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???

We're travelling through Europe at the moment and I am currently just outside Copenhagen. I am frugal to allow us to do 2 6 week trips each year. I have a travel fund but it's finite as we are both retired

The hardest thing is to get out of the holiday mindset. If we ate out every day and bought drinks etc then we can't afford it.

I have just spent £77 in the local lidl and have enough food now for a week.

Attaching pic of my lovely dog who travels with us

Just checking in… @grannycake your dog is so cute and I am inspired by your travel! Copenhagen is meant to be amazing for design, would love to visit one day.

@bridgewateremma your honesty and openness always makes me think more carefully about my own spending and the reasons behind it. Thank you. You are doing amazingly to be getting that debt down consistently.

I’m on the brink of another major life change, I need to not unravel and spend my way through it!

Having ended a long term marriage I’ve moved me and teens into our new home and found myself a better paying job. As soon as their exams are over I need to actually get divorced. Have realised that all my frugality will only benefit my ex if I’m not careful.

He is v difficult to deal with so it’s tempting to comfort spend, stress eat, etc. Just need to have a frugal May and get prepared for later in June when it all might get challenging.

I’ve been to supermarket three times in the last 2 days so I really need some NSDs now.

Just read this . V inspiring. On holiday at moment. But will join on return home

Welcome @Theskyoutsideisblue!

Thanks for all the support.

I've had NSD Sunday, Monday & Tuesday this week then yesterday took a work friend for coffee & cake (planned as she's leaving and I wanted to take her, we've worked together a long time and she's had a tough time) which was over lunchtime so turned into soup & a scone, a fancy cake each and a coffee for her which was £26.60 including tip. She offered to pay for her soup etc (I'd invited her for coffee & cake) but I paid for it all and I'm happy with this decision.

So £26.60 spent in total this week so far and we're already on Thursday.

I’m exhausted today and wondering if I cba to cook food… or go to the chippy…

Did the chippy win @CrapBucket?!?

I am doing well this week, with only the above £26.60 spent (which yes, could have been less, but I was happy to spend on this ocassion).

I've paid off £300 from my credit cards since the start of the week and will pay another £200 when my final invoice for April is settled (I found out today that the guy I've invoiced is away on holiday so realistically I may be waiting a few more days for this payment!). This gets me started with May's repayments and well on the way. I'm now addicted to the buzz I get when I pop another payment to my credit card via online banking - what a thrill!

My little win this week was getting my eyebrows waxed for free by a trainee at my local salon. £10 saved and she did an excellent job.

I'm away for a 3-day weekend a week today and have a separate pot of spends saved up. I won't be tracking my spends while away but I will try and keep spending low as anything I come back with can be chucked at the c/c.

I called it a draw with the chippy. I did cook dinner after all but then when I went out later I happened to be within smelling distance so I got a portion… £2.20 though, rather than buying meals for all 3 of us. So it was definitely cheaper than it could have been…

You are doing amazingly with the credit card, congratulations on reducing it so much this week, enjoy your weekend!

End of week 18 review (to Saturday 6th May):-

£26.60 lunch with my work friend (I paid)
£10.15 breakfast/coffee with my son
£3.00 (brand new Galison) jigsaw from a charity shop
= £39.75 spent + 5 x NSDs

I was planning a NSD today however, this morning, my son (nearly 14) asked to spend some time with me while my youngest was at a gymnastics class and asked if I could take him for breakfast & round the charity shops again in the 90 minutes we had together before picking up DD2 (we'd done it before a few months ago). I initially said no, that I couldn't afford it then he looked so crestfallen so I relented and took him out. If it hadn't been raining Id have suggested a beach walk instead but it was bucketing it down. He doesn't ask for much and he still loves spending time with me so there are much less important things I can save money on I think. He had pancakes & bacon and a smoothie and I had a black coffee and I only spent £10.15 in total which was totally worth it. I then bought a lovely branded jigsaw in a charity shop.

To balance that, I've made £40 on Vinted this week and £25 profit matched betting this weekend.

I'm hoping for a good run of NSDs now before I go away on Friday (separate budget).

Well done on the chippy @CrapBucket, that is excellent! I hope you have a lovely weekend too.

How are the newbies getting on?

So yay, I've done it, I've paid off the final £200 for my self-determined April repayment target to be met and now owe £6,078!

We use the cards I'm trying to pay off for daily spending too & I haven't kept good records of repayments so therefore I annoyingly can't work out exactly what I owed on 31 December 2022, but according to my post on that date it was around £9,000 and as of today, I owe £6,078. Its very tempting to pay off an extra £79 and I can then say I owe under £6,000 but I don't want to leave myself short for my weekend away this coming weekend.

By end of July/start of August, the aim is to have £4,500 left on one card and pay it all back over the following 9-10 months, meaning I'll have paid every penny off well before my target 18 month end date of 30 June 2024.

