No spend or low spend February

[ivykaty44]

Here is a thread to keep check of spends in February

the idea is to have No Spends Days, weeks or clusters of days

im also going to be keeping my supermarket shopping low, eating what I have in the cupboards, to keep febs spends low.

Would anyone like to pledge an amount? and see if they can keep under that amount of money for the 28 days?

I pledge £200 for fuel, shopping and spending

I am also getting my soup maker out. I make 3 soups leak and potato, tomato and lentil and vegetable. I have it with crusty bread. At least DH and DFS like my soups. A cheap lunch.

I'm making soup today. Parsnip and ginger! I haven't done it before but saw the recipe recipe have all the ingredients in already. Dc1 will turn her nose up, but I have an emergency tin of Heinz tomato for her.

Just spent £16 on petrol.

I have got a chicken carcass out of the freezer alongside 3 chicken thighs. I will use them to make a chicken stew with lots of veg, lentils and a tin of canellini beans. But I will also be going to Sainsburys for fruit, veg and coffee. I should push my points into the redeemable zone today, so might get £2.50 back on what I spend.

Meeting a friend to walk the dogs, so might get coffee/hot chocolate. Dog refusing his food at the moment, so saving money there! (he's fine, just fussy, and holding out for roast chicken. As if.)

@FrugalFrancine

I'm making soup today. Parsnip and ginger! I haven't done it before but saw the recipe recipe have all the ingredients in already. Dc1 will turn her nose up, but I have an emergency tin of Heinz tomato for her.

Just spent £16 on petrol.

This sounds absolutely delicious! I've got a hand blender on my 'want to buy' list in the hope I will then make lots of lovely, frugal soup and it'll save me money in the long run...

I have a soup maker and LOVE it. Made a delicious soup yesterday out of a manky bit of old broccoli, an onion and some leftover mash I'd frozen. Delicious with fresh bread made in my £10 bread maker off eBay win!!!

Not doing too badly in a frugal way today and yesterday. Had to spend £9 on a book of poems as dd is in a speech and drama final and we needed a selection of good poems to pick from. Couldn't use the library as have to have picked it by tomorrow. Couldn't find anything suitable online either.

Ok, spent an unexpected £48 in Sainsbury's. Coffee was on special offer, a pound below usual price, so I bought 3. The good peanut butter was also on special, £2.50. Bought goose fat at £3 to make duck confit. The hummous we like, plus artichokes and olives, plus nice cheeses and ham (DH at home for lunches, if there's not decent stuff in the house he ends up going to the local Vietnamese or Caribbean for something) plus fruit and veg. Oh, and Pukka teas.

So, 8 days into February, I've spent around £160 on food. A fair bit of which is stashed into freezer and cupboards, but even so. I can't be doing this right, and yet we have our fair share of spaghetti dinners, soups and stews using leftover, Aldi fish finger sandwiches and the like!

Will just have to keep monitoring and see where I end up.

£1.40 on carparking today as well.

I walked to the local shop to post a birthday card, planned to by a chocolate bar but forgot phone, card is in the phone cover. So I’m claiming that as a win 😊

No spend day today apart from the commute. We are eating the last of the batch cooked stuff in the freezer tonight, there’s one portion of veg chilli which is 4 days older than DD who is now a toddler!
Going to sainsburys tomorrow to look for some reduced bargains in the veg and meat isles.
I love a frugal soup! Current favourite is spinach and chickpea 😋

I fixed the light! A wire had worked loose. Feeling very proud of myself.

NSD.

Well done @Creditcardshame. I’m always wary of things like that so I’m impressed enough you attempted it let alone managed to fix it!

@BigSkies22 I can so relate to your sainsburys trip. I haven’t bought nice lunch stuff for a while but I am so bored of the lunch options at home! For us it’s more the snack stuff for the kids that’s costing at the moment. When my older two were little I used to get away with buying one pack of biscuits and some fruit as snacks for the week and never bought individually wrapped things but those days are long gone.

Food shop delivery yesterday £91.28, today £1.50 on toddler group.

Should only need to do a small top up shop next week though 🤞

Evening all. £9 on milk, bread and a couple of ingredients for tea. Still well within budget so pleased with that.

Also opted not to have highlights which made my haircut a hell of a lot cheaper!

Spent £24 today in sainsbury, that’s for enough meals until Monday I reckon, may have to get some mushrooms though

I have another £26 left until the 14th
As I’ve split my £200 into £50 each 7 days

Another fab frugal day here....made some nice vegetable and chicken soups with the roast left overs.....neighbour made bread so was free...staying away from all shops until end of month..only vegetable shop.....then looking forward to Miserly March....fab....!!...I love saving and being frugal...really dont have to but do not like any waste !!

