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. ?

keep the tips coming everybody - at least I'm not spending whilst I'm reading ...

I have spent £3.30 today on an eggnog starbucks - my excuse is that I love them and they won't be around much longer. I also had to get fuel and collect my shopping from Tesco but that was all essential. So all in all only spending £3.30 isn't too bad.

I do have a reward voucher dilemma where I can't use my Monsoon £10 reward voucher for any sale items but the shops only have sale items and if I use it online I have to pay for postage. On top of that it runs out on the 31st Dec. It looks like not much of a reward at the moment and I'd rather it expired than spend any money unnecessarily (that goes against the grain though!).

Count me in too - we are severely skint, we had some unexpected bills in the past two months (none of them happy ones) and are now over £3,000 in debt
A wonderful friend has lent us the money and said there is no rush paying it back, but that does not sit well with us so we want to pay it back as soon as.

Have to seriously cut back on our food shopping as it is out of control... and will adopt a make do and mend approach with regards to clothing.

Will be checking in here regulary for moral support if that is ok?

Silentsinger, do you have a friend's birthday that you will be buying for in the near future- you could justify the postage by using the rewards voucher and not going over your usual present budget- you would be spending anyway iyswim and not wasting your voucher.

Thanks for the idea Scorpion, unfortunately I've just discovered that I can't use the voucher online Great reward it's turning out to be

Really? With no non-sale stuff in-store they are making it impossible to use the voucher. I would ring/email head office and complain (you may get a better voucher).

Apparently there is a reward card customer service dept so I will try ringing them tomorrow. On the plus side, at least while I can't use the voucher I'm not spending any money.

need to join this thread!

apart from usual overspending we have the following unexpected things to sort out:

1 repair bill for car window mechanism which is broken (so window always open) £330
2 freezer bit of fridge freezer broken new one £250?
3 main freezer packed in some time this week and now have massive amount of wrecked food - incl lots of bulk cooked meals plus second bargain turkey bought xmas eve for pittance :(
4 microwave broken beyond use (after 12 years of service) last week £40 in sainsburys sale??
5 dishwasher not working despite man coming out £200? (would rather just get rid of but no one else but me will wash up)
6 printer not working and essential for work £120 full price trying to find cheaper one with not expensive ink

plus an expected £817 due for dd's hall fees next month

and i brought in £560 last month from my p/t job teaching...
taken on 6 tutoring jobs so i now teach 18 hours in school across 5 days and 8.5 in the evenings, can't really do any more to earn money so it has to be cutting expenditure to find the money for these!!

ooo what do you tutor in schools overthemill? (wonders if there's money to be made somewhere)

Op if you do your car tax for 6 months this time (slightly more expensive I know) then for a year thereafter it will mean youdon't have all the car bills in January to spread the cost. Helps me.

Re the freezer thing it's worth getting a bigger one & then filling up on things that are about to go out of date, they're still fresh when you buy them just won't last beyond that day but freeze well. bread is my main bargain like this often get loaves for 50p & rarely over a £1 even for naice ones!

I often do an online shop for all the basics/heavy/freezer stuff & then just do a trolley dash for fresh stuff & reduced bread, keeping my eyes firmly averted from clothes & other diversions.

This is a good idea - I've done it before, though my main sticking point is DH.
I was going to start with a spreadsheet for January to show him how much we spend, and on what. He won't do it, though, he reckons we don't need to cut back. He is wrong

A few years ago there were some MN threads going about a book called Not Buying It (Judith Levine) - that book completely changed my attitude to spending money. I used to go out and come back with a few little bags, with things that would lie around on a worktop for a few months then get put in a box somewhere. I've largely stopped that. I'm not a purist, I have weak points, but I'm a lot better.

I'm in! We decided a little while ago that we'd be tightening our belts in 2012, for many reasons. The positive reason is so we can save some money as we haven't used our ISAs for ages!

We don't smoke, drink or go out. Our frivolities are toys, DVDs and snacks. Never anything expensive - throughout the year they get stuff from charity shops (I get discount as I work in one).

This Xmas has shown me how they already had too much stuff, clothes too.

I'm joining too!

I'm not sure if my January counts though. We have:

• DD1s birthday (present & card already bought but party not paid for).
• DD1 starting pre-school so need uniform.

It's hardly 'no spend' is it?

I'm encouraged by the online shopping chat but was thinking of going to Aldi.

I'm also menu planning this month, using up the veg box and shall be checking out boffinmums blog.

Okay, I'm in too.

I am making a pile of DVDs we haven't watched in ages. Also looking through tv listings. Then snuggle up and watch them. Maybe make some popcorn.

Our nearest cinema does a kids club where you pay £1 for a Saturday morning screening.

No park nearby but the kids go free on the bus to a big one if I pay my fare. The bus company does cheaper fares on a card you top up online. It all helps.

