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!

Been productive with cooking and baking today.
Homemade crumpets
Sticky ginger cake
X3 lasagnas (1 for dinner tonight, 2 for freezer)
X4 beef goulash (for freezer)

Freezer has some other pre prepped leftovers like veg curry and soup already, and a pizza.

So next week im hoping to spend very little at the supermarket. Just milk, fruit, yogurt and bread hopefully.

As we have been home all day. 0 spend day

@2024Hackathon. Nice idea about the neighbours, but sadly, we only have a couple and they are elderly. I would feel uncomfortable about going and asking them to cook something for me. In all honesty I don't have frozen pizza or ready meals, so it would have been very tricky. I just cook from scratch, which you can't really do in someone else's home.

I caved and sent DS for a Chinese for us all. Which was £28. 😥DH was tired, covered in dust and just wanted something substantial and comforting after a day of pulling ceilings down.

It's still looking chaotic - still got the plasterboard to get up there! But hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to use the kitchen at least.

I caved and sent DS for a Chinese for us all. Which was £28.

That's quite reasonable! I'd expect most takeaways to be at least £60 near me (and that would be for probably inadequate food which is why we're not even tempted).

Good luck with the ceiling and the clean-up.

Shopping yesterday was about £64. Today I've 'just' spent on Starbucks £21.50. A group of us were giving up our Saturday to clear the garden in the house my ds is moving to so this was a small price to pay!!

I had chicken curry for dinner which I made yesterday. I also froze a portion- win win!!

Just spent €15 for ds hair cut today, so essential spend only.
Not going too bad so far.

minimal spend under $6, so over $93 transferred onto debt.
in some ways a good day although with so many low spend days i'm sure there will be a few tight ones coming up.

£429 spent yesterday on Eurotunnel booking for end of the month - already had this in our travel fund

Making paella with left over chicken and prawns from freezer for dinner today - otherwise I need to spend £7 on coffee for the coming week

Hope the kitchen is sorted today @Hatty65 !

Update for yesterday (13 Jan): NSD. I went into town to take a bag of old toys to the charity shop, but walked there and back as it was a sunny (though cold) day. Spent the rest of the day at home, so no other costs.

As it’s about halfway through the month, I’m going to do a summary of spend to date today and see how I’m doing.

Weekend no-spend. And pleasant - good walks, cosy fires, nice comfort food, loved ones for company. Blessings. Think it’s pmt time coming up though as feel a bit tearful and want to spend on something, anything! Will look at my bank balance instead 😆.

Have managed last week to get my credit card to zero, but my god I'm having to be tight with money to get bank balance up a bit now.

Is it a need to be tight or more mindful, IYSWIM?

That recent exchange about 'normal' less considered spending being @ £27.40 a day which is just over £10k a year was very sobering.

Even £5 a day (Starbucks level in the example) is @ £2K a year.

It all comes down to decisions and having to think through every little thing for its future and present consequences is tiring and less joyful than being pleased in the moment. (These are the conversations I have with DH that don't necessarily apply to other people.)

Hi, can I join in please. I have been lurking in the background and following your no/low spend journeys. I am doing a low rather than a no spend. My wages will be decreasing due to overtime being stopped so trying to adjust to accommodate this loss. I did do a low spend 23 but this fizzled out towards the end of the summer, but it allowed me to get some debt paid off and to gain a little savings for emergencies. I just need to get back into the mind set of buying what I need rather than mindless spending.

I have a stocked freezer and try to cook most things from scratch and batch cook. In theory I should only need a few things to get us to the end of the month.

This weekend I have spent £13 on swimming for me and DS and £51 on food shopping. Was looking in the sales on the high street but managed to talk myself out of it.

@2024Hackathon I know exactly what you mean about having to think about the future being less joyful than spending in the moment. Life with your DH sounds difficult, and I do hope things get easier for both you and him with the money situation.

