Which money personality are you most like – Frugal Fran or Spendthrift Sue? I am going to guess that, as you are reading my blog, you are all Frugal Frans! But maybe you are you spending too much? If you recognise your poor habits you can stop wasting money.
How can you stop wasting money?
I am always amazed at how much money my friends and ex-colleagues appear to waste during the course of a working day, whilst also complaining about how little spare cash they have. It is fine to spend money like Sue if you have plenty to spare. Personally, I would be in trouble pretty quickly if I lived like that. I certainly wouldn’t be able to put anything aside for savings.
It takes a little more time and effort to be a Frugal Fran, but I feel it is worthwhile if you need to stop wasting money. More cash in the bank and less anxiety about your finances!
What’s your money personality?
|
Spendthrift Sue
|
Frugal Fran |
| Is very organised and puts the laundry on before leaving for work. Uses a brand name laundry liquid as she likes the TV ad (8 pence a wash) | Is very organised and puts the laundry on before leaving for work. She uses the supermarket own laundry liquid as it is cheaper (3 pence a wash). She spends 15 minutes chopping up some beef and veggies to put in the slow cooker |
| Buys a coffee and breakfast muffin on the way to work (about £5) | Has a bowl of porridge and cuppa at home before she leaves for work (about 50p) |
| Gets tea and biscuits in the staff canteen
(c£1.50) |
Keeps a pack of biscuits in her drawer for when she needs a snack and takes her own teabags and mug to work (a cuppa and 2 biscuits: about 35p) |
| Buys a meal deal at lunch – sandwich, fruit and crisps (£3.50) | Has a packed lunch she made at home the evening before – sandwich, fruit and crisps (£1) |
| Gets a chocolate bar from the vending machine in the afternoon (80p) | Keeps a pack of biscuits in her drawer for when she needs a snack (10p) |
| Feels really tired when she gets home and orders in a takeaway pizza (£14) | Feels really tired when she gets home and is so happy to smell her slow cooker meal as she walks through the door £2.50) |
| Gets the laundry out of the washer and puts it in the dryer (30p) | Gets the laundry out of the washer and hangs it on the airer (FREE) |
| Perks up a bit and agrees to meet her friends in the pub (£15) | Perks up a bit and invites her friend round to share a bottle of wine (£6) |
| Total spend: £40.18 | Total spend: £10.48 |
If you need to watch the pennies to build an emergency fund, are saving for something specific, or are trying to pay off debt, then cultivating Frugal Fran’s habits could make a huge difference.
Once you get into a money saving mindset and begin to see the benefits to your bank balance and your stress levels, it becomes pretty addictive!
There are lots more every day ideas on how you can save money here and here. If you want to go a stage further, here are some more extreme ideas to up your frugality.
A really good way to stop wasting money is to focus on your grocery bill. Try this post and this one on meal planning.
I know this is a very simplistic way of viewing two different approaches to personal finance, but it does show that the small actions you can take to stop wasting money add up to a lot over time. What’s your money personality?
VickiEY says
It’s lovely to find a post from you every day at the moment! Thanks for all your efforts. I am most definitely a Frugal Fran – in fact, i think I struggle with deciding when I ‘have plenty to spare’ and find it difficult to give myself permission to loosen my purse strings a little. I think it stems from when the children were small and we only had one salary coming in over which I had no control. Also because of food allergies, takeaways and eating out are always a nightmare, so i almost always have had to cook from scratch or take a packed lunch. You also find out who your real friends are – ie those who are prepared to cook a meal for us! Being mindful of how I spend money is now such a way of life, I don’t think I could change (and I get a secret satisfaction from not being wasteful!) However, i do have to keep an eye on hoarding tendencies, but using what I have (clothes, food, craft materials) is my current mantra! Oops, sorry to waffle! Vicki
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I think that’s the way to be, VickiEY!
Louise Houghton says
Great post. I agree with all of Frugal Fran’s doings, even though I don’t go out to work I am used to having leftovers lunch from the previous night’s tea.I LOVE our Rayburn which heats the water, dries most of the clothes, cooks our food and heats the house, for free, as we feed it wood. It is so easy to waste money in lots of ways but easy to save it, too.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I love the idea of a Rayburn too
Jacquie says
Great post again. I’m really enjoying your daily posts too. I’m a frugal Fran. Have to be with three growing boys to feed. Takeaways or ready made meals would be very expensive. They are saved for a rare treat. I have a casserole in the slow cook as I type :0)
Jacquie x
Sam says
I’m a Fran and Sue meld, I guess. Lunch out, vending machines, coffee out of the house are rare, but I admit to joining friends and take out at supper more often than I probably should.
