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!

Would have been a NSD but a sneaky paypal pay in 3 has arrived. £39 out.

@@chimichangaz by your own admission you didn't need to buy the pen/desk mat. Was the Mc D essential or could you have rustled something up at home ? Could you have have parked a bit further away/walked and not paid car parking ? you could have saved £14.50 in total. Think of what that is in terms of the percentage of your weekly food bill. That's how I try to justify my non-spend.
Can you sell the £20 cartridges that don't work ? they may have bene opened but if unused then someone might buy them, even if only £5, it something.

£48 in Lidl for weekly shop. It would have been £56 but I put back the seat pads I picked up. They were nice but I didn't need them so frugal win!

@grannycake it's amazing how much you can save if you take a hard look at your shopping trolley and put back all the things that are not necessary.
I am scraping together whatever I can food wise at home, in a desperate bid to not go to the shops/spend as much on food.

All really good points. Spending on stationery is a real weak point for me especially when I'm stressed. The McDonald's I could have passed on and done something cheap at home, definitely. Car parking was a non negotiable as it was the city centre and no free parking.
But good to round it up to £14.50 and think what else that could have paid for...

I don't want to spend anything else this month, but for Jan I've still got:

x2 weekly foods shops to feed 5 of us
a relatives milestone birthday which means I will spend a bit more than usual
a meal out for said birthday, this will inc drinks, food & cost of taxis's. Not going or not drinking & driving is not an option (very long story)
drinks in with friends, we will need to buy some drinks

Managed a NSD, spent some time window shopping online on Wayfair this evening but just saved items for looking at again much further down the line. Was still enjoyable.
Tomorrow I have to buy a packet of biscuits, but that’s it. Weekend should be frugal, nothing planned.

@MrsShortbread I really worried about a part of the driving test where you have to follow directions from a map. I don't think they can fail you on this part though. I find Google maps easier to follow than someone saying left and right as I can look at where to go rather than thinking about left and right. It has taken me years to get really confident driving!
I have had issues with direction/ coordination/ telling time/ tying shoe laces but think my issues are due to never being taught as a child. I'm now married with children, drive and have a half-decent job!

How is this month shaping up for you all?

As we're just a week and a half to go I feel I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

For me I have MASSIVELY used my savings as there has been 3 or 4 massive spends which have come out: house renovations, holidays, and birthdays.

The wins are:

• my dedication in making packed lunches has reduced my 'eating out' spend from around £280 a month to currently £8.55.

(However I'm going out for dinner tonight and brunch tomorrow- and may have one meal to buy (family of 6) next weekend. So I should really wait until the end of the month before I celebrate.) But I'm proud of my dedication with the packed lunches in any case.

• this leads onto: reduction in supermarket spend. With me raiding the fridge every day to feed myself and my children- you would expect the supermarket spend to go up. I was already on £250 on 2nd January. And had somehow managed 3 big supermarket shops in that time 🤷‍♀️

But I battened down the hatches, and my current supermarket spend is £315. Really proud of this as it includes toiletries and cleaning products too etc. I've tracked my spending over the course of the year (normally spend £600-£700+ a month. But the best way to save is only popping in for what you need each time and not doing a big weekly shop. That was costing about £150 a week, and I still needed to pop in regularly for bits and pieces.

• final win is that with my organised packed lunches and food shopping I've naturally ended up cutting out sugary treats and have slimmed down!! Also DP doing dry January so we haven't been drinking either- saves money and improves my health.

So it's good to look back at the month at the moment and be pleased about these elements at least.

@scoopdewhoop thanks for sharing. I’ll help her with practice, and she’s happy in her own skin that everyone has strengths and weaknesses.

@rainydays1234 that’s a brilliant change re lunches! And your supermarket spending too, well done. Even if money spent does have to go up more before the month end, changing your mindset/habits are result-making long term.

I’m hoping to finish the month £500 better off than the start of the month - and need to remember that I’ve also managed within the month to pay outright on the spur of the moment for our first holiday in twenty years (£950 and wheelchair friendly) so in actual fact I’ve done really, really well. Very nervous about the holiday though!