I'm really pleased. This last 4 months has been a double shock to the system - both not spending recklessly and buying everything I'd like to buy + lots of meals out but crucially also earning and hustling enough money to make significant repayments to my debts. Despite some small bumps in the road, I'm proud of myself!

Well done @bridgewateremma - that's brilliant progress

That’s fantastic @bridgewateremma - keep going strong, you are doing great 👍

I’ve managed to save up almost £1k in recent months and, like you, really want to do an extra money transfer to make it a nice round number. But also don’t want to leave myself short, and get the frugal/life balance wrong. Keep the long game in mind.

Thank you! My current thinking is that I'll hopefully keep to the frugal mindset when away and come home with spare money I can immediately transfer to the c/c. That seems a better way round to do it.

I now reach the frustrating period of the month where the focus is on earning the extra cash. I like the end of/start of the month better where I can send big payments to my c/cs! I've got 2 x job interviews as well this week so plenty to get my head down with.

I'm frustrated by the weather today. We'd planned a bank holiday walk but it's so wet and cold outside and still absolutely pouring. Now DH is talking about the cinema or swimming - all £££. I might let him go and go (frugal) food shopping instead!

Well done on the £1k savings @CrapBucket!

How is the holiday going @grannycake and did the Lidl shop last?!? Where are you now and more importantly, how is the doggie?

A sincere thank you for all the virtual support, it really does mean so much to me.

@bridgewateremma that so good, I'm impressed by such precise figures (and also by others, this is where I'm falling down).

So far this week I have made £24 on eBay and £16 on Vinted. I used to just transfer them to the "frivolous" spending pot as and when but this month I am going to keep them in a dedicated account and save them up. Also TopCash back amounts, the amounts are usually about 27p but I've just transferred £17 I made by booking a weekend last year travelling to see a DC. I love TopCashBack.

So far this week I have spent £5.06 on essential toiletries stuff. £2.98 on books, and £12.70 on a bra (which is going to be returned!) I used £5 of Nectar points to buy some piercing rings so they were essentially free I did spend £10 on a piece of jewellery which was not essential (hoping writing that here will stop me doing it again!) I bought a cardigan (which I did need) and a jumper for £2.70 from Vinted (I must stop thinking "bargain!" and clicking "buy". In fairness I could have spent a lot more but the trick of waiting 48 hrs (24 wasn't enough!) has helped.

I can't seem to break my habit of "please can you get me xxx" when someone goes to the shop but have gone back to a weekly online shop in an effort to reduce this. The problem is older DC go to the shop every couple of days to get stuff like Diet Coke with their own money and when they say "does anyone want anything?" I can't stop myself! <eyes bag of M and Ms>

It his just occurred to me to text the family WhatsApp group and just ask them to not tell me when they go the shop. This thread and writing everything down is very useful.

Apologies if I have missed someone saying this, but as cinemas are so bloody expensive these days, if anyone has a disability you can apply for a CEA card to allow a required carer to accompany you for free. One of my student DDs bought a cheap insurance policy via the Meerkat insurance thing and gets a 2 for the price of 1 cinema ticket every Tuesday/Wednesday. The insurance policy was only about £25 so definitely worth it.

I also have doubled my round up amounts on my bank app (which are transferred into my savings account) and that's just £11 this week so far!

@bridgewateremma Hi from a small village in Germany. We left Denmark this morning. I only had to top up beer and fruit/salad but I needed to use up unused Danish Krone so I needed to add it up in my head all the way round. Nearly spit on as I had 400 krone and spent 397. Food is very much more expensive but I knew that so am pretty pleased

moving on to stay with friends in Netherlands for a week and this is the dog’s favourite place in the whole world. Our van goes on their drive and the garden wraps around their house so she has freedom while there - we’re don’t have much of a garden at home so she absolutely loves it there. I’ll post a pic when we get there

That sounds idyllic @grannycake and I'd absolutely love to see a photo! I've been looking up ferries and Duinrell in the Netherlands this evening, not for this summer but it looks do-able maybe next year, if we can pull together some cash.

I'm on my knees just now through lack of sleep and stress - I'm trying to keep too many plates spinning and failing badly at everything, I feel. I have an interview tomorrow, I'd absolutely love the job, so I am very anxious as it's a competency interview based and I really suck at these - regardless of my preparation, everything I've ever done or learnt flies out of my head and I just babble!

I've had a great run of NSDs but today have spent £50.98 (just like that) stocking up on birthday presents. I love buying things for other people! I also had the great pleasure of spending £42.01 I had remaining on a T K Maxx birthday gift card - free money! I bought myself a fancy shower gel, 2 x fancy soaps, some nice notebooks and a lovely picnic basket for the summer - hoping for a few inexpensive beach trips this summer (we are coastal).

