No Spend 19 - join us!

[NoSpend19]

Hi all

So yet another name change for the No Spend 19 thread some of us have been discussing (not a TAAT - juts a spin off)

The aim is to reduce the unnecessary spending on "stuff". We're almost at the end of the year and so 2019 is a good time to start.

It would be great if as many people as possible thought it was feasible for them so there are no hard and fast rules but to give you an idea my rules are as follows:

Food and drink purchases are permitted (although personally I will also be trying to grow as much as possible myself, reduce air miles and reduce single use plastics in the food we buy. In addition I will be avoiding being tempted to pay extra for brands. Meals out and takeaways are also on our no spend list)

Essential household products and toiletries are permitted. So it is ok to buy washing powder but personally I will be avoiding buying six different types of stain remover, fabric conditioner, ironing water and all the other stuff we are told we need to do to clean a load of washing . Likewise we will be buying soap, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo as essentials but will not be buying hair masks, face masks, make up, face cream, serums, body sprays, nail varnish, showergels, body scrubs etc. Perfectly acceptable to use up everything you have though.

essential clothing etc is permitted. DH and I won't be buying anything unless absolutely unavoidable but DC are growing and will need shoes, trousers etc. We will aim to keep this to a minimum though.

Fuel and other travel costs are permitted

Normal household bills are permitted of course

stuff is not permitted. So toys, books (library is fine), magazines, CDs, DVDs, random household items like cushions, candles, stationery etc are all on the aim not to buy list. This Christmas will be prior to the experiment starting but we are already asking for experience presents for the DC eg cinema tickets.

We are just feeling a bit like consumerism has gone mad and so we think we can probably do this. In our household it is me, DH DS1 (13) and DS2 (11, nearly 12). Anyone up for joining? We start at the beginning of 2019

Disclaimer: before we decided to do this we had already booked and paid for our holiday for next year. It is a bit of a cheat but I don't want to delay this just because we'd already done that.

I may need significant to get me through

Lonely waves
Well done -my mind is boggling at driving 18 miles for a takeaway !
Thats lots of fuel saved as well .
Asda £54 today from food budget.
That got me a lot of shopping and only 4 miles petrol as opposed to 15 miles round trip if I went to Lidl .

Two NSD - happy with that!

Well done to all the non-spenders! DH gave me a funny look today when I was asking him for a run down of all the bills (key meter etc) but especially when I asked for the receipt for shopping! He's on board though and thinks it's a good idea.

Happily waved DH off for his works Christmas do as ticket and hotel room paid for before the new year and it's all inclusive. He rang me earlier to tell me he won £500 in the raffle! Very happy but have to work out the rules for spending it

Don't spend it.

Keep it under the mattress for when the shit hits the fan.

£15 yesterday on theatre ticket for a hen do in a few weeks. Can’t say no as am MOH and tbf it’s a reasonable cost for a hen

I’m in! My rules are to only buy essentials and cook more at home and not buy takeaways!

Not buying yarn will be the biggest issue for me! And baby clothes!

I can't help noticing how many crafters on this thread there are! I must have read "no more yarn/craft supplies" in people's rules (mine included) a dozen times.

I wonder if there is a link somewhere between being creative and overbuying! I certainly have a massive yarn issue.

I think it might have been you Lonely on the other thread who linked to an article about the tendency to "buy" the illusion of comfort/down time via yarn,crafty stuff,cookbooks ,scented candles etc?

Im quite strict about what I buy now and tend to go for a "yarn" budget but no impulse buying.I go for less but high end fibres.
Im on Ravelry and impulse "buy" free patterns instead
Loads on there,I rarely pay for patterns anymore.
Rav allows you to document your stash and if you look at patterns it suggests what yarn in your stash will work.

Not too bad a day yesterday (the lowest spend of my three work days) - £17.50 for the cinema (5 of us). £3.90 on snacks for cinema. £21 birthday gift for a 21st birthday. £16 on night out for 21st birthday!! £48 petrol but I hope that will last at least 2 weeks.
Planning to spend £0 today and tomorrow. I do have an eBay parcel to post but the buyer has paid the postage so that doesn't count, does it
Actually, I might spend £1 on a slim diary from the post office to track my spending.

Spent 6 last night on new pyjama bottoms in the m and s sale. I can use my old top because there’s nothing wrong with it, I am definitely thinking more about my spending.

£25 on the week's food shop. Resisted the sales in Monsoon but rest of today am seeing friends for lunch and then dinner.

Have cut down on alcohol so this should reduce spend. Have also secreted some dark chocolate in my bag to help me resist dessert.

Going for a hike tomorrow with another trying-to-save-money friend so that should be a cheap day.

