No Spend 2024....

[meemawww]

Or at least the first couple of months to make a dent in my credit card debt!
I feel like I need a thread to encourage me and hopefully get some tips anybody like to join? I earn an alright wage but my god am i frivolous with money since my earnings went up!

This is great. I’ve done a Dishoom cookbook recipe today that calls for 3 hours on the hob… absolutely no way. Currently finding ways to adapt for the Instant Pot pressure and slow cooker I have. It’s amazing.

I love cooking on gas with my cast iron but I did a lot of it over Christmas and I’ve got the gas bill to show for it!

FYI anyone who likes magazines as a treat (not my thing but some friends do)… your local library might have a press reader subscription which gives you free access to nearly all newspapers and magazines.

Also digital books and audiobooks as well. Good teen selections too.

I’m with OVO for electricity, just checked website and reduced my direct debit down by £20 a month. Will keep an eye on it by giving monthly meter readings but they had said I could reduce by £22 so should be ok…gives me an incentive to continue not using tumble dryer! I just loathe having an airer in the living room, but only place it can go…I would rather the children grow up frugal rather than snobbish about space though, so I have to get over myself.

This thread is very inspiring! I've had a skim read and I am planning to go back to re-read when I can to properly digest the tips and ideas.

I've had a spendy couple of days, so my full week (counting from Mon 1/1 to Sat 6/1, I start my week on a Sunday) can now be totalled up (note, I only count my own, personal discretionary spending, not food/clothes/kids' & household expenses - although I am trying to be frugal with these too).

End of week 1 review (to Saturday 6th January):-

£20.30 train tickets for a day out later in the month to meet my relative who is visiting from overseas 3/1
£7.98 Samsung charging cables 5/1
£2.50 toy for my little boy 6/1
£2.63 veg from the local fruit & veg shop (should have gone on the food shop, but had cash) 6/1
£4.69 sweets for work (not proud of this one) 6/1
= £38.10 + 3 x NSDs

It's taking me a wee while to get back in the swing of things. I am also trying desperately not to fall into the habit of treating myself as I'm working extra hours - tricky! And it's hard to resist the 50p cans of fizzy juice in the works fridge - got to keep chugging that water!

I am going to try for a super frugal week - watch this space!

Yesterday was a low-spend day! Prefer low spending as NSD going to be hard as each day I need bus fare and so on.

£21.19 in Iceland
£9 in local DIY shop (2 keys cut and some picture hooks)

The Iceland spend was because they had the 10 for £10 so filled the freezer and saved £15. We should have more than enough in now for the month (apart from bread and milk)

Last night we had a family get-together so didn't need any tea, today is the same so no cooking and no food used. Have already cooked tomorrow's tea so DD only has to put the oven on - grabbing a takeaway because we are all working late is a big issue so I am trying to cook a day ahead to prevent this!

Today should be a proper no-spend day as we are really busy out and about and have tea sorted :)

Back to work tomorrow though after 10 days off :/ As someone said above, increasing incomings is something we are always focusing on and hoping that will pay off for us the early part of this year.

Loving the hints and tips on here! Loads of little changes I can make to help out!

Tx

It's great reading all your posts, to get inspiration and motivation!
Doing the no spend months last year really helped me get a bit of a grip on things. Although I was really disappointed this year with my low increase in savings. There was no excuse for it t all except laziness and taking my eye off the ball.

Something I can really recommend if you're staying in more is Ramit Sethi: I can teach you to be rich on Netflix.

He deals with massively different couples- and it's just good to watch and make you think about yourself a bit.

I'm currently floundering a bit without a clear goal.

I have a lot of big expenses I want to make this year. Specifically a big holiday (going to be £5000 all in), and new windows, haven't asked for quotes but I'm assuming around £10,000.

I don't really know if I'm just generally aiming to save lots and pay it all off this year. But then my savings won't grow, but they shouldn't go down either.

It feels a bit bleak to think I've got a whole year of extreme saving.

But I took my eye off the ball for a few months last year, and my spending went bananas.

The biggest expense is food shopping. There are 6 of us (blended family so all children not here at all times). If I don't make an effort it's over £700 a month.

