019 By A Way to LessIn Finances, Optimisation2 Comments

Society Expects

This is another one of those aspects of life where we have challenged the ‘norms’ of society. We decided to forge our own way of doing things by keeping our finances separate.

The accepted norm for couples is to merge finances, particularly when you own a house together as we do. In our opinion this would have led to unnecessary conflicts between us. We are both naturally frugal and would have resented any spending by the other which we felt wasn’t necessary!

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Monthly Spending – April 2019

On May 7, 2019January 10, 2020 By A Way to LessIn Finances, FIRE, Monthly Spending2 Comments

In March we produced our first ever monthly spending report. Here is our second!

Despite going away this month we have managed to stay very close to our March spending amount. We’re really happy with this and hope we can keep up the £2000 per month average!

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