No spend January?

[corinewmoon]

After he festive blowout and considering ive got some big bills in January, (MOT, car tax, insurance) I have decided to try a no frivlous spending month. There is nothing i really need to buy, (apart from new school jumper and coat for DS) .
So I will be taking my lunch to work every day,
I will avoid costas,
and i will limit my self to one bottle of wine per week
I will aim to spend £200.00 on food shop for the month
I will not go for leisurely stroll to the shops during my lunch break.

Any one else want to join in. ?

games austerityhousekeeping.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/gaming-the-old-fashioned-way/

Party games

I love your blog Boffinmum.

I am so pleased with myself!
Apart from one major purchase (car, but we had planned this) and a frugal visit from the toothfairy, I have spent virtually nothing.

Do need to do an Aldi visit tomorrow and will try Bossybritches fab idea of packing the groceries into bags in the car!

DD is back to school tomorrow with her packed lunch and I have been offerred a temporary job until the end of Feb.

Things are looking good for now.

Has taken me ages to read all the posts but count me in. I am considering a swap ft to pt and that mean a drop in salary of 50% but DD's nursery contract is fixed until Easter so will be paying out a lot and need to make some more cutbacks.

We already meal plan and batch cook but time to cut back on the amount of meat we eat and overall eating less. We do not have any other luxuries except a lovely big car which I flatly refuse to change as it feels so safe, but I was delighted to find a new bus route is starting in february and I hope that will let me cut the cost of petrol.

I did a weeks menu for £40 two adults and child, with two extra meals being frozen for later in the month. The problem was the other £40 which I spent. Sigh. Time to online shop. It was on store cupboard items, dw tablets, shampoo conditioner, oil, stock cubes, Nappies, wipes, all of which were half price so I did do a spot of bulk buying. DD has a fairly specialist diet so that bumps up the cost of the shop too.

DH has also started baking bread, one loaf so far but it was so tasty we ate the lot in two days. Question. Whenever I store rolls in the freezer they turn White and flakey. Any suggestions?

As far as the no spending all January I think the only things DD needs are some bigger vests, might get mum to make some vest extenders, and some new shoes. But as it's wet outside I was wondering if I could get away with her soft slippers indoors and at nursery then wellies outdoors........

Just marking my place as DH and I were already planning a frugal month. I'll come back and read the thread at a more reasonable time (just off to bed now).

Just to mention a couple of things

• money savings expert - a free website with 100's of ideas to save money from loans to supermarket shopping to days out to sales to discount vouchers to budget planning to money back website etc - find it so useful

www.moneysavingexpert.com/

• freecycling - if you join your local group you can get all sorts of second hand free goods from there. I've seen clothes, freezers, settees, printers, highchairs, pcs (to mention a few things people have spent money on on this thread!) - its worth looking everyday and you can even try your luck at asking for something, you never know

Good luck everyone!

Is it really cheaper to make your own bread? Is a bread machine worth it? Working full time I would hardly ever make my own.

I'm definitely in for this. Baby coming in the summer, worried I might be high-risk so may need to possibly go on bedrest, need to save save save. I'm single too so extra savings needed.

Only things I plan to buy this month:

-Petrol
-Food

Err...possibly some maternity bras if my norks keep increasing a cup size each month as they have been

That should hopefully be all!!

Someone recently posted a thread about not buying anything - apart from necessities - for a year (can't find it now) but I thought it was a great idea and I'm determined to do that. It's actually amazing how much we spend on buying sandwiches, buying coffee for work etc. I make my own lunches (and everyone drools) and I take in my own small cafetiere. Small steps but "every little helps"

Sorry scrolling through quickly so have already forgotten some posters names!

• for the first-time nits poster, just keep combing with conditioner, any cheap brand will do.Get into the habit of doing it every night in front of a DVD till DC is clear then do every 3 rd day to make sure they don't come back!

