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Original poster

No more random spending for 3 months...........any takers?

246 replies

Collision · 28/08/2011 19:16

Starting from 1 September DH and I have decided that the only things on the cc bill will be

food

petrol

car insurance (due 7 Sept)

We are no longer randomly spending on ANY clothes at all. The boys have their uniform and I have new NEXT-sale boots and a warm waterproof coat and we do not need ANY MORE CLOTHES.

Proper meal planning and shopping at ALDI and Sainsburys.

No more Costa lotta coffees.

No more takeaways or cheapy McDonalds/KFC for the kids.

We will use the library for books so no need to buy any.

Packed lunches

Coffee in a flask if I take the children out along with snacks and drinks bought from supermarket and not random cafes.

The boys are pretty much ECO anyway and brilliant at turning off lights and water etc and they only have showers and not baths.

We want to cut down on spending to see how much we can save over time. DH has a great job and I work at school FT so it will be interesting to see what we can do.

GULP!

Anyone want to help join me??

OP posts:
virgiltracey · 02/09/2011 17:51

I know I'm late but can I join? Told yesterday that I'm likely to be made redundant. I earn six figures. Its going to cause us a major problem, sell house, take DC's out of school etc. We are now in "no more random spending for forseeable future mode." Sad

boringnamechange · 02/09/2011 18:12

oh god virgil thats terrible :( is it for definate or is there any way your job can be saved?

Popbiscuit · 02/09/2011 18:14

Virgil, that's awful Sad. So sorry to hear that.

CristinaTheAstonishing · 02/09/2011 19:33

Virgil - sorry to hear that. Will you get redundancy payment? I assume the DCs will have a place in school for a while if you payed in advanced, maybe sthg will turn up before next payments due for them.

Alibabaandthe80nappies · 02/09/2011 19:59

Virgil :(

Are you likely to be able to find a new job?

Abgirl · 02/09/2011 21:39

Virgil :( what horrible news

virgiltracey · 02/09/2011 21:42

Thanks everyone. i'm not sure what's going on at the moment. I've been in and offered to go part time in the hope that it could be an option. That would mean we'd have to tighten our belts but it wouldn't be as problematic as losing everything overnight. They weren't positive about the suggestion but will think about it. My employer only pays statutory redundancy and so whilst I've been there for ten years I'd only get a couple of thousand. I'm still shell shocked since I was the best performer in our team last year. I could probably find another job but to earn the same sort of money I would have to work in a different city which would mean spending very little time with the DSs.
Just been to Saisburys and had a mini panic attack in the aisle when I realised I shouldn't be buying a multipack of diet coke at £8! Sad

virgiltracey · 02/09/2011 21:43

Thankfully I've already done all the Christmas shopping in the summer sales!!!

JKSLtd · 02/09/2011 21:47

Virgil - that is awful :( I hope the p-t plan comes off.

Nothing spent today as day spent at friends, was lovely we just sat in their garden & drank tea/ate food.

Tomorrow's plan; library, DC & DH to dad's club & a bday party for DS1. Should be a low cost day.

Abgirl · 03/09/2011 07:09

Yesterday my spending was £13 for lunch out. Plan today is a trip to b&q to get ideas for lounge decoration, shopping at Asda (15?), trip to the library and paddling pool in the garden. Apart from Asda and car park at the library no need to spend anything else.

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary and we are taking DSs to natural history museum - not a traditional way to celebrate but we've wanted to go all summer. To keep costs down we are taking a picnic and leaving dinner in the slow cooker so there's no temptation to get a takeaway when we get home!

Original poster
Collision · 03/09/2011 14:50

Everyone is doing really well!

Have been telling friends about our eco plan and everyone is copying us!

maybe-we-will-put-Tesco-out-of-business!

OP posts:
Doyouthinktheysaurus · 03/09/2011 14:53

Sad what a nightmare virgil.

I have done well so far but only because I am working nights. Monday will see me returning some boots I bought on impulse and the ds's go back to school which should lower my incidental spending.

No takeaway for the next 3 weeks as I am working nights every saturday which will save a bit.

Ds1 has his birthday coming up and we have a weekend away planned but hopefully the extra shifts I have been doing will balance the extra costs going out.

Selky · 03/09/2011 19:34

Took snacks with us to museum. Free entry. No coffee.

Haven't managed to take my lunch to work yet though.

virgiltracey · 03/09/2011 19:47

I spent nothing! and I found two christmas presents I had bought and then forgotten about in the loft Smile.

Plus I made to two chickens I bought yesterday stretch to five meals, now all in the freezer!

