Low spend February

[Orcubed]

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

Leftover curry for us tonight. 😋
I spent £4.25 today on a tiny top up of lunch food. And £10.95 on name labels for ds' new school clothes (necessary) so I'm counting that as a low spend day!

Hello!!

Bloody great idea for a thread!!! 🤩

How do I come aboard this @Orcubed? Is there something I need to do? I'm on the app so functionality is limited. Should I go to desktop?

Thanks for that.

DH wasn't feeling well today and wouldn't eat so I went to shops to get him some treats. It came to £7.54 and I used the last of my nectar points and some coins in the bottom of my bag so I feel like that was free.

GS has managed to get a lift for football this weekend, match is 30 miles away so I've saved on petrol and as it wouldn't be worth coming home I'll also save on buying a hot drink to keep me going through the match.

Hoping to have a NSD on Saturday and Sunday.

I’m in.

Got two main expenses:
birthday present for a party we’re going to next week
friends coming to stay (they are flying, so I’m covering all food & drink costs - luckily we aren’t big drinkers!)

Food shop is done & budgeted (£42), will arrive on Sun morning & cover us until 17th. Will likely need to do a small milk/bread/fruit shop but can keep that under a tenner.

January was positive in that I managed to declutter and sell about £400 & being mindful of what I was spending has saved about £250.

Signing in. I was doing well, my credit card bill for Jan was only £70.

Then the mains pipe into the loo cistern started weeping, so the plumber came to check it out today. It's going to cost £220 🙁 Feb will have to be very low spend !

I'm going to try some nine day shops.

Hi @SheSeemsToHaveAnInvisibleTouch .
There are no rules! As a family we have a lot of expenses every month, gym membership, swimming lessons, other kids’ clubs, renovations on house, tv and internet subscriptions, high energy bills (despite being very careful 😭) so I could never claim to be frugal or an actual low spender, however what I did in January was to try to reduce our supermarket food spend for the month and not spend on meals out or takeaways, not buy stuff just because, just be mindful of our spending really. I counted family spending and my personal spending but not dp’s personal spending.
We also had a clearout and made about £30 on vinted and about the same on marketplace.

Some people last month cancelled subscriptions etc and were a lot more frugal overall.

It’s entirely up to you how you do it but the idea is we support each other to save money where we can/want to

I did a big grocery shop yesterday, it’s actually next week’s shopping but there were no slots available for next week but was one last night and I hate doing big shops in store so got it then instead. Stopped me doing a milk/bread/fruit top up anyway.

So new totals:
Groceries: £141.50
Other: £1

Not a great start on the groceries but got a lot of cupboard stuff so should last longer than the week.

I've spent £800 in feb already!

That includes big bills (annual car insurance etc) plus have done big shop in Aldi: £72. Included about a million loo rolls and bottles of beer and wine. First booze bought since December.

Also had much overdue haircut and hair removal etc. so feeling and looking a lot better.

Also just bought first meal out since December (brunch for me and DP)

Oh, also bought book on Amazon but for school so kind of essential spend.

I guess the main things are: shopped in Aldi instead of Sainsbury’s = massive saving.

Done big spreadsheet and planned all spends for the month, so feeling a lot more in control than usual.

Also interviewing for a job on less pay. Could be risky but is a sideways step into something I really want to do. Which makes money not the main motivation. So keep your fingers crossed for me 🤞🤞

Joining in too! I tried in January but didn't save as much as I'd hoped. My total food/toiletries/household shop came in at £286.91 and other spends £145. This doesn't include necessary clothing/homewear spends which were pretty high too. I'm hoping to cut those totals for February, less bus journeys, no impulse tesco visits on an empty stomach and no more treats! We don't need anything else (except a new spray mop which I bought today as ours snapped and superglue didn't hold!)

So February's totals so far
Food £59.14 (this includes a toiletry top up in savers), other spends £15.50. Spray mop £18.99. School disco for dd2 £4.

