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. ?

Here's a good recipe for breakfast on the run that I am experimenting with. Don't flame me if it doesn't work! I will report back the afternoon about whether it was successful.

Muesli bread:

250 ml tepid water
2 tablespoons dried skimmed milk or baby formula
1 tablespoon of honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
500g bread flour
750g muesli
1 packet dried yeast

Put into bread machine in the order listed and set the programme to BASIC or similar.
Serve plain, with butter and jam, toasted, or with a bit of cheese for lunch.

Stop press - I have just added 1.25 pints of additional water to it as it was dry as a bone. Watch this space.

I'm in. Not doing well though.
£130 on food (for two weeks apart from milk etc)
£6 for coffee, juice and a cake on an unavoidable social outing.
£20 petrol
£50 vets bill for cat with diabetes.
£8 food food to try and convince said cat to eat.
And the boiler man is coming to service our boiler today and the car needs a new tyre.
Eek!! I am writing all my spending down each day though and I think that makes me think twice.
I think next week I will plan out all expenses in advance and get the money out in advance.
I meal plan using the good food magazine website, and order online. And have bought a couple of whole salmon when they were on offer to freeze, they are great value. Although I expect we will get sick of salmon!

struggling to keep up with this thread but definitely helping me remember to keep a lid on things!

successes:

• went to supermarket with list having mealplanned for a week yesterday and only bought list items.
• only spent £1.05 on top of that - babyccino and muffin at local cafe; they have a lovely playground so I consider it worth a small snack every time we visit to keep them in business as these local assets are really important!

not-so-succesful:

• forked out £40 for 6 baby singing session type things today. used to have some brilliant free ones in my old borough but haven't found any round here yet, and I convinced myself that having something to do one day a week/meeting local parents/supporting small local business was worth it...
• then bought coffee and cake in adjoining cafe. oops.

realised alst night that one thing I really ought to do is try to cook the right portions; I always overcook and end up eating too much or throwing three-day old leftovers away. would save a lot and feel a lot less guilty about waste if I could cook the right amount to start with.

quite heartened at other people's regular shopping amounts though - we spend c£300 (2 adults, 1 toddler) in a normal month on food and household shopping. thought I was being quite profligate but doesn't seem much different than what others are spending? probably helps that we eat very little meat.

.

I've just finished off the contents of my desk drawer. Horrible mix of food really, but nice to eat it up and save a few pennies.

Just signing up as I've just noticed this thread and glad to see that I'm not the only one. We don't NEED to have an austere month but it feels like we should have one after the Christmas excess.

So far this month, I have spent £6.50 in total. £4 on veggies from our local market and £2 on 2 boxes of tissues for the dreadful colds we all have. Thankfully the "nicer, softer" tissues are on offer in Boots at 2 boxes for £2 at the moment.

I haven't consciously decided not to spend but have consciously decided that the cupdboards/fridge and freezer need to be emptied of all the stuff that's in them. We've been having interesting meals, and it'a amazing how much milk and bread was "hiding" in the freezer.

Tonight we're having a chicken and mushroom pie in the style of fish pie. It's leftover chicken with mushrooms, leeks and whatever other veg I can find to chuck in with a white sauce. The "mash" topping will be made with potatoes, sweet potatoes and cauliflower.

I've been and paid £10 for DD1 to have her hair dyed at the college salon. She needed it doing to get rid of the remnants of the red dye that my mother let her put on her hair during the summer holidays despite knowing that her school do not allow students to dye their hair at all.
I also bought a coffee whilst I was waiting which cost me £2.
I need to get some coriander, a small pot of natural yoghurt, firelighters and some tonic water on my way home from the school run but I will only nip into the local shop so won't be tempted to buy anything else.

Didn't spend anything yesterday and so far today, nothing. Have to take DS to club tonight so will give him £2 to spend there. DH filled up car on way to work yesterday so that was in the region of £60 (but can be claimed back from company) so even there. Have asked him to pop into shop and buy 1 x tin of kidney beans and a green pepper on the way home for a chilli.

Will go to fruit and veg man and butcher tomorrow morning and will report back on spend - aiming for £30-40 for fruit and veggies and about the same for meat. Meat should last longer than a week though, with judicious planning and frozen stuff already in freezer.

DS wanted to go to Westfield to spend his Christmas money at the lego shop but have managed to convince him that half term might be a nice time to go ... so it seems more like a treat rather than an extended Christmas present.

