www.iva.co.uk

[:D]The thing that interests me and to all fellow IVA 'ers out there
is how do you handle your IVA on your disposable income and what CUT BACKS has anybody made.
What kind of things are IVA'ers doing to manage,
is there a chart for MONEY SAVING IDEAS!!or has anyone got any TIP's on how they manage as i would be interested to know.

Andrew ther have been some posts on budgeting ideas maybe admin could find one I am sure there was a long one where we all chipped in with loads of ideas.

Ang

Hi andrew

I have seen many posts on budgeting but with regards to food I used this method:

If you usually buy premium (eg finest) products try to go down to mid range (eg normal tesco). Then try out some value brands.
If you normally buy mid range, try the value branded ranges.

I have done this from day one and thought it would never work as I had never brought any value products before, I was really suprised and with a lot of things you can't tell. Some things I didn't like so won't buy again.
But even substituting the things I have I have managed to make big savings[:)]

The biggest money saving idea I have come up with is shopping at one of the 99p or everything for a £1 shop (I think most towns have one). I buy all my cleaning products, washing up liquid, shampoo, conditioner, shower gels, soaps,toothpaste, cleaning cloths, etc. from one of these "Cheapie" shops.

It is amazing how much you can save because in your normal supermarkets these things really add up and can prove to be very expensive.

We also have a man who sets up a fruit and veg stall in our town centre on a Saturday and every bowl of fruit or veg you buy costs £1 and it is all lovely and fresh and looks so much more appetising than anything you could buy in a supermarket.

If I think of anything else I'll post but as Ang says, there was a whole thread on money saving tips a while back. I'm sure if you can't find it, Admin will point you in the right direction.

Good luck

Liz

Home Bargains is also a good shop. you can get some brand name things there for a fraction of the price. Don't know if these shops are all over country.

http://www.iva.co.uk/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=100 [:)]
ADMIN

Charity shops for clothes ... you can get some great bargains!

Debbie

E-bay every time for me. Even insolvency practitioners are thrifty!

I agree with Melanie - it's definitely Ebay for me as well!

yes Home Bargains is gr8[8D][8D]

Primark for me and my 2 very fussy teenagers are hooked on it too .

I also try and get my clothes either in the sales/ebay or charity shops (as they get donated new stuff from named brands)

Food shopping (we always shop in tesco) we write a list during the week of things that we run out of or will run out of and then once a week just buy those items and stick to the list.

The local market is also a great place to shop as you can get some good bargains and also the fresh produce is fantastic!

Lou

Primark and ebay, there's another site called 'pre-loved' but I've only loooked at this one, never bought anything yet. Charity shops are good aswell.

Use ebay to sell all those things that you don't use or need now, great way of spring cleaning, if you have paypal you can use your profits to buy other stuff, that way you don't dip into your monthly budget.


Don't go food shopping when your hungry and try to use a basket or a small trolley...we have a compulsion to fill things especially shopping trolleys!!!!


Write a shopping list and stick to it.


Don't take your debit card, use cash. You'll have to stick to the amount of cash you have, you can 'see' how much it's cost also, less likely to overspend!! I find that anyhow, but I'm getting where I don't like parting with cash......


Try online shopping, what I try to do is book the delivery slot for the weekend at the begining of the week, order as you go along and you can take out all the impulse buys....choccy bickies, bottle of wine and that cream cake!!!! lol


Try to get all your shopping in at once, it's the mid-week top-ups that can be a real killer to your budget.

Hi,

Pre-IVA my wife & I would simply load the trolley ar ASDA. Post-IVA, shopping has become more of an expedition in frugality! Our favourites are Home Bargains, Instore, Poundland, B & M. We still use ASDA & Tesco but only for special offers & own brand stuff. Iceland, Cool Traders & Farmfoods are also good places to grab bargains.

A massive saving was achieved by me dumping the car & cycling to work instead!

regards

David

Can I just mention Aldi...like they say on the advert, 'spend a little, live a lot'. Great for fruit and veg and the odd bottle of vino......