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Back on the 1st July I started my three month challenge to try and get my finances back on track. After several months of ‘treating myself’ a little too often I needed to re focus and start living within my means! See here for the original post. 

My original aims were to:

• Save money (to pay off some of my credit card)
• Be more environmentally friendly (by not throwing so much away, re using and recycling)
• Get more creative (having less money will force me to be more creative with what I have)

The rules of the challenge were:

• No new clothes or accessories
• No new DVD's, CD's or books
• No new things for the flat
• No nights out
• Maximum of one magazine a month
• Stick to my grocery budget
• No other unnecessary spending  

Exceptions -

• £50 a month pocket money budget - but this can only be spent on second hand / vintage clothes, materials for making / customising things, essential toiletries, my one magazine a month, and gifts for others. 
• Planned holidays (I have a week off in July and August) and special days (i.e. my birthday). These will have their own budget and anything can be bought (including clothes etc) but MUST be within the budget I've set. 
• Paint, DIY and gardening materials from mine and the Hubby's joint budget (as we are planning on doing a few things around the flat)
• The wedding and engagement parties I have been invited to

So how did I do?

• I actually managed to clear one of my credit cards! This alone has made doing the challenge so worth while.
• I did stick to most of my rules. Unfortunately I went over budget on my grocery shopping every month, oops ;-) and one month I broke my one magazine a month rule.
• On my holiday weeks and special days I kept to my set budget.

I think I did pretty well. I know that some people may read back over the blog and question how this was any kind of budget challenge when you see some of things I’ve been buying, but this wasn’t just about saving money. I wanted to do this challenge to help me get focused and learn how to balance my spending to make sure that I live within my means from now on and don’t land myself in any more debt! The most important thing was that I learned a lot:

What I learned and some key tips for living within your means, still having fun and keeping healthy:

Have planned splurges

During my big budget challenge I restricted my spending on clothes and other non essential items to my holiday weeks and special days like my birthday. I set myself a shopping budget, made a wish list and shopped till I dropped! I found that spending in this way was more effective as I felt like I’d had more of a treat. It also stopped me from ‘mindless’ spending when you end up basically buying a load of crap that you don’t really need. In the future I’m going to try and save up then have a shopping day when I can go out and treat myself all in one go!

Eat in

During my challenge, instead of going and eating out with my friends we would eat in. I made lovely bean burgers for my friend Helen instead of going out to a restaurant and spending £20 on a meal that would leave me feeling bloated anyway. I also had a tea party at home for my birthday with my friends rather than going out. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with eating out sometimes but when your looking to save money you can often make a much cheaper and healthier meal at home.

Use your library

This has been brilliant! I used to have a bad habit of buying lots of books (especially cookery) from Amazon. As I am now running out of room for storing all my books using the library makes a lot more sense. I’ve taken out a few cookery books and when I see a good recipe I photograph it and upload it to my evernote account (check out this fantastic free organisational tool!) That way I can tag it and search for it in the future. Much cheaper than buying the book!

Make use of ebay

Before I started my challenge I had only ever bought things from ebay. I thought it would be too complicated to sell items, but I’ve actually found it very straightforward. I’ve been selling my old clothes that are a bit too big for me and I’ve made over £200! I would have never attempted this if I hadn’t done the challenge and I’m so glad I did.

Don’t be afraid of making your own

During the challenge I wanted to try and be a little bit more creative. I made my own head band to wear for a wedding I was attending:

It cost me nothing and took 10 minutes to make, I was really happy with it.

I also made my own custom artwork for my kitchen.

This cost about £15 to make. A custom made canvas like this could have cost at least £70!

Try out the vintage look

I wish I had experimented with this a little further but I did pick up one great vintage item. I love this white cotton blouse which I wore to death over the summer. It only cost £5 from ebay.

In Part 2 I’ll be posting more tips I’ve learned for saving money, especially around grocery shopping!