Debt Free Living

I am blessed to be debt free despite the credit crunch. My family have always been very anti-debt and therefore if we couldn't afford something then we couldn't have it! At the start of our marriage we had a home to live in but our wage was quite small, very soon there were three of us living off this one small wage.

The first time I went to the Supermarket after we got married I proudly pushed the trolley around and bought what food I thought we needed for the week, plus house cleaning items, of course there was nothing in our new empty cupboards as we were just starting out. I got to the till and had such a shock when they said how much it was, I was just standing there dazed thinking that surely they must have made a mistake? I had used a debit card and although we did actually have enough money in the bank, that money was supposed to last the whole month as my Husband was paid monthly. We really struggled the rest of that month and it was a real lesson for future supermarket shopping.

Over the years our wages have gone up as I added my work in the business to my Husband's wage and the family has also grown much larger. While the children are getting bigger, eating more and have other needs and wants which cost too, our income has recently suffered a decrease. Which means instead of saving money for future needs we are now spending out of our savings account. I would like to be able to spend a bit less so that we can meet all of our needs without feeling deprived and start to save again too, slowly but regularly. "Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves".

Looking to the future it looks like next year could be a further loss of income plus the tax rate going up to 20% which will effect my business and personal buying costs. With the situation we are already in and the future in mind I will try to up our earnings a little bit but that is limited and dependant upon my time and energy. So I am going to be looking at all areas of my home managing to see where I can save a bit of money, such as laundry, food, toiletries and other bills too, such as electric and water. The computer broadband bill keeps going up too due to the older children downloading so many things on iplayer and youtube.

Charity shopping for clothes and household things has become a pleasure to me. I so much enjoy coming out knowing that my new treasure is a bargain, rather than coming out of a posh shop with a pretty bag and feeling really ripped off! My children tend to all have new clothes rather than second hand as it is harder to find things which both fit them and are liked by them, especially my teenagers. Their new clothes tend to come from the cheaper shops in the nearest city, they do well and always look nice.

Any ideas towards saving money, or doing things differently which will result in saving money would be very much appreciated, please do leave me comments!