Low spend / no spend / frugal June

[IWonderWhereThatDishDidGo]

Sorry if there is already a thread, but I've been planning to do a no / low spend June so thought I'd start a thread for anyone else who wants to do the same.

I've already failed today though 🙄😂

I've got a hideous stomach bug and had to cancel a cinema trip today (which had already been paid for). So I've let the kids buy a movie on YouTube to make up for it, which has cost me an unbelievable £16.99 😩.

Hope that's it for today and tomorrow though. We have groceries in and I don't need petrol till maybe Sunday.

Beauty products and clothes are a weakness of mine too. I have a bit of a Vinted addiction which isn't great, but it's cheaper than normal shops at least and I feel less guilty buying secondhand.

Had to spend £30 on top up shop, had my dad and step mum over today so needed food for them.

Also £15 for dds bus fare for next week.

I like vinted too, also for baby stuff, but bought myself few nice bits as well. My budget will be bit tight now, so I need to steer clear of shopping brand new items anyway, except shoes, but how many pairs of shoes do I need on maternity leave. Already got 2 pairs of comfortable trainers.

I wanted to say nsd today, but I spent 76 quid on cats food and litter. It’s for July. We ran out of litter, so I used my reward points for 5l bag for the rest of this month and bought normal 20l bag for next month.
Groceries top up tomorrow🫣

Joining! We run our budget 20 to 20 of each month as I get paid on 20th so today last day but this past month has been ridiculous spending wise so am keen to start a new month.

we went out for dinner Sat night which was first time in about 18 months and so shocked at how expensive it now is.

we’re off on holiday Weds for a week so will be eating out and spending on activities but have set a budget for this so hoping to not worry about it too much. When we get back I’m giving up booze in the hope of getting myself fit and loose weight so that should save.

we have building works starting in the autumn so we really do need to rein it in

I spent nothing yesterday. I did not actually think about that till this morning so that is a small win for me. No reason to spend money today either but sure who needs a reason like!

Best of luck with low spend week ahead everyone.

Oh nooo, my iphone screen broke after it fell on the floor😤🫣 I definitely won’t be buying new phone now! My husband said he will try to find original screen to replace and he’ll do it for me, but if it’s going to cost £££ I’d rather leave it like this. Got other things to spend money on right now.

150 euro on a kids filling this morning.

This is a great thread. I'm joining!

Don't think I've had a NSD in the last two years 😫

I'm pretty good with budgeting i.e. making a plan for what my moneys doing each month but I think there are definitely places I can cut back. £375 on eating out so far this month because of birthdays and Father's Day etc.!!!!

We've will be renewing our mortgage in 4 years and want to start some serious overpayments before that's up so we can get a better rate

I’ve decided to call my project to lose weight etc “project fox” as I want to be foxy after it 😂

Hi everyone, sorry I’ve got rubbish at posting recently. Still mostly trying to be mindful of spending.

Groceries: £486
£12 on antihistamine syrup for ds (one bottle for us, one for preschool) £35 on Father’s Day presents for dp, £9 on Father’s Day present for my dad, £22 on coffee beans, £40 on new water bottles for all the kids, got metal ones this time in the hope they won’t break and will actually last, £35 on random stuff we needed (ok some of it we just wanted), £40 on vinted 😳 and we had to pay £580 for our holiday accommodation in the summer (we’d saved this in a separate account for the past three years though because we were meant to go in 2020 so it kind of felt free 😆)I don’t want to add that up 🫣 Oh and on top of that we paid 9k for the building work on the house (which we had saved for so was accounted for separately)

On the plus side xh paid maintenance for the first time in 7 years so that was unexpectedly some money coming in. I’m sure you’re all being far more disciplined than I am 😳

@Cocotrain I would love to join 'Project Fox' but I feel the odds of me feeling foxy after years of coping with small DC and unhelpful DP are very small I'd settle for being a slightly less knackered badger, TBH...

@MissVeronicaSpeedwell i think we can do this. I have young DC (4.5 and 2.5) plus full time working. That said my DH is relatively helpful.

I mean, we could always go for a “fadger” which is a mix of both?!

