Money saving - want or need?

A bit of background...

When I had my first baby I was very young and very, very poor, I was a single parent almost from the day he was born and money was extremely tight.

Almost everything I had for the baby was either a hand me down from my best friend’s mum or from car boot sales, I remember buying a high chair from a car boot for a fiver, it had a cigarette burn on the tray, and so I cut a plastic placemat out to fit in and cover it up. Seems crazy thinking back that someone would put a cigarette on a babies high chair! Back then I really needed to save money on everything- it wasn’t a choice.

Over the next few years things got worse financially and then a little bit better, things have improved gradually ever since and now we are finally ok, this doesn’t mean that I want to waste money on unnecessary stuff, even though I no longer need to count every penny. I’d much rather save on the boring stuff and spend on holidays and enjoying life.

I believe that some things are worth paying the extra for if they make your life easier and reduce the day to day stresses, it could be a frozen pizza or a cordless vacuum cleaner, it really depends on how much of an impact it makes on life and ultimately if you can afford it. I’m no longer ‘skint’ And there’s money left over after the bills are paid, but I’ll never forget how it feels to worry about paying bills or what you’re going to eat that day.

So that’s partly why I’m always trying to save money, if I’m honest I’m not great at it as I can be a bit of an impulse spender, but I do try and that makes a difference overall, My aim from next month is to start making mortgage over payments as we have a long term left and a relatively large mortgage. I want to save enough this month to pay something extra and then hopefully increase the payments as time goes on.

Here’s yesterday’s spends:  

Boots have a £10 Tuesday - the first I heard of this was yesterday when I walked past a store and there was a display at the front (I’m obviously the target audience) 

I picked up some toothbrush heads - genuinely think £10 was a good deal for these and a Pixi face cleanser, I got a set of these products for Christmas and I really like them, I’ve been using this   

Kate Somerville goat milk cleanser  that I was given as a gift and love but just can’t justify buying with my own money.

I also spent £3.08 in Waitrose on two tins of beans and some baked goods that were yellow sticker bargains. 

I’ll leave it here with a fun photo of one of our tortoises enjoying some watermelon...