NO SPEND 23

[LaurieFairyCake]

I'm going HARD CORE. There's already a no spend January - I want to go ALL THE FUCKING WAY as far as possible

And I want to take YOU down with me

I confess it's easier for me as I am literally drowning in stuff even now. I've lost 6 stone in weight and I've got rid of 15 black full bags of clothes in last six months so I'm on a roll.

I also work all the fucking time so I have about 50 books to read and all the tv I want to watch. And I can't be arsed doing anything to my house so that's out.

I also want to do this for the environment - I already buy second hand as much as possible as I'm obsessed with EBay - but I could still do with buying much less

I've no idea what the rules could be, let's decide that if I get anyone on board.

My own thoughts are to get as FAR as possible.

I have bought a jumper in the sales already I don't need 🤦‍♀️ which is what kicked this off in my mind today - yadda yadda half price blah blah but I have 20 jumpers! And I had drunk half a bottle of port last night when I purchased it online...

So given my flawed premise anyone want to join me???

I’d like to do no spend Jan. For the year, I’m going to let my NDD subscriptions run out and try to only buy on Vinted, or at least check there first before I buy.

1. Goal - January's goal is to pay off £500 from c/c.

1. Daily accountability - nothing spent today on or off line. I should be clear here that I am not including family food shopping as this comes from a different pot of money and not from the particular pot of money where I am trying to raise/save money to pay a lump sum debt payment at the end of the month.

My top tip is to unsubscribe from ALL marketing emails. I get virtually none now and it helps to cut down on impulse purchases so much.

I also texted a friend who I am meeting this weekend to ask if we could change our plans to meet for a £25 or so lunch and go for a beach walk & takeaway coffee instead. She understood and was happy with the new plan. I'd love to go for the lunch but needs must and I'm pleased I've dealt with this issue.

@Supernormative great idea! @bridgewateremma brilliant to suggest a no spend alternative- I'd be so happy if a friend suggested that and I'm going to try it too. Also like your idea of unsubscribing, my inbox is awash with marketing emails and very little else.

Goal: to reduce credit card spend to within budget

Daily accountability : I've cancelled my Amazon Music subscription - have recently benefited from a family Spotify plan and should have done it already. I've left Kindle Unlimited for now as it's cheap entertainment but I'm going to review after a month. I really just make a call to an online retailer that owes me money tomorrow and sort out the refund - have been putting it off as it'll be a hassle. And I also need to pay off a PayPal balance - I have the cash and shouldn't pay interest on it. I'll add to my goals - no more PayPal credit purchases this year...

Hey! I'd like to join in if that's ok 😃

I'm currently on mat leave with our first baby (4 months old) and although my pay is okay ish, my husband is about to make a really brave career change and I want to try and cut unnecessary spending to save a bit more money for a 'just in case' fund.

We currently have £1.4k saved for a family holiday with extended family at the end of this year, but want to start topping that up.

Our weaknesses are takeaways and not being arsed to cook and/or buying snacks and unnecessary food 🤦🏻‍♀️

One way I've already tried to cut this down, is by planning dinners for the whole month, and essentially doing a monthly shop. I was finding we were getting to the bare cupboards stage, and then living off takeaways for a week until one of us could be bothered to go and do the shopping! It seemed to work quite well with a budget of £200 for the month last month and have done the same now for Jan.

I shove it all on a piece of paper, days of the week and their assigned meal type (e.g. Mon Pasta, Tues Mince, Wed chicken, Thurs Fish, Friday jacket potato, Sat 'fakeaway', Sun Roast) and then do the shopping list on the back of it so that for the next month I can easily have a list to hand. I portion and freeze the meat and then buy fresh top ups as and when needed. Much less waste I've found as well and less likely to stare into the fridge, give up and order a pizza 😂

I think my rules will be:

-No takeaways
-No buying snacks that aren't included in the food shop already
-No new clothes (for me)
-No new toiletries (for me)
-No new stuff for the house (I'm always pottering about finding stuff to buy for the house 🤦🏻‍♀️)
-Make better use of the free mum/baby groups that are about.

I've cancelled my online gym membership as I just don't use it-plenty of free workouts on YouTube! And it'll help me get out the house with baby in the pram.

Definitely need some accountability!

I'm in!
I'm knackered so will revisit later with my contribution to the cause

Also joining! Separating from STBXH and need to save for my own house.

unfortunately in January I need new proper winter boots (not in UK; don’t want to risk second hand as they often have a minor flaw like leaking) and have to pay a few hundred towards a minor surgery. But apart from that it needs to be no spend!

Also need new jeans as my pair are starting to get those weird bumpy stretch marks that mean they are about to lose their elastane and start ripping and crumbling. Argh. No spend is so hard!

