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. ?

Yes, he's back now and completed his homework for the night so he's up in the shower. boffin and reshape - totally agree on the sacrificial wallet and phone, will get those this weekend (as cheaply as possible) and stow them in his bag/pocket so he can offer them up if necessary (please god it doesn't happen again). He's still very shaken...I think it is going to be a few days before he really starts feeling like himself again. He has asked me to meet him from the train this week as he doesn't want to travel on the bus alone. I am happy to do it and then we will look at how he wants to progress.

reshape - thanks for the etsy definition ... I will try to stay away from the website so I don't spend anything ...

Dinner tonight was tilapia (in store from the freezer), mashed potatoes and veggies from weekend shop so all good. Pudding was jelly - a firm favourite with DS so he ate most of it . It was from a jelly I had in the larder so no extra expense.

I have Ocado coming tonight. Spent £85.00 on store cupboard stuff - olive oil, tea, bread flour, cheese, butter etc. I have promised myself I will not do another on-line shop this month. Anything needed (possibly bread flour) will have to be bought by DH on the way home from work...if I send him he only gets what I ask him for, never never never gets anything extra!!!

Spent 1.30 today on bus fares.

I spent £1 on parking today and 12.99 on unavoidable dry cleaning of dhs suit. Went to Marks to recycle my cards and was unable to resist an iced sponge cake at £1.99- still better than doing my usual cafe trip when in town at lunchtime.

Dh ruined my thrifty ways by turning up to a meeting on public transport ( to save money) He got the right hotel but unfortunately the wrong city -£34 pounds in train and taxi fees later .....

Have to stay on moderate bed rest til Friday so probably won't spend anything all week. Chalk one up for me.

Considering I've only spent $9 and even that was on food/water (also spent petrol which was unavoidable) in 1/3 of the month I'm very, very happy so far.

£59 today in Waitrose on essentials- milk bread etc... including DD3's rice milk for the week (£1.38/litre, she drinks a litre a day). Managed to get 7 pats of Charentes butter at 79p a pat reduced from £1.89- all now in the freezer.

Good news is that I've decided that we can manage for a third week in a row without a veg box delivery thanks to our friendly farmer's free parsnip field (long story but basically his parsnips were too big for the supermarkets and he's had to plough them back in but is encouraging everyone in the village to go scrumping- cue many people around these parts living for weeks on parsnips and the carrots he also has around the edge of the field) and various bits of veg from the allotment (large pumpkin still to go) and fridge stuff.

Soldiering on. Am going to start knitting my way through my stash and must do some ebaying.

Spent £7 on a book of piano exam pieces for DS2, and £6.30 taking students in need out to coffee today. So not at all bad. Ebay stuff slow with bids, though.

Duchesse kudos to that farmer, what a lovely public spirited thing to do. But yet another case of supermarkets' ridiculous buying dictums. Curried parsnip soup, yum :)

Well no-spend January is going tits up for me.

£230 needed for roof repairs, lead flashing needs doing, £42 on course books for DD1, and £50 for her provisional licence good job I've been so careful elsewhere.

Now got to decide wether we fork out the extra £400 for her to go on my insurance so we can practice in between lessons, OR I put that extra money towards lesson with her instructor so she can have one a week & only drives with him? She is having to pay her own way with this as I'm forking out for so much more at the mo.

rogue glad mini-rogue is Ok albeit shaky.

Envious of the butter! 'Basic' butter is £1.19 everywhere at the moment, has anyone noticed? Waitrose, Tesco, Sains, Aldi... there must be a cartel.

I had to get £20 cash out and pay DS1's music group fees - £18. It's good value because several of his friends go (which means several of my mum mates go too) and we have fun in the park afterwards. Still. Will have to get milk tomorrow, and DS1 has reminded me that we owe the library a dvd that will now be a day overdue, grr.

Am going to put some stuff on ebay tonight.

Changed ?5 that we had lying about for a princely £3.81. Still, that bought me a coffee and a congrats card for recently engaged friends.

Also, the friend I was meeting up with brought up the subject of a weekend together with the babies in her parents' seafront flat in Poole.

