No spend January

[ivykaty44]

anyone up for a no spend January?

just the normal utilities, food shopping and transport costs

then put the purse/wallet away and don't spend till February

a good way to rebalance the balance after xmas

@BigSkies22 please can I gone to your house for dinner? Duck and potatoes dauphinoise is my favourite!

Got back from visiting family over new year on sunday. NSD yesterday as we cleared up leaves in the garden in the morning, DDs played on a tyre swing someone had kindly put up in the fields we back on to. Sandwiches made with leftover roast beef for lunch, and Christmas cheeses for supper.

Today only spent £8.60 on a swimming trip for me and DDs, jacket pots, beans and cheese for lunch, and turkey paella with a bit of chorizo and a few prawns for tea. Yum.

Got loads of milk left from over Christmas so will make a flask of hot choc for a trip to the park with DD2 and 2 friends.

Father in law kindly left us £60 contibution to the few days we hosted them over Christmas, so plan is to spend only that for the whole of Jan. Both freezers are currently rammed full so maybe a few odd fusion dinners along the way, but with fresh veg, eggs, milk and bread I reckon we can do it.

@Invasionofthegutsnatchers - you'd be welcome!

In other news, our theatre outing on Saturday has been cancelled because a cast member is ill. Whatever happened to understudies and their big break? But perhaps the production is stretched too tight to accommodate understudies? Anyway, we have opted for a credit rather than a refund in the hope that there will be more performances (all the others are sold out). DH now quite grumpy, was very much looking forward to it. As was I. Ah well.

@BigSkies22 they won’t repay me and I won’t ask. it was a nice idea but c’est la vie!

I’m doing yoga with Adrienne! It’s my 4th cycle!

Bit of a fail today. Spent £7.54 in Morrisons on dinner for dh and I as hadn’t sorted anything and too late to faff trying to make stuff out of cupboard staples. Need to plan better! (Also spent £1.95 on reduced flowers for the dining room but they’re pretty). However that’s the only unneeded spend so far.

@Thelongdarkteatime spending in the supermarket to buy food isn't a fail - we gotta eat! food and transport aren't included

Whatever happened to understudies and their big break

they cover about 10 roles, so if two or three of the cast are sick - they're scuppered

Hmm. DH had to go get three new tyres on my car today. 2 were below legal requirement and one had a nail in.

However, does this count as a 'necessary' spend? We couldn't wait til February to sort it out.

@ivykaty44 - you're the ref on this!

I spent £2.40 today on parking to take my DC for a dental check up. Too cold to walk there and back - we even had a little flurry of snow!

Only spending today was on travel to work, took a packed lunch and talked myself out of buying a chocolate bar to get through the afternoon post lunch slump 🥱
Have a day off with DD tomorrow, I think we’ll take a walk to the library

I have so far made £60 on eBay today!!

I’ve been so poorly today so Im grateful of some positivity.

Tomorrow I’ll probably have to see a doctor! So it’ll be a LSD with car parking near the doctors.

Tomorrow evening, depending on how healthy I feel - I’ll be back in town (free carpark this time!) and perhaps enjoying a small warm drink while DD has band practice.

So I’ll budget £5 spends for tomorrow!

I've spent £21.50 in Sainsburys on 2 pairs of kids gloves, school socks and a gift.

£2.10 in Waitrose on bottled water I shouldn't really be buying but I'm trying to increase my fluid intake and Volvic water goes down so smoothly.

£27.50 on this term's drama fees for DC1.

@Creditcardshame - that would be the perfect user name for me - we’ve had quite a lot of snow today. About 2 to 3 inches I’d say so I let dh do both dog walks!

@Woodlandarchitect I hope you are feeling better soon. Well done on your eBay sales.

@MandUs before the pandemic ds3 had a club, lesson or orchestra every weeknight. They either haven’t started back up yet or he’s chosen not to go back which is sad in some ways but I’m saving a fortune in fees.

I am taking the DC to the park soon and then home for lunch (made soup from the dregs of the veg drawer). Then I am popping into town with the DC - DS wants to spend some of his Christmas money on some Pokemon cards and they are paying the rest of their money into their bank accounts (trying to teach them not to spend it all!!).