Right, so, after a few NSDs earlier this week, I've spent nearly £100 today. Groceries top up for fresh veg and salad, plus ds' birthday party related spends. But £50 of that went on a gift card, so I'm feeling pretty good so far this month. Long may it continue! Good luck all.

Well a NSD after the spending spree of buying a packet of second hand buttons yesterday!

NSD yesterday and hopefully today will also be no spend

I have nothing I need to buy all next week. We shall see

I knew it was going to be a spendy weekend, my top up food shop was extortionate, 50 euros, which included no meal and just a bit of fruit and veg. Dog and cat food came to 17 euros and I did treat myself to a cheap bottle of wine. I'm only buying for me, everything is so expensive.

I also bought a hedge trimmer in the sales, I saw it in the shop when I went to buy the granules for my pellet burner. It was 50% off and I did need one, I have a large garden and a massive laurel hedge. So I should look at is as a 50 euros saving rather than a 50 euros spend.

I also have to pay the builder 250 euros for work that's being done in the house. All essential stuff, but at this rate I'm never going to be rich.

£29.53 in Aldi, should be ok till at least Thursday/Friday when I might need a few fresh bits. Includes fabric conditioner, baking paper, shampoo and conditioner.

Nsd other than that! Hoping for 5/7 no spend days next week!

Ahh just logged onto to say NSD today- but I did buy flights for mini-break next month.

Spent A LOT of time looking for the cheapest deal- so that was something at least!

Tomorrow just need to buy milk and a lightbulb- plus have a few more direct debits coming out

NSD today, should be able to make it through to next week for food shopping. It does mean making my own bread, but thats fine, apart from the fact I eat more of it!

Low spend weekend.

£1.50 bread from the local shop (thought we had some in the freezer but didn't).
£3.20 vending machine items for DH (long term hospital stay, can't begrudge that)
£50 hair (that's village rates for highlights, roots, cut and blow dry). Stretched that an extra week but I'm too vain for too much grey!

Managed a NSD today (well just bought my train tickets for half term visit to my brothers but not sure that counts) after a spendy Saturday. Aiming for at least 3 more NSD's this week

NSD yesterday.

Saturday I went grocery shopping - spent a lot but bought big packs of mince & chicken which have been split in the freezer & restocked tinned tomatoes, rice, etc. Also had to buy dishwasher tablets & toilet roll. I still need mushrooms and butter but lidl had run out of big packs & I refused to pay Morrisons prices! I will walk to Aldi today for these & then should be NSD till fruit & veg top-up at the weekend.

A few other non- budgeted spends on Saturday - I need to rein it in a bit. I bought a new laundry basket in B&M as ours broke. Bought a tin for washing powder whilst I was in there as the tub I was using wasn't really big enough (I keep a big box of powder in the loft and refill the kitchen tub). £13 spent there. Then in Home Bargains were a couple of lidded Pyrex so I can batch cook a bit more (£8 total) & some storage baskets for our makeshift pantry under the stairs - these were planned spends really as we'd sorted it out that morning and decided we could do with a couple more (been using a shoe box and it had basically disintegrated!).

We need to book flights for a couple of trips over the next couple of days - likely to be a bit more than we hoped due to Ryanair's crappy baggage allowance... but that will come out of budgeted holiday money.

Expensive weekend for us (but planned for) £110 on day and meal out for friend’s birthday. Our other birthday meal out is in two weeks so nicely spaced at least!
Thursday and Saturday were NSD’s. Today bought a new bike lock for ds.

Groceries: £141.50
Other: £115.99

pre-ordered a book on Kindle but wont pay until April release date so NSD

I have one big spend this month so need to bring in back in for the rest so I am in. Today is a BH in Ireland where I am and usually would bring the kids out for burgers and chips or something but am going for homemade today which will save me around 50euro (3 teens). Have a full fridge and freezer sorted here so will cook all week and exercise can be on the free beach down the road instead of trying to look for activities.

£15 on a recipe book I didn't need, but I spend so little at the minute, and spend so much time reading my zillion other recipe books, I'm happy with the cost!