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. ?

Hopefully today will be a no spend day for me. Obviously the best way to do this is not to leave the house. The kids will need to go out though , so that's the challenge really. Can I go for walk to the park without popping into tescos to see what is reduced '

Another no spend day for me. I've not actually spent any money in over a week which makes me feel a bit better about heinous amount I wasted on Christmas.

Shops tomorrow though. I've started going to Lidl as the veg is lovely and half the price of Tesco. I'm hoping to get the few bits I need from there and not have to go to Tesco too. I have lots of willpower at the moment (no choice, worrying times).

I do want clubcard vouchers though as my sister made a killing on the toys at Christmas. However, I find I spen about half in Lidl, so it is far cheaper to not bother going to Tesco.

I like frozen food shops too, but you have to watch the best before dates on some of their stuff (we have a Farm Foods).

Was determined to not spend today. Then DH pointed out we needed kitchen roll. We are cleaning the whole house today. Decorations are down, kids back at school tomorrow.

So
1/1/11: £17.41 food we needed and a Sudoku puzzle book
2/1/11: £1.97 four kitchenrolls

Total: £19.38

No spend today.

Not sure about dinner though - we're getting down to the dregs rather. Would be fine if it was just us here but this is the in-laws last night staying and we usually do a nice dinner. Tonight looks like left over spag boll and pasta .

Will be making austerity shopping list tonight for DH to shop tomorrow. Or maybe online?

Well I'm back from Ikea and didn't do too badly.

I bought the highchair, tray, 2 padded insert thingy's 'cos neither twin is sitting up yet. Only impulse splurge was hanging shower racks to hold shampoo etc. Ours are rubbish, you can't get a tall bottle in them, and these were only £3 each, so I got two.

Total spend £35

Then to Tesco on the way home. Got bread, milk, apples, breast pads and formula, which came to £15. All essentials, no splurges so not bad all in all.

Total spend today £50, plus petrol - probably an hours round trip.

Hello :)

Signed up for overtime at work today - time and a half so £50 for four hours work.

Also managed to get some brilliant reductions so I did spend £9 but for that I got
2 x 12 meatballs
2 x 6 pork chops
A massive gammon that was reduced from a tenner to £1.50
2 packs diced lamb
2 packs diced pork
A filet steak
A pack of chicken thighs

Plus a couple of other bits. I forgot to get milk so will have to go out again, but that's still less than £10 for the monmth, and we should be able to eat out of the freezer and just buy fresh now for the month

Did weekly shop in aldi - bargain! The top up bits in sainsburys cost more !!

Also bought a freeview box - cost £50 but means we can cancel virgin tv (and landline) saving £30 a month.

Exchanged an unwanted Xmas present for a new coat - £15 in new look sale. Swapped a tshirt and had to pay just £3.

All in all a frugal start to 2012!

Nothing spent today.

midnightblue I love my freeview box, although I've never had sky. It saves money as I record films to watch instead of renting them or going to the library.

I have £10 Boots and a £20 H&M voucher to spend, but it will try and spend them sensibly.

Wow jojay how restrained!

Did Aldi today too-nothing much left on the fresh aisle or bread shelf luckily plenty of milk & other stuff.

I had a £30 limit & spent £25.79, result! Should last the 3 of us for 2 weeks with the store cupboard & freezer stuff. Will have to top up with fresh fruit & veg as well but hoping that won't be much.

Aldi have packets of laminating sheets, for £3.59, usually they're mega expensive so if you use lots grab some! (I resisted although I'm out of them)

Havent spent any money today. Had mince in freezer so took out for dinner. After much arguing over dinner, made two home made meat loafs,bulked out with a packet of sage and onion stuffing, and had red onions instead of white to save me going to shops.Bloody delicious.

We are eating contents of the freezer as we dont get paid till Monday so apart from tax credits on Thursday, we are skint.

Saying that, we didnt spend s much money on NYE as we thought, so DH has still £16 in his wallet, and I have £13 in my purse, and there is still £36 in the bank. That is still the lowest amount of money I have ever had for a while.

Nothing spent today and have listed a lot of stuff on Ebay. Hoping to go for a walk tomorrow before visiting friends Will take home-made cake rather than flowers as just noticed two bananas on the turn. Flowers for all of you on this thread though!

welli did pop to Tescos to buy milk, and ended up spending £6.00 but in my defense it was all reduced items and it means i can put off doing my big shop until friday. I will have more money on friday and will be able to shop at ALdi as there is one near my work. (but not around here.)

Martyr, what a amazing £9 bargain! Where did you shop?

KinkyD, if I can knock a lot off my food bill, I'm sure you're right, it's not worth it for the clubcard points. I've heard that they're opening a Lidl in my local town but not sure when.

RidingITMB I was excited about switching fromSky to Freeview box until I remembered that our arial's broken and will cost £200 to replace, so that rules that out.