My mum lives on the way so I asked if we could stop by there on the way home (to avoid a cafe!) but she has decided to come meet us there instead. Ugh. This will mean a cafe. Also she will just plonk herself down and let me go up and order (and pay) which is fine because she doesn't have much money herself but really I would prefer to just go to her house for a tea and biscuit.
Anyway - I do have a £10 Costa gift card that I got in my secret Santa present from work so I can use that but I was planning on using that for 2 x treats for me. Oh well.

@ancientgran - thank you, it was noro I had rather than covid - not had covid yet so not sure which is worse!

@TabithaTittlemouse - thank you. I am just about better though still feel queasy!

Working today and I’d normally buy a southern fried chicken, sweet chilli and cheese baguette at £3.70, but I forced myself to make a boring cheese sarnie before I left home - not looking forward to it! Think I need to up my game lunch wise!!

Took a pair of jeans back so refund of £19.50.

Not spent anything today but we needed milk so DH was charged with getting. I have no doubt he’s bought himself crisps too!!!

Arghhh, ironically have just impulse spent, buying a beauty product recommended by Mumsnet Money Saver! I have spent so much in the past buying stuff recommended on MN on the S&B threads, and on Swears By 😬
This particular product was ‘only’ £6, but still!
Also spent £20 on a smart jacket for DD yesterday, as she’s got an interview coming up. Bugger 😬
Going to try and sell more stuff on Vinted today. Is anyone having any success with selling stuff atm?

Weirdest thing just happened! Scottish Power have REDUCED my gas direct debit to £37 a month!!

They nneeeeeever do this! They usually increase it - especially over the Winter!

@gracedentsleftbumcheek I haven't had covid but I have had noro. You poor thing, I remember ending up lying on the bathroom floor convinced I was dying. Hope you aren't that bad!

I got a text from GP surgery yesterday saying I need a blood test Spent 3 hrs trying to get through this morning, eventually did and had a 2 minute recorded message then got the menu and selected to book a blood test and was 16th in the queue. In all I was on the call for 29 minutes so that was 3.5 hrs I'll never get back and have a blood test next week.

It is going to be a no spend day today, it is freezing and I have to take GS to football later so I'm staying in the warm while I can.

I said at the weekend I felt like buying a lottery ticket but resisted and would wait to see if the premium bonds brought me anything. Well not life changing but I've won £50 so that was a nice surprise.

I'm not feeling well, can't quite explain it but it is making me a bit grumpy so I'm staying out of DHs way as I will end up snapping at him if I don't.

@Woodlandarchitect - had you perhaps built up credit? Very nice bonus however it came about - like a bill from the 90's!

I've had a parcel arrive and I have no idea why. It is addressed to me, it is a power supply of some kind, maybe a laptop charger. It was in a brown jiffy bag with no details of sender. I've looked at tracking but can't see where it is from just says it arrived at sorting office. Very weird and I've been looking at amazon and ebay to see if I ordered something I'd forgotten about in case someone has sent me the wrong item but there is nothing. Very peculiar.

@ancientgran - oh no poor you! It does sometimes feel like you’re dying from these things!!! I felt pretty awful yesterday and most of it was spent in bed but much better today thank you!

Forgot, got a bloody electricity bill for 231.08 despite us paying 70 a month by DD. Was sneakily dated 3 Dec (yet only received yesterday?!) but hadn’t included our Dec DD which comes out on 3rd. Have paid the full amount using credit card as we get points towards vouchers, and then transferred the amount from our “bills” account into an instant access savings account which gives (a paltry amount of) interest so that we can pay it off the card when it appears on the bill, but annoying!!!

Perhaps! But it can’t be much in credit as we WFH and need heating on often. Plus we’ve been having more baths than usual.

Either way I’m absolutely chuffed to bits. That’s for a small family! £37 a month, mid winter is pretty good.

Too good haha!

Oh dear electrcity bills are getting scary. We use alot as DH is disabled and feels the cold quite badly and he has electric things running all the time. I think he's going to have to stop that.

Yes electricity is nuts! We are on a prepayment meter (no idea why the previous owner did this!!) and it means we’re on a standard tariff.

We stick £40 a month on the meter and only just scrape by, however this month I reckon it’ll be over budget. We work from home and the kettle is permanently on

We were looking to swap to Direct Debit for electricity but the deals are rubbish at the moment and I like knowing where we’re at