Carrotsandcelery · 03/09/2011 19:49

Can I join in please? We are having a bit of a financial crisis (card declined at supermarket today for example) and need to rein it in.

Thanks for the invite Collision - the original thread helped a lot and I have less in the pipeline this time, except Christmas and Ds's birthday. (Eeek!) As you said last time it is the errosive random spend that has to go.

KenDoddsDadsDog · 03/09/2011 20:08

Got hair cut and colour (pre planned) Declined treatment and proffered products. Which is good for me as normally I can't resist.Read my kindle in there. Didn't buy lunch in town, came home instead Smile

JKSLtd · 03/09/2011 20:26

We are all doing very well :)

Nothing spent today, library free, morning at home while boys went to Dad's Club, and then a bday party.
Make all cards (so yes I spend on the makings of them) so they are much cheaper than shop-bought ones & if I stay organised with TKMaxx style presents bdays should stay relatively cheap.

So far in Sept I've spent:

25.49 (i think) :)

shaz298 · 04/09/2011 08:47

Spent £1.50 yesterday on superglue. Been decorating mum's while she's been away ( so it limited spending time for me :)) but when putting everytrhing back I managed to break one of her ornaments - now fixed :)

May go to cinema today. Will take own drinks/snacks, son has cea card which gets one adult in free and enough points on my odeon card to get hubby in free too :) So 2 adults and one child to cinema for price of one child ticket ....bargain

shaz298 · 04/09/2011 09:00

Oh and to add to the using cash idea......I plan to take out £500 each payday and use this for food/fuel etc. If I make a splurge and shop online for something, will take the £ out of this cash an put it in the bank for when bill comes :) Doing this should leave enough to get us out of overdraft in a few months and to start to buils up some reserves ( I hope)

Not sure if £500 will be enough but am sure going to try. Only me, hubby and DS. We do have 2 cars but hubby needs to drive to work and DS has lots of hospital appintments and often emergencies so we can't do without one.

Carrotsandcelery · 04/09/2011 12:59

We are stuck with 2 cars as well Shaz because we live in the countryside. The buses are few and far between and extremely expensive.

I am working on minimising how often I use the car and car sharing wherever possible as well. Hopefully that will reduce the fuel spend a bit.

I am going to take out my cash weekly as I am nervous about having so much cash hanging around.

I haven't worked out how much yet - I suspect I should work out how much I can afford rather than how much I would like to have and work from there.

No spend yet today but dd and I need some sports equipment so we will have to head out for that. I have £30 in my purse and that will have to last until the bank fiasco is sorted out so I will have to be very careful.

Carrotsandcelery · 04/09/2011 14:35

Ok so I have bought the sports equipment £2.50 for me and £3.50 for dd. Dd wanted something else as well so I told her she would have to pay from her own money, which she readily agreed to (so she must have REALLY wanted it). I felt a bit guilty but thought that it will teach her the value of things too.

Normally when we go to that shop we would go to their cafe. Ds was desperate to and, again, I felt guilty as he had been dragged along and got nothing out of it. I nearly caved but instead compromised on buying a packet of cakes there and taking them home to share.

I was Shock and felt a bit conned when they came to £4.06. I thought I was taking the frugal option. Those are the last cakes we buy there. My only consolation is that going to the cafe would have cost us the price of a drink as well.

I clearly need to be a bit harder of heart to survive this.

We are off to the park so no danger of spending there at least.

shaz298 · 04/09/2011 16:24

I think it's harder when it's kids wanting something they ususally get, cos we don't want to explain in too much detail why not.

I am seriously cutting down on the rubbish magazines etc I buy DS. He is 6 and is completely tube fed, so can't have a wee sweetie or something. So in situations where other kids get a sweet/cake we'd usually get him a wee toy/magazine but trying not to. Must go to poundland and stock up on littel toys for those occasions :)

JKSLtd · 04/09/2011 16:46

Well I've been good (so far) today, not been out other than the garden.

Dh has been to Waitrose though so we'll see how much he spent....

Abgirl · 04/09/2011 17:21

Blush um, am I the first to have to confess to some random spendage?

Went to poundland yesterday and bought £5 worth, but did include a pack of capri-sun so we didn't go for the more expensive coffee and cakes option - however we have been to nat history museum today and done coffee and cakes (£12!) but it is our anniversary and we did take a picnic for lunch and have slow cooked tea. Bought some stocking fillers as well, but now have enough for the DSs for this year - apart from some sweets that we will buy nearer to christmas.

Will do better tomorrow...

Selky · 04/09/2011 18:01

I have spent nothing today.

I was going to go to the cinema but really there was nothing I wanted to see, so I went to the library instead.