I really feel that I've made a big mental change over the past few weeks with regards to money. I'm not working (and can't get work), DH is self emloyed and some months we struggle to make ends meet. The run up to Christmas was awful. We had a letter saying that if we failed to pay £350 in 14 days the baliffs would be round. I had an incredably stressful week at home whilst DH was at work. Had no time for the DCs or planning the "big day". Got it sorted on 23rd, (they agreed to take £50 a month which is managable). It really fucked up my Christmas as I felt completely unprepared when the in laws turned up on Christmas Eve and still felt utterly stressed.

It's clearly not what Christmas is all about and I never want another one like it. If it means having lots of will power and going without "nice things" then so be it. My granny died a few months back at 99. When she was young they lived in a house with no carpets for years. They didn't have credit cards and just had to do without things. She was frugal to the end; all her generation were! I think we could learn a thing or two from our grandparents' generation!

Martyr, I am impressed!!

Did not do well today (again) Went to the garden centre to buy compost (cheapest one they do, an essential as the soil in this garden is so dry and barren and useless nothing grows). Whilst there I made the fatal error to walk into the discounted Christmas items section. All Christmas I had wanted a wicker wreath for the front door but could not find one. Here I found one, £9.99 reduced to £5.99, so I bought it... It was not essential though, should have put it back. Mind you I also saw some wooden tree ornaments I loved, also reduced, but put them back.

Will get there. Have to get into the right mindset though, it is not happening yet ... Help....

I'm in. Haven't read the whole thread yet, but will later.

We are very poor this month - started off overdrawn, and have car tax, dancing lessons and school fees to stump up this month - it is going to be very ouchy. Is also my son's birthday in 2 days, so I am going to HAVE to spend on that. Trying to keep the cost down though (he is 14 - was going to take him and a friend to the £1.50 Kids Club at the cinema, and then to Burger King. He doesn't know what he wants for his birthday, so might give him an IOU for next month...)

I am going to try to get by spending less than £200 this month - plus I have £110 of vouchers I can use in Iceland or Farm foods. There are 5 of us, so I don't think it will be easy, actually. I often spend twice that....

Adbusters (who are behind the Occupy protests) are trying to start a national "spend nothing" day, think it was late last year, but they talk alot of sense about living in a capitalist society and how we almost become addicted to spending money, even getting that £2 cup of coffee when we really don't need to. I am on maternity leave at the moment and my SMP has just stopped so we are very broke at the moment, every time I felt like buying something I just thought "well I can either get a new xxxxxxx, or I can save the money and afford to be off work with my son for a little bit longer". Needless to say I havent bought anything in a really really long time, but look at what I have instead, more time at home with my little boy, what could be better than that!?

You just need to find the right insentive.

I am curious to know how much people are spending at the moment on their weekly shops as we have noticed our food bill going up from £30 a week to £60??????

jez guess what we discovered - no arial! Oh well, the intention was there... Now to get a refund on the box or price up getting it sorted!

Just managed to do a 2 week shop (2 adults, 2 toddlers) for £72.

Did a meal plan and then shopped online and did all 'basics' first (Sainsbury).

Also spent £7 on a calendar (keep getting sucked in to those 'organised' threads and realised I had no calendar for this year and we did really need one).

So £79 spent since 23rd December.

Am quite enjoying this austerity, actually. It feels like it simplifies things somehow.

Love BoffinMum's blog too

Can I join? I am committed to giving less of my money to the supermarkets this year! Started doing my shopping at lidl and aldi in september, topping up at morrisons and tesco as I needed. Then I lost the plot a bit in the run up to christmas and need to take control again now! Not spent anything so far this year..... how long can that last?!

Behindlock at your bargains!

I'm the same trying to relearn frugal habits. have always been quite good at making ends meet but now I'm working less we're really on a tight budget.

Today in Aldi I resisted all sorts of "bargains" & whilst I hadn't got a meal planner sorted I did one mentally going round & only got what I really needed, so was very proud of myself!

Made a Quorn bolognese tonight & have left that overnight will put in slow cooker tomorrow long & slow, so suppers sorted. Need to go shoe shopping for DD1 in the morning so that'll blow the budget but I have saved a bit from family allowance for those & have patched up her school trousers so not too much to buy!

I'm in. Already shop at Lidl.
I will be going through my store cupboard and using stuff up. Will try to buy only fresh veg and fruit to add to store cupboard items.
Am on a tight budget til April as have been invited to friend's wedding and need to save up for it.

I am avoiding going into town and walking around the shops. Will walk the dog more and avoid impulse buys and save bus fare.
Am cutting my own fringe today and using Boots home dye to colour.
If I NEED to buy anything in the next 3 months I will go to the car boot sales (with the dog)

My mantra will be : Keep healthy, do not waste food, spend cash only.

Am aiming to spend £25 cash a week for food, household consumables (though have stocks of cleaning products, loo rolls etc). Everything else is on direct debit. Last year negotiated with utilities and managed to get good reductions as I was serious about leaving provider if monthly charge was not reduced. Will take flask of coffee if out for the day and healthy food to avoid buying snacks.

Will not look on Amazon, ebay etc on spec for bargains.

Will remember a christmas cracker motto " A bargain is something you don't need at a price you can't resist"

oh for cheap gas and electric I can not recommend Utility Warehouse enough, for our three bedroom house our monthly gas, electric, phone and internet is £67 all in!