Got a couple of packs of Stork for baking for £1 in Sainsbos and their super-cheap value chocolate for making blondies, which, incidentally, are not really white choc brownies, seem much more cake-like. But rather nice all the same!

And, rogue, sorry to hear about your son's ordeal. Just catching up on the thread. Hope you're all less shaken now.

Okay, I spent a bit more than I wanted to yesterday. DH and I, by pure coincidence, ran out of deoderant on the same day. So, as it was quite an essential shop (I, you understand, never perspire, but DH...) I went to Co Op to pick up two cans, I came out with Mars Bars, crisps and milkshakes.

They were on special offer, in my defence but still, that was £11 .

Only need milk today.

yep butter is pricey too

went through the roof like the tinned tomatoes. As an update on that, I have checked the other local stores and a fiver a four pack is not uncommon around us anyway. Bizarre!

DH's new watch was delivered and he loves it. He paid with his money from Christmas so no effect on our normal finances.
I still buy Lurpak and that is around £3 a tub. I think we need to try the cheaper butters and stop being snobbish.

If dairy farmers are having such a tough time of it due to dropping prices (as I gather from the Archers), how come we are paying more for dairy?

I plan to get a goat.

Found a £5 note in an old purse, my day is made.....

I now have £35 in my purse to last us till next week-hoorah!

Have started bartering bits of work/services for goods. Yesterday helped a friend with some deliveries for her business. Had a good old chat & giggle on the way round.She drove I dived in and out the van (good exercise running here & there) then on the way home she popped into ASDA so I got a few bits which she paid for as a thank-you. That's the loo-rolls,washing-up liquid and bleach stocked up for "free" which is what I feel it is like!

I have also donated a voucher for an evenings babysitting to a local charity raffle. My time is my best gift at the moment and I can save money by watching telly at theirs, drinking their coffee & eating their biscuits!!

I use sains/asda smartprice roll on deodourant (sp?). It does have alcohol in it but doesnt leave white marks (but then I am very careful how I put clothes on anyway). I err, "glow" rather a lot but it keeps me dry. I save the mitchum for the summer when I glow more. .

Aldi do a lurpak rip off, I cant buy it because I'm allergic to milk.

My lovely free mixer/blender/food processor arrived so can't wait to start on some soups. Did an ASDA online shop that I meticulously trimmed down to £45 and most of it was store-cupboard stuff for cheap meals so should last a little while. They didn't deliver all the veg I wanted though so will have to go to the shops at some point which is annoying.

I've not been buying lunches at work and saving a fair bit but this has been counteracted somewhat by DP withdrawing a tenner this morning and promptly losing it.

I'm still surprised at how little is in my account less than halfway through the month though. I had to bail out the joint account as the council is taking stupid amounts of council tax at the moment because we only recently moved. Money just doesn't seem to go far even when I'm being so careful.

I love Lurpak. Hell would have to freeze over before I would give it up.

Just availed of this for my supermarket shop and it came a bit lower than Sainsbo's.

Voucher code: VOU1060305
Valid for delivery: Friday 13/01/2012, Saturday 14/01/2012, Sunday 15/01/2012
Minimum Spend: £60
Maximum Reward: £20

Enter your code in the ?Ocado vouchers and coupons? box at checkout, and we?ll do the rest.

Might be useful for someone.

Cheers Boffin, will try that code.

Didn't work for me. Was it only for first order?

Also by 'we', regarding the butter, I meant DH and myself. Everyone else can carry on as they want ;)

Grr had to buy water at the exercise class last night as i forgot to take my own. Only £1 but still annoying. Dh and ds's gone off with packed lunched again so hopefully another spend free day.

I am finding this thread so helpful. If I get tempted I just think - no, i'll resist or i'll have to confess on MN :o

Dlamis, it definitely helps to come here and confess. Last night we nearly ordered in a curry because I felt really down. DH made spag bol instead. The thought of having to tell you lot I had lapsed massively kept me on the straight and narrow ;)

Not going too badly. Have surrived the week on 74 worth of food, with 3 freezer meals left. Have to buy some stuff to take with us. Dcs absolutely love st pierre tear and share chocolate brioche and want to take it with us. But only place to get it is Tescos and everything.else will cost more there.....what to do I really dont want to have to go to 2 supermarkets...