No spend January 31 days...

[ivykaty44]

No spend January

Just the essential food with a meal plan for 31 days.

Fuel to a minimum

Withdraw the cash for food, essentials & cards go in the freezer

Anyone care to join me?

I nearly 'treated' myself to a Friday coffee then remembered the clothes I brought the other day and the two lunches I'd had out stopped myself!

Have brought lunch in with me today!

£8.50 home bargains (wash powder, wash up liquid curry sauces etc)
£12.50 Aldi bread, cupboard staples etc
£22.50 Iceland
£15.00 bill payment
This and my freezer /cupboard are feeding us over there weekend and all next week!
Really pleased thanks to these threads I'm evaluating every purchase, using all the food up and tracking every penny. I am a lot happier and feel in control instead of that dread as you find your bank account empty because you have over spent. ..

Bored widow - this thread is great if slightly addictive!
Adorabell- worth every penny, exercise keeps me sane as I'm peri-meno...
Ivykate44- I would like to do cash Feb too!
Hopefully sat/sun/mon will be NSD.

Spent £1 on some crisps to go with lunch - brought a 6-pack instead of a single bag and they were on sale in Tesco. Bargain!

Thought I was gonna have to spend money on lunch today but picked up something from the little Waitrose near the office and paid for it with a JL gift card that I still have credit on, so think today will technically be a NSD too!

I’m liking breadwidows style of getting lunch for free 🤣 that’s the spirit....😉

I’ve saved the price of a manicure - I did my own nails and saved £13

I have not had any coffees this week at lunch or going into work so about £10-12

Lunch in everyday so about £5 saving as I ‘forget’ about one or twice a week

So Day 5 is going well with 5 consecutive days of no spend 😇

Not sure how the weekend will be..? Gym Saturday morning and then want to go furniture window shopping.

Adorabell I agree you can’t put a price on mental well-being!

I’ve had a good morning. I’ve been to the shops, bought some half price bananas and a couple of other bits using my co-op card, used Boots points for dressings for my wounds from surgery in December, spent £3.25 on a card and some courgettes. Then returned two boxes of crackers we didn’t use at Christmas for £16 so I’m better off than I was when I went! I’m also in a health scheme and put a claim in, getting over £200 for those So far, pretty good!

Only one sort of ‘unexpected’ item - I wanted a nice thermos mug of my own so that I can take drinks out to save money. DH a couple but they are always in use in rotation. That was £1.50 from Poundstretcher!

Yesterday was a NSD for me. I can’t see any spending today either so hopefully it wil be too.

Does anyone else keep a spending diary? I do and I’m a bit of a sad act so I use different colours for different categories if spendjngs. I’ve just decided I’m going to colour in the entire page of the diary if it’s a NSD like I giant colourful rectangular tick for me.

so this week hasnt been the greatest for NSD - managed monday and wednesday so far but plan to be more organised going forward. I have got to do the main shop tomorrow but from Sunday onwards I should be much better hopefully just DD's tuck shop money each day but getting some cash out later and will put that money aside at home for her and bringing my food from home next week so that I cant be tempted to buy extras at the shop. Oh and more than likely some extra milk during the week

First unplanned spend of the month - £3.50 on a hair mask as mine is horrible at the moment. Also had to buy kids medicines (piriton, calamine etc) - not planned but budgeted for in YNAB joint account spends category. About a tenner, but couldn't really not buy it!

pavlova I think the meds are safely in the "essentials" category!
Not a great day for me, £3 on the bus to the shops, where I spent a huge credit note on two pairs of much needed shoes, neither of which I actually like. Hmmm. Need to get milk later, but I think I have some dosh on my coop card which will cover that. So technically an ok day, but it doesn't really meet the spirit of the thing, does it?

