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. ?

Well I thought this thread was great until I followed the link to the WHS magazine thing and have just subscribed to Easy Living for a year as its only £12 for the year. If it hadn't been for the link, that would have been £12 less spent!
Have spent today but huge savings each time. Met an old friend for lunch (we live 4 hours apart now but, on a Friday, both work in London so meet up once a month for lunch) but went somewhere where I had a 50% off voucher; had a look in Clintons for Xmas paper which they'd sold out of but they did have paper chain, Xmas decoration & Xmas card kits with 75% off (making the paper chains 25p) so I spent about £3 buying some for DD for next Xmas.
Quite a cheap weekend ahead of us I think. Off to a museum tomorrow & friends have just invited us for dinner on Sunday. I'll take them one of the 10,000 boxes of chocolates that we were given for Xmas so that will be a free meal!

Boffin
Your dough sounds great. My pleb pita suggestion is more guerilla stylin' as I think if my fingers were twitching at the phone with the pizza dial number...I might not be able to make dough...but I could cut open a pita..

Tutti

So, I used the quorn mince to make lasagna. Delic. No going back for me. Plenty for tomorrow too.

Chopped an onion, garlic, grated three carrots. Fried it for a while to bring out the sweetness. then threw in some mushrooms. Then the Quorn, some white wine, salt pepper...and beef stock. I am not a real veggie, just want to lower fat content. added tomatoes and some tomato puree. let it hard simmer.

Meanwhile , I am roasting a couple red peppers.

For the cheese sauce I mixed low fat cottage cheese with a little milk and...small amt of mascarparone. This was a little financial disaster as the original ricotta I bought got ruined (moldy basil spice thingy.) [angry.] So DH went to Tesco Metro and bought what was there. Oh and some spinach got ruined. And I scaled my hand.

Then cooked it for a bit. bout half an hr. GREAT!!! Loving Veggie Mince.

I can't decide if today was a good day or not.

Plus points - checked ISA interest rates and have persuaded DH to move his - we have a few grand in his and it's likely to stay there for a few years as we're saving for a loft conversion, so it might as well earn a bit.

Didn't buy anything else today, except.....

Minus points - did some sale shopping online for kids clothes, my weakness
They were bargains though, a knitted dress with cashmere in it for DTD next winter, for £5 from JojoMamanBebe, and a fleece top and fleece jacket for DTS next winter - both came to £10.50 from Debenhams. Both sites have free delivery atm, so worth it I thought.

We've got someone coming over tomorrow to talk about conservatory ceiling insulation. With 4 kids now, we're bursting at the seams on our 3 bed house, and our conservatory is great but obviously expensive to heat adn hte rian noise can be horrendous. We've found a company who quoted us £1500 to insulate the ceiling, which allegedly makes it a lot warmer in winter and cooler in summer, and also muffles the rain noise. We'll see what he has to say but it's a darn sight cheaper than knocking it down and building an extension, which was the plan at one point.

Nothing major planned for the weekend. Taking the boys swimming tomorrow which will cost a tenner inc parking, but apart from that, nothing planned that will cost money!

While DH takes the boys swimming, I normally take the twins in the buggy and have a mooch around town. Can I make it round without spending any money? We'll see!

SCALDED - sorry struggling to type with BURN

Ooooh, my other good financial deed for the day was to increase the standing order I pay into a seperate account to pay for Xmas. Should now cover car tax too

Jojay I'd be interested in your conservatory insulation theory- we have one added on to the house prior to us moving in & it's very cold in winter so we don't use it much althoough it's technically the dining room.

I'm saving up for heavier blinds & curtains which will help but if the roof could be done too then that woud be fab.

Keep us posted!

Hi all, please can I join? In theory I have enough coming in to pay all bills and still have enough to save a (very) little. But at the end of every month I am always overdrawn. So I need to get a handle on things and stop spending on things I don't need.

Wow, some great tips here. Will read through properly tomorrow!

Didn't overspend at Christmas as money was tight so stayed in while my sister who came down to stay went shopping in town, felt so down about it my new years resolution..... bluetac £20 "pocket money I give myself each week" to my mirror every week and if I manage not spend it, it goes in "The Tin" I bought for saving from clintons each Saturday. With my bonus in August (if I put it in the tin) it'll mean £1400 to spend by 30th November for presents/food. PS. You have to use a tin opener to get the tin open. I just remind myself how miserable I was last Christmas just gone and that's enough insentive!!

I have managed really well with this. When I'm not at work,I avoid shops and instead go for long walks with the dog... this helps.

However, now is the time I have to pay subscription for swimming club... £70. Drum lessons at school £90. Drama classes £50. All this week...

My purse tightening menu of homemade soups and tonight's frugal meal of pasta suddenly seems like a piss in the rain..........

Just about to eat a chicken curry I found lurking in the freezer which is just over a year old. . Supper for 4 has been magicked out of the freezer and larder.

