No spend January?

[Psychoticbreak]

There used to be no spend threads every month on here although I appreciate Dec is a hard one. For me I am going to try not to overspend this month and clear off the credit card in full again as it was zero balance up till xmas.

Anyone else with me?
Stilly possibly to class Christmas day as a no spend but that was my day one and I spent nothing yesterday either.

I just did a grocery shop, with very little meat as I have a load in the freezer, and not a load of veg as my garden is producing quite a bit right now (summer here, and I have my own chickens so cheap eggs) and I can't believe how much it cost, an insane $377 (Aussie).

But I bought some spices to pickle some of my cucumbers and to bulk make some home made dumplings (which can be frozen) so that will help stretch my dollar. I bought a few extra items that were on clearance and sale to put in my storage cupboard and freezer for later, so saving money on the long term.

I'm gonna try to do this, save a bit of cash

We have far too much stuff, including food

@coxesorangepippin I hear you on the food thing. I need to reign it in.

Signing up for this.

I wasted a lot of money on food this Christmas, partly because adult DC couldn’t be pinned down as to exactly when they were arriving, what they would be doing whilst here food wise, or when they would be leaving…

I do really well, then I think I get bored and splash out on a load of Amazon shit I don’t need, or M and S clothes via the app. Maybe I should delete the apps from my phone.

I recently started overpaying my mortgage by maximum permissible, and hope to have it gone within five years, by which time I will be 63. I get a lot of annual leave and am going to try to freelance for half of it in 2024.

Two mini breaks planned but that will be it for holidays. Just posting to keep myself accountable and hopefully pick up tips from more accomplished money managers.

I’m in. Really need to stop spending so frivolously

I'd like to join, please.

I want to cut down on groceries and I need to ban myself from popping into Heron on my way to work.

DS's irthday coming up this month but he is 19 this time, so won't be buying him anything extravagant. He's requested a new hoodie so that's fine.

Younger DS is still growing but and hopefully, I won't have to buy him any clothes this month.

Ok day one. I have just checked the bank and it turns out that frugal Jan has to happen cos there is nothing in there lol I also checked the scale and that reminds me why there is no money in my bank... been a bit of a christmas piggy it seems.

I spent 50quid on shite yesterday

And it’s so easy to do , and habit forming. I have clothes I’ve never worn, books I’ve not read, Xmas pressies I forgot who they were for and shoes still in their tissue paper. I’ve even got to the point of not returning shite coz I can’t be arsed with the hassle of it. If I added up the cost of it all I’d have to go and lie down in a darkened room.

But it must change, not just the waste of it but I’m running out of room to keep it.

As my grandmother used to say, less is more. I’ll dig out a pic of her to remind me.

Last year I reigned in the spending on crap I will not wear etc and that worked. I think I currently only have one pair of boots that I have not worn and maybe two tops but thats cos I look pregnant in them as my spending on food is ridiculous. I mean ridiculous. I cannot walk into a shop and buy what I went in for and up till now finances have allowed this however with the cost of everything rising including my mortgage I just have to cop the eff on.

I’m in! Horrendous at keeping any money in the bank saving but we have a big family holiday to Australia this summer so should probably put something aside for that 🫠

Officially starting today.
reading the comments about clothes made me remember I need to sort my wardrobe out. I have a wardrobe full of clothes but only ever wear a few old favourites (old jeans and cheap baggy T-shirts) and save everything else for ‘best’ or going out, BUT,
im a boring old fart and never go out and would much rather curl up in front of the telly with dh so those clothes never get worn.

So this year when the old favourites finally fall apart (which is already happening) I will not replace them with more of the same and will use up the nice stuff which tbh will probably cheer me up abit too.

A few may require losing a few lbs but that will help with the food budget. 😄

It’s Amazon and the whole surfing from your phone thing, fatal !.

I’ve decided that I will have to actually go to the shops , if they still exist, when I want to buy something, certainly clothes etc. That’ll kerb my enthusiasm.

I'm in. I'm pregnant so also in for dry January 🤣

It's not boding well for me already but I'm staying strong. I'm about to take the dogs to the park for their walk & I was thinking 'ooh I could really do with a takeaway coffee' 🙈

I’m in! Just posted that I am cutting down on alcohol for health reasons but equally it’s to save money - my usual choice of drink is wine which isn’t cheap! Also need to sell some stuff rather than keep buying things I don’t need eg jewellery. I’m like a magpie! We’ll be trying to use up food in the freezer, cook more from scratch & have fewer takeaways although we don’t have many to be fair.

OK, I'm going to sound really dim here, but what do you mean by no spend year? Literally nothing but bills and food??
I can't picture getting through 12 months without wearing through a pair of shoes, so I'd need to replace them. Ditto, kids take a stretch and need longer trousers.
How do you plan to not buy these things? Even a no spend month, if a pair of my work trousers get holey in the thigh next week, I'd need to replace them, as I can't survive with just one pair of trousers for a week.

So, how do you envision not replacing anything for a year? Is it not setting yourself up for failure? Because I honestly can't picture how it could work.

@SnowsFalling dunno cos this is just a no spend jan thread. No spend as in nothing we do not need to buy. There is one on no spend year I think too though.

For me it means stopping and thinking before buying things.

Do I really need it?

I want to avoid all unnecessary expenditure.

Everyone's starting point is different. For example I own so many pairs of trousers that I probably don't need to buy any for two or three years (unless my size changes significantly).

But obviously if the kettle breaks or my most used skincare products run out, I'll replace them. I just want to stop buying things that are wants but not needs, and to generally become more mindful about it all.

I replace like for like. If I run out of moisturiser or need a new pair of shoes, that's not a problem. It's just about avoiding excess if you're prone to walking into a shop and coming out with variations of what you already own or non essentials that you won't love or use in a few weeks.

No buy/low buy are generally used interchangeably but are somewhat different.

NSD today and using up leftovers and store cupboard bits and pieces. Deleted Amazon from my phone as well, its just too tempting. I have also decided to leave at least 24 hours reflection time between seeing and buying.

I find I’m far more discerning buying clothes and shoes if I go to an actual shop than I am buying online.

I'm going to sound really dim here, but what do you mean by no spend year? Literally nothing but bills and food??

As above, I've restricted this to some areas of spending. Recent accidents and general aging mean that we have family members who need an increase in care. Overall, we've got increased expenditure and unavoidable new costs of @ £80-120 a week. We need to try and recoup this from other areas of spending as much as we can. We've cancelled some subscriptions and need to cut back on other outgoings.

Hope I'm not too late to join you? I have some big unavoidable bills coming up and I probably need to do more than a no spend January, but it's a start. A no spend day today and I'm working from home this week so I'm hoping it will help me to avoid take-away coffee and charity shops, which are both my downfall!

We moved house last Jan and it enabled us to clear off a lot of debt we had build up over years. Unfortunately I’ve ended up putting money back on my credit card as paid for our holiday deposit and emergency vets bill (some can be claimed back via insurance but the excess is still quite high)
our mortgage is quite high (thankfully we fixed for 5 years) but our energy bill and water is going up this month as we’ve used more than we were originally estimated for.

I can pick up overtime shifts but due to the stress this causes me I don’t really want to have to do this so trying to spend as little as possible this month

@SnowsFalling It’s more accurately a No Unnecessary Spends, rather than No Spends at all,
So stuff like - I have a regular online delivery for food each week, but its much cheaper now I’ve taken all the rubbish and frivolous stuff out. The car has to go in for its Mot this month but I’m combining saving on petrol with being healthier by walking instead of using the car when possible.