Let's all turn into a beautiful fadger, haha! 😅😂 I have too much skincare and a bit of a makeup stash too, but I'm determined to use it up! Some of it is lovely and it's kind of self care for me, too.

I've recently been doing couch to 5k (in week 8 now, woohoo) and trying to eat until I'm not hungry rather than until I'm full. Not sure how much I've lost, but I look and feel much better than I did at the end of March! That was a wake up call, seeing myself in a full length mirror...

It's hard to be disciplined in all areas at once though. I think you can run out of willpower so it's important to focus on the goals that are most crucial to you.

But I'm also throwing money at an outstanding debt so that it's hopefully gone by the end of August, even though it now looks like my job is secure until at least next April/May. Better safe than sorry! Especially since I'm the higher earner in my household.

Didn't manage a NSD today, £4 ish on ds snacks for the week, but hopefully tomorrow. I did have 3 NSDs last week, which is pretty incredible seeing as we went down to London. We went to the Wellcome Collection briefly (we were near Euston station) and it was very interesting.

Good luck all, and welcome to newcomers!

£4.10 in the local Spar for a Brown loaf of bread and burger buns for Grandsons teas! 😮

£53 in Lidl today
Tomorrow will be £130 deposit to nursery

@Cocotrain and @moimichme I think being a fadger is the best I can aim for 50lb to lose here

If anyone has any meal planning tips I'd be really grateful, it's something I just can't get my head round

I've been doing C25K as well and can now run 15 minutes non stop. That would have been unthinkable a couple of months ago!! Don't think it's helped me lose any weight but maybe it's at least helped me not to put too much on...

Fadger is definitely more achievable for me than foxy 🤣

@MissVeronicaSpeedwell I used to be really good at meal planning and have got worse recently. Partly because I don’t enjoy it at all anymore. When I am good at it it looks something like this:
Sun roast chicken and veg, cook extra veg
Mon fried rice with the chicken scraps
Tue pork steaks with the extra veg from Sunday
Wed fajitas
Thurs use the rest of the pork steaks (I get the butchers big packs that have 10 in-I’ve seen big packs in tesco too) the leftover sour cream from fajitas and some mushrooms to make stroganoff with rice and some veg
Fri chicken breast topped with leftover salsa from fajitas and cheese with potato wedges and salad
Sat Some form of pasta dish

Years ago I did
meat free Monday
pasta Tuesday
stew Wednesday
something quick and easy (eg omelette or jacket potatoes) Thursday
freezer Friday
street food Saturday
roast Sunday which made it quite easy to plan but I got bored!

Child benefit went in today so was able to get some fuel, topped car up £46.

A few food bits £8.

£50 today in Aldi, much cheaper than my usual weekly Tesco shop.

Also managed to seek a few things on Market place so £30 in the kitty

I topped up in Sainsbury's yesterday, but kept quite strictly to a list. I'd already shopped in Aldi so overall made a saving of at least £20.00.

I'm still trying to cut down on takeaway coffee, and managed some success this week, with frequency reduced and once (though, in interests of honesty it was late night and not much choice available) buying a cheaper McDonald's coffee.

Sorry, I have a bit of a coffee habit!

@Orcubed and @roundcork - thank you for the meal planning tips. I just really struggle to get my head round the whole concept

roundcork my DC have a sports day in a couple of weeks, I've had to book the day off to be able to go but it finishes at 1pm - I've booked a GP appointment for afterwards so I'm not tempted to go out for lunch! dreams sadly of lovely, long childfree lunch

@Cocotrain I was very tempted to buy this meal planner to help in my quest to be more fox and less badger

NSD yesterday. Happy about that! And I went for a run this morning before it got too hot.

DH is working on site and ds has an activity tonight, so I may buy something quick and easy to eat later. Then DH can cook curry or something tomorrow on his day off.

Hope everyone is doing well.

£70+ spent in 3 shops yesterday and not a lot to show for it. Still in shock at how much everything is costing even the Lidl shop was higher than usual. DH and I have been watching what we eat by portion caution control and both lost a couple of stone each. If prices keep going up we'll be eating less out of fear. Considering that we joined to pay down debts quicker it feels like we are running on the spot as the interest rates have all gone up yet again meaning it will take us even longer. It's not as if the banks don't make enough profits anyway!! 😞