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

NSD! And made £5 on FB Marketplace

NSD today for me.
Did a meal plan for all the days until payday using as much as we could from the cupboards and veg box contents- DH spend £13 on a top up from Lidl which should see us through until next Friday.

Think I have all the ingredients to make a carrot cake tomorrow which should keep me away from the local cafe!

DS has gone back to university, so should be able to be meaner with food!
Since I last posted, I have been back to Sainsbury's twice, spent £23 on one visit (mostly lunch and dinner ingredients for DS' last day at home, including a chicken which will stretch to more than one meal), £11.50 on another (coffee and Woolite - did check out Poundland, but they didn't have a wool/delicates product). I also spent £8 on bread, some of which has gone into the freezer, and £2 in Poundland on Milton. Also £10 on Cerave moisturiser, half of which went to top up DS' bottle to take back.

I want to plan meals a bit more - feel like I've been topping up a lot, but I've taken lamb chops out of the freezer for tonight, used up the chicken in a stew and still have the carcase for stock. I did manage to stretch the massive cottage pie over two nights - but DS then went and bought chicken wings!

Reminder to read meters came today from E.ON.

Oh - I did crumble and order two prints from the Tate Britain shop - £58. I will need to get them framed, but the frame shop I use is so busy that paying for the finished product will probably hit March's budget.

I received £130 from Santander for switching accounts, £3 from TopCashback.

Och, must get up from this chair and do some yoga before dinner! Have a good evening and weekend, y'all!

I spent £14 today buying some stuff as I have grandchildren coming for the weekend. I've got some items ending on ebay tomorrow and have £45 in bids so far, wasn't sure I'd sell anything so I'm pleased with that.

I love topcashback and try to use it whenever I can. I have had nearly £700 in cashback over the last 2 or 3 years so it is useful.

If I'm going on a shopping trip I try to buy giftcards from them, e.g. you get 4.75% back on a M&S gift card or 7% on Costa. Not massive amounts but I look at it as free money. If I spend £100 on uniform stuff for GS well I have £4.75 in my topcashback account and it adds up.

@ancientgran I need to look into top cash back - I get all my DC's uniform in M&S, this could be a good way to budget if I get £10-£15 in vouchers each month I will be able to spread the cost.
Plus I do love Costa and have one near my DC's school, I could get a monthly voucher to limit my spends and get cashback!

Taking DD to have her hair cut this afternoon, she hates it and so I have promised to buy her a treat afterwards. Will probably spend about £15 all in.

Food shopping came today £89 but includes a meal deal for me and DH to have tonight. We have been so good with our food shopping so far this month and we have £200 of our food budget left which I am hoping we can put by in savings (get paid this week).

[quote Creditcardshame]@ancientgran I need to look into top cash back - I get all my DC's uniform in M&S, this could be a good way to budget if I get £10-£15 in vouchers each month I will be able to spread the cost.
Plus I do love Costa and have one near my DC's school, I could get a monthly voucher to limit my spends and get cashback!

Taking DD to have her hair cut this afternoon, she hates it and so I have promised to buy her a treat afterwards. Will probably spend about £15 all in.

Food shopping came today £89 but includes a meal deal for me and DH to have tonight. We have been so good with our food shopping so far this month and we have £200 of our food budget left which I am hoping we can put by in savings (get paid this week).[/quote]
It is worth it and it does mount up. If you shop in Asda or Morrisons you can get giftcards for them but I don't think you get much back but again if it is ever week it will add up. I tend to let mine mount up and get it out for Christmas. The other trick is to take your cashback as a gift card and you get a little bit more for it.

If you ever shop in Primark of New Look or Currys or Argos, so many places.

If you have a look they often do a bonus for signing up, do be careful if you are offered a link as they will get the bonus not you.

@Creditcardshame Topcashback currently offers me £25 for the referrer and £10 sign-up bonus for the person who got referred (both applies once the person who got referred has earned £10).

If you are interested here is my referral link Topcashback link

Obviously, if you see a better offer use that!

I posted on here in the beginning but then contracted covid which had helped no end towards my no spend January!! Cannot believe we're on the 22nd, this month has been a blur!

I recently came across a really nice hack. If you have an emptied glass of chocolate spread, pour some hot coffee into it and shake it a bit. The rest of the chocolate spread dissolves into the coffee. It's delicious

I can't believe I chucked out a Nutella jar without doing this yesterday! Sounds amazing.

Spent £16 on lunch for 3 of us, £20 on swimming and £4 on parking today 😮 but that included taking DD to drama club, I paid for the Spring term in December. We were out for 6 hours, all fed and now the kids are exercised and happy to sit around doing nothing. We've hardly done anything fun recently with having covid so £40 for the day isn't too bad. Tomorrow I'm going to a gym class which is included in my membership and then we'll all ho out on our bikes which is free.

@Invasionofthegutsnatchers

Spent £16 on lunch for 3 of us, £20 on swimming and £4 on parking today 😮 but that included taking DD to drama club, I paid for the Spring term in December. We were out for 6 hours, all fed and now the kids are exercised and happy to sit around doing nothing. We've hardly done anything fun recently with having covid so £40 for the day isn't too bad. Tomorrow I'm going to a gym class which is included in my membership and then we'll all ho out on our bikes which is free.

That sounds lovely. I think you all deserved a treat after covid.

