Low spend February

[Orcubed]

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

Fair enough re spending @Orcubed . Sick children are hard.

Well my Doc Marten dilemma was resolved I hummed and hahed for a week and then last night I decided to take the plunge and the sale was finished, so problem solved.

I spent 11 euros on a hot chocolate and cake yesterday with my son, who has returned home from university for the weekend, but all the other days are NSD so not too bad really.

There was another 70 euros on stuff for the retiling of my hallway, three lengths of metal trim to go on top of the tiles and another pot of tile glue. So it's turning into an expensive business. It doesn't help that while the guy is here I keep finding other jobs for him to do.

Off out tonight with a friend, but she's being careful too so we're just staying at hers and drinking and chatting, I'm really looking forward to it after a hard week at work.

Grocery totals now £179.51 for Feb.
That has included quite a lot of cleaning products and toiletries and booze so probably not too bad?

Feeling like we're nearing the end of the month already- but still a few weeks to go- plus half term to navigate.

My work expenses came in from January so that has helped this month.

Really struggling not buying new stuff now- it's just boredom related for sure!

I need to crack on with selling clothes on vinted as have no other work expenses or payments due to come in now.

NSD today, I have £70 left to the end of the month. Should be ok, just about and I hope I wont be overdrawn, or only mimimally. Going to do a food shop tomorrow, that I hope will last till the end of the month.

I daren't add up what I've spent this week, as well as me, DH and GS who lives with us I've had another GC, 2 sons and DIL and eating seems to be a bit like an Olympic sport. I think I'll just do the best I can for the rest of the month and see how it goes. I've made £25 on prolific so that helps.

How lovely that they’re all staying with you though @ancientgran, got to be worth it (I hope anyway!)

I had a f*ckit moment earlier and bought some of my nice shampoo (that I was trying not to buy because we have a load of baby shampoo in the cupboard to use) and then also bought some perfume to qualify for a discount and free shipping 🤦🏻‍♀️. So that was £40.50 splurged. Total boredom/feeling a bit crap related spending.

I am really not doing well this month. I came into the month thinking I was going to spend hardly anything and have spent a load more than last month. And my mot/service/cam belt/new tyre was just under £700. Budgeted/put away for but still an awful lot of money.

Maybe I need to carry this on next month too…

It is lovely but expensive and exhausting. Long covid has left me easily tired. One has gone home today and I felt really sad, I wish they didn't live so far away and I could see them more often, little and often is easier to manage.

I'm a fool to myself really, I like to do all the cooking and washing up and I really should say they can take turns with washing up, maybe buy a takeaway one night. They work hard though and I like to make their visits a proper holiday for them.

Sometimes we just need a treat don't we, £40.50 isn't that bad. I'm with you for next month, I've got to start saving for that boiler.

Hi all, checking in briefly. Good luck with the boiler gran and household upkeep expenses. We're renting so that helps our costs in that domain.

The birthday party, gift bags etc. for ds were spendy, but budgeted for and we managed to keep 'extra' spends low. I did buy ds a balloon, fancy smoothie drink and cake for his actual birthday, so I haven't had many NSDs this week. But everyone deserves to be spoilt a bit for their birthday!

My own birthday is Valentine's Day and DH and I both have managed to get the day off so we can watch a film (I think it's called Everything Everywhere All at Once) and have a decadent brunch whilst ds is at holiday club that day (he's also going 2 other days next week; I work full-time but DH works 3 days per week). DH and I have so little nice, relaxing time one-on-one (we have no family nearby) so I'm looking forward to chilling out and reconnecting with him. And staying in will help with expenses on an otherwise rather expensive 'romantic' holiday.

Still hoping for more NSDs later this month, but I feel like I'm mostly on track. I am feeling more tempted this month, too, but I need to avoid online window-shopping for clothing, shoes, bags, skincare, and makeup (because I honestly don't need anything right now, with the backlog I unfortunately have in some categories - I need to focus on using them rather than hoarding nice things).

Good luck all, keep up the good work!

moimichme that sounds a lovely birthday/Valentine's day. I can remember doing that sort of thing when mine were little, it feels such a luxury to have an "us" day.