I am really getting into this now ... have looked up the austerity website (excellent) and am dredging my memory for all those tips my granny used to employ to save money. Have even dusted off my knitting needles in the hope that I can knit the odd garment Knitted swimming cossie, anyone??????? .

The bread is looking terrible . But it's early days yet.

I have just trimmed the mouldy bottom of a blind off and restitched it along where the wooden bit slides in, to save buying a new one. It was really hard to do this, though, and the sewing is really surprisingly wonky. I think I will have to glue some trim along the bottom to disguise this. But I saved £50!

How bad was it? Sounds like not nearly enough yeast in there! I would be tempted to add extra on top of the teaspoon per 500g of flour as the muesli would be heavy. Does that make sense?

Count me in - the motor in my dishwasher needs replacing so I'll be tightening the belt this month for sure!

No, the flour/water balance is wrong. There is a small chance it might work out but I am not putting any money on it.

mackerel I always overcater too as DD1 is eating for England at the mo so I like to make sure she's got a platefull. However I've started being strict about potting up the left overs straightaway, instead of eating them or giving them to the dog! Even if its just a bit of curry/stew/gravy with the tail end bits of veg or meat,freeze it. Then there's a hot lunch for you one day over some rice /JP/ bit of pasta.

Today I had the last of a curry that was almost all sauce but with a few veggied,a packet of M/wave rice for lunch. Nice hot meal that is keeping me warm & stops me snacking too.

Tonight we're having steak pie (cheese & onion for the veggie) from ASDA that aren't bad & freeze well. Loads of broccoli & home made oven chips/potato wedges to use up the last few stray potatoes. Will HAVE to go shopping for fresh tomorrow. Going to try the market at about 3pm when the stalls are closing up & sell bags of veg/fruit for 50p!

Right, checked on the bread and was lucky to come out alive. It was spreading gloopily over the entire bread machine like something out of the quatermass experiment, its sticky tentacles reaching up towards me and trying to pull me in. I was tempted to take a picture and enter it for the baking section of the MN Village Show, but instead I scraped it all out and I am now trying:

500 ml tepid water
600g strong brown flour
75g muesli approx
2 dessertspoons baby formula
7.5 ml salt
7.5 ml sugar

Today is not going as well as it might, tbh.

I always pot up leftovers either for the freezer or for my lunch the next day too.

Today was one yorkshire pudding and some leftover savoury mince from last night's dinner. Just enough for lunch and no waste.

TSC how rude....maybe she's doing a no spend January too!

I'd just wait & feed mine later or else give them all just a snack and give yours a proper sandwich when they've gone!

Ah well I'm I sexist in thinking most mothers wouldn't have DARED do that without bringing a contribution or feeding hers first?

Also think it's bloody rude not to help/make the kids tidy up a bit no matter what age, I always think it's unfair on the host child/parent. But that's another thread!

Tell him you'll all be round to his place next week!
Have not spent a bean today, and have just remembered need to return DH unwanted gift weird size shirt to M&S so will have nice voucher for some fresh stuff for next week. Still have mince pies left to dish up with custard after curry from the freezer tonight.

Posted last night about.tomatos. Not doing no spend, but we are going skiing next week.Would be nice to spend the money out there rather than IYSWIM.Econimised with food in dec and managed to buy all of xmas with the spare :)!. So nice to see what we can acomplish in Jan. Last week spent 39 (loads of left overs). This week £44 in Lidl and £34 for butchergot enough food and meal planned til we go plus 3 freezer meals to take , so not too bad. Do need to pay for clubs this week tho-about £50,

Meant to say loved your blog bofinmum.

DS2 has requested packed lunches! Yay!! That saves about £100 a term, and means we can control his eating better, too.

This bread is looking more normal. Rising nicely.

Pleased you like my blog.

Can I join you all? Before Christmas, the company DH works for were making lots of job cuts and, although his job is now safe (phew), it has made us reassess how precarious our situation is as we have no savings. So no guesses what our NY resolutions are...

We can't have a no-spend January as there are several bills to pay and a couple of family birthdays, but we are trying to cut back on treats, fuel and food shopping.

So, I have been to Tesco today (no cheap shops round here!) and spent £80 but that includes pet food (about a tenner) and vitamins, loo roll and toiletries. That is for seven breakfasts, lunches and dinners for one child and three adults (grownup son has boomeranged back home to live ).

Your blog looks very interesting, BoffinMum