Low spend February

[Orcubed]

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

Joining in as well, no choice really.

Very low spend day yesterday- just some fruit to eat at work. Should be a NSD today

Some planned non-essential spends I have coming up:

• trip to see my brother and family at half term (biggest spend being around £150 on the train tickets)
• couple of kids friends birthday gifts
• meal out with daughter on Saturday ahead of concert (tickets for that bought long ago)
• lunch out with old family friends this Sunday (they may pay but not certain!)

Will try to limit non-essential spends beyond this

Ow, gran, that is upsetting about the boiler. Can you find a 0% credit card to pay over a period of time, so your savings don't vanish? Keeping hold of that 'shit happens' cushion of savings is important.

We had to replace 2 ancient Pottertons which I'd kept limping along with parts from Ebay 2 winters ago. We have a Worcester, and it has three channels (upstairs and downstairs heating, and hot water) all of which can be programmed separately, so we can heat one bit of the house at a time. Also, separate digital thermostats (the previous boilers were on or off!) The house is very much more comfortable as a consequence although of course it is difficult to know whether we've made efficiency savings because prices have soared since.

That's such a shame about your boiler @ancientgran! Especially after the washing machine last month.

I had a NSD of sorts yesterday. About a million bills and direct debits flew out of my account yesterday (including one I'd been meaning to cancel but didn't get to it in time angry with myself for that. But it's now cancelled for March.) But I didn't actually buy anything. Got an Aldi shop planned for tomorrow.

After all my outgoings this month I've got about £100 spare as spending money- but that needs to include moisturiser, counselling and flights for me and DP. Feeling really frustrated as nowhere obvious to save money.

Plus really struggling with work, so seriously considering more part time options to give me and my children a better work life balance.

But weighing that up against the fact I also need a new car pretty soon, want to join a gym, and need several big items for the house and garden.

Well engineer has been and we have heat. Quite funny really as he was just looking at it and his computer diagnostic thing and it started working. He can't find the fault, every reading is normal. The good news is he says BG have some great deals, 4 years interest free with nothing to pay for the first year so that should be easy to budget for. Bad news is surveyor can't come for a month as they are so busy (probably because of the deals) so I have to hope it will limp on for a while.

I will be getting another quote as well, BG might be upping the price to do the interest free. Must put my sensible head on.

Thanks for all the sympathy, you are a lovely supportive lot.

That doesn't sound too bad @ancientgran!

Yes in theory, but its very adjustable to what is the best value when I get to the shops. For example I had planned a roast chicken this sunday which would give us two more meals, but I got a reduced pork joint, so it will be roast pork, and I will do a pork stir fry and a pork caserole instead.

@ancientgran definitely get another quote BG are notorious expensive and we got 0% with a local company for our boiler

lsd milk, snack bars

Thanks for the advice. I'm feeling better about it but maybe that's because I'm warm 😁

I'd like to join, please! I did it in January too - and was absolutely shocked how much more money can go into savings! I was saving less than half before because I was spending on so much crap and not paying attention to food/household items prices

I also managed 2 no spend days a week in January! Yay WFH!

Good news about your boiler and that you're warm again, gran.
Welcome all to this February thread - despite some spendy days ahead, I managed two NSDs so far (apart from normal bills and direct debits). 👍

I really need to try and spend the least amount possible this month so that I can try and save enough for my little one's birthday in August and for a UK family trip🤞Rent goes up £60 this month though which won't help 😩 I'm thinking of starting to take money out of the bank if it's not needed for a bill/something needed so that I can't use it when it's not needed 🤷‍♀️

Ancientgran we went with warmzilla they do 2 years interest free and the overall cost much lower than British gas. BG had a choice of two boilers each at 3k whereas warmzilla had the same boilers about 1k less, and I have not been able to fault the service or the installation.

NSD first one for a few weeks! And I used the shower at the gym so less electric for us!

NSD here. I'll need bread & coffee tomorrow but that should be all. Will be watching the rugby this weekend so won't be going anywhere

I'm joining in! I did the no spend January, and although we had big expenses come up, we were in a better financial position due to not spending money on whatever we felt like.
We plan on keeping spending low this month. Only dinner for Valentine's Day, no gifts and I've already ordered a gift card using points from our credit card rewards for SIL for her birthday, which is this month.

We do need to get passports (3 of them), so that's an expense that's planned.

I'm in. Continuing to write down everything I spend. Doing well on groceries but miscellaneous stuff is high. Always seems to be something expensive needed. Having said that, I do have the money, so luckier than many people.

I've been NSD all week, but this is usual for me, I'm so busy with work that I simply don't have time to get anywhere to spend money however weekends can be very spendy and this one will be no exception. I have to buy a new gas bottle for the cooker, 25 euros, 4 bags of granules for the pellet burner, 40 euros, medicine for the dog 25 euros and a top up shop for lunches next week. The price of granules for the pellet burner really makes me cross, they were 4 euros last year and I was using them as cat litter because they were so cheap, now that the Government has encouraged everyone to change their woodburners to pellet burners the lowest price I can find is 9 euros but mostly they are around 10,50.

I'm also going to the hairdresser for a cut and colour. The last time I went was at the end of November so I've dragged it out for a long time, but I honestly look like I'm back in lockdown the grey roots have got that long.

Joining for some willpower after a good January. We go on holiday at half term but I've saved the necessary money for them do it shouldn't impact my bank balance. I might even have some left over!

Thanks for the new thread!

Signing in for February! I'm aiming for 20 NSD (not including bills / groceries / fuel). I've got a few days leave to take towards the end of the month so there will be planned spends then (not sure what yet!). Also will need to buy new walking boots for DP (expected last month but didn't end up getting them) & cycle helmet & rucksack / panniers for me. I've been using an old daypack thing but it's not really big enough and now I've broken the zip. Not really counting my cycle spends though as that's my means of transport to work - still significantly less than I'd be spending on a car.

NSD so far - feeling very skint though as all of the direct debits & December's credit card payment have all gone out in the last couple of days & you wouldn't know I'd been paid! I don't like this time of year as most of the savings pots have been depleted - time to build up the coffers again.

January's grocery spends came in at just over £400 for the month - that's 3 meals a day for 3 adults (4 for the first week in Jan as DD was home). I've set Feb budget as £450 but hoping to keep it under this.

Tasks for this month - home insurance renewal & want to review our phone contracts / broadband to see if we can save a bit there.

Hoping for NSD today.

Toddler and I are meeting my parents for lunch but they are paying 😉

We don't need anything to buy today I don't think.

I'm really pleased with how I'm doing on vinted, am trying to only buy things when I've got money in my vinted account from selling stuff.

Meant to be NSD yesterday but ended up buying mediocre (at least cheap) takeaway.

NSD will be hard to achieve this weekend so aiming for at least 3 NSDs next week

Bread, coffee and ice cream £10

Oops and £35 for dog groomer. My DD said she looked like a dog on the streets - just needed the string around her neck. So rude!

Nice one on the Vinted @Decafflatteplease.

£3.30 on a rare Costa coffee, agog at the price as this is rare for me but was meeting some old running pals.

Other than that we've had a very low spend week.

Spent £4 in a charity shop on some lovely hand painted wooden buttons. I am not sorry, I love them.