During May I will only spend money on food and petrol.

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I have decided that I spend far too much on silly bits and pieces and that after a while this really adds up.

The children do not need ANY clothes or shoes at all.

Neither do I. Or bags.

DH needs nothing.

So I have declared that May will be an eco month and i will only buy food and petrol. We are in school for the whole of the month so no trips out are necessary and if the weather is nice we can take our bikes out.

Anyone care to join me or make comments to support me!

Bit late to this but I'm in. I have 100+ books in my to-read pile yet every weekend I manage to find an excuse to acquire books, even if it's just the charity shop. I do read a lot, but I need to STOP BUYING BOOKS and catch up with myself, and then I'll be a bit less skint. Have also been a bit clothes-happy recently - have lost a bit of weight and instead of rejoicing in the fact that I can fit comfortably into all my old clothes, I've been buying lots of new ones. I need to stop. So - it starts today - no frivolous spending. The one thing I will allow myself is a meal out tomorrow night (seeing best friend, already organised). Then maybe I'll stand a chance of being able to afford a holiday this year...

Oops, spent £1.50 on toddler group as normal free one was shut due to being a polling station. Then went to cafe as was hungry and ds asked and I thought oh why not. That was £4.80 (only ordered one meal to share and tap water and a juice). Ah well, we will have soup for dinner as dh has parents eve and will be fed... !

Oh dear, fell off the wagon on day 1. My friend at work invited me out to lunch and instead of saying 'no, I'll eat the food I've brought with me, thank you very much', I went and spent a tenner on a Thai meal. But she is going on maternity leave the week after next, so there won't be many other chances to have lunch with her

Better day today.

Have spent £1.80 on lunch. But I have decided that on the days I am at Uni up to £2 on lunch is acceptable, cos then I will snack for yes and won't end up take-awaying it in the evening. What isn't acceptable is a full cooked lunch at Uni, or even worse a pub lunch.

Got last months credit card statement in and . It is first since separation and I.thought my outgoing.Hd would be less. But it is nearly double! However I have had 3 dcs birthdays to fund, a mini break at alto towers which a friend owes me £200 towards. There are quite a few meals out on their where it was 'what I fancied' and therefore went out.

So I have renewed vigour spurred on my credit card bill.

My Target is to send less than £1200 on this months credit card...which includes £350 worth of car service which I have already had done (cos credit card isn't calendar month).

(and if that sounds extravagant it is worth pointing out that absolutely everything I spend goes on cc which I pay off monthly)

I sinned and...... bought my lunch! This week I had managed to eke out packed lunches and been feeling a bit sick with pg so havent fancied tea therefore have had basically a packed lunch again! So I feel like I earned my £2.50 meal deal from Tesco! My boss had bought us all choccie yesterday so I bought 2 little tubes of mini eggs (£1) which keeps the equilibrium in the office and therefore, I feel, is justifiable :) Been invited to the pub after work tomorrow but will be driving and am unable to drink so will have an orange and lemonade or something as a cost saving measure!

Let's see how the weekend goes as I try to literally only buy what we need as am now totally skint til next week!

I think it helps to work out when it is you spend and why - is it a feeling of 'i deserve it'?(me and dh are very guilty of this one - we try to still allow us ourselves the treats but just downsize them...) Or 'I can 't be bothered' or 'everyone else is'... whatever, I reckon looking at the root cause will help address the issue long-term...

Today I spent £800.

ON MY MOTORBIKE!! Go me!!

I will quite happily eat beans on toast for the rest of the year.

Spent nothing else, except my bike lesson. Nada. Nitch. Nuffink.

The dcs are moaning slightly about the emptiness of the fridge. I reckon I can still get a few meals out of the measely ingredients in there and then I move on to the freezer and can cupboard. I have a well stock basic ingredients larder so I think we can glory on with just topping up on bread, milk, eggs, fruit and veg.

Once again I had a vets bill today (£25) and I also had to buy some sports safety equipment and pay some sporting fees so the bank balance took a big knock once again.

The food shop will have to be massively reduced all month to absorb these vet expenses. The irony is that I probably wont have any again for about a year.

Congrats buster on the motorbike.

Harrumph!!

You are all slipping a bit so pull your socks up and stop spending!

lecture over

A no spend day for me today apart from the food shopping at Sainsbo. Spent £92 for the week and meal planned before I went but did add 2 bottles of cava as it is my wedding anniversary tomorrow.

Things keep happening that I need to spend money on.

Although I probably didn't need to buy (another) book in a charity shop (99p). Did need another measuring jug (85p).

DD's dance class tonight so need to pay £16 and also hope the second hand cupboard has tap and ballet shoes that fit her (feet suddenly grew).

Have more mystery shopping to do today - has been a good week for it :)

I'm starting tomorrow (have a few things to buy today that I can't get out of and I'm going out tonight). Great idea though.

One thing that has saved me a small fortune is buying a box of icecreams or lollies with the food shopping. I used to take £10 out of the cash point so that I could buy the DC's an icecream after school on a Friday, and then the change would get frittered (by the DC's) on bus fares, chewing gum, magazines, snack money etc. This way, they still get a treat and my money stays in the bank!

