To be a little shocked that by not going into town every Saturday with the dc we are saving £100 a month even before buying anything!

[PolkadotCircus]

So we're normally pretty tight but since Christmas we have been doing the no spend challenge in Budget.

To boost my no spend days target I rearranged my week so we didn't need to go into town as a family to stock up on milk,a paper,go to the library ,bank etc.

Omg we're really noticing the difference and after a few calculations have realised how much just nipping into town with a family costs.

Weekly cost:-

£5 petrol
£7 parking
£12 on pasties x 5 (always mistime the trip so end up buying lunch which we never do normally,take water from home)
£5 on papers

Never actually buy anything!

Omg when did things get so expensive?As a child we went into town every week to get the papers,a doughnut and go to the library.

Bit sad that this is now a luxury,did I have blinkers on?

Well £60 on pasties every week does seem a bit of an extravagance.

No it was 5-1 each. Sometimes it's 4 if dd and I share.

Oh, I was w

We go into town:

• petrol - zero (walk or cycle)
• parking - zero (ditto)
• Greggs sausage roll - 70p
• papers - I thought you were going to the library?

Oh, I was wondering! :o

I have spent £0 on pasties in my life, so I didn't know how much they cost.

£12 for a pastie is probably what David Cameron spends.

Oooh, I've been trying to save money this month and I forgot about the no-spend-day strategy! I love doing that - thank you for reminding me!

Oh yes, a Tory pasty is easily £12.

I think this is a good point - if you go near shops you will spend money. If you don't, you wont't. I know it sounds obvious but it's worth thinking about.

Lucky you Joan we don't live in a city or town,are fairly rural and the 12 mile bus journey into town is £7 return each!

Normally never buy food out but for some reason trying to get in early to get a parking space we rush out without food.

I buy the Sat papers as I get tempted and never buy myself anything so it's a treat

We go into town for a couple of pounds a week.
No petrol as we walk (dd2 is in the buggy)
Library is free
4 drinks and some crisps from Poundland = £2

We make sure we've had our lunch first so we don't have to buy it, but the kids think they've had a bit of a treat if they're allowed to buy crisps while we're out (they're actually cheaper than getting them in our normal weekly shop)

£7 parking??

I stopped buying papers last time I got obsessed with saving money - I read them online now. The only time I buy papers is when I need something to line our birds' cages with.

The no spend day thing has really made me look at things.

The amount we could have saved would have been a holiday!!Bloody hell,wouldn't have needed to go camping the last 2 years-arse!

And we're loving it.Got all the homework done yesterday,did masses of baking and gone on bike rides today.Dp says he feels so relaxed.

Wow.

I must be saving loads then. I work on Saturdays so I either nip to the local co op in the week or send dh to Asda on Sunday mornings. The dc go to school in town do occasionally well pop to wilkinson a after school or somewhere.

Yep that was the parking,admittedly it's less if we're only in a short time but the kids are ages in the library and we always seem to have masses of errands to do.Even if we get it under it's still a hefty amount.

No wonder city centres are dying.

For those of not directly in walking distance of a town you're either clobbered by parking,petrol,or bus fares.

Oh and dtwin 1 used to like spending at least half an hour drooling in the Apple store-not any more,costs money!!

Or you could be cheeky and park on a residential street that is within walking distance of the town. We don't get that so much now as our walk into town takes 30 mins if dd2 is in the buggy (closer to an hour if we let her walk most of the way) but when we were closer in to town we got a lot of parking on our street by people walking into town. The petrol is a pain though.

Anonymumous

I stopped buying papers also - read everything online. You'll find that friends and relatives are usually only too happy to offload their spares onto you though. Also - supermarkets, libraries other places usually have free community or local newspapers so always be sure to get your share of those.

You need never buy another one.

Thank you CozieToesie - I will start looking out for the freebies wherever I go!

I don't quite get the no spend day thing.

Surely most days you don't spend? I go to get groceries once a week, I do a 'big shop' of tinned/dried stuff once a month. I maybe go to 'posh shops' (clothes shops) about once a month, and we sometimes get stuff on amazon.

apart from that, the only 'spending' is running the heating, or paying for dd's clubs/activities.

But then I'm a miserable grump who doesn't like being in shops when they're busy so I don't get the 'going into town' thing at all.

Yabu.

Havent you got better things to do with the kids on the weekend, other than taking the bus into town to buy pasties and newspapers?

Sounds grim and unimaginative!

Well maybe so, Pure - but the OP has stopped doing that!

I was dubious and are pretty much like you but since doing it instead of nipping out for the odd thing I run out of I substitute.Last week I was 1 meal down for some reason but instead of nipping out to the co-op I cobbled something together from the cupboard on Sunday which meant I didn't buy a paper either.

Used to be a Book People,Amazon addict too but not now. Could do with several housey things but doing this for a year and just going without or thrift ing from our garage ,mum and not noticing.We need another chair but I'm using some old turquoise paint in the garage to paint an old battered kitchen chair.

You really get into after a while and I was surprised how many bits and bobs I nipped out to get in between big shop days that cost extra,petrol and parking even if the item was small.