Yesterday was not quite a NSD after all! Treated myself to a box of malteasers on the way home from work- ate them while cutting DHs hair, we have probably saved quite a bit on hair cuts over the years so I don’t feel too bad about £1.30 on chocolate.
He has offered to cut my hair but I don’t think I’m brave enough

Spent £29 in sainsburys today, most of it was on yellow label reduced bits for the freezer. Bargain of the day was 8 Cumberland sausages for 99p

OK, well, plainly this is not meant to be for me this week. Dog's boosters yesterday, and worming treatment - fine, all paid for already via vet plan. But then vet prescribed eye ointment for a persistent dry/conjunctival eye condition (we've tried just simple moisturising drops) - £95 for a tiny tube! plus £20 for the diagnostic test. It's likely to be a chronic condition, requiring regular meds, so we will claim it on the insurance, but the excess is £160.

More frugally, I used up some veg in a roast veg with tahini dressing and rice dinner last night. Then wallowed on the sofa in front of a double episode of This is Going to Hurt - love Ben Whishaw, love the lovely BBC for streaming all episodes.

Have almost finished the prep in the bedroom I'm redecorating. Will be ordering paint in the next day or two, so expenditure on the horizon, but budgeted for. DH getting enthusiastic (now the grotty grunt work is done!) and has suggested new curtains and furniture - without my even saying so! Result!!

Sainsburys delivery arrived so that is £74.13. High for me but due to visitors this weekend.

I'm getting a bit fed up with getting short dates on things, two toasting loaves both with a best before Saturday. I've managed to squeeze one into the freezer. Meat for meals, chicken, pork chops, mince, sausages all with a use by date of Saturday or Monday.

I might have to start shopping in person. So frustrating.

Spent £6.85 on recorded delivery post to send DD's old passport off and £5 on a tin of biscuits to thank my friend for verifying her photo.
We have some friends coming over for dinner so DH went to M&S to buy a few bits - £52!!! FIFTY TWO POUNDS for ingredients for one meal for 4, a bottle of wine and a bunch of tulips. Feeling a bit grumpy about it tbh. I feel like I am counting the pennies and he goes and does that. Still, cheaper than going out for dinner I suppose and at least he is cooking.

Such a busy week! But I haven’t spent any money since I last posted days ago.

Thankfully our boiler repairs of £350 will come out of next months budget.

Sainsbury’s substituted chives for 1 x green bell pepper 🤣

@Creditcardshame I feel similar actually, I came home from on Wednesday and the house was so hot my DS was sweating! I was fuming. DH hadn’t noticed that the thermostat was set to 22c ALL day! Carelessly felt warm and stripped down to a t shirt instead of thinking “oh it’s hot! Wonder if the heating has been left on by accident!”

Grrr!

I've had a mixed week. Checking banking yesterday I discovered a £100 cheque I'd written in December had just been cashed. Careless of me but I'd just assumed that had gone out round Christmas. Then I saw the ideal present for DHs birthday next month so I got it. £180 down on the month! Then I got an email to say I was getting a £260 refund for something I booked before covid, I'd pretty well written it off so suddenly I'm £80 up on the month and don't have to worry about DHs birthday next month.

I suddenly felt a bit pathetic for being so excited but I still felt excited.

ive so far had a nod but think that may end shortly as supposed to be meeting dd2 for coffee

had two extra jobs Wednesday and Thursday and so that money will be set aside for treats later this month and for some gardening I can't reach - need all the greenery cut back higher up

tomorrow is planned for a no spend day and got some more work, so will not be able to spend for some of the day.

NSD today and hoping to keep it that way plus £34 refund received from DC's swimming lessons - after trawling through our accounts in January with DH we realised we never received a refund we were due from swimming which was cancelled last January! Tbh usually we wouldn't have bothered chasing it up but I am glad we did.

Half term next week - we are juggling childcare between us and my MIL in order to avoid holiday club costs. On my days I have arranged play dates with friends in an attempt to keep the costs down.

I got my promotion at work and I start at the end of next month! This means my DC will have to spend all of the Easter holidays in club (my MIL can have them for a couple of days but we can't ask too much of her) which means we will need £350 for that - fortunately our savings pots and spreadsheet means we can plan for it.
Plus my pay rise will kick in from April's pay packet.

Congratulations on the promotion @Creditcardshame!
I really need to think about getting our spending on a spreadsheet, I feel like I’m always surprised by the nursery bill! Might also need to plan for a few days of Easter childcare as we left booking annual leave a bit late 😫

Spent £18 today, T-shirt from Sainsbury’s, card for DH, hair ties and top up shop.