March no spend ...

[Peachsnowpop]

Who's in for March ?

I have to pay a £450 credit card bill and want to put £800 in to savings. This is going to make things extremely tight. But ! With budgeting and NSDs I hope I can achieve it. Good luck to everyone else for March

Well, I'm putting the pressure on myself now to keep it up. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut
We have friends coming over Saturday evening for tea. So we both had a rummage through drawers last night and found MS vouchers that DP got last year for her birthday - we'll use them for MS meal deals. There's loads of booze in the garage left over from BBQs last year, so that's taken care off.
It's an eye opener. Last year we'd have just gone out and spent whatever it cost and worried about the finances later.
DP went shopping last night at Aldi & Asda = £58
The car is fairly old now but went straight through its MoT 2wks ago, so that's a major relief.
I put some more stuff on eBay yesterday and sold something with an hour for £65.

It all adds up.

Loose eye on spends today as using cash and therefore bank account unchanged , won't have this luxury next month so need to continue the transition

However
Essential spends
Calpol
Sanitary towels

Non-essential
Diet Coke
Sweets
Book

Not outrageous but will do better

pixel hats off to you! When is your birthday? I feel your present should be a crisp new tenner to see you through to next Christmas, tee hee! I felt super chuffed for getting through January on just onset £10 which had been in my wallet on the 1st, but I am but a novice in comparison.

Anyhow, made it through today spending just the bus fare. YNAB subscription is due tomorrow though. What to do, what to do!

Messy

It's passed already, Twas the day I made the years resolution

I doubt my money will last til the end of the month. My DS had a friend round for tea, I gave each a £1 to spend at sweet shop.
Not to worry, I'll treat myself to crisp new tenner from the ATM.

pixel just wondering, with your child do you budget clothes/toys and then stockpile for say 6 months or have you been able to cope with what you have for this long? And if so...how?

Mine always seem to be growing out of clothes and wanting new things

WigWig
Sorry, maybe I've misinformed everyone. It's basically me and DP who are taking the hit.
DS is exempt as are bills. For us it was the non essential purchases that got out of hand. Impulse buys, coffee on the go, eating out too often.... Basically just frittering cash away. But it all adds up to a frightening amount. We are saving an absolute frigging fortune by just watching what we spend.

It's brilliant.

wigwig we don't usually spend anything on kids clothes or toys, bar Christmas and birthdays (and then we spend more on other people's kids, to be honest!). We have the huge fortune of having a excessively very generous family and lots of friends with clothes to hand down. It feels like we are drowning in clothes and toys most of the time as it is, argh!

That's great pixel

and thanks messy yes we were fairly young with the first child so we are the ones giving hand me downs at the moment but we should operate a stricter toy policy probably

The price of being trailblazers wigwig!

Nsd here today :)

Pixel I think it's great that your DS is not missing out on your NSD attitude - that's the way it should be.

Another NSD today (10 out of 13 days). Tomorrow will be a spendy day as I have to buy sandwiches and snacks for day trip - I don't normally eat sandwiches for lunch (home made soup or leftovers as I like a hot lunch) and I normally don't have snacks either so basically I have nothing I can rustle up.

Failed today £8 on magazines.

messysurfaces did you get YNAB sub then? I rate it highly.

Mind if I join in?

We had a big bill in January, so I’m strictly minimising unnecessary expenditure until Easter. So far this month, I’m doing ok. I’ve only bought groceries & diesel with several NSDs achieved. I’m taking my own lunches to work, not buying coffee and have switched to a cheaper phone contract, too.

Only 2 weeks to go.....

Welcome bonnie

Not to worry adora we all have bad days, I guess it's all about trying to limit the number of times it happens

NSD today

fools I did! I hunted out all the tiny surpluses across the budget and found the money... I feel a bit guilty tbh! We really are so broke! We are both very low earners, but I had an inheritance a few years ago so we have the mother of all safety nets- which is being nibbled away and that's not right!!! We moved a chunk into pensions last night for the first time in our lives which I think was the right thing. Argh...

Anyhow- sort of an ESOD today- just bus fares but an extra one since I forgot something and had to go back, which could have been avoided!!!

Thanks!

Essential spends only yesterday - washing machine cleaner and descaler and vacuum cleaner bags £45 from Amazon!

messy you've done the right thing! YNAB is there to help you to keep your finances under control so think of it as an investment - nothing to regret and worry about really. And super well done for transferring money into your pensions.

Make that inheritance work for you in terms of interest as well. A combination of easy access savings (6 months salary), fixed term savings and maybe even stocks and shares - head over to moneysavingexpert.com to get more info (both the articles and the forums).

Well done messy on moving funds for a retirement fund

fool you give really good advice!

You can use citric acid from dripak to de scale a washing machine. Washing soda on a hot cycle will dislodge any grease or grime.

Homebargains sell it or wilko in the home brew section.

After a horrendously spendy year I am really really going to try to rein it in. Will be left in April with a cc that I’m hoping to switch to a 0% and pay off ASAP

I'm not doing well at all this month. Haven't bought anything for me, all bits needed for the house/kids, but it seems like they've all come at once this month!
Going to buy some clothing that will be needed in the next few months (ie next size up for baby), Easter eggs etc, and then hopefully get back on the no spend train for April.

Thank you fool and wigwig! Yes, the inheritance has been in a series of different accounts to make the most of interest deals (why is it such a dance keeping up with the banks dropping it to nothing?!), it's been in reasonably accessible ones for a few years waiting to be spent on moving to a bigger place- now that's done it's time to start looking for long term homes for what's left.

totally you don't need to wait a month for a fresh start! Bet if you hold off buying ahead until you really really need things, you will find some stuff you never end up buying at all.

Anyhow, to everyone. Frugality can be such a bore!

ESOD for me- just the bus fare. Still haven't had one single true NSD yet this month. Fingers crossed for tomorrow, no buses planned so far!