Need to economise…

I have kept house for the past 50yrs. Have separate bank accounts, and savings. However, DH informs me of all his financial business, he does not have to as I am happy to be independant. This works for us both, so it is nobody,s business what other people think. Hopefully you will be feeling better and on the road to recovery soon. Now just stick in and get better. I find it an enjoyable hobby!!!!!!!!!!! trying to economise in these present times.x

When I have wanted to economise I have found that cutting out major expenses is easier than cutting back on smaller ones. So doing without a holiday, but still using butter instead of margarine - that sort of thing. It's easier to come to terms with doing without a few things than to have a relentless reminder that you are hard up.

How you do that will depend on your personal lifestyle, but to use my example, not having a holiday will only inconvenience you for the couple of weeks you would have been away, but switching to margarine will be a pain in the proverbial every time you spread it on your toast, and the savings are so small it will take a lot of breakfasts to add up to the cost of a holiday.

Another good place to cut back is to go through your direct debits and standing orders, and be ruthless about subscriptions. Cancel as many as you can, live without the channels, magazines, deliveries or whatever for a couple of months, and then only restart the ones you've actually missed. It can be surprising.

I hope you're back to full strength soon.

WonderfulLife

We always had a joint bank account and never saw our money as "his and hers", the money was "ours". My parents were the same. I am not judging at all but I do find it rather strange in marriage which is surely the ultimate partnership,

Some couples have joint accounts others have separate accounts. There is no right or wrong way only their way and what best suits their needs.

Just an idea - Worth talking to your mortgage lender to see whether they will grant you mortgage payment holiday while you are on half pay giving you a breather.

Some mortgage lender allows this, where you pay only the interest or nothing at all for a few months. You can then overpay your mortgage when you return to full pay.

We do not have joint bank accounts. Recently I did put my name on all my husband’s bank account. He is much older than me and if he needs care, at least half of his money will be considered as mine.

Hope l can give a little advice from my own experience. sorry if its repeated though as cant read all the comments at moment as l l ave photo phobia so can only read a little on here.
nearly 50 yrs ago i had to give up my full time career as l became very ill with M.E. It took over 10 yrs to get a dx from a famous M.E Specialist but because l was told by dr to ' go back to work' l ended up bedbound.
Im still 95 % bedbound still but it is possible to cope.
The first thing l did was get as folder and started to write down all the agencys ie help the aged etc , charities etc that may help when get disabled. as my drs at the time gave no advise we had to do all the research myself.
We found a local charity that came out as support worker and they helped me get disabled facilities( as im also losing sight with glaucoma and almost deaf) the blind society sent a support worker for help for my computor and also offered aids on loan. all these support workers helped to put in for grants from our council. because the charity worked on my behave The council listened to them as the councils didnt listen when l phoned ! It did take a few years to get the aids l needed.
nk in my folder we listed all our our money out goings and we looked to see what we could live on bare min. it was a drastic time as my husband also lost his job at this time for afew months, luckily he found work again. the do free fire safty check as well. They were marvelous.
l phoned the local fire brigade office as they have grants to put in fire alarms for free if disabled. l phone the gar and elctric people as they put disabled people on to priority call outs of needed. l thnk the the telephone provider have special services too availbe but we havent do that yet.
We decdied the best thing to do was to pay off our mortgage completely from our saving we had at the time and it was the best decision we could have made. it was a struggle as 6 yrs ago we sold up and moved to be near my daughter into a down sized bungalow that we paid for mortgage free.
keeping a folder handy with all the info at hand was incredibly useful as l had to make my pwn calls to different people when we needed help ie banks, utilites, council etc.
council grants, benifits, charities etc are rapidly declining on being able to help but l encouge anyone to make sure you are getting the help you need, unfortunaly it means doing all the research yourself as their is no one who can do this for you. nowadays, even citizen adviser ( l used to work for them ) are limited..
l hope this info is a little help , dont disphare, get yourself a plan of action set up and take one day at a time, you will manage.
l did read at the begin reply comments about having seprate bank account. Many people do do this, My daughter and her husband do this, They both work and they both pay for diff things concerning the household budget.... it works out fine for them and they have done this for over 20 yrs.

Just to point out that to qualify for PIP ( cancer being the exception) you have to have had the condition for 3 months and expect it to last for at least another 9 months.

Judy54

Some couples have joint accounts others have separate accounts. There is no right or wrong way only their way and what best suits their needs.

Indeed.

Nothing at all strange to how others choose accounts.

Whatever suits.

Shelflife

WonderfulLife, not everyone thinks like you - this post along with your previous ones are very opinionated.

What a alful thing to say. I have my own bank account, and so did my ex husband and my now partner of 16 years. If I needed help he would be the first to offer, please do not be so judgemental.
Also the OP said she did not want her partners help,her right. Advice was asked for, not an opinion on whether this couple have a joint bank account.

