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. ?

Sorry if code doesn't work, it might have been a one-use code.

No worries, Boffin, you reminded me I needed to do my order.

Oh my, we've passed 800 posts.

Hi all. Still doing OK, have resisted all sales and just spent £6.00 lunch money since Monday. roguepixie - brilliant orangey pud idea, thank you so much. We ate them in the end but will def. try this at the weekend. Re. oils, I use the OCM and find olive oil fine. There's a thread on here about it. Paella-style creation tonight - leeks, onion, garlic, celery, peppers, green beans and carrots from the cupboard/freezer sweated off in butter/olive oil, then add rice, tomato pureee,white wine, sherry and stock with a handful of fresh herbs and frozen peas stirred in at the end. I often do it with chicken but tonight its sliced sausage. Still have chicken, meatballs, a bit of pork fillet left in the freezer but will need to top up cheese, milk, fresh fruit and veg again at the weekend with M&S refund voucher.

Probably saved about £10 a post between us!

Woo, got another bit of work :-) That'll be £150 (more or less) for three jobs in the past week.

Found a £1.50 book token from 1972 in a drawer

Spent no money today, nada.

Organised grocery deliveries for the next two weeks and our bill appears to have halved from before Xmas. How did I manage that, I wonder? Nobody is starving yet either. Except DH, who has to have lots of cheese and biscuits to fill up.

Hey all, namechanged back from MartyrStewart as was missing my old Moniker.

Spent £11 in Aldi today on some milk bread and bits for the boys lunches. Still well within budget. My Birthday is the 30th Jan so I may break a day early

Desperately need a haircut but it's now long enough to tie back so I think I will and it for a few more weeks.

Should nearly have saved enough for a new carpet by the end of Feb, hoping to get it sorted before the new sofa arrives in a few weeks time (was bought back in November, so doesn't count! )

Hmmm not great day today. Spent £50 in Asda.
Bought new drinks holders for boys so they can bring squash for their lunch from home rather than buying cartons (hoping to save £'s in the long run... £3 each (Sistema ones so long lasting!) New swim shorts for Matt as his others were startingto look like budgie smugglers
Pyjama pants reduced to £4. 10 pints of milk, 2 CYO pizzas, beans, 2 French sticks, 2 x 2 litres squash (dbl concentrate so last ages), 28 slices of carver ham in the £6 container from the deli - use by 26th jan so have decanted that into airtight container and will be using for lunches, sambos etc. £4 pack of sliced turkey breast, ketchup eggs and jam.
Then had to fork out £36 on kids karate suits (but we don't have to pay for the lessons as its part of the family gym membership that comes out by dd from hubby's ac £100 for all of us which includes all classes - apart from their swimming - use of the pool and discounts in the bars and restaurants at the hotel ... Not that we use those. 4* so quite pricey!
Planning on no spending tomorrow or Saturday and hopefully Sunday as well as although DS2 has b'day party to go to I will re-gift a pressie and already have card (I tend to stock up in b&m or poundland on the general ones for 25p for boys and girls so I always have a card)

Having said all that I am far more aware of how much I'm spending than I was - and I am far more reluctant to fall off the wagon.

Are we gonna continue this into Feb as well? Great support on here so would love to do this all year!!!!! :o

Two no spend days on Monday & Tuesday(so easy when I don't have to leave the house for work !) Wednesday had to buy fresh milk. Thursday was supposed to be a no spend day but was enticed by the Special K offer of 2 x boxes for £4, normally £3 each but are in date until AUG12 so a long term saving.
I have DD's birthday coming up at the end of January and she wants something from Hollister so am going to check out their sale items online later

Had to buy some printer ink cartridges at great expense (£42) and two final rolls of discounted wrapping paper (£3). Then came a cropper at The White Company and bought two pairs of half price pjs for the kids at £12.50 each. A bad lapse.

Book token apparently still valid, by the way, even though it is 40 years old!!!!

Nice one Boffinmum. It all counts

Bitter - depending on how brave/desperate you are have you considered doing it yourself. I did it just before christmas. I was trying to decide what to do with it for a night out and had a mad moment. Took a pair of scissors to it, tried to copy how they do it in the hairdressers, got dh to tidy/straighten the back and went of for the night out with the girls, loads of people said things like -oh you've had you hair cut, it looks nice/much better etc. and were like when i said i did it myself a hour ago!! Saved about £40 there.

So far today only spent £2 on ds1's school lunch. He always has it on Friday as it's Fish Finger day and he loves it. So over all we've had a very successful week

Unfortunately next week won't be so good as a few things need fixing around the house so there'll be a few repair bills. Bah humbug.