£2 on a coffee and flapjack, as I wasn't organised enough to have breakfast went out too early to have breakfast this morning, although I made a travel mug of coffee (which I drank a couple of hours before buying the second) which meant I could have not had those but I was freezing cold. Don't do that particular thing more than once in a blue moon, but I guess I could take a whole flask next time instead of buying the second. Need to get on the habit of taking reusable water bottle, filled, out with me too.

Just been to garden centre and spent 10p on a dishevelled rose plant that I think will recover. would normally have bought several but had this thread in mind, so am grateful. Saw the beautiful Joules purse that I so covert at the moment, full price at £40 I'm optimistic I'll find it cheap on ebay or something sometime 😂

I'm in too! I thought my food supply was decimated after Christmas but I went through the dregs of my fridge, freezer and cupboards and I have the makings of 28 main meals and about 10 lunches (I live alone). So I am going to screw down my food spend this month.

My rules are takeaway only once a month as a treat, record all spends, no more on line shopping for anything other than dog kibble (I have a huge supermarket 5 minutes walk away), no house "stuff"
I will spend money on self maintenance though - haircuts, dentist and chiropodist as I am the wrong side of 60 and bits are falling off

£80 on 2 tyres for DH's van. £15 in Home Bargains - stuck to my list and another £3.50 in Coop on milk and cream (home made soup too salty!). The milk is to make yoghurt in my instant pot so needed to be filtered but still cheaper than buying greek yoghurt.

Another NSD under the belt., That's 6 so far

Although money has been taken for an Amazon order I placed before Christmas so that doesn't count.....does it? It was before I started this.

@Giggage most of it will be saved towards moving soon but have agreed upgrading his 4 year old phone is an acceptable treat.

Spent £1.75 on bus home from mum's but walked there.

Hello! Thanks for the post, I'm looking forward to joining in with this

NSD today! First since starting the challenge- spent a quiet day with family and went to a local attraction for which we have membership. That is definetly money well spent and we will be renewing when it expires later in the year. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

Well done to everyone keeping the spending low on a Saturday. I reckon this is the hardest day of the week to not go madly shopping!
And well done to JosephineBucket's DH, what a wonderful windfall for you.
I have spent £7.79 on various groceries. I'm really not doing very well at making a list and shopping for more than one day at a time, the peril of living in the town centre I guess.
I also had to pay my DS £5.10 for some work he did for me yesterday (data input). He's only 10 but I felt I should set a good example and pay him the living wage for his time!

Can a late joiner but in? I've been thinking about doing this, but nervous to throw my hat into the ring as I am just so bad at spending. Well,good at it I guess. 😂 I am a bit of a minimalist at heart but that just manifests itself as the permanent quest for the perfect 'something' to replace other 'somethings'.

Anyway, would like to give it a try. We have three children so they will need things as they grow, but will continue in my usual vein of working out carefully what they need and trying to get it second hand first, and then if I have to buy new buying well so it lasts.

I'm trying to lose weight so will perhaps set myself loss goals and only at that point buy anything new clothes wise (unless an essential goes kaput in the meantime).

I'll try to cycle/walk with the baby more for short journeys.

I'm torn on the food shop thing. I find it very/too easy and convenient to do a Tesco shop on the app...keep adding things as I go through the week and trim if needed etc. It also seems quite efficient getting everything in one delivery. But then I get a slight sick feeling at giving them my money, and the amount of plastic. So do I set aside a shopping day and do butchers/farmshop/grocers etc?

We are planning on extending our house, so if that comes about I will need to buy for that. However not spending as much in the run up should make that goal easier.

Am nervous about committing as am so sure I'll fail miserably, I'm an emotional spender I think.

Finally a nsd. The first this year.

Can I join?
I need to have a sit down and think carefully before setting rules as I have form for being unrealistic and then getting demoralized when it all goes pear shaped.
I don’t think I’m going to manage as much as some, but could really do with inspiration

I'm going to join you too if that's okay. I'm a big impulse spender. I never buy expensive things but lots of "bargains" and they all add up. We also live a crazy busy life with 4 very active dc.
I am going to be more organised with meal planning in general. Try and cut down on plastics by buying locally at the market. No-one needs any new clothes but if they do it will be second hand. We have been quite frugal so far this year. Today we made a packed lunch and took hot chocolates in flasks as we fritter money away buying drinks and snacks. No more!!

NSD

Oh, I was so close to a NSD! Just been out to the theatre with dsis (tickets bought months ago) and bought an ice-cream in the interval.
However, I didn't make it to the post office earlier so didn't buy myself a diary and turns out my mother has a spare I can have so have saved myself 99p
I have high hopes for tomorrow being my first NSD.