Then there's the rent or mortgage costs but all the bills, shopping, furniture, plus all the costs of running your car(s), I'm not trying to put you off, honestly :), but from our own experience it can be hard to budget! We coped well up until my maternity pay finished, then suddenly we were on one income and ended up in our overdraft, we actually had a feature in Mother & Baby Magazine where we discussed our finances and what helped us budget etc..you can read our feature here...Here are some tips to help you save some money!
Work out your budget When making the decision to move in together we sat down and wrote down all our incomings and all our outgoings to see what it covered.. You can find deals online where you can combine the cost, such as using the same company for all household bills, it can reduce the price by quite a lot and you can usually get a fixed rate for a few years too! The same goes for cars, they aren't cheap, paying the tax, along with the insurance & petrol, but there are certain specialist car insurance out there to help you save money, perfect if you both have cars & even if one of you is a new driver, they have certain policies to help reduce the premiums too! Once all the big things are worked out you can work through what money you have left, this will pay for food, furniture and even those little treat nights!
Second hand furniture
Sure it would be nice to have the spanking new corner sofa you spotted online the other week, but is it a necessity? You can look at local buy and sell websites where people are super generous, just because something's been used before doesn't mean it can't be used again, you can get some real gems if you look in the right places, our first sofa was second hand, it wasn't the nicest looking thing but once we'd got a couple of throws and some fluffy cushions it looked cosy! I know a lot of people have this idea that second hard = dirty, sometimes yes, but once you know the right places to look, you could kit out your whole home! We were given lots of bits for our house, microwave, sofas, bookcase, cabinets, storage boxes & rugs, it saved us a shed load of money!
DIY your current furniture This night not be for everyone, but as a big fan of the shabby chic style that's currently in, I would literally buy a toilet roll holder if it was in that style and probably be charged an arm and a leg for it too, but it's so easy to just do it yourself, you might need a big tool like a sander, but in some cases just some sandpaper, some wood/metal paint and a paintbrush and you're good to go! Transform your bed or night stand, maybe even create your own wall art too, the possibilities are endless and you'll be able to say "ahh yes I did that" when guests ask where it's from! If you want to go all the way, get some pretty fabric too and a staple or glue gun and get creative, you could save yourself rather a lot of money!
Sell what you don't need! It's amazing the amount of bits and bobs you collect over the years, from those 5 dresses still with the tags on you bought a few years ago to the hundreds of DVDs you haven't watched since you were 15, there is someone our there that would be more than happy to take it all off your hands, and in the process, you get some money in return to get some new bits for your home, it's win win! Places like eBay & Gumtree are great for getting rid of your unwanted possessions! Whilst your packing up your room or house, decide what you really need and what you don't, make three piles, keep, throw away, sell..you'll be surprised just how much you could make! Add them to an auction site or even have stall at a morning boot sale, sure you might not sell all of it, but you know what they say "one persons trash is another persons treasure"...
What are your tips for saving money?