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Some really good advice from everyone here. I'm not extremely frugal with money, but I'm not completely wasteful either. I don't tend to spend much money on clothes and shoes etc. If I need something I will buy it. It's more having a child and my wife's wages have effectively halved since she went part time. I cover the mortgage as I always have. Since her income is lower I took on the council tax which is about £150 a month. Also I don't work a Friday as over time a 6th day. Which is a drop of over £200 a month. So even with that I'm down £350 a month than I was. I don't have any debts or loans etc, but just losing a chunk of money makes things a bit tighter. I finish work and come home and my wife goes to work, I can't just stay on a bit extra or pick up hours because I've to look after the wee one obviously. We value spending time with our girl than having more money or going through the child minder or babysitter route. I wouldn't say I struggle, all bills and everything is paid, but just not a lot leftover to effectively save or play with for luxury items or things to do. I do believe there is always savings and ways to keep more money, but it's all subjective to everyone's circumstances.

We recently spent two weeks in Spain, and we had a really nice time. This is our first time using Iberia, and it's a good airline. We upgraded to premium economy, so that might be part of why, but it was a very comfortable flight. This is our second time in Spain, but the first time we stayed in Barcelona the entire week. We landed in Madrid and by the time we got through customs and got our rental car it was about 0900. We went to Segovia for the day, then returned to Madrid to check in to our hotel. We spent a few days in Madrid. TBH, Madrid wasn't my favorite. It was not bad mind you, it's hard to put a finger on it but it didn't seem to have the same level of "local flavor" that so many European destination cities offer. We then went to Toledo for two days. My favorite things there were the Alcazar, which has a very nice military museum, as well as a convent that sells cookies through the old turn-table system where you never see the nun. We walked away from the tourist area and found a nice local restaurant that had *excellent* roast pork. My son bought a traditional Toledo built knife. Good times, there. From Toledo, we drove to Tablas Damiel, which is a small national park. It is wetlands and is kind of like the Florida Everglades, but not exactly. From there we continued on to Granada. Granada was also a lot of fun. We visited Alhambra, did a day hike in the Sierra Nevada, hit some other smaller attractions, and also visited their giant mall. We rented a house in Padul there and did some cooking while we had a kitchen. From there we went Malaga for the day, eating a great seafood meal near the beach and just walking around the tourist areas. Two big cruise ships had vomited their tourists up on the town, though, and it was rather crowded. We finished that day driving to Sevilla/Seville. Seville was a lot of fun, and we did more "non-tourist" stuff there than anywhere. We found a local park near a bakery and walked there at night, which lead to finding a superb local restaurant. Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, so we had the pros and cons of that. Lots of cool architecture and attractions. Next up was Cordoba/Cordova, which was probably my favorite city. The mosque (now a cathedral) there is very impressive, and there's a partially excavated Muslim city nearby that you can visit as well. Then back to Madrid, hitting a castle out in farmland on the way, which was used in filming of Game of Thrones (Castle of Almodóvar del Río) and this time we stayed on the outskirts of Madrid. We used that as a springboard to visit some more castles and national parks, and explore the suburb of Madrid that was home to Cervantes. We did not wander back into Madrid proper, though. We've been home a week now. The first time I went to drive my Camaro I accidentally pulled forward a few feet when I meant to back up, as I had gotten used to the shift pattern of our rental car in Spain. Luckily I didn't hit anything and the only damage was to my pride... Pictures on Discord here if anyone is interested: https://discord.gg/uquJWSpS

One of the smartest things I ever read was from The Richest Man in Babylon. "No matter what you make, somebody is getting by on 10% less. Figure out how they do it and you can save 10% for retirement." Maybe it's picking up a part time job, maybe it's eating beans and rice for half your meals, maybe it's cutting your cell phone plan to a minimalist one...but there's a way. FWIW, in 2003 I had a negative net worth of about -$27k. Now I have a positive net worth approaching half a million. My wife doesn't work and I'm a cop, so it's not like we just made a ton salary wise. It's just not carrying any debt other than the mortgages (primary residence and one rental house), putting back 10-15%, and letting it grow. We had to be pretty cheap in the early years, but that's part of it.

You’re spot on here @GazzaGarratt, you and I had many conversations about struggling when Maddie was born and we dropped to one wage with multiple mortgages etc! You have to pick and choose your moments. I love kicking out direct debits! I’m always surprised at home much goes out each month that I’m not thinking about.

Great advice @Docwagon , I've been very prudent over the last 10-15 years but that was more to survive rather than save. I think its also about where your life is too e.g. I could've saved when my kids were younger, but the middle-teen ages are quite tough as you have more new direct debits (phones, data plans, etc) alongside increasing existing ones (e.g. food, etc). I'm not putting myself under too much pressure to save a huge amount right now, more so focusing hard on when's the next time I can get rid of or decrease some direct debits. Also, this is ALWAYS about priorities, as we always have different ones depending who we are and our situation. Personally, don't be scared to cancel Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Disney, and any other rental plans for just one month. You would be surprised how much you can save and how much you don't really miss it. They're made to turn them off or on whenever you want so just do it! I cancelled my Amazon Music 2 months ago and i've seen myself use Spotify free version on my PC for a while and I've not yet come across a song I can't play. Equally the adverts don't bother me that much at all as they aren't after every song.

Apparently if you pre-ordered the Gold or Ultimate edition, you can play the game from the 12th onward. Basically pay 80% extra and get a week early. Fuck that. The one true blessing is that at least we'll be able to see how it plays and the state it's in. If it's anything like the beta then I wont even buy the game.

This is exactly it @Docwagon , I’m a teacher - I don’t make a lot either but it’s about making and plan and sticking to it!

Yeh I know what you mean mate, I was having this conversation with my wife the other day. In order to get to a place to put money away you have to strip your life right back and the. Build from there but it’s hard my man. Let me know if I can help you at all, I’m a bit of a money nazi and can often see things others can’t!

Good news regarding the Standard DIGITAL version in regards to crossgen. This version (currently £69.99), will now include cross gen so you know don't need to buy the £90 "cross-gen" bundle which includes the season pass. I'll be getting the the standard version now it has cross-gen as we can always make a decision later down the line if the Season Battle Pass bit is worth buying. £20 saved which is nice unexpected surprise.

Not worth it due to the fact you also only get 10 hours between 12th-19th so its only a few nights of gaming.

I don't expect them to be particularly great over the originals but you never know. San Andreas is free on game pass (console only lol) so I have it pre-loaded to check it out.

Some great pictures, Doc. The visit to see Christoper Columbus' tomb must've been a great experience.

Dean Smith sacked as Villa manager which means 25% of Premier League managers have gone in just 3 months! Ole is fine though😎

dam, I’ve been rumbled!

During the first lockdown both of my portfolios saw a negative return but you have to take the rough with the smooth and ride it out!

PYRAMID SCHEME! Only joking mate! Sounds like good returns and percentages and I'm pleased your doing well. The problem is you need some money to accumulate more. I couldn't afford setting aside anything. Just life in general is survival. I can only dream of having money leftover to set aside.

"Pls click my referral link" 😂