No-spend January/Frugal February - the no-spend challenge continues

[roguepixie]

OK - am attempting to start the second thread ... hope this works.

Spew
That's good to know. Think we will look into this.

Once again: anyone for Netto???

Lady Harriet, Netto in the UK have been bought over by Walmart. Their stores are being re-branded as Asda.

Morning,
I used my Aldi £5 off voucher on Sat which was fab. Minimoo made me laugh bless her, she went into town with her mates but didn't buy anything from Jack Wills as she said it was too expensive. She took £60 birthday money and came back with £28 after buying some bits and a Superdry(cannot stand the make) T-shirt. Her friend saw a jumper in the sale in New Look but it had a small hole in the back. DD said " go to the till and show them the hole and ask if they will take some money off for you, then get your mum to mend the hole " she got a 50% discount ! Bet the mum hates me lol. So I guess it really is a case of like mother like daughter
A NSD yesterday partly as I never left the house. Another NSD today but I do need loo rolls tomorrow.
Very odd but I am worse off this month than I was last month, I have done two weeks worth of meal plans, using the organized home planner with shopping list and am expecting a £25 gift card which I can use in most shops and £50 Love2Shop voucher from swapping energy suppliers(they only sent me £50 last week) so that should help with food shopping. I am just hoping that DD doesn't need anything for school unexpectedly, I bought her two pairs of school shoes in the sales as she seems to go through so quickly due to the 30 min walk to school and the same back again.

I would also be thrown out of the gang if I fessed up to an actual total . I would say in my defence though I think I have achieved a "no unnecessary spend" challenge this month and I have started generally being much more thoughtful about using the resources we have wisely.

My biggest problem right now is tax self assessment. I got a letter a while back from the dear HMRC that I should think about doing it... I was trying to believe that it would just disappear if I shut my eyes but I think I should sign in and do the return otherwise I will be terrified I'll get a fine (someone said on here I think that even if you would have ended up getting a rebate, they still fine you for not having submitted £1000!) Well it may be a scare tactic but I should just bite the bullet. I will do that tonight/tomorrow.

Most of my eBay sales completed yesterday (two are yet to finish, four didn't sell but then I got a message from someone who had missed the closing time on one). None of the ten sales were great results, but the tangible feeling of relief at disposing of things is good. Someone in Yorkshire has got a really lovely wedding-y hat for £8.51+p&p so I am happy I have contributed indirectly to other people's economy challenges! I was very careful not to under-shoot on postage (well, I hope - I'll find out tomorrow when I take things to the PO counter!).

My bathroom tiling saga will complete today/tomorrow. This actually opens me up to spending money on plumber/painter jobs, but that is ok because (the way I justify it) this is all investment in our major asset and we have pre-assessed that it is better value to pay someone to do it than to keep failing to do it ourselves.

My two big achievements of January have been (1) maintaining a packed-lunch habit and (2) gettin gDH on board with menu planning/inventory. I intend to continue these into Feb and beyond...

I will add up my total when I have more time. I haven't done too well, too many dinners out. Had 2 Ebay sells though which was good but then had 8 no-sells. I have a ton of books to get rid of and have found a website which is free to list and guarantees you £3 per book. YOu have to pay P&P out of that but I thought it might be worth a go as DD has loads of books which she wants rid of and I know they won't go for a lot on Ebay. All you do is put the ISBN on and the site does the rest, I should get 75p-£1 for each book.

Just made a banana bread out of dsis's left over bananas so pretty free for me, and it tastes lovely

Just done a rough total of the January spend and I have come out at £580.00. This includes all food, postage (Ebay), bus expenditure on my Oyster, teas/coffees etc and a wee gifty for DS from Amazon (and, if I am honest a book for me too). . It doesn't include the mortgage and Direct Debits (for DS's school, gas/elec etc).

Now, if I tell you that my monthly expenditure usually comes in at around £1400.00 you will be as bloody gob-smacked as I am . And that spend is on food etc .

