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

NSD again yesterday and today is pay day. Nothing left and in overdraft but it’s January so not surprised. I wasn’t careful over Christmas and had paid for a wedding in September so could be much worse!

Hounds - excellent result!!

Giggage - me too (£800 cc bill today).

Chakira - that's annoying! I'm only allowing myself food at/from home and that's working out to be be between £1 & £2. Hope your garage bill isn't too harsh!!

Granny - I'm having food shop twitch!! If I was creative, I'd be able to hold off doing the weekly shop until Monday. However, I cook for my mum, sister and aunt on a Sunday and the fridge/freezer/cupboard are looking quite pathetic!

Today is invoice day for me. I'm still waiting for one of last month's invoices to be paid and my cc bill comes out of my account this morning. I'll be left with £22, assuming I haven't forgotten any other payments coming out. Usually, I'd have had to transfer some of my savings back to cover the unpaid invoice but am going to sit tight and hope the £22 is enough until this month's start coming in!!

Right, I am not going food shopping until Monday!!

There's enough food to make three reasonably nutritous evening meals and a giant box of corn flakes to keep teen Ds happy .

I'm just writing my shopping list...any evening meal suggestions?

clutter I find rice based meals helpful when I'm trying to use up a selection of ingredients. Use onions or garlic rice and stock and add anything you've got hanging around. Peppers, carrots, peas, left over meat such as chicken or ham. Then spices such as paprika or fajita spices or curry powder. Makes a little bit of meat go a long way and uses up odds and ends of veg. Tends to be a Friday staple for us

Ooh, excellent suggestion, thank you! I always forget about rice and have a decent amount of it in the cupboard.

We have the "Bung it casserole".

Bung in anything in fridge, veg, meat, in a casserole dish, add tinned toms, a few herbs, stock cube. Bung in oven for a couple of hours. Had some bloody lovely ones, but can never remember what I used.

Loving all these ideas for using up bits and pieces of food. We love a freezer buffet in our house.

Because I got paid today I'm counting this as the end of Jan and the beginning of Feb on my personal budget spreadsheet

I've been through and categorised all my spending and added up my NSDs.
In Jan I spent £92 on food, £4 on non-food groceries, £272 on DS expenses; things like school dinners and wraparound care, £22 on family fun; days out etc, £72 on nights out socialising without DS, £7 on gifts for others and £36 on various "other" bits and pieces. I had four NSDs.

I can't believe how little I spent on food. That will surely increase next month as I've used up things in the cupboard and freezer. Also slightly ashamed at how much more I spent on going out with friends than doing things with DS. Will try and reverse that next month!
I'm going to record everything again in Feb and see how it compares.
I think I might have got slightly over-invested in this!

Ooh and someone asked about lunches. I take in a tin of soup and some bread from home every day as well as some bits of raw veg, houmous and maybe some nuts or crisps. It probably works out to somewhere between £2 and £2.50 per day.

Excellent breakdown of spending, hounds!!

I'm also counting today as the end of January to tie in with my invoicing. I've only added up groceries so far and that's £144 but I feed 6 children a day, 4 days a week so that bumps things up a bit

I'll work out the rest of my spending over the weekend.

Garage bill wasn't small but also wasn't too harsh, I will pay it tomorrow, £150 ish.

Fed up and fancied fish and chips tonight, £4.50. And bought lunch, £4.80.didn't really need to spend either of them, but am grateful for the lunch ideas rolling in on here, thank you all, I will do better!

Food = £186.69
Parking = £5.40
Lunch box = £3.00

Total = £192.09 I would normally spend that in just over a fortnight and there's two takeaways in there.
I've not included bills, petrol or DD's travel fare as I can't adjust those and they are essential.

This month has included car tax and car insurance for the year too.
So I'm actually 2 monthly overheads lighter which will help as I won't be feeling so skint.....3! 3! I cancelled a swimming membership which I can't use until my wrist is better which may take months....that's another £20 + a month saving.

£14:50 on jeans, got £5 off using sparks,I have avoided all sales lately so I will allow myself this one bargain.

£4:40 on lunch but it was a crappy day so I deserve it

Not been on for a bit but even with £100 school trip paid for, we're on track for very low everyday spend this month.
We have however paid £10k off the mortgage this week, during a remortgage that was finalised yesterday and we shall be £165 better off a month. We're on a good rate, fixed for 5 yrs. I'm so happy and frustrated we didn't do it sooner.
Now we need to build our savings back up, DH is talking about Disneyworld for New Years, so need to knuckle down. I'm going to catch up on all your posts now....

I've been spend tracking for the past 4 yrs (accounts nerd). Full on cashbook ledgers and cashflow forecasts for the next 5yrs. So I'll be able to provide a full breakdown of spends this month.
I started in 2015 when money was slipping through our accounts and I wanted to analyse where and what it was going on. I decided to treat our finances like a business and maximise profits and reduce overheads. I bloody love a spreadsheet so it's second nature to track the spends.
After a year, I had a budget to work against and then work to spend less than the previous year. This doesn't always work as I've noticed food expenditure has increased, we've always shopped at Aldi/ Lidl but perhaps the food prices have gone up and we're buying better quality food. Then there's the big spending, holidays and replacing cars. We've had expensive things that have worked out cheaper for us in the long run, eg £170 bean to cup coffee machine, £8.99 1k bag of Lavazza beans (last 1.5 months) works out at 66p for a double shot flat white for both of us each morning. I like Costa but the same would probably be around £7 a day.

Everyone is doing great, 🎉 keep up the NSD

I love a spreadsheet as well but it does make you face the reality of where your money goes - far too much on clothes and shoes last year for me. Spent day so far: £51 in Aldi on weekly shop, £30 in Tesco restocking freezer and a magazine for DH, £15 in Dunelm for some plastic foodboxes for freezer and a doormat for the camper. Hopefully no more spends until Friday

NSD and I’ve managed to get a few overtime shifts. Another two next month and that will be holiday money.

Low spend weekend on few bits from Lidl. February is going to be very busy on the weekends so having a low-key time at home this week. My spending habits have totally changed this month and I’ve enjoyed being more mindful. I’m hoping to continue these habits into February and beyond and start using the money we’ve saved from better choices for more experiences.

Well, it's been a bit of a shit weekend.
My boyfriend dumped me out of the blue yesterday, and I've spent a fortune. These two things are not related though!

£169 on DS school dinners and wraparound care for Feb.
£18.26 on food.
£51.95 on hiking gear and new football boots for DS.
£13.65 on lunch out yesterday for me and DS.
£1.20 library fines!
£14.18 on wine and chocolate (this was related to the aforementioned break up.
£30.21 on petrol.

I'm supposed to be meeting some friends this afternoon to be cheered up, so I expect more to be spent on wine/coffee, but I think given the circumstances I deserve it.

FML

Definitely Hound It's horrible when it comes out of the blue

Sorry to hear that Hound for you.

Sorry Hound that’s awful

I haven't been tracking my spending as such, just trying to buy only what is necessary. And I've ended up with £250 extra at end of the month. Which has never happened before. So very pleased with that.

Will try and pay even more attention in Feb.

Thank you everyone, you're very kind.

I spent £20 yesterday on lunch out with my friends, and my ex gave me £45 towards the things I'd bought on Saturday for DS, which was an unexpected and pleasant surprise!

Today will hopefully be low spend, just some groceries.

Hope you're feeling a bit better today Houndofthebasketballs.