Daily Spends - A Diary of Spending Habits

It’s amazing how in such a short space of time issues that weren’t once an issue to you come to light and start to bother you.

12 months ago I’d never paid any attention to economics wider than the last £100 in my current account, but suddenly I find my interests embroiled in the workings of international economics.

I now pay attention when I hear stories of food price increases as I can now see how little changes can make a big difference that is felt across the globe.

My attention was drawn today to the Mexican Tortilla Price increase, an issue that will impact many millions of people in Mexico and other places no doubt. I wonder exactly how we can avoid this kind of crisis in the UK? Exactly just how much would prices need to increase by to cause major protests?

It’s scary stuff . . . and my eyes have been opened to an entirely new way of thinking.

Managing Debt - Should the Government Help the Consumer?

Apologies . . . another financial and political musing on the back of me reading yet more doom and gloom in the morning papers as I wonder how on earth UK consumers are going to manage their debts.

It seems pretty clear that the everyday consumer is being hit with various financial problems ranging from rising mortgage rates, to spiralling food and energy costs so I’m starting to wonder how people are going to meet their credit obligations. . . will they start to turn to debt solutions?

With numerous debt management studies, including this one, predicting that consumers are taking more radical steps (such as cancelling holidays) to manage their debts, I wonder just exactly how the Government is planning to help the majority of consumers in financial difficulty. IF indeed the should at all.

I’m opening this question to the floor . . . feel free to comment

One of my co-workers revealed a nasty little spending habit earlier today (co-worker will remain nameless!) by complaining she may have to cut her weekly fillet steak dinner from the budget.

On further interrogation said co-worker revealed that this nasty little steak habit costs around £20.00 a week including fillet steak, salad, chips, wine. I couldn’t believe it . . . that’s £80.00 per month . . . over £1000 per year!

It got me thinking about ways to strip out further gratuitous spending from my budget - so here’s a few of my nasty little spending habits:

Daily Paper - £0.70 per day - £3.50 per week - Potential Saving  . . . £182.00 per year
Sunday Paper - £2.50 per week - Potential Saving  . . . £130.00 per year
Monthly Take-away - £14.00 per month - Potential Saving . . . £168.00 per year
Vending Machine Drink - £0.80 per day - £4.00 per week - Potential Saving . . . £208.00 per year

Just writing things down can point out some ridiculous spending habits. Why on earth am I spending £208.00 per month on vending machine drinks when I can easily drink the office water?

I’m there! That’s one nasty habit I’m kicking right now - here’s to an extra £208 a year and a healthier bladder to boot!

A quick guide to 5 sites that can help you to curb/monitor/think about your spending habits:

I’ve been keeping this blog for a while now and whilst (admittedly) I don’t list every single spend I make, it certainly helps me to keep track of my spending habits and identify where I can start to make savings in my spending patters (notably: midweek treats, travel & those little ad-hoc expenses that all add up!).

Looking back at my online stats I can see that the site is now getting lots of visits from people looking for ‘daily spending’ type queries. This signifies that people are out there actively searching for ways to reduce their spending or for online support and advice around the subject.

With that in mind, I thought I’d compile a quick run-down of 5 sites that can help people in their quest:

1 - Personal Finance Forums
There are a number of extremely active personal finance forums where users commune to discuss all variety of issues including daily spending & debt reduction. debt consolidation care forum is a great example of a community supporting each other in their attempt to reduce debts - with a forum & open blogging platform, this community of over 80,000 memebers provides a vital resource for everyday people to discuss money worries.

2 - Money Saving Sites
There are so many obvious ways to save money . . . it’s just sometimes it’s not as obvious as it should be. MoneySavingExpert.com is a great site for spotting the latest deals and money saving ideas.

3 - Government Help
The Financial Services Authority offer practical financial advice on their sites MoneyMadeClear.fsa.gov.uk.

4 - Frugal Bloggers
A multitude of ‘Frugal’ bloggers base their whole blog around the art of saving money in any give opportunity - catch them all at festivaloffrugality.com.

5 - DailySpendingNetwork
Our very own DailySpendingNetwork aggregates all the latest posts from our networked bloggers. You’re always invited to come and join us!

Hopefully you’ll find those resources useful in your quest to reduce your daily spending!!!

On my journey into learning about our economy i’ve started to come across all kinds of theories & questions about money, business, politics and society.

One of the biggest questions I’m currently asking myself is exactly what the impact of the current financial slowdown will have on UK society?

My hope is that the people (both businesses & consumers) will learn the lessons of recent excess and the social ramifications that brings with it.

I can’t comment further than that but I’d like to open the floor and ask the DailySpends readership what they think?

Travel Allowance Update - Wed 30.04.08
Budget = £16.00
Actual Spend = £8.50
Month to date (total spend) = £17.00
Surplus/(Deficit) = £15.00

Ingredient Prices at 29.04.08:
T Healthy Living Italian Mozzarella - £0.252
Tesco Value Ham - £0.525
Tesco Value Mild White Cheese Small - £1.344
Tesco Value Plain Flour - £0.12
Tesco Value Plum Tomatoes - £0.085
My Pizza Price Index at 29.04.08 = £2.33

NO CHANGE