-for the slow-cooker bottom burning poster maybe a timer plug so it comes on a but later? I have the same prob with mine even on slow.

serin hope the bag-packing idea helps, saves double handling the goods & the checkouts are so blardy quick in Aldi you don't have time to blink! One tip I learned through trial & error is load the belt with heaviest items first so they get lobbbed go into the trolley that way & the bread etc doesn't get squashed. Obvious really but no, I had to have flat bread before I cottoned on

Lady Harriet I think it depends on what bread you eat. I doubt it will be cheaper than a store-branded loaf. I know that Lidl do (what look like) some nice bread mixes that are quite cheap. From what I gather, people like them as you can control what goes into your food, as well as having lovely fresh loaves. We eat less than 2 loaves a week here. I really want a bread maker, but I know that it would be more expensive as I'd make - and eat - loads more. I'm already fat, so it's probably not a sensible purchase.

Question for all how are you treating yourself in these austere times? I did a strict budget over a year ago now, and we paid off a good chunk of debt, but it was a bit soul-destroying. We don't drink, so most of our 'treats' revolve around meals out or takeaways. I'm thinking I could make DH and I a candlelit meal here... I'm not sure? Any good ideas on how to break the misery?

Nits = tea tree conditioner, cheap as you can get, slap on loads and they slide out of the hair. It's bizarre to watch. I didn't even get the comb in before they started coming out .

curtain I'm sorry but I laughed when I read about you taking a cafetiere to work, and had an image of you spreading a pristine white tablecloth with polished cutlery onto your desk at lunchtime

Not that that would be a bad idea actually, a return to standards

I reckon it is cheaper to make your own bread, LadyHarriet and KinkyDorito. I do a job lot at the weekend and it (don't need a breadmaker, just your hands - about 15 minutes actual work and an hour or so proving. Make soda bread and it doesn't need kneading at all, easy peasy!). A 1.5kg bag of flour costs £1-£1.50 and makes two loaves or loads of rolls (I make loads and freeze, then get them out when we need them). Yeast is cheap as chips and sugar/salt will last ages once you've bought a pack. Making your own also means there's no crap in it - I considered buying some bread a while back when I was feeling lazy and was shocked at all the additives - there's a reason it lasts so long on the shelves. Be careful of bread mixes - they often have nasties in them. Sorry if this sounds a bit sanctimonious but I'm a massive advocate of making your own bread; people think it's way more complicated and time consuming than it is!

Have written down everything I need to pay for this month (kids school trips and activities fees, petrol, food etc) still in deficit this month after Christmas and new year blowout.... but taking heed of advice and am starting to hoard things like washing powder cleaning products on special and over the next few months will start hoarding the nappies and baby items- don't want to get too ahead of myself, too many previous disappointments have wised me up! Also starting a PROPER routine of dinner at 530 sharp! No Takeaways unless its a special occassion! also my husband has stopped smoking day 4!!!! so we are saving £250 plus a month- which he now seems to think is his slush fund- however i have ear-marked it for more important items- cots, pushchairs...
Also using Freecycle- great way to find bits you need and to get rid of bits you don't want.

I will hide DHs wallet.

Nit advice- use hair straighters in long hair- works a treat! High temps kill the eggs!

Kinky good question about treats. I feel a bit of a fraud on this thread as so many people are genuinely struggling with bills, and we are feeling ok. However although this year we are both employed and are covering all our costs, I want to ensure that the basis of our family spending is frugal, so that we value and appreciate the luxuries that we're currently able to have, knowing that we could some day have to cut back on them.

We have one meal a week which we call 'treat night' if it's a meal out or 'cheat night' if it's a takeaway (which we usually over-order so that we can have leftovers for a couple more meals). I think I might reduce this to once a fortnight because it's not a healthy thing to do, I'm supposed to be watching my diet due to chronic anaemia, and we could have a nicer meal out with the money saved.