Tracy says
Isn’t it truly staggering how all those little bits of spending add up? Another frugal Fran here!
Margaret Powling says
I think I must fall between the two camps here. Being retired I don’t need to go to work, but in the days when I did, I always took a packed lunch, but in the 1960s this was normal. That, or eat in the staff canteen a proper lunch and husband would sometimes come from his place of work and join me and we would both have a hot meal in the middle of the day (and it was very reasonably priced.)
I never buy chocolate bars when I’m out. When we do the big shop once a week husband and I buy a bar of Bourneville or a bar of Lindt chocolate and then we have a little bit each evening, one square or two, depending on how we feel, and it lasts us both the whole week. We had stopped drinking wine as we no long like it but we sometimes have a G&T but there again, this is a rarity, a bottle lasts around 9 months to a year! Truly! We have good meals, all home prepared. I can’t remember when we last had a take-away, it is years and years ago, and we stopped because not only are they expensive but we weren’t enjoying them, they tasted synthetic and quite frankly we like to know how our food is prepared (no further explanation necessary, I don’t think here! Read between the lines!) I never buy pizzas, I consider them in the same way I consider crisps and fizzy pop. Totally unnecessary. OK if you are in Italy on holiday, but they are not part of our diet.
What do I/we spend money on then? Unashamedly, on flowers for our home, coffee (and perhaps scones) when we go out, or perhaps we share a round of sandwiches in a local sea front hotel (yes, sharing a round; they are club sandwiches and a round is too much for either of us); books (I’ve bought three in January and that’s being frugal as far as books are concerned for me!); room sprays (I’ve bought two recently, plus pillow spray, plus wardrobe spray) as I don’t like aerosols or those heavily-scented candles (and candles are a fire risk, too); the daily newspaper and my three monthly glossy style magazines; and, obviously, good food, all of which I prepare and cook myself. Convenience food is a can of chopped tomatoes, not a ready-meal (never had one of those, they look gross and are expensive, too); I never buy canned soup – as I say, everything here is home made, but only because I’m retired and I have the time to do this. I buy free range and organic where I can, and also parabens-free and not tested on animals. These things are more important to me than bargain basement, but I say this only because I can afford to shop this way, not everyone is as fortunate and I appreciate that. So, as I say, I fall between the two here, neither spend-thrift or very-frugal.
Margaret P
http://www.margaretpowling.com
Eloise says
At heart I am Spendthrift Sue. I shudder now to think about how I used to be. I had a fairly decent job but I was driving 30,000 miles a year and constantly exhausted. I then took voluntary redundancy four years ago at the age of 54. The payment meant that the mortgage on my modest terraced house could be paid off but money has been a lot tighter since then as my husband is retired and has only a small pension, so I am definitely frugal Fran now. It has taken a long time to adjust my spending habits but I think I have almost reached the right place at last. Nothing much left over each month but we are coping ok.
On another note, I have done a whole month food plan for February centred around what I have in. Yesterday I went to Tesco to buy the additional bits and pieces needed and, apart from fresh fruit and veg, I hope not to need to buy more this month.
What do you think is a reasonable average monthly spend on food/ household cleaning per month for two people?
Really enjoying your blog. X
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Oh lord, hard to say. Some people seem to get by on hardly anything by eating a lot of vegetarian meals. We manage £40-70 per week for three of us but we eat meat and fish. I could do less if I needed to by cutting right down on those. I sure other readers will have a lot of differing views on this! That includes toiletries and cleaning stuff but cat food is on top.
Julia says
Mostly I’m a Frugal Fran, but on days when I do go out we rarely take packed lunches any more – I’m happy to but DH won’t consider it.
Otherwise I do use branded laundry detergent, but shops own brand softener, and the dryer gets used throughout winter as there’s too many of us to cope otherwise!
But the best way, I find, to be a Frugal Fran is to just not go near places that are trying to sell you stuff (be it in person or online!) and have a cast iron will as to whether I really want that something I’m tempted by (usually no)!
Arpita Patel says
I wish I had a flexible schedule like yours. Mines fluctuates depending on the day of the week. Some days are slow, but most of them have been busy, especially lately.