Museums. We have a few in the city. Some are free only in the week and you pay at the weekend. There is also a ticket you can buy to get in 3 attractions in the area for about the price of a normal entrance to one of them. All worth looking into.

I think making the most of what you have got is a good starting point. We have so many toys, games, films, music, books... before buying more we will rediscover what is already in our house or even have a swap with family. SIL has many films we haven't seen.

Boffinmum I love your blog! I have signed up for updates. I've just read your Sunday night routine and big batch cooking posts. Fab!

zookeeper i tutor English - all ages but mainly KS2 at present. You need to have some teaching experience and knowledge of the KS and what I did was contact local schools until one had something - they had special funding. I am now on their books and will be picking up more hours to help a maternity cover. I love it - really rewarding.

And last night the door fell off the tumble dryer! Damn

I have done this before - I put my debit and credit cards n the freezer after withdrawing (back then shopping was cheaper) a hundred pounds for the month in cash.

I put the cash into five envelopes - one for each week of the month, as January has nearly 5 weeks and I didn't want to suffer at the end of the month with nothing left over.

Once the money was gone.

Bike and walking to save petrol
Charity shops for new coat for school
swap dvd's with other families
treasure hunts where good fun activities for free

Then having a spring clean and selling stuff that we didn't need any more to add to our envelope money.

Have now got DH and the boys onto this No Spend January!

The children will save their pocket money and NotSpendItOnMoshiMonsters! spend it in February so they can get something worthwhile.

DH does want a new computer and he has been waiting for the Sales so I might let him off!

My plan is to only eat what is in the fridge/freezer/cupboard and not to go out to get a few bits!

Meal plan for the next few days is

Tomato/prawn pasta with garlic bread
Fishcakes with asparagus and spinach or pizza for boys
Chilli leftovers (made a huge pot and ate half last night)
Borlotti bean soup
Seabass with roasted potatoes and cauliflower
Pasta with broccoli and anchovies
Seafood risotto
Panfried chicken with roasted potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots, YPuds and gravy

KellyKettle, if you stick to your shopping list, Aldi will be cheaper than an online shop. I'm convinced of that. unfortunately for us, our move means we have no longer acces to an Aldi .

I've managed not to to spend any money since I last went to the supermarket on the 23rd. We had so many leftovers from Christmas dinner, we've been making meals out of that. For example, we have many cheeses left and instead of snacking on them, I'm actually incorporating into meals. Last night I made a root vegetable and potato blue cheese bake with a side of broccoli. So that's the leftover Stilton and veg gone. It actually is a proper BBC Good Food recipe as well. It was also a double portion, so we will be having it again tonight.
The antipasti and Emmental cheese I have leftover will be made into a homemade pizza tomorrow.
There is also a really nice recipe for a Tomato and Cheddar Rice Casserole from the BBC, which will use up the different cheddars we got left.

I had thought I needed to go food shopping right on boxing day but with a bit of creativity, I only need to go today for a few bits and bobs, which will see us through till the 3rd. We're getting our Tesco delivery then. I put it together yesterday. It was £40 and included most of the ingredients I need to cook for 9 days plus some store cupboard things. So that's a quarter of my food budget gone for January. I think it'll get easier the second month, once I actually know how much I'm spending on food.

Glad my blog is proving useful.

I think from Aldi's website that they may be considering starting online shopping facilities soon - if they do this, I imagine it will dent Tesco's profits ...

Online shopping saves me money as I am not trawling up and down the aisles and buying stuff not on my list!

Also, it saves petrol/parking money and I can sometimes get free delivery which helps.

I have 2 young dc and tbh it saves me no end of hassle traipsing about the supermarket with them.

I need to cut down on my food spending though - we are all going on a healthy eating plan from today - more protein, more veg and fruit etc which probably will cost more but hopefully we will not be spending money on junk so it should even out.

No spending at amazon in Jan for me!

Good Morning everyone!

I will be impressed if Aldi move into home delivery! I decided to order from Tesco yesterday. Mainly because DH is working today and I want to get DDs bedroom organised rather than getting stressed in Aldi.

I spent around £70 but we have some bits in the chest freezer and I didn't buy snacks or sugary drinks (another New Year resolution). I'm going to see if we can spend no more than £100 on food this month. The other £30 I'll withdraw and use for milk & fresh bits.

We do get a veg box delivered (paid up to March-12) so that will help and I am going to go back to using my bread maker.

I shall be batch cooking and freezing food to stop us falling back on takeaways when we can't be bothered to cook.

Does anyone have any tips for slicing homemade bread. I struggle to slice it thinly and usually end up getting 5 massive, odd shaped slices. Fine for toast but not great for DD1's packed lunch.

It's all Ocado and Tesco delivery vans up here. lots if judgey pants if an Aldi delivery appeared. I'll cope though.

Haha! I hadn't thought of that actually. Oh yes, same here.