My boiler was being very naughty this morning, after hours of resetting it I finally got it on and the house is warming up. Also a luxury and watching Turkey/Syria I realise how lucky I am.

I have been going to do main shop every 9 days and making it last. In February I shall be eating some meals from freezer. We are now down to just one takeaway per month and noone allowed to choose expensive items. We really enjoyed last one as had not had one for so long. I've been cooking a bit more vegetables and cutting back on meat. At lunchtime having a jacket potato with baked beans or baked bean toastie. It is still hot and filling. Making some home made lentil and tomato soup as we all like that and cheap lunch with crusty bread. I might do a second batch of vegetable soup end of week, use up whatever veg is left.

NSD today. 🎉
Could have been bad yesterday as we went to big shopping mall for trainers for dd.

Had to pay £3.50 for parking, plus £23 for gift- but that was it!!

Was seriously considering buying a lamp for £70 which would look perfect in my hallway- been searching for the right one since the summer. But couldn't really justify my thinking to DC so decided to leave it for now.

Then saw two versions of the perfect necklace I've been looking for for years. Only £12 each. But in the end I had to admit they looked so cheap I'd probably go off them really soon- and it would just be some junk lying around pretty soon.

Also dc couldn't find anything they wanted even though they were allowed anything (within reason) so could have certainly been a lot worse!

Got another few big DD's coming out this week- but otherwise only food to spend on.

NSD today. We had meatloaf as a kind of pretend roast dinner, did roast potatoes, roasted carrots and parsnips and yorkshires. Surprisingly DH really liked it, so that might be making a more regular appearance. Certainly cheaper than a joint of beef.

I have been lurking on these threads but i really need a kick in the bum! last year we were 15k in debt and while over the year i had been budgeting and chipping away we got an inheritance, it cleared the debt and filled our pots with enough to leave a buffer in our main account it was very lucky. Here's the but 4k has been frittered away since November! I'm so annoyed, i know how to budget but its been so long since we could buy treats and takeaway etc we went way over the top, mixed with the huge rise in the cost of living its just disappearing. So i am back to budgeting, side hustling, NSDs & living within our means before we are back to square 1.

Would love to join you. Trying to a no spend 2 years from beg of Feb for things for myself and the house and just buy essentials. But other things like stuff for my teens and house/vehicle maintenance, grocery shopping are permitted. And DH buys stuff gor himself. We have a budget for Groceries so not recording that, but always aim to stick to that. But lots of other unavoidable costs coming up in Feb that we also budget for, car service/MOT, opticians and possibly new glasses. Outside budgeted costs, in Feb I have so far bought various skin care products for both my teens (£25), cargo pants for one teen (£40) and paid for parking when I took one teen out (£3). Nothing for myself.

Half term here and trying to stick to being frugal but we naturally spend more on trips out and bits of food out like treats but it's lovely having the DC around of course.

I've been selling on vinted so hopefully put some of the money towards a big day out this half term eg a paid for attraction rather than our usual routine of free park, national trust (annual pass), nature reserve etc!

We would normally go out to eat once in the holidays but aren't doing that this half term I've got a meal plan and hopefully sticking to it!

Very much a spend day today. I am now £20 overdrawn thanks to OH wanting to eat high on the hog with at least that much in food just for his consumption.

I was very deprived as a child and have a complex and potentially unhealthy relationship with food and resources generally, so this is really triggering me and bringing out the worst of my resource anxiety.

But I do feel that this is unjust, I am subsidising him having loads of delicous high cost, high protien foods like special cheese and nuts, and loads of fresh fruit, and I hardly ever eat an egg or fruit because I cannot afford for us both to have these items. And he just scoffs away oblivious, while I am depriving myself to save money.

Sorry for the rant, and I do accept that this is my problem, not his. He has just paid out another £90 on the vet for the dog. And that I can be very mean with money. I just so wanted to pay my overdraft off this month with the council tax not being paid, but that wont happen now. 😡

Probably that sounds like a really frustrating and complicated situation. Do you share a joint bank account - or what's the reason why you're able to give such nice food to him, yet hardly anything left for you, and how is he managing to be oblivious to it?

