Low spend February

[Orcubed]

For those of us who want to carry on from January. Anyone new who also wants to join in welcome!

Copied and pasted my expected spends from the January thread

Expected spending for feb: Have already bought dds birthday present for this month, have two presents to buy towards the end of the month also a meal out for dn 18th birthday. And another meal out for two friends’ birthdays. Need to do party bags and cake for dds birthday. And my car is booked in next week for mot and service. Hopefully won’t have much more to pay for on top of all that little lot!

Aim to get groceries under £3 per person per day again. Was £2.93 in January with two meals as takeaway on top. I’d love to get it even lower but we’ll see.

I'm in, thank you.

Hi there, I'm in thanks!

Aiming to end this month in the black 🤞

1st of the month is always a shocker as I get paid on 31st then most payments shoot out my account on the 1st.

Should be a NSD, although I do have a committee meeting this evening so perhaps the cost of a soda water and lime, I'm sure I can scrape odd change together for that though!

Hi everyone! Good to see you. Payday at last!
As I said in the January thread, I'm not going to be able to keep on the straight and narrow entirely this month due to mine and ds' birthdays (and his party, plus Valentine's Day) in the first two weeks, but I'll try and be sensible and then back on it properly and manage some no spend days later in the month.
Have swept some funds into temporary savings (but hopefully won't need it all for party, etc.) and will aim for a NSD today since it's rubbish weather and I'm wfh.
Let's do this! 💪

I’m in!

I'm in too.

Hoping for a quiet month. Because I'm a self employed teacher i won't be paid for the 2 weeks half term. This isn't a surprise so I save constantly to cover these periods.

I'm having a small amount of work done to my house so will have to pay the builder for that. I bought the materials last month so will just pay for his time this month.

My food and electricity spend depends upon whether my DCs return home in half term. One works in school holidays so he probably won't and the other is very attached to his fibre internet connection in his halls of residence and complains constantly about the slow speeds at home, so i will have to wait and see if he will come home.

I'm in . My total on non essential items for last month was £ 37 , plus I saved £120 total on normal food shopping bill . I will be mindful spending this month .

I am in too. My main goal is no spending on hobbies, no impulse buying and shopping in my pantry. Plan to eat out of the freezer to empty it put and reduce my grocery bill.

I'd like to join please. Mixed start to the month, I fill up the car on the first day of the month and was hoping it would be sub £60 but it was actually £62 but that is a big improvement on recent months, partly fuel dropping and partly me trying to stop unnecessary journeys. School meal top up was low at £40 as some left from January and a week of half term. On the other hand I've been so frugal with January spends that the fridge/freezer/cupboards were looking a bit low so had to do a top up at Lidl.

February is a short month so hopefully that will help keep me on track.

Good luck everyone.

I am also in for February. Planning lots more meat-free meals (today will be our third day in a row - broccoli, cashew and mushroom stir-fry with brown rice) and the discipline of writing down all grocery spends and eating the contents of the cupboards is good.

I've managed to clear December's excesses so February is also where I start putting money aside in various saving pots. Which means keeping a tight rein on my personal account (about £25 per week this month for non-essentials). Non-essentials I am planning for currently:
some kind of gift for a party we're invited to this weekend - might be a £10 bunch of flowers - is that OK d'ye think?

a date night at our local fleapit cinema, 2 tickets at £4.99 each (plus bus fare!)

Also need to buy conditioner, my usual one is about £15, lasts ages.

Nice sunny day here, feels like winter is in retreat! Good luck all!

I'm in. No bloody choice really, but there you go.

Hopefully the pet insurance will pay out a chuck and that will help massively.

Did a big shop yesterday, £75, but hoping to make this last at least 10 days. This was a strategy that worked last month, it meant only three shops a month instead of 4.

I have done a meal plan and can do 2 weeks main meals, but will need fruit and veg and lunch bits before that.

So fingers crossed I can get rid of the overdraft this month.

Oh joy, the boiler isn't working again. Engineer coming out tomorrow so that will cost and I think he's going to say it's time for a new boiler, big repair last year and he warned me it wasn't going to last much longer. Hard to feel positive about it, I suppose it is going to cost £3 or £4k? Maybe it will reduce my gas bill but it will take some time to recoup the outlay. So fed up.

I'm cold already, think I'm having an early night tonight.

Oh no @ancientgran not what you need. Don’t blame you for going to bed early if it’s cold!

Ive spent £1 today on toddler group.

I'm sitting here wrapped up in a crochet throw I made years ago. I really look like a proper old gran. I'm OK at the moment except for frozen hands, I must go and find some gloves. Hilarious isn't it but makes me think of people who are like this all the time because they can't put the heating on. I shouldn't moan just a bit gutted that our savings are getting eaten away, last month the washing machine and now this.

woo hoo! just sold a pair of DM boots for £70!

I’m in , today has been a NSD for me luckily

Sorry to hear about the boiler gran, absolutely the last thing you need.

Great news re the DM's.

NSD.

Nsd for me

@Probablymagrat I like the idea of a 10 day shop rather than every week
Do you plan and buy for your main meals then just top up with fresh fruit/veg?

In again for February although have already spent £35 on two new pairs of trainers via Vinted (not new, but decent quality secondhand!) and some bits for the DC's Beavers uniforms. I really need a bit of admin time to work out my spends for this month... if only the DC would go to bed a bit earlier!

What a pain about your boiler @ancientgran - ours was serviced a couple of weeks ago and the engineer mentioned that they aren't built to last much longer than 10 years now ours is 7 years old, which didn't fill me with confidence! He's been a gas engineer for years and said boilers used to be expected to last 20+ years but now they're cheaper, there isn't the same incentive to keep them repaired and going for longer (much like washing machines and other appliances). Plus the government want everyone to swap over to heat pumps relatively soon, but they are £££, even more so than boilers

Signing in Saved £200+ on food bills last month and would like to continue with that. Spends yesterday:
£40 Aldi for weekly shop
£30 Tesco - £20 was whiskey for DH
£150 deposit on ebike kit to adapt my current bike. Balance of £325 to pay in May for delivery in June. For 9 months of the year I use my bike for shopping but there is a short steep section on the return journey that I hate. This will give me some oomph so I don't have to get off and push

I’m in and will update later

Oh well done @Probablymagrat . I’ve sold a few things on vinted in the last couple of weeks (only £30 worth but still) and am leaving the money in there so it’s there when one of the kids needs something. Tempting to just spend it though as it feels like free money 😳