The sheer amount of crap that I must buy in a month, the HUGE wastage in food and extras and just frittering the £5's and £10's in my purse. God, what a wake-up call.

I don't mean to be silly and weepy and stupid (however, I think I may have a tear in my eye as I type) but I have got to say a massive thank you for the thread that got us all started and for all of you here on the thread ... just the idea of 'chatting' with you guys at the end of the day has been enough to keep me both on the straight and narrow and...sane .

I have also made over £350.00 on Ebay this month (January) and over £700.00 on new clients. So, at my reckoning I am just over £400 in credit, as it were!!!

Thank you all. Let's make Frugal February even more of a success.

moomoo - well done to minimoo, a real chip off the block there Also, regarding being worse off - do you have some serious standing orders/direct debits that come out in January? Car tax? Insurance? Sometime's these tip the balance.

DH and I were talking over the weekend about how our money is not stretching nearly as far as it used to. THis year, I owe money on the credit card from Christmas for the first time ever. I have money going into savings, but it's much less than it used to be and not giving me the lumps I need at times (like lots of household bills in Feb, and another lot of big bills Sept, summer hols and Christmas spends...).

We are going to try to cut back a bit again, and I am going to go back to proper mealplanning etc (I was doing grocery challenge on MSE for a couple of years til the "netnanny" at work blocked MSE). I think our new au pair eats more than the old one too.

That said, I bought a shoulder of lamb for yesterday's roast (30% off too), and slow roasted it. Ooooh, I'll do that again - and get slow roasting beef joints too. And I have a lasagne made and the oven set to cook it so it will be ready when we get in tonight.

And I do have a lot of stores things to use up in the kitchen, so a frugal february is what I am aiming for.....

before I tally up my jan spend, can I ask-are the figures people are writing the amount from their own purse so to speak, or from the household? dh &i split all bills, food shopping etc so the figures I have might need to be doubled to reflect the total household spend iykwim?

gulp.

ilike, my figures don't include DH's expenditure as his are minimal in the extreme ... I think he may have been Spartan in a previous life .

Biddy, welcome. I too have a CC bill from Christmas ... for the first time and am working really hard to reduce it. It's not easy. The money just does not go as far as it used to ...

Hmm, my Jan spend was probably in the realm of Duchesse's but thanks to this thread I did cut back and shave a couple of hundred quid off. February's spending is going to be pretty spartan I think thanks to the surprise tax bill I got (Lexi, hope you dont have a nasty tax surprise with your return - I got one because work had cocked up my tax!) - half my salary goes immediately into joint account and I'm aiming to keep the jt account food expenditure in February under £400 by using up our freezer full of meat and our larder of tins. We have a £200 kitty for kids activities (DS2 starting a dance class and DS1 starting karate this month). We'll then have £100 in jt account to use for meals out/treats in Feb and the rest will be bills etc. On my personal account am aiming to spend no more than £50 a week (including transport to and from school). I have a feeling its going to be grim. On the plus side I discovered lots of cupasoups and miso soup sachets in my drawers at work so that's lunch for the next couple of weeks sorted

ilike- we have joint accounts for practically everything and my DH is also a spartan. Mainly because he "delegates" most household spending to me. He still lives a comfortable life (food, roof etc), just doesn't spend on impulse ever.

i've avoided buying any food except fresh milk for 2 weeks now by just eating through our freezer and tins that have been cluttering up our kitchen.
have to go on a food shop today though as we are officially food-less. eek!
i am planning on buying carrots potatoes and onions in big bags and doing loads of veg. soup in the pressure cooker to freeze and we will have soup each evening for the next two weeks.
my goal is to be able to pay for our holiday, car insurance and DD's new mattress in feb without going overdrawn or cutting back on the chunk we save each month.
top tip-pressure cooker or slow cooker cheap meat and it still tastes fab,

also dumplings in soup stretch it out, get some SR flour, mix in cheese and herbs if you have ay, mix in some water to form dough then roll into balls half a fist big and chuck the balls into a bubbling pot, cover with lid and 15mins later ready to eat-cheaper than bread(since when did a loaf cost over a quid?!)