Today I have to buy a dress for a formal ball I'm going to.

Am hitting the charity shops so although it's money spend, its going to be as little as possible.

Cool, I love browsing charity shops. And though, obviously, it's still spending and it's still 'stuff' - you can do it with a clear conscience (you're donating to charity after all and keeping stuff out of landfill). It's a good shop my charity shops are a 25min walk away - which is minor hassle with the baby - otherwsie I'd be there all the time (especially as I discovered a new little set of cheap ones...)

Agree with Moshi, buying a box of ice-creams a much better plan if buying them every week. Though the odd ice cream from the ice cream van is v exciting!

Good luck today, what;'s everyones plans for no-spend fun weekends? We are lucky, we have two parties to go to so that's the kids done (got presents in present box already - so tempted to buy more when the presents we have are lovely ). And dh needs to take some things back to Ikea. If we don't take me, we won't spend any more money on impulse buys...

I have to pick my bike up tonight and drive it home fffuuuucccckkkkkk

Then no kids so just mooching around, DD1 and a friend are here tomorrow afternoon so they'll get tea here which will be something from the freezer.

Sunday I'm going out to dinner with BF/DP so he can pay

This weekend children and i are going to a free ukelele workshop tomorrow and DD has a party. Need to work out what to do inbetween as they are near each other with a three hour gap. If dry would do picnic but think it will rain. Would be a bit silly coming back here again but better than soending money.

Party is at soft play and will need to pay for DS as sadly due to H leaving a couple of weeks ago can't leave him with him (H has to work anyway but might as well milk some sympathy here if I can!) Not sure about Sunday yet.

Right need to get going and mystery shop .

Well done everybody! I'm cheating this weekend by going to visit my in-laws. They live in a village that doesn't even have a shop, so I'm hoping to loaf around at their house and spend NO money whatsoever. Yaay. I need to break my habit of aimlessly wandering around the shops on a Saturday morning, so this is cold turkey. And DD will enjoy hanging out with her grandparents much more than being dragged around shops by me.

Well i went dress shopping and didn't see any I liked so I didn't buy any.

Now to get ready to go for the bike eek

Good luck on the bike - be careful buster!

Saturday is a busy day for us every week as ds has 2 activities. We also have a charity do to go to with the family for a couple of hours in the evening. It will cost us for raffle tickets and the like but it is a very good cause and will be fun family time so I am happy with that.

I love this thread. I went shopping today and was very good round all the "fun" bits of the supermarket and thought carefully about everything I chucked into the trolley and kept in mind everything that was lurking in the freezer and can cupboard etc.

I did have another vet bill (£18) but am not back in for a couple of days - it feels like part of the daily routine - I won't know how to start my day

Another good day.

£1.35 sandwich for lunch and bread and milk on way home.

Tomorrow could be minor issue. Going to football match with dtds. Need to leave very early to get cheap parking, so will end up at McDonald's or similar for lunch.

The but I really need to be careful with is the wandering around shops although u do have some m&s vouchers to spend which would presumably be deemed acceptable cos it costs nothing.

Today has gone far better. I was good at Legoland and didn't buy junk food. Took sandwiches and fruit - had picnic in Duplo playground. Only brought a coffee (I should take a flask but it's not as nice and it's yet another thing to lug around). Didn't buy any icecream/icelollies - instead once eldest was back from school, we all had home made ice lollies.

Will aim to eat food from my cupboards and fridge tomorrow - even the brown rice that I have, maybe it will taste better covered in a sauce.

Will have to resist clicking the Buy Now button on Kindle. I got a ebook today, it was Free, so that's ok.

Well done everyone - we are getting into the swing of this. I am very proud that I bought no Pepsi Max to drink as I bobbed around today. Yay me!

I only had one small additional purchase today - bought some fruit in the supermarket (bits of melon and strawberries etc) that was reduced. Feel my fruit intake needs increasing.

Did spend on DD's dance lessons and more dancing shoes for her but these were at least second hand and have put the old ones into the dance second hand cupboard and so if someone buys them I will get the money.

Was good and didn't buy anything in any other shops when I was mystery shopping - just stuck to what I was meant to be getting :)

Did buy some diesel but as the fuel gauge had been saying 0 miles for a while I felt this was sensible

OK guys you are doing better now...........

DH went to Waitrose for our anniversary meal soDoNotKnowHowMuchHeSpent
and I nipped to Tesco and got artichoke hearts £1.08 and Magnum minis £1 and Tesco lemonade 55p.

And then went to the library...........

Wonder if your DH got the Meal Deal for £10 at Waitrose.

Bought OH some beer to cheer him up (money vs miserable man around house = sensible/necessary purchase). Colleague treated me to lunch yesterday and this weekend I am using freezer stuff! Need to buy bread and milk and a little tiny bit of food for the children when they are home from their dads on Sunday night but not going to buy anything else. Well done everyone so far- I think everyone is doing very well!