I've £225.00 in a separate account as spends for this weekend away to a family memorial service - Friday to Sunday. I'm driving a family member's car and she will cover fuel as she doesn't want to drive there so that's sorted. I'm not sure how meals out etc. are going to go/be split up as some expenses might be covered due to the nature of the event. So hopefully I'll come back with some money, but if not, at least I have the spending money saved up and am not planning to put anything on credit!

An early end of the week review as my spending for the next 3 days is coming from separate savings (noted above).

End of week 19 review (to Saturday 13th May):-

£50.98 birthday gifts
£7.90 treat lunch at IKEA after my interview
£6.24 flowers for a sick friend
= £65.12 spent + 3 x NSDs

= £104.87 running total for discretionary spending.

Again, more than I was hoping to spend but did buy a few birthday gifts so I am nearly covered for the next 2 x months.

I took myself to IKEA for lunch after my interview today (won't know outcome mid next week) however I was a bit cross she misheard my order and I didn't quite get what I asked for but I didn't have the energy to argue so I just paid and ate!

From Monday, I'm hoping to keep my spending low low low.

Back in Netherlands for a week staying in friends garden. We all cycled to nearest town yesterday - £53 in Jumbo supermarket. Got caught in really heavy rain/ hail so dog was incredibly miserable in her bike box

Out for lunch today to celebrate a birthday of friends son

Pic as promised of dog in her favourite garden

I hope the interview went well @bridgewateremma and good luck with the weekend. Your spending is all well-considered and you should keep feeling proud and determined.

@grannycake 😍your dog looks so happy!!! I love hearing about your travels. Spurs me on for the future.

I have slightly derailed lately and keep going to the supermarket. Need to get a bit more organised. On the other hand I needed something for the house which was £80 but managed to find one on Facebook for £15 so I was happy with that. Happy Friday everyone

I’ve been having a v thrifty weekend. Get paid tomorrow . Have £10 left in my current account and £5 in my purse!

BUT in the car I have 100 miles of fuel, in the cupboard I have 2 days of groceries, under the mattress is £100 emergency cash and finally made it to having £1k in a savings account. Having been through two years of financial trouble I am so grateful to be in this position today.

First thing I’m doing when I get paid from new job is setting up some charity direct debits.

Yay @CrapBucket, well done you! I'm really pleased for you! I love the £100 under the mattress!!! And what charities are close to your heart?

I am back from my weekend away and pleased to report in at £81.00 under budget. This included paying for a special meal for myself and a relative. So as soon as I'd unpacked earlier this afternoon, I paid £100 to my credit card! This gets me out of a hole - I was really keen to underspend this weekend as I had been forecasting a wee budget hole this month that I wasn't sure how to fix. This budget hole has now been reduced to £31.00, which I can hopefully either earn some extra money to cover or reduce deficit to zero by trying very hard to minimise day-to-day spending.

Bonjour everyone. Last week of our travels. Am now in a small town just outside Boulogne. We can just chill for a week as it's very familiar to us

Beach and cliff walks for dog, hills for my DH to cycle up and little quirky shops for me to mooch in. Also easy access to huge French hypermarket to stock up on cheese to bring back to Wales

Need to make a vet appointment for the dog as she has to be wormed and signed off as healthy to allow her to return

Enjoy your last week on your hols @grannycake, it sounds absolutely idyllic!

I'm just popping on to announce 4 x NSDs in a row, yahooooooo! I'm hoping to keep it up but the weekend is looming!

And the exciting (to me) news is that I haven't been charged any interest this month on my credit card. The statement was generated today and there was only interest being charged on a portion of the balance previously, however this still amounted to around £25.00 latterly but I must have paid off enough now that interest will no longer be added, yay!

NSD#5, yay! However in the interests of full disclosure, I have been food shopping (& snuck in some treats for me) and bought clothes for the DC this week but food and clothes come from household 'pots' not from my discretionary monthly spending, which is what I'm counting here.

I've been working out some rough figures this afternoon and think I now owe approx. 2/3s of what I owed 20 weeks ago (on 31/12/22), which I'm over the moon with . I don't think I'll keep up the pace & clear the rest in another 40 weeks as I have a new job which pays more + more hours however it forbids me from doing any other work without special dispensation AND I have a big holiday in the autumn to save up spending money for, but it's great progress and my focus is still 100% - next target 1/2way!

I need to get a handle on my eating. I've put on so much weight over the last few months. It's like I can't hyperfocus on more than one big thing at once - if I can't eat, I spend and if I can't spend, I eat! It's a few months until I start my new job and I would love to feel less chubby and breathless so this is my next project - I just need to ensure I don't forget my aim to curb spending and how pleased I am when I pay off debt!

That's really good going @bridgewateremma I have struggled with weight gain since menopause but 5:2 fasting works well for me. I'll need to get back on it after this week in France - I love French food and am making the most of it at the moment.

Only downside so far is that the showers on the campsite this am ran out of hot water - once I had lathered my hair so no choice to continue. Not the best start to my day

Also meant to say that the Netherlands are fab & I'm sure you'll have a great holiday there