Had a lapse yesterday at the library. We were taing back a dvd of DS1's and it was a day late (20p fine). I'd been quite firm about 'no dvds today, just books' (am deeply saddened that I am bringing up a child who thinks libraries' main function is to dispense dvds ) and then he brandished Toy Story 3 at me, which he's been on about watching for ages, and I crumpled because I wanted to watch it too. £1.25. I then managed to borrow Voyage of the Dawn Treader for DH and me. £1.25 again. Still, can't beat a local library for low rental rates!

Today, I had a top-up shop at Tesco (mostly because they do really good and cheap Basics dried apricots, without which this house cannot function) - £15. Loo rolls, dried fruit, bananas (non-fair trade ones for the first time in years ), milk, carrots and root veg (they have a half-price deal on bagged 'seasonal' root veg for stews - a large amount of carrots, turnip, leek and some onions all for 70p), pasta. Lapsed only on blueberries (2 for £3). I discovered a strategy for avoiding straying off the list - literally averting my eyes as I pass 'danger areas' and only going as far down an aisle as I need for an item. Once got, it's back the same way rather than continuing. I've belatedly realised why supermarket shops normally take over an hour with me.

I now have £100 until the end of the month, but getting CB around the 22nd, phew. We can do this.

I don't think I am that brave Dlamis Although I found a box of hair dye when clearing out a cupboard earlier, so may get DH to colour it for me.

No spend day today, although I don't know what I am doing for dinner - probably omelette as we are still working our way through FIL's eggs.

Husband fleeced me for cash on the way out the door and he has also used all my fuel keeping his mileage down - sigh. Went to garden centre as I had a voucher for a free lunch from before Crimbo - just paid £2.99 for a lunch box for dd. Having a trip to cinema tomorrow with friends but have put aside some money I was given for Christmas so it won't come out of housekeeping. Tomorrow I expect to spend £30 in Tesco and £50 on diesel. Makes me feel a bit unwell

Hmm. DH bought us a chippy yesterday. It was £5.10. Today he bought two lottery tickets £3. He tries :)

I had a no spend day today and would have bought one today if I hadn't succumbed and bought a euromillions ticket. Why? I'm clearly not going to win! I do buy them occasionally but only felt really embarrassed as I knew I'd have to come on here & confess.

Having a bit of a panic this evening as its occurred to me that, after DC2, my salary is scarcely going to cover childcare costs. I might even be making a loss... It will be worth it long term but it does mean that I need to take this no spend thing a bit more seriously.

Well I inadvertantly had a no spend day. Started a new bit of regular work today (yay!) thought I'd shop on the way back for fresh bits to save going out tomorrow.

All piled on the converyor belt ...reached for my purse.....not there! oh the shame.

I'd taken it out to get something out of it last night & forgotten to put it back this morning.....aaaarrrrgh!

Nice lady sympathised & said she'd put it all back...I ran!

Won't be going back to THAT Tesco for a while

Hi All, didn't manage to post yesterday evening as DH and DS busy on MY laptop!!!! And I was out all morning working and then off to collect DS.

Haven't managed no spend but have kept it to an absolute minimum. Some bus fares (to collect DS) and I bought top-up potatoes. Spent £13.41 at the post office mailing out Ebay sales so don't count that as it is factored in to the sale itself. DH bought me a coffee this afternoon but then left a tip!!!! For coffee!!!!! I went a bit beserk at that stage, I'm afraid.

Love the old voucher boffin .

Will be off to do veggie/fruit shop at the stall tomorrow morning. No stopping at butcher...have all that I need in that department.

On a hugely positive note: I have taken on a new client this week, I have another new one signed on today and a new one trying out next week (so hope that one will sign up too). So, in terms of new clients that's £50 this week, and a further £50 plus £175 next week. Ebay has earned me £137.00 in the last 7 days. Expenditure is much less than normal: I have done one butcher's shop for the month, one Ocado shop which will last for at least 4-6 weeks and have thought about every purchase. The fact that I have been conscious means that those £1 for bottles of water, £2.50 for coffee's, odd magazines/books have not crept in...no unconscious spending at all. Did have to spend £7.20 to replace DS's piano grades book which he has lost at school.

Now...to my sin (at least it is a singular sin and not in the multiples...as it usually is ). Forgive me MNers, for I have sinned...I bought two portions of chips on the way home tonight to go with the spicy jerk chicken I was cooking. and at least it was only chips...I didn't crumble for the fish as well ...

But Friday Night is chip night .......you are forgiven

Spending for yesterday:
£2.99 on elephant tape
£5 theoretical on rowing class (theoretical as coach was not there so haven't paid it yet)
£2.70 on post rowing hot choc

Today is DH's birthday and have to buy him new running trainers as his birthday present. So today will be expensive.

Nothing yesterday. Full week of no spend at all

Has now been 14 days since I've been to the shop, even for milk or bread so will be going to do a big shop today that will set me up for the rest of the month. Hoping to spend about $40 total. No sweets or treats today, just pure proper food. Have to watch basketball first and have a bath so will be a few more hours, will get my full list ready and WILL NOT DEVIATE