For me, frugality is about spending money only where it has a genuinely preferable or unique impact to spending time/effort/energy - in this way you might not feel like you're "going without" by taking a cheap/free option but rather you're "making better choices". This is the 'own brand cereal' argument - is the marginal enjoyment of Rice Crispies over rice pops actually worth the extra 30% of cost?

So: doing an exercise video to warm up, or cooking a big batch of food to use the oven most efficiently (versus putting the heating on) are both things I want to do anyway.

Getting the family together in one room to play together, read books, or watch a film snuggled on the sofa with the gas fire on, rather than everybody being on their own in different rooms with the whole house central heating on.

Going out to the park and enjoy using the facilities like playgrounds and local nature reserves that you've already paid for with your council tax, rather than paying more to go to an 'attraction'.

Using the (still free/subsidised) museums and galleries in London. Take up memberships where you'll actually use them - e.g. the London Transport Museum entry fee is the same as the annual fee - the only difference is you give them your name, address and signature. And we haven't actually had any junk mail from this.

I don't think anyone on here should fret about whether they are entitled to feel awkward about finance at the moment. The reality us that a 10% or higher drop in family income is going to have a negative impact on any family's sense of wellbeing, and it's great threads like this can exist to offer a sense of solidarity and purpose.

KinkyDorito Re treats! Last year my dh and started to have one night a week were we did something special without the kids This would generally involve one of us putting the kids to bed while the other made a lovely meal which we would have once the kids had gone to bed. My dh loved it as he was allowed in the kitchen was able to cook and make a mess without me nagging him and I got a night off

Thinking about holidays for this year, think the Sun deals start this saturday for a cheap and cheerful couple of days away.

Thanks to all for the nit advice Bossybritches22, KinkyDorito and Clareypen! twas me that had discovered the little bugs in ds hair. Treated with the overpriced stuff I bought in supermarket. Got a nit comb to do regular checks and will def get some tea tree conditioner. Good to know about the straighteners too, perfect for me if necessary! Oh, the joys of having our dcs!

Spew can I have you recipe and method for a loaf then? I will have a go. and blame you when I eat it all straight out of the oven, warm and buttered

Yes, spew I would also like your recipe please. Had a bash at making bread last year and loved it. However, I got lazy lost the recipe and started buying again! Homemade tastes loads better esp staright out of the oven all warm and buttery!

I might try to make it twice a week. Think I still have some yeast and bread flour in the back of the cupboard!

Thanks Lexi. At the moment we are okay too, not as good as when I'm in FT work, but getting by. However, if DDs attempt to restart school doesn't work out then I will certainly be out of a job which will have a huge impact on our future security. Whilst she is being treated for cancer, there are benefits I can get. Once she's finished all of that will stop, but I will have been out of work for 2.5yrs at that point so I will be out of touch with may career, and very expensive to employ compared to a recent graduate . I'm doing a similar thing to you in that I want to train us to live much more frugally should times become even more tough.

The gutting thing about the free parks is that we have a beautiful one close to us that just costs parking - or is free with DD as she has a blue disk - but they have just announced that it will cost £40 for a season ticket for it! Tough times are forcing the council to put in charges for things that were free. We got some Christmas money from DFIL, so we will get one with that. It's annoying though.

Morecoffee I love the idea of an 'adult' evening . I think I'm going to suggest this. We could get dressed up. As for cheap holidays, we can get the use of a caravan at Haven through a children's cancer charity, so I might do that for a few days. We had one last year as someone cancelled at short notice, and it was nice just to be somewhere different. However, I still spent a bomb there as DD wanted to go to the fair/into the arcades as they are things we don't normally do. I would need to force them to the free sands .

To clarify when I say we could get dressed up, I mean in nice clothes, just in case my name suggests I was meaning something a little bit more 'adult only' in nature..

You can get nit shampoo and threadworm treatment for free via the GP/practice nurse apparently. You just ask them to do a prescription for you to pick up. You shouldn't have to be buying the stuff if you haven't really got the funds.