July, July, the month of no buy! No spend/low spend/frugal July

[IWonderWhereThatDishDidGo]

Hello all

Following on from last month's no/low spend month, I am planning to carry on being more frugal 😇 and trying to do a no buy and low spend month.

All welcome.

NSD yesterday, £4.75 on milk, bread and butter in tesco. Managed to get bitten by an out of control pitbull on way back from shop, so will now need to trawl vinted for a replacement jumper and phone the GP tomorrow for a booster shot on tetanus.

Sold some more bits on vinted and posted off, little one is growing out of clothes fast but hoping vinted balance will cover this, more bits to list this weekend.

Busy day tomorrow with house valuation and appointment with mortgage broker, but both of those are free activities so hoping for another NSD due to lack of time

Had hoped for two no spend days on the trot!! But run out of cat food - so Spar shop it was today!! £4.59 - wouldn't have minded but the cat icked it up!! She's an old lady at 21 years and I even mashed it for her!! She is now curled up on the armchair snoozing as she always does now!! 🐱

@Sunshineandlollipop how awful! Were there no owners around?
Hope it's not too bad 💐

I bought butter today. £1.90.

@moimichme that is a lovely looking dress. HOWEVER I will say that I did the same few years ago and bought a few bits from there thinking it would be better quality and it was shocking! Two of the items looked like rags after one wash and another bobbled badly. Of the four items I bought in 2021 I don’t have any of them now whereas I still have some lower end of the high street stuff that is much older and still great. If you’ve bought from them before and it’s been fine then that’s fine though, maybe I was unlucky

Had to post and run again earlier as suddenly realised the time 😳

@Sunshineandlollipop hope you’re ok after your dog bite, horrible for you.

@thereallybigsteelcorporation how has your meal plan gone this week? I’ve had to do similar a few times in my younger years, it’s ok for a few weeks but then gets boring and you start craving more nutrients. When I lived in France I lived on ham baguette for lunch and poached egg on toasted stale baguette for dinner for about three months (with some fruit/salad).

@xogossipgirlxo how long do you have left now? Can’t be long.

Spent £49.90 in Tesco yesterday and £10.62 in b&m today on snacks and batteries. I bought some nail varnish and lip balm yesterday but used boots points so it was free. Have a meat box coming next week which is £91.80, will hopefully last a while! I’ve also ordered myself some new leggings and a card holder as my card holder is broken and my leggings have a hole in which is getting bigger and bigger £26.63

Groceries: £199.42
Other: £54.40

Fell off the wagon and ordered a few bits from asda george sale online. Collecting today and will try on. Some will definitely be getting returned! Not bad for weeks aldi shop today of £55. Resisted a Costa takeaway after and almost ordered some chub rub shorts from amazon but have cancelled for now and will try and lose a bit of weight.

That's awful @Sunshineandlollipop! Pit bulls have a powerful bite. I hope you weren't hurt.

Another nsd here. I have got something in mind for dinner (which is unusual 😁). So shouldn't get tempted by takeaway.

I cannot swear that I won't buy wine though... as it's weekend and it's been a long old week

Thank you all for your best wishes. Maternity leave started today eek. I have this weird feeling inside that I won't be working next week, next month etc. and my brain goes into worrying mode that I won't have any money. Did you have the same? It's funny how we're programmed, that when I'm off on maternity leave, I feel like unemployed. I hope I can relax my mind and let this thought go.

@Orcubed I'm due in 2 weeks 😬I am so ready for this baby, my ankles are swollen like hell in this hot weather 😂

@ChristmasComing123 what did you get in Asda sale?

@Sunshineandlollipop OMG how horrible! Are you OK? What did the dog's owner say? 😳I thought they carry some sort of responsibility for these things.

@Rainbow1901 wow 21 years old cat, you're very lucky. I hope my 2 cats will live this long.

@IWonderWhereThatDishDidGo oh you definitely deserve some wine 😄

My recent spendings:

£3.85 for gluten free crackers and pringles in asda
£23 for cupcakes etc. for work on my last day
£2.85 in tesco today for triple sandwich as I didn't have any lunch unfortunately

Our raspberry tree went crazy this year. Only today we picked full bowl of fruit. Probably 6-7 quid worth when you buy it in the shop and tree costed something like 5 quid in Wilko.

@xogossipgirlxo @Orcubed not too bad luckily, only 2 teeth broke the skin so I think the tetanus booster today was worse. Bit worrying though, luckily I didnt have the baby with me but the owner didnt seem bothered his dog was trying to take chunks out of people 😖

Another NSD for me today, but we have decided to put the house on the market so moving will be ££. Lovely when we have a bigger garden for the baby, and room for a second LO in a year or two.