Will let you know how it was. If I don't come back you'll know it was fatally flawed.

shockers I know what you mean. Sometimes I really do feel penny rich and pound poor in terms of housekeeping.

I have a dilemma. My nanny has just resigned, as she wants a nursery job. I can't really afford a nanny on my salary, and agency fees would be £1500-£2000 to find another one, but historically I needed one, as I have children of 2, 10 and 14 at home, and I work a long way from home for very long hours. However for the next four months I am based 15 minutes from home, and I might be able to cut childcare costs therefore, saving about £800 a month. But nursery and childminder places locally are limited, my (ADD-afflicted) 14 year old would have to look after himself, and there is a real risk I would end up running myself ragged and keel over (it has happened before). What to do? (I'll post something on the childcare thread as well, but I am thinking about the financial side on this one).

second coming by all means regift! In fact I have just prowled around the house finding unused things, polished them up, and they are now in an official regifting drawer. A bit of thoughtful wrapping and I think I will get away with it!

Bossybritches I dealt with this in our last house by buying IKEA roller blinds in cream for all the windows, and then having cream curtains on top of them to pull across. We paid a laminated wooden floor with a rubber mat underneath to keep out some of the chill, and put down some rugs with anti-slip stuff underneath. For heating we had an oil filled radiator on a timer. I think I might consider underfloor heating as well if I was doing it again.

This is from December, so probably doesn't count, but saved me loads of cash!
We had car problems two days running with separate cars and called out the RAC both times. On the first car they immediately fixed the issue- (indicators not working at all).
On the second car the brakes went on the school run, I could still brake, but it took ages to have any effect. T he RAC came out, identified the part that was broken, ordered it from the main dealer for me, collected it when it came in to the dealer two days later and came out to fit it. Total cost to repair both cars : £10 for the part. I reckon it would have cost over £300 if we had taken them to the garage. And the service was brilliant. So if you are an RAC member, call them first before taking your car to the garage for repairs.

Necessary purchases so far this month:
£80 -diesel
£90 -waterproof jacket and hiking socks for DD2 who is starting Ten Tors training
£10 -yesterday- essential food supplies
£5.99 -this morning on milk (3x 4 pints) and porridge (1kg)
£16 (grrr) -to replace filter jug broken irreparably by DS yesterday (grrr)

Highlights:

Free new motor fitted to Dyson vacuum cleaner on Thursday as still under guarantee (maybe had not been washing filter quite as often as ought to have... )

I'm not doing so brilliantly with shopping once a week. I did a 'big' shop on Tuesday at Lidl, but still found myself in Tesco this morning. In fairness, I'd planned a really bare-bones week of eating, and it was getting a bit desperate.

I'm also supposed to be at a meeting today for my second job, which happens twice a year and brings in a fair sum of money. But DD has developed platelet rash and might need a transfusion, so I can't attend it. That's no work this time round then .

I'm just hoping that (a) the MOT isn't too bad next month and (b) I get back into my proper job soon so the pressure eases a bit.

BoffinMum - is there another Mum you could trade hours with?

So, if she collects your child from school and has her for an hour she could build up to 5hrs per week for example.

You could then babysit for her while she and her DH go out on a Saturday eve? or offer to have children for a few hours over the weekend?

Boffinmum - I think you must be pretty amazing. I work ft with one child, work long hours, and have amazing childcare through a nursery, DH does drop offs and picks ups. I do find the childcare horrendous in cost but I am so tired and exhausted I am finding that I have no desire to shop, or get my hair cut or do personal grooming .... so the upshot of all that is that I am kind of saving myself money although I must look dishevelled.

I can't quite imagine how you work it all out with 3 so good luck.

Boffinmum Ok so you have 4 weeks of your Nanny's notice I guess to find a replacement. Do a nice eyecatching ad & put it in all the local shops. Do you have a FE college near you? Put an ad up in the childcare department and you might get a newly qualified NN. Would you consider a nannyshare or a jobshare? Could you and your/DH take some holidays/work from home days for a bit once she leaves to tide you over.

Thanks for the tips re the conservatory. My neighbour has almost the same set-up & she got some really nice basic roman blinds for the windows & a pair of matching heavy-lined curtains for the doors and it made it really cosy. Am looking in the sales, I reckon what I fork out in materials will be offset with the heating saved AND it gives us a useable room.

Hmm read a certain austerity blog and ordered silver wrapping paper and a few other bits... have now spent £35 at John Lewis... Arrgghhh. You may all slap me on the wrist.

Anyway the other bits I ordered were 4 cushions for on our sofas as the old ones are crappy Ikea ones which have no proper fillng anymore. These feather filled John Lewis ones might be better...? Also a slim 2012 diary for in my handbag.

Have just spent £90 on event tickets. Justifiable as credit card payment won't go out until next month?!

Other than that doing well.