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

[roguepixie]

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

ooooo can I join in? I've become a bit obssessed with tracking my spending after I downloaded a great app in the New Year for logging all my expenses. It's so interesting to see where all the money goes and it really does make me spend less. I am 17 weeks pregnant too with number 3 so we are really having to penny pinch in prep for another mat leave!

Today I have spent £15 on petrol and £1.20 on milk. Essentials so not too bad!

Loving reading all your tips :)

dinky - it was a fairly pricey box of lego, about £81.00. Couldn't find it for love nor money anywhere ... except an Amazon seller who wanted £195!!!!I googled lego sellers and got the Danish website - should have thought of that before really. They had one left, £81.00, free P&P and points each time I order (to the value of your spend) and a free mag for DS. Oh, and it arrived with 5 days!! Excellent value and service, would order from there before here, tbh.

Good idea on the foot/hand prints - I did this for Father's Day, when DS was 12 days old. It still takes pride of place. Good idea also fishy - I think I have seen that on some of the home improvement programmes - always looks good.

Mackrel, do you have any stitched pieces? Cross-stitch? Collages etc? Charity shops can sometimes have odd, old fashioned bits and pieces which could be made into pictures?

Ohh with rubarb make rubarb champagne ..hang on I'll see if I can find the recipe!

www.savor-the-rhubarb.com/rhubarb-champagne.html

I couldn't find demi-john bottles before xmas as I'd planned ot make for new year! Still want to make it! My colleague gave me the link said it is lush quite pink but tasty!

If I can find some demi-john bottles I might just make some for valentines day we only ever do a meal and home, usually with a bottle of sparkly bubbly stuff........this stuff takes 2 week to "mature"..........

I'm returning after slipping off the old thread and ended up spending more money than I have after dh popped my credit card back into my purse when he found it the other day (I had hidden it to stop myself using it!!).

Love the new thread! I am truely committed to the cause :)

Thanks for the links for the freebies Boffin, I have applied :) I also recieved my ecover testing pack yesterday so a few more £s saved there!

Rhubarb champagne is another great idea- who knew there were so many great things to make with rhubarb?!

Spent just over a tenner on pizza ingredients and bread.

week 3
food £109.91 (+£2.99 delivery)
household £11.98
takeaway £5.60 (chippy)
parking £5
swimming £4.70 (DD and friend)
leisure centre loyalty card £5
cat vaccinations and checkup £34.50
pocket money £4
guitar lesson £11

total £194.68

Less than last week. Still need to cut back more on groceries and not have that takeaway. It's shocking that we spend £200 a week on essentials.

Made £8 today putting DC4 in for a psychological test at the university.

However it was DH's birthday and spent £100 on:

£34.99 Owl energy measuring gadget thing
£10 Stuff for a nice brunch (posh sausages, bacon, eggs, bread)
£11.95 Green and Black's tasting box
£20 Box of 12 real ales
£7.95 posh shower gel
£7 birthday cake
£2 2x custard tarts (his favourite cake)

So went slightly mad, but then he is a lovely DH!

No impulse buying today, just cat food and milk.

Now, I'd value your opinions on this: a pair of the dungarees I bought off ebay arrived today. Lovely, they are, but a lot smaller than expected. They were advertised as 12-18 months (son is almost 9 months but big) but I'd say he has a couple of months wear in them, tops. They aren't actually 12-18 months, rather some random size (80?), so I get the impression the seller took a-not-so-educated guess. Do you think I should email the seller to ask for a partial refund?

today I put things in the attic and got out some other things which (in some cases with sadness) will join the ebay pile.

Then we had our treat meal at a nice pub and went to the cheapest cinema I can imagine that's still a real cinema. It's on an RAF base in Bucks and costs £4 for adults and nothing for under 3s. tub of popcorn and bottle of water (both of which I would admittedly have brought from home) £1.80

supermarket on the way home for essentials - coffee, butter and flora for baking, bin bags. Nothing else tempted me (win!)

yeah spew, according to this h&M size guide you've been sold 9-12 month dungarees.

seems fair enough to ask for a refund as the reason you buy the specific size is because that's the size you need. not just cos you're being picky!

boffin Ive had an Owl monitor for years, its great.

DH is buzzing around the house announcing how much per hour it all is depending on what gadgets he has turned on and off. Happy as a pig in mud

spew, I would ask for a partial refund. The seller should have checked themselves before listing and should not have guessed the size.

Spent £21.00 on diesel this morning and £30.60 on fruit and veg. DH will probably put more diesel in during the week but the fruit and veg should do the week. Managed to by-pass the butcher as well so no extra spend there .

Have photographed some items for Ebay and will do some more tomorrow in an effort to generate some more income.

Well, I had to get dh to take me Tesco today - I don't normally do that as he's so impulsive - but I had £14 in my purse and £14 is what I spent. All he stung me for was a packet of caramelised biscuits.

Went to make pizza for tea .... no tinned tomatoes! So I had to drive dd round there and made her get them as there was nothing in my purse :)

She had to go in because at 5.30 I was in my PJs.

I'm preparing an online Sainsbury's shop to be delivered on payday - Wednesday. Nearly £200 so far but I think/pray that all I'll need to top up on will be veg and fruit.

Fingers crossed!

Not too bad today
New shoes for dd2 and 3 £40, one pair was in sale so would only let her see those.
Snack dinner for 5 £7.50
Mcdonalds for 7 £28 its our fortnightly treat and dd1 had her friend staying
Then made veg soup from old veg. Got about 8 servings
Need diesel tomorrow, dd1 riding lesson and owe mum £30. Must try harder next week

thesecondcoming it's called 'expense manager'- an android app which was free. There will be something similar on iphones I imagine. It does all the maths and graphs for you, it's fab!

Today I have spent absolutely nowt. I ended up staying in all day while DH took the kids out so I got a rest AND spent no money- result!

Thanks, janek, that size guide is just what I need. I might just return them full stop, as it seems silly just to have them for a month or so. I've emailed the seller with that guide to back me up. Just waiting to hear from him.

Just made some pasties and had a couple extra that I bunged in the freezer. I'm getting quite good at this make one, freeze one malarky!

For lunch we had a really simple tomato soup that I made with two tins of Aldi tomatoes, an onion, basil and some stock. Enough for us both and a baby-sized portion and cost less than £1.

Quite a good day today. Met at a friends house for coffee, so no spend, then went on to meet another friend in pub for lunch and she picked up the bill
DH works next to Aldi so collected him from work and did £72 shop, mostly store cupboard but £10 of that was on nappies.
Hopefully will finish January now without anything else except bread/milk/fruit to buy :)

VOU2330370 gets you £15 off a first shop at Ocado
If you register via Topcashback and use the clock through link, then you get £7 or so in cashback as well. You can register in your own right, or ask one of the MNetters who use it for a special link, so they get a free £10 in their account as well.

Went to a Burns night party last night and feeling slightly the worse for wear.

Right. This stuff is going in ebay NOW! DH and DS have gone swimming so I have about hour or so to get it all posted up.

Moved deckchairs on Titanic some boxes around the living room (aka Room Of Shame) last night so we have more space to use. There is a lot of my army surplus stuff which will raise real cash on ebay once I'm sure I don't have to return it. (never quite sure what I was issued and what I bought/borrowed).

So, to Ebay!

£20 in Lidl yesterday buying a whole heap of things. I love Lidl.