This month it's already £250. And we need to go today to get food for tonight and the rest of the week.

In food shop I also count toiletries and cleaning products.

Yesterday was an extreme day as predicted. Spent £10 on essentials like bread and soap.

But close to £1000 on holiday deposits and club fees.

Today's plan: make lunches for next couple of days - so there can be a NSD on Monday and Tuesday at least.

For the first time ever I feel I’m getting to grips with my money. I’m consciously watching what I spend it on. Mainly the kids for getting out the house and then the odd coffee, treat out, which all adds up. I’ve had 3 NSD days in a row which I’m so pleased about!

I’m also doing the thing one MN said about putting £3.65 then reducing it daily into a separate savings account so I can see how much I have saved the end of the year. It’s really inspired me!

I too can recommend the Netflix show with Remit Sethi and I’ve just bought his book.

Hatty65 I excused myself popping in to Tesco or B&M most days and spending £30 or so, but I was buying an awful lot of stuff that looked nice rather than was actually needed.Were you buying food?

Some of it, yes. But not necessarily things we needed - often things that were 'on offer' that you thought 'Ooh, that looks tasty'. In B&M it was too easy to go in for, say, cheap tins of soup and come out with a cushion and a candle on top!

NSD for me today. It's very cold here, and we've not gone out. Eaten out of the freezer/fridge. DD2 has been round and told me she's got a budget app on her phone. I'm not very technical, but I might see about putting one on. I think she just records everything she spends (or the total per shop) and then you can actually see - 'I thought I'd done really well this month, but actually in total I've spent £60 on coffee/cake'.

I think it might help me.

Yes @Hatty65 I've had a budget app on my phone since doing no spend January last year.

It's really helpful. I'm. Using Spending Wallet.

It's free, but I don't know if there are better one's people would recommend.

It's been really useful to see how much I spend on groceries, and to track that across all the months.

In my bad phase I stopped updating it, but I've been back on it from October.

It's made me realise how much money flows out my account- and actually the kids clubs and equipment costs me an absolute bomb.

But like a PP said, I don't want to stop that as it's sport clubs and really good for them.

The spend I allow for myself includes counselling- that's £160 a month. once I've done that and haircut etc - literally no money left.

01.01—06.01 6 NSDs

Spends: part of a birthday present; (99p) necessary heated poncho for poorly person (£65).

Main achievement: conversation with DH about finances. No decisions but, given the backstory, this is major. I'll need to tread the invisible line of being open and non-pressurising while remaining firm that we need a budget.

Hi all, checking in and catching up.

This weeks total
Monday £63 panto tickets (for Dec, I always book this early to get our choice of dates and seats)

Tuesday NSD (was meant to be going to London with friends but weather was awful so we went to their house and the children played for six hours while we drank tea and chatted, bliss!)

Wednesday £14.75 local museum tickets and kids pack (had already agreed to go with a friend, plus side is the tickets are valid for a year now so free day out next school holiday)

Thursday £88.43 Tesco shop (went through and deleted as much as I could, still have loads of treats left over and planning to bake some snacks)

£15.65 brunch with a friend (again already previously planned)

£65 two pairs of shoes for the children (trainers that were needed for school and sandals on sale that will be used this year and I would normally spend double on)

£21.50 Asda online for pants, tights, a blanket and a bed sheet (again all needed and took extra items out of my basket)

Friday £13.18 Lidl shop for bits I had forgotten on the Tesco shop. Bit annoying and contemplated not going but really did need the ingredients and didn't go off list at all

Saturday £15.10 fun swim session for me and the children. Feel ok about this as they both loved it and got us out of the house and expended some energy!

Sunday NSD, and made £32 listing bits for sale and gave away loads after a huge playroom clear out. I'm a childminder so was a good stock take of what we actually have and how I don't need anything else!

Feeling good this week, I've also said I'll work extra tomorrow as it's a training day here so have two children in all day and I'll make about £115 I wasn't expecting so all good!