We are another couple who have our own current and saving accounts, plus a joint one and it has worked very well for us o ver the years. And I must say I am able to buy my husband Christmas and birthday presents without him knowing or knowing how much they cost.

Shelflife sorry I meant to add I agree with you.

If you have a credit card, think about switching it to a credit card with a 0% balance-transfer deal.
You could also have a sort out and sell anything unwanted i.e clothing / accessories - I did this last year!

When I was off work ill for over a year, I ran out of sick pay and had no wages, so our income was drastically reduced, We had to rely on DH's occupational pension. (We have joint bank accounts and personal savings pots, which although we have access to in case either of us dies, we would never dream of looking at them.)

However, I wasn't driving, so no petrol needed, I wasn't being asked to donate very week to leaving gifts, birthdays etc. I wasn't going on expensive staff nights out and we certainly couldn't go on holiday.
Initially, I worried about how we would manage, especially as I was the main earner, but it is amazing what you can do, when you decide to curtail your spending.

It did open my eyes as to how much I had previously spent on things I didn't really need.

Disability is one option to help, even if it takes months to get it it is backdated. but the PIP website does say "you expect the difficulties to last for at least 12 months from when they started".

Why are your company only paying you for the hours you work, surely they have an obligation to pay you full wages while you are off sick or on a phased return?

"A typical company sick pay scheme
Company sick pay schemes vary from employer to employer.

A typical sick pay scheme usually starts after a minimum period of service, for example, a three month probationary period. You would then receive your normal pay during any period that you are off work due to illness, up to a set number of weeks. After this, you're likely to receive half-pay for a further period before any sick leave you take becomes unpaid"

I would speak to a benefits advisor or my union rep if I was you.

Good luck.

They say ' downsizing ' your shopping can help. It means if you buy brands then go for the shop equivalent. If you already buy the shop one , try their economy version.
If you have any subscriptions cancel them or if available downsize them as well.
If you cook from scratch then eke out the ingredients and freeze the extra portions. For example mince , buy your usual quantity but add lentils , extra carrot cut finely and add to your mince make your recipe as per usual , use half , freeze half.
Works well for spag bol , cottage pie etc. If not already vegetarian , have a few meat free days even if its just an omelette or jacket potatoes/ baked beans.

A simple thing to reduce costs is to write a meal plan every week and use a shopping list. Try to buy only what you need its surprising how much impulse buys add to the grocery spend.

When I was married we had 2 accounts one was just for bills so we always made sure there was enough in there to cover everything so if we ran short of money we knew we were ok
The other account was general food etc.
Then I had my account which we used for holidays , Christmas presents etc
Worked well while we were still getting on

I have a separate bank account to DH. We both earn similar. We both put same amount into our joint account and all bills and food comes out of that. If we go on holiday we both pay half for trip and spending money. What is in my bank account I can do with as I please, buying a gift for DH, being generous with my niece and helping her through uni paying her a standing order of £100 per month, lunches out etc. He has his own account and he prefers to save more than me. We each have our own savings too as well as joint savings. It suits me very well because I don't tell DH how much I've helped my niece out. I help her out because my sister can't. I think if it was all in a joint account I'd feel bad asking if we could help my niece and I don't think he'd agree to a monthly payment for 4 years. I've helped my sister out too by buying her a used car when her car engine blew up and she would not have been able to get to work. I mentioned it in passing to DH but did not mention how much. Again it's my sister and I wouldn't have wanted to ask him to help her. I like it our way better. It works well as we both have similar income. I get a bit more than DH but he gets a generous bonus so it evens out.

The two things that help me the most to cut costs are meal planning and using cash rather than card when shopping also ask yourself do I want this or do I need it ??

Wondefful Life.My 1st husband left taking all our savings. Did not pay mortgage gas in fact any bills and left me up to my eyes in debt.Took me 5 years 2 jobs to pay it off.
People who have separate Bank Accounts usually have a reason.

My ex and I had separate accounts for 19 years of marriage, as a joint current account is more difficult to manage and risks accidental overdrawing. We opened a joint savings account as we had a small insurance payment cheque paid in joint names so had to have a joint account to bank it. When I found out he was having an affair and we split up, the first thing he did was empty the joint account! He left the account with 34p in it which remained for a few years. I got fed up with receiving statements saying 34p every few months so wanted to close the account but had to get his written permission to do so. The bank eventually sent me a cheque for 34p in my name!
Whatever works for you but I was glad to have my own accounts in the end.

We do have a joint account - yet the bank advised us to have separate accounts too, because the joint account is frozen until the will is read.

ElaineElaine60

Wondefful Life.My 1st husband left taking all our savings. Did not pay mortgage gas in fact any bills and left me up to my eyes in debt.Took me 5 years 2 jobs to pay it off.
People who have separate Bank Accounts usually have a reason.

I'm really impressed by your resilience and courage Elaine

Goodness - you are married! Why should DD not be under 'pressure'? 'For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health...' ???

If you work from home you can get tax relief for your heating and lighting expenses.