@rainydays1234 For me, despite being careful we haven't quite got to the end of the month in credit! I'm not sure what else I could have done, as I've really tried to watch what I'm spending and not buy anything unnecessary. I'm hoping Feb will be easier (and obviously shorter). I have got £14 left in the current account, and get paid on 23rd, so I could technically manage it, but I have to go get a prescription today for two items, so that's about £19. I've transferred £100 back out of savings (I try and put £150 a month in there, so I've still technically saved £50).

I was hoping to have around £250 left this month but a couple of things like a year's AA membership have gone out and we spent quite a lot between Christmas payday and New Year driving 400 miles to the inlaws for a week.

I'm determined to stick with this!

How much do people usually spend at the weekend with the kids?
My kids are perfectly happy doing free or low cost activities then I'll get an attack of mum guilt when I talk to others that seem to go to attractions/ cinema/ shows every single weekend!
Spent £111 on our food shopping for 4 and a cat for the week. Thought that was quite good for us!

@scoopdewhoop I rarely spend anything at the weekends. Once a month we’ll visit a cafe so the children can practice their social manners but other than that nope. Beach/walks/parks with snacks from home. Teens don't ask for money either - they tend to just hang out at home at weekends or save for a day out from their own money. Only paid weekend activity would be swimming.

Less now than I used to for a few reasons

my oldest is working about 8 hours over weekend.
I split with their dad a few years ago so he sees them as well
Youngest is more social than oldest so she often just takes herself out with friends to the local town

So I would say when they were both under 11/12 we would often go to a farm or out somewhere but now it's very rare. Does cost more when we do though!

rainydays - you're doing well on so many fronts.

MrsShortbread - in actual fact I’ve done really, really well.

I'm impressed by so many posters here. It's so helpful to read about what others are doing and to pick up ideas to adopt and adapt.

@2024Hackathon I think I was spending far too much on little spends at the local shops that were basically fizzy/chocs for teens or sparkling water for me as I felt they ask for so little and are basically really good people. Bad habits.

Our new spend month starts tomorrow (I get paid 20th so we run it from 20th - 19th). Pleased to say we’ve ended the month £500 less than budgeted for (which we REALLY needed to do given we are undertaking building works presently and renting alongside paying our mortgage.

a fun free activity with the kids is geocaching if peeps haven’t tried it - take a flask and snacks

Oooh I love Geocaching! Good idea @Fbifan

Updates fit the past two days:

18 Jan: £4 in bus fares and £4.35 in the pub (just a J2O and a packet of crisps) while DD was at her class.

19 Jan: NSD - took a packed lunch to work. Had plans to go for a drink after work with colleagues but cancelled as I’m coming down with a cold.

I hadn’t quite twigged that it’s only 1.5 weeks until the end of January. I started the month over £400 overdrawn, and right now it’s looks as though I’ll end it around £200 overdrawn. I’ve definitely thought more about what I’m spending my money on. However, this month was the easy task of only looking at my personal spends, so next month I’ll be looking at our joint spending including food.

@Fbifan yes, geocaching should be more widely recommended!

i remain on track, no online or store purchases other than food today.
slightly under budget for the day so $9.10 transferred onto the mortgage (if it was an even $10 i would have considered the property tax or maybe the savings).
good news my pension income has a cost of living clause, so as of this month my income goes up by $50.
nothing owing on my cc, and last time i check with spender dh his was fine also.
all expected bills paid for this month (cell phone/security system/tv cable) came out today.
at this point i'm surprised as to the headway i've made.

£45 in Home Bargains - a mix of kindling, toiletries, pet stuff and some food for the campervan as we are going away at the end of the month

£4 on Amazon for 2 kindle books

Another £17 on Amazon for 6 months supply of toilet rolls

Yesterday I only spent £23 on my haircut (rescheduled from last week as the hairdresser hadn't actually made the appointment I thought they had!).

I'm coming to realise my mindset is a huge factor in my spending - for example I'd thought about nipping into Sainsbury's while I was near there - but I needed absolutely nothing. I would have just spent money.

There are things I've thought this week 'ooh I need one of those' (jumper defuzzer for example). Things like that are going on a list so I can review it when I have some money to spend and can think about whether I actually need it.

yucky weather, so an nsd. today's allotted budget transferred onto property taxes. so $1200 sitting in that account, property taxes are based on the assessed value of the home and land so i will only put $2.5K in there which will bring me close enough that the final $300-600 is manageable.