Today I've spent £15 on a birthday present, and then watching a sports event with friends £19.50 (£3.50 parking, £10 meal and drink, £6 raffle tickets and drinks in the venue). All planned spends.

On the plus side I had bought myself a couple of books for Christmas from TK Maxx. They've still got the stickers on and I have the receipt - they cost me £19 and I've found them online for less than half that so I've ordered them and will return the ones to TK Maxx. I could just return them and not order the replacements but they were my present to myself and I really want to read them.

I'm feeling inspired by having sold £30 of stuff on Vinted so far and I'll be looking to see what else I can add!!

Planning a NSD tomorrow and Tuesday 😊

it's really motivating to read about everyone's accountability.
after several nsd today was grocery shopping, nothing extra and $10.61 under budget to that was immediately transferred onto the mortgage/loc now sitting at $368.49/500. it looks highly likely i will surpass my goal for the month and set a high bar for months to come.

Oh and I meant to say, Ramit Sethi has a YouTube channel too if you don't have Netflix or have his book.

7 Jan update: NSD for personal spends. I did a top-up grocery shop today, which came from the joint account.

Just checked my spend since payday on 29 Dec, and I’ve spent a total of £1,022:

• £850 to joint account for bills
• £50 to savings
• £70 DD’s art class payment
• £52 on personal spends - more than I thought!

checking in and catching up.

So far we’ve had no unnecessary spends and managed to reduce the food spends so far by concentrating on using what we’ve got in the cupboard and freezer.

There have been a few sulks from the ds but they are slowly getting used to the idea of not being able to just “pop to the coop for a pizza/etc” whenever we feel like it.

@2024Hackathon that’s sounds like a really tough situation with your dh. Hope you manage to make progress, however slow.

@rainydays1234 Thanks! I'll check that one out. It's too easy (in some ways) to post on here about what/how little you've spent, and then realise over a month that little things can add up.

(Full disclosure - after having posted at 16.40 that this was a NSD I then spent £3.99 on Amazon this evening on some double sided sewing tape which I need for a zipped box cushion cover I'm making for a conservatory chair. I could probably manage without, but it will be neater and make a better job to just actually spend that money!)

NSD today but that’s because I didn’t leave the house. I did declutter the utility room, which I’m very proud of, even if it is the smallest room in the house, it had the most clutter. Feel productive after that🙂

Night out with a few friends last night so I spent €39.Totally unnecessary but enjoyable. They wanted to go for a meal but I swayed them to drinks only to try to not spend too much.
Visited a friend yesterday afternoon and spent €8 on a cake to bring with me.

Back to work tomorrow, so hoping to have a good few SPDs this week.

I’m enjoying reading all the posts and getting ideas. I think I’ll do the €3.65 in Revolut. Love this idea.
Will also look up that programme on Netflix.
Feeling motivated

SPD= NSD (typo)

NSD yesterday. Will be some spends today as we need kindling and wood for the fire and I have my DGD for the day (INSET cover) so I expect there will be some treats

May have fell into the online sales over the weekend , some boots and a couple of pairs of summer shoes ( they will be worn and were a very good price )
Feeling motivated to do as many low or non spend days as possible for the rest of the month.

I have resisted popping into the shops for little top up shops through the week
Best of luck for another week everyone 😃

£6.40 yesterday for me which is good going

6 NSDs out of 8 this month so far.

I class a "Spend Day" as a day with non essential or non recurring payments/spends and these have totalled £39 which I am pretty pleased with.

Medium spend weekend. Finished buying things for ds2's birthday. Just need a cake and I'm finished 😊 His birthday is this weekend, we normally go to the cinema then get lunch, but there's nothing on he wants to watch. Suggested bowling, but he wants to go shopping and spend some Xmas and birthday money, then lunch out 🙂 Gonna have a couple of NSDs to compensate lol Got my lunches in to take to work this week 👍

I've come fully armed into work today with:
2x rolls filled with Christmas cheese
1 x slice of Christmas cake
1 x apple
1 x bag of sugar snap peas raided from fridge

Also got 1 x chocolate bar in my desk

And we get free tea and coffee

So hopefully can manage a NSD today!!