I’m aiming for no spend January and February. We have some savings but I want to not spend those on living in the next 2mths.

i have a big birthday coming up and want to save for something special. And save to take the DC on holiday in summer. Also have a massive clean out of the house.

• no random, impulse purchases
• sort through Dc1 clothes to pass down to DC2 and look at the gaps for what they need
• reduce takeout to fortnightly
• meal plan better to make sure we have food for 7 days and not 5
• no drink January and cut down following that, that’ll save money long term
• stop random trips to the supermarket for nothing in particular will save a fortune

dont have hobbies or gym to cut. We’ve recently got a better internet deal and bundle which saved some on streaming services.
kids will keep their activities but start no new ones

Aiming for No (unnecessary) Spend Jan & Feb although DD off to Germany for a week in Feb so may need some purchases but will try to get these on my vinted balance. Had 3(!) advent calendars in dec so covered for cosmetics & skincare for atleast the first half of 2023.

Bad start to the No Spend when I discovered that student DS2 had an unauthorised overdraft for some reason (don't ask why it was not on his student ac which has an authorised overdraft of £1500) so I stepped in to pay it off and avoid more charges for him. He said "It's only £10" then later this became "about £30" it was actually £43.10 lol. We may be getting to the root of the issue here.

Anyway. Other than that looking OK - have cleared out a load of "sale starts this week" tempting emails from my inbox without buying! and also snapped a load of receipts and gonna put a load of stuff on ebay now.

Maybe when you do want to but something give yourself 24 hours before you are actually “allow” yourself to buy it? Might force us to reconsider.

Great idea @Spaghetti201 - like when you type an angry work email and then leave it for an hour to cool haha (and end up not sending it most of the time)

I want to reduce unnecessary spending, although we are fortunate enough that we are not having to be too frugal.

My rules are:

One garment per month maximum. This will make me think about what I already have rather than random purchases. Some will be essential such as a good quality waterproof. And a pack of knickers from Sainsburys counts as one item.

One book per month but only if swapped for one going to the charity shop. Apart from anything else I am keen to support my fantastic local indie bookshop.

A few things for the garden, but planned for rather than impulse buys. Gardening is one of my main joys in life.

But that's it!

I have got through day 1 of not buying anything

All yesterday I had a handbag in a Mulberry basket but RESISTED and thankfully it's sold out today !

I'm not buying anything today and my daily accountability is also that I unsubscribed from 30 (!) marketing emails I received today !

Did this about 5 years ago. Dh has been made redundant and while we were financially ok, it seemed prudent.

allowed myself to buy underwear and socks.

I reused, mended and made do with everything else.

still ate out and did stuff. This was just not buying stuff.

lasted a whole year and had £12k in savings from it.

it wasn’t particularly hard tbh. Stopped wondering round shops at lunchtime, unsubscribed from all marketing email and catalogues.

@BarrelOfOtters thats an amazing achievement!

Today has been my 1st NSD.

I am going out with my friends for breakfast on the 9th Jan. So that's fine, then we will wander around some shops, but the urge to buy anything has gone. It was like a switch flicked in me.

I need to pay of my credit card. So not spending £5 on drinks everyday will go along way towards that.

I feel like we're all in shoppers anonymous right now

Otters that's an incredible achievement - if only we could all save £12k in a year from not shopping

A NSD too here. Easy though as just lazed about all day, so I know it's going to get trickier! I'm not sure of our plans for tomorrow yet.

I'm off to make veggie nachos for tea, yum! Last hurrah before NY eating plan starts!

This is me, but without trying, and with plenty of available money.
It makes me a bit sad because I think it's down to the combination of probable undiagnosed neurodiversity and living somewhere where shops aren't easily accessible. I literally have to try really really hard to buy anything at all. It just seems like another "job" and sometimes have worn out clothes and shoes because I can't sort replacing them.

I had a NSD today! Friends birthday tomorrow so will see if I've got a bottle of something hidden in the cupboard I can re gift (I don't drink very much and when I do I binge on gin 😂!)

Today was a NSD. I was going to do some food shopping tomorrow but I’ve jiggled some plans around so tomorrow will be at home again - just got to avoid the Internet shops.

every email that comes though I’m heading straight to the ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom. I’ve been hiding Facebook ads too. My problem is my impulsiveness. I’ll see something and think that looks good and order it straight away.

NSD here as well. Tomorrow is likely to involve food shopping as I don't fancy going one night after work. I did start to look at things for DS6's birthday and stuff to furnish my new place (currently still a distant dream).

@StealingYourWiFi sometimes I find just adding to my basket is enough to scratch that urge of seeing something that looks good.

I'd like to join you. Today was a NSD today but the difficult thing will be not going out to eat with friends. But will try and reign it in - and no clothes buying as I have far too many. Plus I'll put stuff I don't need on Vinted.

Joining! I am good at wasting money. No spend January and dry January.