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'm in! My year is starting badly.

Met a friend for coffee today. If I'm meeting DM or DH I go to McDonald's or Greggs but friend wanted fancy coffee shop.

I was smug that I'd got £100 off our 2 car ins and 2 Meerkat Movie memberships...but then previous insurer came back with an offer £50 cheaper but it was too late by then

I watched This Morning for the first time in years this week and Martin Lewis said some banks are offering £150 to swap so may do that next.

Sky Tv 'only' costs £15 per month but am considering cancelling, but then I think 'it's only £15' need to be stricter.

My DTs' school lunches come to about £36 per week combined. It was far cheaper at primary. I will swap to sandwiches for a couple of days which will save about £60 a month alone.

Middle think of the £15 and the £60 saved on school lunches. If you do cancel the Sky divert the money to a separate account, plus any money you save by switching to packed lunches a few days. It will quickly mount up.

For lunches my dd ( at college 2 days ) I buy the part baked long rolls from Aldi. I make up tuna mayo mix with corianderand egg mayo mix with black pepper & coriander then grated cheese as third choice. I have found this the cheapest way of making an interesting lunch each day. Just bake the roll for 10 minutes, ( I do this then shower) by the time they have eaten an entire roll they only need a piece of fruit and a club biscuit 🍪 which means the cost for the entire week is £5 pp

2 years ago I spent about 10 hours sorting out my banking. I had a couple of accounts I didn’t use so my first step was to change DD to the old accounts so I had two DD from them. Then when this was in place I used the swap service with M&S bank - I then set up a so to put £1000 into the account - then two days later move back to my current account. M&S then gave me £10 each month for 18 months

Then I opened another account with the nationwide and they gave me money as my dd had recommended me

Then I swapped my other old account with first direct and got money for that

I made about £450 for doing this

And remember if you telephone council tax and request you DD payments to be April to March you will have. DD coming out every month instead of just 10 - some banks want the DD monthly to qualify. Added to that it evens the payments and makes them lower but you don’t get two months of not paying obviously.

NSD yesterday - and people asked for my (well, the internet's) feta cheese dip recipe so am very pleased (it's just feta, olive oil, lemon juice).

Doing a food shop today. Wondering whether to go meat-free this week and save a few ££.

Just been looking at my online banking and really need to get organised. Could really do with starting a saving system for all the costs we know are coming. So money for Xmas, holiday, annual oil bill, car costs. Rather than just paying for them as they come up and then being broke. Just hard to get to the saving stage when you're in that loop. Think I need a no spend 6 months to get it right way round. Christmas, jobs on house and oil all spent in Nov and Dec so no savings. Need to spend on my car this month so no savings. Really need to right down every single spend I think!

*write down

The good: regift (I can sense the MN catsbum mouth ) of one of DS's presents for his friend's party (duplicate Christmas gift).
The bad: paying for shellac nails in preparation for a job interview. Hopefully speculating to accumulating and all that. There's money in the account to pay for it but I still wish I hadn't made the appointment (too late to cancel).
The ok: we took flasks of hot chocolate to a country park thinking it would be a free outing but didn't realise parking was £3.

This week I'm aiming for Monday to Thursday to be NSDs and am also going to keep a paper record as it will be interesting to look back at the end of the month and see where I could do better next month.

Pav- the shellac was an investment good luck with the interview.

Yesterday I spent £2.50 on wedding cake toppers or should I say wooden peg dolls to make into toppers but also designed invitations so hopefully a saving there if dp likes them.

I was brave and looked at my bank account this morning. I have just over £600 to last until the end of the month so should come out with at least £250 towards the wedding. More if I carry on as I have. Nice surprise.

NSD again today
Gonna be tight tomorrow though have to buy gas. electric and bread, that will run my bank a/c down until the next income into my bank account Tuesday, but at least the food shop is done, the utilities are sorted, school lunches for this week arranged and my bill got paid, back to work Tuesday, gonna push hard for some NSD /LSD when I return to work. I have lunch at home at lunchtime so that helps.

Saturday: Woke up to a broken kettle and as I had to nip to sainsbury's for an £8 refund on a tshirt for DD we had a browse through the kettles there. Picked out a £45 one on offer for £30 but I had £25 of nectar points, so got it for £5 .

Popped into Aldi for extra bits while DD1 was at her dance class but didn't buy anything that wasn't essential, whole weeks shop has come to £72, that's for DH, me and 2 DCs and includes baby stuff and some wine so not too bad.

Sunday: Today will be a true NSD, not going out and cupboards are full so nothing needed.

Polly essentials don’t count - so electric, gas and bread are fine 😀

On track for a proper NSD here. Unless I book flights for the summer this evening...

I agree. All essentials! If you’ve done your food shop, it’ll just be getting through without any extras Polly.

Excellent use of nectar points champagne!

I should manage a NSD here. We’ve been to church but otherwise just relaxing at home.

Friday, Saturday and today are NSDs for me. It helps that I have only £1.12 in my bank account

Count me in! Apart from fresh fruit and veg etc, petrol and packed lunch stuff I intend to spend NOTHING this month. Plenty in the freezer to keep us going even if it means some strange food combinations. Good luck everyone.

A NSD day for me. Used up some pastry that I bought over Christmas and made mince pies and jam tarts with various jars of bits that needed finishing in the fridge.

NSD for me but dh has pissed me off by buying himself some beer. What's the point in me watching every penny when he just spends it?
I have made soup, soda bread and lemon cake, and will make fish pie for dinner.

Supermarket shop today £44. Only managed 1 NSD this week so I am aiming for 3 this week by hopefully having bought enough food items to avoid going into a supermarket for a few days. I seem to pop in most days and inevitably end up buying the odd extra.

Essential food doesn’t count as spends nor fuels 😀

You're all doing so well! Today has seen yet more spends - household goods and DS party bits that we needed.

Oh dear palavaplease - never mind tomorrow is another day!

Yes I need to start this and get back into routine of cooking from scratch after an xmas season of excess including lots of junk food.
I've only spend £15 today on food for lunch and dinner plus fruit and breakfast items.

New meal tonight www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/leek-and-ham-hock-gratin-with-rosti-topping/

Enough left over for my lunch tomorrow so no need to prep lunch - just pop in some fruit 🍈

We went for a 5 mile walk and rewarded ourselves with hot chocolate at the end. £5! Oops! Next time I might take flasks in our backpacks to keep warm at the same time!

littlechocola your username is our clue that chocolate is your downfall, tee hee!