No idea what actual spend is for January but did only join thread halfway through.......

Aim for Feb is to spend no more than £250 on food for the month, with 1 massive shop at start of month to stock up cupboard and freezer (about £150), then 1 top-up shop a week (no more than £100 total). I will resist the local shop/bakery/coffee shop etc.

I must also resist the urge to splash the non-existant cash on lovely things for our new home, and must resort to freecycle in the first instance, or going without. While un-packing I MUST also make an ebay box and list on the next free weekend.

I must, however, get to grips with our new garden and prepare the ground/pots ready to start growing-our-own from March.

Hi,

This is my first post but I've been following the thread since mid-Jan. Just want to agree with Roguepixie and say a massive thankyou to everyone taking part and posting their ideas here. You have genuinely helped me to investigate and be honest about our family spending for the first time ever!

I have found budgeting and cutting back to be a bit daunting but I know it's essential. We have two Christmas credit card bills to be paid and January wasn't a good no-spend month, with two family relative visits including hotels and petrol. Sigh.

Does anyone have a suggestion of how to get their partner joining in to reduce spending? Mr Ostrich likes to get cash out for lunch at work etc which makes it harder to track spending. Want to encourage him to see that budgeting might mean we can have a holiday this year, not just all about doom and gloom!

I must say I discovered the most useful and cash effective way of shopping for home nicknacks last week- our local dump recycling centre shop had many glorious bargains. So many plates- choose a colourway, go along and pick up a whole new set of plates for instance for 10p a pop. Or silver plated cutlery. Or beautiful earthenware jugs. Depends what you like and want. Everything will need a good clean, but plenty of life left in it. Last week's mercy trip to the dump shop to buy crockery for the banquet yielded a lovely Selangor pewter bowl for less a £1.

Tell Mr Ostrich he's on packed lunches from now on! If needs be, lovingly craft them for him for a few days. (not so long that he gets into the habit of having it done, but just long enough to impress on him the advantages of home made lunch)

Hi NAOstrich

Can you convince Mr Ostrich to take a pack-up to work? I haved got really strict with myself going to college as tey have a nice canteen but with tea-break, coffees & supper I was spending best part of a £5-er each week the £3 for parking! So I make a big tupperware-full of salad witrh lots of interesting bits of pasta/couscous/ lettuce toms/cu/pepper/ sometimes bits of ham,cheese or tuna. Healthy, filling & cheap! If he gets a jar & puts in the money he WOULD have spent each day it will show him how much he's wasting!

Rogue I agree this thread is brilliant,even if we don't all post every day it's great to catch up and I've learnt some good new spending habits. Once we have Jan/Feb out the way (post christmas,birthdays AND car tax & insurance this quarter) I'm hoping to be on an even keel and seriously in better financial health.

I slipped today and bought a couple of (much needed tbh) jersey tops from BHS for £6 each and a Wallis dress for £20. But this will be my only unnecessary spending.

I used my Advantage points to get some tweezerman tweezers (balked at spending £20 on them, but the pain was lessened by using points).

Haven't totted up my expenditure for January, but I am pretty sure that any unnecessary spending will be better than it was in recent months.

I will include my total spend later this evening, although I am one month in arrears on my phone and car insurance payments. Those are my only 2 outgoings at the moment (advantage of living with family ) so I expect I'll have the smallest spend of the group, but also the smallest income

That shall all change soon as within a couple of months I'll be moving out into my own 2-bed flat for me and the little one. So most money I earn in Feb and march will be going on that, ESP as I have no furniture or fittings. Will be looking out on freecycle / eBay / local paper for secondhand items but I'm fussy and will buy a new mattress for myself, particularly as I want to co sleep with DS for about a year or so.