You're right it doesn't seem fair at all. But I bet there's a compromise to be made - perhaps organise nice cheese etc. for him once a fortnight (and once it's gone, it's gone!), then regular cheese the rest of the time? Choose cheaper, in-season fruit - or frozen fruit if you have a blender, for you both to have smoothies?

The way we work it is that I pay for the food, and then he reimburses me half at the end of the month, but he eats a lot more than me and more expensive food. He also pays half of all the household bills, and buys extras like loads of logs for the log burner and paid for the latest dog bill. I do offer to pay half, but he says he will cover things that are extra or unexpected.

So taking that into account he pays out a lot more than me overall. Its just I have less money than him, and I hate being overdrawn, and access to food is a really sore point with me. I think he thinks I am genuinely just choosing to eat toast for breakfast, and might be on a diet or somthing if he notices at all.

You are right of course, I do have to sit him down and explain.

Hello @Probablymagrat - that does sound tricky. Can you/Do you plan meals and food shopping together with DH? As you say, he is oblivious, and if you do all the food planning and shopping, he may simply be unaware that the price of a lot of foods has gone up. If he is trying to keep to a high-protein regime for health purposes, can you substitute some vegetable sources e.g. lentils and rice combinations with loads of veg for some of the meat/egg/cheese-based meals? You can still have nuts or cheese or eggs but in smaller quantities e.g. stir fried cashews and veg with brown rice and a one-egg omelette cut into strips and stirred through at the end.

If you are avoiding an overdraft only by not eating well yourself (because you pay for the food upfront and DH has the better quality calories), then something has to change, doesn't it?

I’m joining later to the party but tbh I haven’t been very well behaved this month anyway 😢 I was good last night though when DH offered to treat us to a meal at our local pub using money he’d just received from his YouTube channel. I really had to work hard to say no as we’re quite skint this month. I was secretly hoping he’d just drive in and I could pretend to get annoyed 😆 However, that’s £40 extra to last til payday.

So far, our £250 shop has lasted the two of us since 30th Jan to today with no top ups. DS has had a few bits of the shop (he buys his own mostly) and DSS had some food when he came to stay so doing well. Will probably have to shop next Monday. Need to fill up the car at the weekend but will only spend £30 to last until payday on 27th. The main thing that’s made us skint was spending £600 on a weekend away but it was great. Definitely going to do better next month. NSD today and yesterday though 😁

Should be a low spend day today. Dentist so all DC are free and I should be about £20 I think it is unless I need any work. Then off for a walk in the woods but parking will be free as we have a blue badge. Just need to try to avoid the coffee stand as you can tell by my username I love a takeaway coffee 😂 and homemade ones just aren't as good!

Well the expensive part of my month is over so time to be frugal, not least because my bank is in minus figures having treated ourselves too much so far.

I have stewing beef to make a dinner for tonight and lunch for tomorrow, ingredients for making snacky savoury type muffins for breakfast and well snacking and going to try for a pizza bread thing that I saw online the other day that you can pop in lunch boxes so the kids can try while on midterm and see how they like it. All ingredients here for those and a load of tubs of dinners are already in the freezer from last month so a bit of a freezer dive this week for more meals to try clear them down.

The expensive part of my month is over too, hopefully! And I had a great birthday with DH and later on, ds.

According to my banking app I've spent £85 more than at this point last month, if you don't count the ds birthday party cost (budgeted for). It'll be fine if I aim for a few more NSDs in the next two weeks (which have been very few so far this month!). I admit I've been online window shopping a bit, but close out the tab before I do anything hasty. 🙃

Keep up the good work, everyone!

NSD yesterday .

Just popping on with my totals. I’ve done badly this month but hopefully posting it will help with accountability and will encourage me to do better

Groceries: £339.75 (includes toothpaste, cleaning spray, hair dye, leggings for dd and slippers for ds)
Car: £763
Stuff for dd’s birthday party: £60.80
Birthday present for dd:£ 2.93
Meal/day out for friend’s birthday £110
Food/snacks etc bought out of house: £23.84
Half term trip to museum £3.25
Toiletries/beauty products for myself that I didn’t really need to buy😳😳😳😳 £70.50
Year’s supply of supplements £107
Other £5.99

oh dear.