Nsd here - to cold to go out with an already poorly dd so were cuddling on the sofa

Hmm not great again - big shop - but I might be able to stretch for 2 weeks - if I can that would be excellent - also £35 for DS2 activity although it does save on childcare

Fiver in Lidl on food and fiver to post parcels. Not too bad so far but need to go for more NSDs next week

£11 on food from Coop. Most of the ingredients for meals for this week are already in the freezer. I'll need a few bits from Tesco tomorrow but should be a cheap week for food. Also paid £40 deposit for ferry booking for summer hols and need to pay a deposit to the campsite next week - about £75

NSD for me again today, easy when I'm at work.
I've added a few things to my amazon basket but not bought them. Hopefully by Feb I will have changed my mind, rather than just delaying the spending.
But booked car into garage for next week which will probably cost me a lot unfortunately.
Also signed up for three months free audible so I must remember to cancel it before it renews and charges me.

Bought nothing yet apart from the 2 pairs of prescription glasses for £15.

Really surprised at myself so far. I was even grumpy at having to pay my Next Flowers bill for flowers I had delivered for birthdays in December.

£60 (and 8p) on the first weekly food shop of the year. That's for 4 adults and one cat. DH then undid all my good work by ordering a chippy tea for himself and ds which cost £10 for one meal for two people! I don't know why I bloody bother!!!

Hmm spend day today. £6 dog food £90 to my MIL and £20 in boots. Bugger. Still according to my "chip" app I'm 50% down on last month

Failed! I help out on Friday lunch time, an organisation that feeds people. They’ve lost their venue and are now using the car park. I misjudged the weather and put the wrong bloody jacket on, and forgot my thermal vest too. That lead to coffee and cake at £4.60

I spent on essentials- food shop for next week, first supermarket shop for 2018. I did purchase more lattes for next week so hopefully stay out of the coffee shops, which saves me about £10-£12

Food shop was a mix of Aldi & sainsbury coming in at just under £60 for the week for three of us.

Did my food shop for the week today, went to Tesco and spent £58 including baby milk so doing okay, there's at least seven meals in the fridge/freezer without me having to try and be creative so hoping next week to just top up using the remainder of my xmas savings card.

Also resisted the usual Friday urge to order a takeaway so that saved at least £15.

MIL had a bingo win so has give half to DH and half to BIL and so DH has give half of his share to me to 'treat myself'. I might wait until the end of the month as it'd be cheating a bit I think. Plenty of time to browse for what I can buy in the meantime

Ah champagne how lovely of your mil.

Weekly shop for us in Aldi today - £60. 2 adults 3 small but very hungry dcs.

I’m checking Eventbrite for free events - plenty out there if you can sift through the stuff you don’t want to do 😅

Happy New Year! I’m in and have enjoyed reading your posts so far - there are some good efforts and some good ideas that I’ve stolen thank you! I am planning to spend only on things we need and to limit that spending as far as possible by e.g. using up stuff we have in the freezer and not buying stuff we will use but don’t need just because it’s on offer. I am also making a concerted effort to drink less - we spend a lot of money on wine, even though it’s usually Aldi.

I’ve ditched some direct debits and switched energy tariffs so anything that’s coming out on a DD is fixed, just concentrating on the things I spend day to day on cards.

I almost never have cash - shop everything online so it’s easy to not have visibility of what’s being spent. To counter this I’m writing down what I’m spending - which I’m finding focusses the mind!

So far Jan has looked like this:

1 NSD
2 Abel & Cole £30.44
3 Ocado £42.84
4 Birthday present £23
5 Fish & Chips £40

Bit of a slip up with the fish&chips but was feeding DSis and DM too so it was a cheap treat for 6 people. Also I have not purchased the sweater dress I want from Gap even though it’s in the sale and some other bits that I want I have put on my Amazon wish list instead of in my basket to wait for next month and have a think about. Food shops plus store cupboard should also mean only need milk, bread, eggs next week.

Tonight we are going out to a party. Have wine already in the house we can take, need to take some canapés so am going to decide what to take and then buy only what I need from the supermarket. Here’s to firm resolve over the weekend!