Just checking in after a busy weekend at PILs. I won't be totting up total January spend as only joined thread last week, but here are my confessions for the weekend:

Saturday: Was on track to be an NSD, but on way up to PILs realised I had forgotten my make-up bag . So got mascara, eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, eyeshadow trio, lippy & foundation for £11.68, which I thought was really goof value. Will now leave this in the car as spares, to avoid the same thing happening again. Was FILs 60th birthday party, so had lots of yummy food there & a great time playing games & watching the 19(!) kids present (FIL has 1 sister & 6 brothers, of which 5 siblings have kids & grandkids & some stepkids)!

Sunday: Car boot sale in the morning, total waste of time as too cold for anybody to venture out to sell! So, £1 admission for me & DH (50p each) + £1 on a Fireman Sam fire engine for DS1, age 3.1. We normally love car boots & have had great bargains, such as a bouncy chair with music & vibrations for £4, an as-new McClaren pushchair (travel system type, not stroller) with raincover & cosytoes for £10, Leapfrog activity centre where baby sits in the middle for £15 - I could go on! No more money spent the rest of the day

Oh yes, plus tax return - not very much, but more than I expected to pay! To Lexi (I think it was, apologies if that's wrong), I was also really nervous about doing it, but it was quite straightforward. And the longer you leave it, the worse it will get as more people try & do it last-minute & clog up the website.

Monday: Wandered into village with MIL, with no intention of spending anything - and found a £10 note on the ground ! So treated DS1 to a Rocha John Rocha coat from a charity shop, like-new thick brown winter coat for £2.50. Will also do for DS2 when he is bigger (2 years between them), so a good bargain, I thought.

Then £20 on petrol (but actually MIL paid for this as they always chuck petrol money in the car window as we attempt to leave, love 'em!)

DH has just bought a new-to-us car at the car auction for £300 (Renault Clio with MOT till July), but this is actually a saving as he has a new job starting Thursday (12 weeks, as he does contract work), which is only 30 mins from us by car, so cost of c. £200 per month (petrol, tax, insurance on car) as opposed to 1.5 hours by train & bus, cost £500 per month. And this job pays an extra £160 per week to the last one - yay! Also, lovely but very silly PILS slipped £500 into DH's bank account as they knew he needed a new car for this job & said "We thought, you can't take on a new job & not be able to get there!"

MIL also always gives me a hundredweight of food to bring back whenever we go there, so I shouldn't need to buy any groceries except formula this week, but will probably go to Aldi to utilise my £5 off £30 voucher.

Writing this out has made me realise how incredibly lucky I am with my PILS & my parents too. All are incredibly generous to us & I don't know what we'd do without them sometimes - & we get on with them all like best buddies, too [soppy emoticon]

Sorry for the epic post, got a bit carried away again!

Moomoo, sorry to hear of your DD's friend, I hope she will be OK & I know you will support her through it.

Moomoo, I'm so sorry to hear about your DD's friend too, how tragic :( I hope your DD can cope with it all OK.

I didn't spend anything today other than £10 to our kitchen pot for milk etc through the week.

I have totalled my outgoings for Jan, this is what I have spent personally as DH and I split all food etc although we have a joint account for the kids and bills.....

Petrol £100
Entertainment (safari, soft play, swimming, DVD) £29
Groceries £180
Eating out & fast food £120 (only £8 of this is fast food, a chippy!)
Random snacks / drinks £20
Household things (paint, electrician, ikea etc) £57
Personal (clothes, gifts etc) £35
Kids clothes / toys £15
Newspapers / magazines £7

Grand total = £563!!!!!!

Yikes. This are the figs from my android app, tis very cool (the app, not my expenditure!). I obviously have mortgage, child care, bills etc on top of this too. Looking at the separate figs I can easily try to cut down on eating out, perhaps on groceries, definately household things (I didn't really need the ikea stuff) and newspapers / mags.

Must try harder in Feb!!!