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???

Bulk-bought firelighters online today at half the price they’d have been in town so happy about that. Other than that necessity, spent nothing. Even managed a walk round the supermarket hungry without picking anything up!

NSD#4 today, discretionary monthly spends running total still £1.89. Possibly slightly cheated as snuck new A4 lined notebook (£2.75) in with the food shopping (comes from family budget) but I think we can just about cope with that.

I'm getting jumpy though and keep getting the urge to spend money! I will reread the MSE Money Mantras, thanks @BarrelOfOtters!

@bridgewateremma, I'm glad it's not just me feeling the need to spend!

Is everyone tracking their No spend days? I feel like I need to define what's an allowed spend and what isn't - I suppose spends for basics needs are allowed, and for wants less so.

Hi @AllAboutSlime, I think everyone is doing it differently and setting their own parameters. I'm classing a NSD for me as when I don't spend any of my own (not family) money for the month so, for me, this doesn't include food, diesel, clothes, kids' clubs, window cleaner etc; but others may be doing it differently. I may change things as we go on, but that's how I'm thinking about things for now. It's easy for me to track as the money comes from different bank accounts (joint + mine).

So when I say NSD, I have often spent ££ on food/household costs, so it may sound wrong or disingenuous, but it makes sense to me!

Thanks @bridgewateremma. It would work slightly differently for me as I allocate £50 per month for coffee out / things I don't feel I can justify from the shared budget - it's the regular purchases from the shared budget that I want to reduce if possible. I think we're quite quick to buy new things, rather than taking a minute to think about whether we need them.

If anyone wants to be horrified, go to your account on Amazon, then Amazon Prime, and it will show how many packages you've had shipped over the last year 😱.

Thank you, I love the idea of a holly & gorse collection for the grave, I think I'll go along early and collect some winter foliage.

Hi @AllAboutSlime, you are doing the opposite to me, good luck! I don't think

I don't have Amazon Prime or really use Amazom much (apart from Kindle books) so I'm OK there. Would you consider pausing Amazon Prime?My husband has it and it makes him such an impulse shopper!

Sorry, I don't know where that random I don't think came from!

A NSD day today, took a load of teabags into work & soups for lunch, so am feeling a bit more prepared for the coming days/weeks.

Took tuna salad and fruit to work. Luckily some nice people left their unwanted chocolate (what even is that??) in the kitchen for all.

Ran out of teabags so nicked some from my workmate, that’s what I call NSD!

Went to shop in the pm but that’s the first food shop since NYE so did well to keep it below £50.

Well done all!

I went round the charity shops today and tried to be very mindful about my purchases. So much so, that I spent the grand total of £1.00! 25p each for 4 tiny My Little Ponies for my youngest.

I was so tempted by a leather change bag (Storksak) I desperately wanted when my youngest was small, then I remembered that I'm not pregnant and my youngest is 6 so I really don't need a change bag! The money mantras are helping! I also picked up and put down some recipe books.

Spends today:-
£1 My Little Ponies
£2.70 Tesco reduced (!) raspberries - this is my Friday night treat! I'm dieting and trying to save money so bypassed the popcorn and ice cream and splurged on raspberries
= £3.70

@bridgewateremma that’s great control! Think I’d struggle in charity shops at minute if I saw a bargain.

Today has been a NSD here, pleased as TOTM and was in two shops but didn’t even buy chocolate.

15.96 on decoration samples. Part of the reason to save is to get building and decoration work paid for. So first spending day on a non essential since NY.

Joining in! I am pretty frugal anyway but need to pay constant attention to not wasting money somehow. I get paid a week today and have £177 in my current account. Challenging myself to see how much of it I can keep hold of, and add to my savings account.

Its only a year since I detangled finances from my terrible ex. 2022 was very hard going being on a tight budget. But I am free of debt (except mortgage) and providing for myself and DC. 2023 should be more manageable as long as I don't get into bad spending habits.

Not a terrible day today tho I did have to sub my uni son again <sigh>

I'm not counting that tho.
Otherwise I went to Costa with DD after her medical apt (tradition) and got a free one for her, had mine in a reusable cup (= £1 off) and by buying that one got another free for the weekend. #winner!

So total spend about not a lot (well £3.35 but two x beans and one free drink so that's like -£1).

Also turns out I accidentally used DD's Waterstone's points to buy a book pre christmas (was logged in as her for some reason).

oooh also won £75 on the P Bonds yay

Sorry I mentioned using DD's waterstone's points as yet another way I am saving money! Drinking others' tea, spending others' points, hahaha

Did a food shop today but actually stuck to the shopping list! DH did buy some cakes, he was going to buy more than he needed but changed his mind. This is an achievement 😅

I like this approach! I had a free sausage roll today thanks to 02 priority, which was nice to 'buy' something without paying.

Thank you, however there wasn't very many bargains! An awful lot of things were overpriced IMO (apart from the My Little Ponies!). Charity shopping is definitely not as fun as it used to be! PS Well done on resisting chocolate while on TOTM!

Day 6 ended with discretionary monthly spends running total £5.59.

Everyone is doing so well.

Day 5 I had to put fuel in. The urge to fill up, and shout I'm doing no spend January I'll come back in Feb and pay was real. 😂

Day 6 I put £5 on dds school lunch acc and went food shopping,I budget £100 per week for food shopping but I spent £70 for 3 of us for the week and dds ingredients for catering next week (probably £6) so the extra I paid of my credit card 😁

Morning, jumping on board! The Barclays app has a part where you can see a bar chart that compares spending in months compared to others, we spent a whopping £5.5k in Dec 😳 unfortunately we have some bits and bobs that materialise in Dec (house insurance, music lesson fees) but omg that was massive. My mission this month is to get that bar chart looking lower! Already I have added about £200 bits for me in the next app and then deleted them all one by one. I have enough clothes! dd is currently kneading the bread for lunch and we have plenty of food in so no need to get anything until my next food delivery on Wednesday.

I use Toshl when I’m looking to keep an eye on finances. It’s easy, quick and satisfying to add expenses and do a simple budget and watch savings grow. And you can link to bank accounts and it does it automatically. (£40 a year for that but basic functionality is free).

other apps are available.

I'm still doing well too

I had 2 free tickets so went to the cinema last night and I've so far resisted a cashmere beret which I really bloody want today

Great to hear everyone's stories

I have a massive bag of clothes to take to the oxfam bin

Doing well today. Officiated at cross country today and took my own lunch - sometimes they provide lunch but today they gave me a fiver to buy it - only I didn’t need to #unexpectedwin

Then Saturday pm Costa with dd - free hot drink for me, paid for hers with a Costa card (£25 for £20) that I bought in December and had forgotten about. Winner!

I did a meal plan for yesterday to next Sunday and it came to just over £30 which I'm impressed with! Unfortunately had to get some cleaning products and cat food which took it up to £50. I have one very fussy cat who will only eat the best of the best. Luckily the other one is happy with Tesco own!!
I also bought a necklace reduced from £85 to £25 and a dress that was reduced from £26 to £7. I used some money I got a Christmas for both of these so don't feel I've broke my no spend yet!