I'm lucky that DH is an amiable sort who is easy going about either splurging or accepting that we don't have the money (I tend to do the budgeting). Both of us are spenders rather than savers by nature, so this has been a tricky fortnight so far - occasional bursts of smug good feeling, followed by grumpiness that I haven't had nice treats! The Chinese was nice last night - it's roughly about £7 for a main dish, so we had 3 main meals, 1 fried rice and one bag of chips that we shared - and actually DS then came in from a night out and ate up everything we had left, so there was no waste.

Today I have spent £2 on a bar of Marvellous Creations Dairy Milk - which I have been craving since about Thursday night. Had to go out to take lunch to DS at work, and stopped at the shop and treated myself. All direct debits are out for the month and I have just under £300 left for the next 10 days til payday. We can probably get buy on buying just bread/milk and essentials til then. Might need a bit of fuel, but I'm hopeful that I might be able to put £250 away this month at least, which is positive, although I've just remembered I think I'm booked in for a haircut next weekend!

Another NSD
Been at work
Drank their coffee
Had food at home to take

@Grey13 Welcome! I'm pretty much doing the same as you - I know our income is dropping drastically this year and we just need to stop buying anything that isn't really essential if we're to cope.

I'm not sure what is going to happen, but I'm probably looking at having to retire early on ill health grounds, so it's difficult to say what income we are going to have. Except that it will be a LOT less, so we need to buckle up!

@Hatty65 Thank you. We are lucky that even with no overtime we can cover the bills but we can't continue to spend like we have done and some things will have to be cut. What a worry for you not knowing the exact figure, makes it so much harder to forward plan. Sorry to hear about your ill health.

We are both spenders rather than savers as a rule and DH has a pretty bad Amazon habit. We are at least on the same page about reducing spending but I feel I might be a little more strict on what I class as essential and especially with the central heating.

Decided to walk to Aldi instead of drive today. It meant I could only buy what I could carry, which turns out to be about £13 of bread, fruit, and crisps. Not exactly going to help with dinner but at least it kept the top up shop spend low this time.

Evening all, just catching up. I've had a pretty good week, kept on track. I'm a childminder and needed sone resources for the next few months for activities. I posted on local groups asking for specific things and have been offered quite a bit. I have been making lists of what I want and went to the local charity shops Friday. I spent about £10 but got loads of bits I was looking for and didn't go off list! I've reserved a load of books from the library too instead of buying.
I've also made about £20 on Vinted and marketplace this week.
Feeling good and I've been spreading the word on no/low spend and my friend resisted a coffee at the garden centre too!

Bought 2 x 99p kindle books this morning - browsed a few others I was tempted by but resisted, which I'm pleased about.

Spent £23 on Starbucks again as we had a family meeting about a tricky issue.

This afternoon I paid £3.50 for parking, £10 for a pre sports game meal and drink with friends and then £2.10 on a drink at the game. I have a season ticket so the game is already paid for.

Have managed to keep away from Amazon in the main, even though I'm really keen to buy a candle making kit!! But I have made £32.50 on Vinted which I think I'll save up.

14 Jan update: NSD today for me - DH and I went out for a coffee while DD was at a playdate, but he paid so it didn’t count towards my personal spends, which is all I’m tracking this month.

Tired after a long week so bought a packet of chips 3.00 and cooked sausage and veg from the freezer with gravy rather than spending 20.00 on a chippy tea on Friday. Got a bundle of books for 10.00 as new for a birthday present for dn who will be delighted. Will also give her a voucher. Eating up freezer stuff. Need to buy fresh fruit and veg tomorrow. Keep going everyone!

I feel like I've been trying hard and doing well but then realised tonight I have very little spare money left and we are not even halfway until my next payday. Slightly sobering realisation!

Well this weekend hasn't gone as planned spending wise 😬. I'm doing a personal improvement thing this year and have bought a journal to track my goals. My financial goals will be in there too. I took the DDs to Boots to spend their Xmas vouchers and ended up picking up some toiletries that I wasn't desperate for but they will get used. I also ended up paying £1 for a trolley token for the gym lockers, annoying but I'll keep it for future trips.

nsd over here, not because we don’t need anything but because it’s to bloody cold to venture out, warmer than a few days ago but still -20C.
daily budget money transferred onto debt. If we don’t spend it, I save it.