Spent £15 today as planned but I am itching to spend more on interior paint, exterior paint, white gravel, storage boxes (who else organises bills and paperwork??)

And I walked past some shops in town and wanted to buy all the new Spring clothes!

I sense a spending rampage coming on and I think I need to hide my debit card 😂

🙋🏻‍♀️
I organise bills and paperwork @Woodlandarchitect

I've had three no spend days in a row but it's shopping tomorrow and then we are at a birthday event so that will be spendy (and bad for my SW plan....)

I love the hack about the Nutella jar 😁

We're organisers of bills and paper-botherers here as well @Woodlandarchitect. DH was sent home to work 7 March 2020 and bought shelves with sort of box inserts for hanging files. Much happy paper sorting there! I have a load of papers to sort and throw away, aiming for one lever arch file.

But actually, I'm sure most of this could be photographed and filed on the Cloud.

@BigSkies22 photos of all our paperwork organised into virtual folders is the actual dream - one day I will get it done!

NSD yesterday mainly because I was at work!

Virtual organising sounds amazing!! I have so much paperwork and another box full of hospital letters. Another box full of mortgage stuff (we moved house last year!)

My living room has been annoying me for over a year so I messaged my friend who is also an architect and he said “just move your dresser 3 inches to the left and it’ll look great!”….looks absolutely amazing! I guess I’ve been suffering from a mental creative block on how to arrange my own house!

But anyway, my living room is literally transformed! I was looking at custom furniture and all sorts 🤦🏻‍♀️

Consider that a massive frugal win!

That is a win indeed @Woodlandarchitect. I wish I could resolve the large inglenook fireplace issue so readily in our sitting room. In theory, a beautiful original feature, flanked by stained glass windows and curved settles. In practice, a poorly lit space (windows face east, onto nieghbour's wall, so don't let in much light, no electrical sockets or wall lights) with no comfortable seating and a fireplace that allows so much cold air into the room that the only way to keep the room warm is to block the chimney with a big chimney sheep and additional rockwool insulation. I am doing what I can to make it more beautiful by adding artwork and the like, and Pooky rechargeable lamps are on my 'to buy' list for February. I think I need sweet little sheepskin covered stools/ottomans to put either side of the fireplace and make it look cosy. And a great big luxurious rug. And a new sofa, and reupholstering another one. And more lighting, and artwork. And flowers.

Ah well. Right, ironing and cleaning. If I can't go shopping, I can make what I have look nice!

£37 in Aldi yesterday. Had a meal planned, then DH had a yen for crispy duck. so I graciously let him pay for takeaway. Then he revealed some wickedly expensive and delicious Hackney Gelato that he'd bought earlier from our local deli. All this and new series of Ozark on Netflix! Great Saturday night!

I love organising our paperwork - everything is organised on the cloud
I take a photo of letters as they arrive and if important (council tax bill) I file in a concertina file, if not important I shred.
We moved last year too and our solicitor gave us a copy of all the papers on a little memory stick - I have also added to that copies of things such as our boiler service and receipt/ manual for our new fridge freezer.

I have an admin night once a month where I sort papers, shift about any money if needed and plan the next month. I love it

@BigSkies22

That is a win indeed *@Woodlandarchitect*. I wish I could resolve the large inglenook fireplace issue so readily in our sitting room. In theory, a beautiful original feature, flanked by stained glass windows and curved settles. In practice, a poorly lit space (windows face east, onto nieghbour's wall, so don't let in much light, no electrical sockets or wall lights) with no comfortable seating and a fireplace that allows so much cold air into the room that the only way to keep the room warm is to block the chimney with a big chimney sheep and additional rockwool insulation. I am doing what I can to make it more beautiful by adding artwork and the like, and Pooky rechargeable lamps are on my 'to buy' list for February. I think I need sweet little sheepskin covered stools/ottomans to put either side of the fireplace and make it look cosy. And a great big luxurious rug. And a new sofa, and reupholstering another one. And more lighting, and artwork. And flowers.

Ah well. Right, ironing and cleaning. If I can't go shopping, I can make what I have look nice!

£37 in Aldi yesterday. Had a meal planned, then DH had a yen for crispy duck. so I graciously let him pay for takeaway. Then he revealed some wickedly expensive and delicious Hackney Gelato that he'd bought earlier from our local deli. All this and new series of Ozark on Netflix! Great Saturday night!

The Aldi own crispy duck pancakes set are really tasty, £5.50 a box for any future hankerings!

I have made it this far with no unnecessary spending.
Feeling very smug.
Dry January on the other hand has become more of a monsoon.
Absolutely loving the organisation of paperwork ideas, and going to start today making online folders and storing scans, photos of documents...

NSD yesterday which was a minor miracle with the house full of GC.

Today I sent off my ebay parcels, £41.50 profit after post and fees so I've spent that filling up the car. While at Sainsburys I went in and bought some cooking apples and a tub of cream, bought with a £2.50 nectar voucher plus a few pennies from my pocket. DH has a very sweet tooth so the cream is going into a trifle, I've got the other ingredents already, and the apples are for an apple pie and again I have the makings of pastry so two cheap sweet treats that will hopefully keep him going this week without buying a gateau and his favourite cakes.

Nothing else to spend today and tomorrow I have my hair appointment but my Prolific money is paying for that. Very pleased with how it is all going this month, I'd be rich if every month was like this.