Had some vinted sales complete, so withdrawn £20 to my account, this will cover coffee and cake with my friend on Thursday so hopefully another low spend week ahead

Outrageous. I thought dog owners carry some legal liability when dog attacks other person, or am I wrong? What a horrible situation 😡

£50 or so in Home Bargains and Lidl - so not a NSD but did stay away from local village gala festival after watching the carnival parade. Just as well I did - seeing pics of food on FB £3.50 for one scoop of ice cream or £5 for two scoops, £10 for a pizza, no idea on the beer tent prices plus entry fees of £5 which in itself isn't bad when kids go free!! Been able to hear the music from our back garden but stayed in the dry!!
Makes me feel not so guilty about the Chinese takeaway we had last night - plenty over for tonights' tea too!!

@xogossipgirlxo mostly clothes for work that I need. Got order home and a lot of sale stuff went back as not flattering. Thinking I might do a wardrobe clear out of my clothes tomorrow and sell some on ebay/vinted. Has Is it pretty straight forward for vinted? @Sunshineandlollipop spent 18 at a gift shop today but took packed lunch for day out. Entry was 23 and 22.25 in homebase on painting supplies for living room. Definitely need a NSD tomorrow and most of next week.

@ChristmasComing123 I find vinted pretty easy to use, but people dont want to pay much so you're better off with eBay for higher value/branded items. I've mostly been selling outgrown/unborn baby stuff whilst on maternity, I've made about £60 in 2 weeks but most items have only gone for £1-2 each. Also, people tend to buy in seasons on there so summer stuff is going really well just now but winter stuff isnt moving. Hope that helps x

Unworn I mean 🤣 I'm not selling off my future child possessions

I find with vinted the same thing. You need to sell clothes really cheap. Ebay is better if you want to earn more.

@xogossipgirlxo @Sunshineandlollipop ha ha I didn't even notice the unborn typo. Thanks will stick to ebay for selling. So far no spend day today. Going to get some jobs done round house and a declutter. How's everyone getting on?

I spent £18.50 on 10 pairs of knickers in Sainsbury's. I used to buy M&S, but these are surprisingly nice quality. I should be set with underwear for another year or 1.5 years including bras.
Husband needs new Air Max trousers, so 2 pairs will be £150. Luckily he's not fashion lover, so he doesn't spend too much on clothes, just the amount like this once in a blue moon.

I am looking into used TENS machine for my labour, but people on ebay want to sell used ones for almost as much as new one in boots 🤔Weird, I thought used ones are at least 50% cheaper like baby breathing monitors.

Oh and 7 quid spent on wool dryer balls. I am trying to reduce the use of fabric conditioner.

NSD so far here for me, so that's a win.

We are having quite the week though, car drove into the house across the road from us so we have had police knocking on the door and it's taken ages to resettle the baby so we may succumb to uber eats yet. Thankfully nobody was hurt. Hoping for a low spend and much quieter week next week!

@Sunshineandlollipop how horrible. What a series of unfortunate events 😵

@xxogossipgirlxo it certainly has been quite the week! I'm hoping that is the last of it for quite some time, I like a quiet life

We managed to resist takeout yesterday evening at least but my partner did go and grab ready meals as we were too tired to cook. Still, at £5.50 for the two as opposed to £27 for takeaway I'm counting it as a frugal win. Bought a bundle of baby clothes from vinted for my LO for winter, but my vinted balance covered it so not counting it as a spend.

Off to the supermarket later for the weekly shop so fingers crossed not too much damage there, my OH has a habit of sneaking weird things into the trolley when we go to Lidl 😂

Oh thanks a lot for the tip, @Orcubed - I haven't had any clothes from that company before, so your advice is very helpful!

Saturday I managed a NSD because the weather wasn't very nice and I think we were all a bit knackered from the week.

Yesterday was spendy though!

£84 train tickets to London for my friend's hen do in August. Looking forward to it, but I'll need to save up a bit - most of the others seem to have more income 'spare' than I do!

£38 B&M on household organising stuff (our 9-year-old laundry baskets have both fallen apart, so we needed new ones) and some snacks for the week's lunches.

£14.50 on groceries (Veg, humous, salad) top-up.

And £3 today on lunch because I forgot to bring my leftover pasta (sigh).

Sending frugal vibes to all. Hoping for a NSD tomorrow.

I managed a NSD today until we had to go to the corner shop for milk. £2.30 for four pints! Daylight robbery.

How is everyone doing midweek?

I've had a bit more of a spendy day today, £12.99 on vacuum seal bags to try and hide the surplus stuff for estate agent photos, £76 and change on our click and collect food shop and £1.85 on a slice of cake that called to me from the window of our entirely too tempting local bakery.

Will also need to look at ordering LO some more sleepsuits, teething has started in earnest and I can't keep up with the dribble fountain.

Had the man round today to put the for sale sign in the house, so hoping seeing that daily will be a good incentive to save where I can as it'll remind me what we are saving for

Nsd here today so far. Spent 53.77 at amazon on the prime sale on tuesday but got some presents for Christmas so hopeful that will save money overall. Spent 20 on a birthday gift and lunch bags for next term and 20 on more tupperware as we will all be taking packed lunches after summer on Wednesday. Was looking at booking a cheap hokiday for next year but hoping to move next year depending on interest rates so wondering whether to leave it this now