Mindful Spending May (low buy/no buy)

[moimichme]

Rolling forward from previous months, please join us in attempting to stay on the straight and narrow with our May budgets and money goals.

All welcome!

April thread link here:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/cost_of_living/5042866-affordable-april

I've checked my habit checker for April and it says I had 13 no spend days last month, which is quite good even if I didn't 100% keep to budget due to work travel fun and gifts for ds and DH to Edinburgh last weekend.

None so far in May, but hopefully I can keep my streak of having at least 2 NSDs per week.

Spends so far this month:
£5 coffee with a work colleague
£1.75 snacks at work
£82 skincare for me and ds

Sent money to savings (paying myself first) on payday and hoping I won't have to touch it at all this month.

Saving up for expenses during our trip to visit family in the U.S. this summer.

My only spending days in April involved buying tickets to celebrate DH's birthday this month and to pay for an event and his travel to it as a pre-birthday celebration. I think I had 27 or 28 NSDs.

I'm twitching to spend something as a controlled indulgence because although there are lots of advantages to the restrained spending I'm beginning to feel a little bit as if I'm living a very restricted life.

I'm considering an outing on Saturday for which I can get some discounted tickets.

April was pretty disastrous for me everything seemed to be against me -moneywise. So roll on May!! Not that I think May will be much better as we are booked for a 10 day holiday later this month.
I'm due for a night out with meal and entertainment included tomorrow and it's already paid for but............ I've lost a fair bit of weight and nothing I had fitted properly so splashed out on a new outfit but can take that on holiday too. So refuse to feel guilty about it! But will be selling a lot more stuff on Vinted when we get back. Have done reasonably well with Vinted this month but did also buy some bit and pieces too - so swings and roundabouts there.
The only real positive thing last month was that we had some new 0% offers so have done a shuffle and cut the interest so the difference can go to the capital. Small steps!!
Because of the holiday, we are already onto eating food from the freezer and cupboard to try avoid shopping and run everything down. It won't all last till we go but can then meal plan the last few days or starve!!
Need to buy plenty of cat food and cat litter for my neighbour who is on cat duty for us and have been picking up sun cream and the like - so not too much more to worry about there.

April was a spendy month. However my savings realisations from earlier months meant I had the cash on hand. Still paying myself first but may will be tough.
already paid this month, new booster seats for small child €110, car tax€160’ outdoor cushion storage bags, new water bottle for small child and colouring book €65. Also €35 needed for graduation photos.

went for coffee in work today and got a bagel. Really didn’t need to do that and didn’t overly enjoy it so planning to avoid that as much as possible.

we are going on holiday and I’d booked accommodation that’s free cancellation and luckily the place we stayed last year now has availability so I enquired about that and will book once I get the contract. It’s €200 cheaper which will cover our airport transfers. We are going at the end of the month so I’ll be using up the fridge so groceries should be minimal.

ive 2 social events in may so my personal sinking funds will take a dip. I just need to keep an eye on other purchases. I’ve definitely felt the purse strings loosening since last month.

Joining you, if that's okay? I'm due to retire soon and I'd like to make sure that I stay on track.
I've had a NSD today and I'm aiming for 2 or 3 a week.
I'm in credit on my Octopus account so I'm going to request a transfer back and put that in a separate savings pot to cover next winter, if I need it.
May is an expensive month with several birthdays but I've started a 'Christmas and birthdays' savings pot so I hope it won't be too painful.
I use a cash back site and I've just discovered that instead of having the cash back paid into my account I can opt to have it in vouchers for all sorts of different places, with a % increase, depending on who it is. Not huge, but every little helps. I'm hoping to save it for Christmas to cover the treats

Spends so far:
A McDonalds breakfast after a stressful morning yesterday. Shows how useful these threads are as I had the same craving this morning and thinking about this thread stopped me!
Today bought some bolts for a house repair, and did the big Lidl shop, I do not want to go to the shops for the next two weeks! Other than milk and fresh veg which are delivered weekly I think we are stocked up for meals for us and for me to cook some freezer meals for a relative who’s recovering from surgery. That’s my plan for the weekend so I should avoid spending tomorrow and Saturday. Today was an ESD (essential spend day) except I did buy wine and chocolate. Not strictly an essential but it felt it after the week I’ve had at work!

Welcome to the thread, everyone - good to see some new and some familiar names. The more, the merrier! Accountability to our goals - even anonymously on the internet - can really help.

Hack that is an incredible number of NSDs in April - well done! I know you have some serious future finance goals, but loosening the strings a wee bit seems sensible - it's hard to be so strict all the time. And going to a show or performance sounds very fun - I hope you can buy the tickets and enjoy yourself. 😊

Packed my lunch and aiming for a NSD. Work will be busy so that will help me avoid temptations. Good luck everyone!

Thank you for the new thread! May isn't going to be a low spend month for me. Just had a "big" birthday myself and been out the last two evenings. A friend has a birthday party this weekend, though I have already paid for Premier Inn and train. I then have another party at the end of the month and I need to buy a gift.
I have got two cat sitting jobs this month which will be extra in but Cat in a Flat take 19% of the money! One may be looking for a regular sitter so long term that may work out well, I'll see.
I did manage a no spend day on Monday and Tuesday only spent £2.

Thank you for the new thread!

I had 27 NSDs last month, I'm hoping to have similar this month. I've done my budget and working a month ahead so normal expenses already covered from last months pay. I have given myself spending money allowance but I'm enjoying seeing the savings go up so I will try not to spend for the sake of it.

Just half term at the end of the month but I signed up for a free national trust family ticket which hopefully if the weather improves will cover a day out.

Good luck this month everyone 🙂

Wow, @psuedocream3, that's a lot of NSDs for you, too!

I did manage one NSD yesterday and so far with the rubbish weather and ds' rubbish mood today, I may manage to have another. I want to go for a run this afternoon, but that is free, and nothing else is currently planned. Hoping for nicer weather soon - getting very sick of these grey clouds!!

Also thanks for new thread @moimichme

I’m in awe of @2024Hackathon and @psuedocream3 ’s NSD records! Aspirational!

Did not avoid the mcds breakfast yesterday morning. Another early start and I was offsite (no access to coffee!!).
I did however postpone veg delivery as we should have enough for the week ahead, saving £15 there. Milkman didn’t come as planned so I had to buy some on the way home and managed to avoid impulse purchases in the shop. Also avoided Vinted despite the payday itch to buy new clothes.

Bringing some meals to my relative who just got out of hospital today. I grabbed some extra bits for them at the shop.
House stuff we need to get this month: hob light still broken, electric toothbrush has given up on life, and DH is begging for new towels. New towels and a new toilet roll holder would complete the bathroom so I might cave to that within the low spend challenge. We’ve been here two years now and still setting up the house. Seems neverending!

Still, NSD planned tomorow!

Well done @2024Hackathon and @psuedocream3 on those records.

I'm really struggling to not spend money and this is a busy month which is always a danger time. Slow boring days mean im less likely to buy things. The busier i am the more likely i am to want to spend.

In good news i've decided to be realistic about how much we will spend on our holidays this year. At first i was budgeting €500 for food and miscellaneous bits. Then realised this was unrealistic for a 10 day self catering holiday and upped it to €800. I then finally rememebered we did the same holiday last year so went through the bank statements and realised it totaled €891 so €1000 should be a safe estimate.

I've now done a budget for the month that includes this so i'm being realistic and now left wondering why theres no money in the joint account.

@HowDidThisHappenDinesh i feel you on the house spending. We also just over 2 years into our house and theres always things i want to get.

Hi! Can i join too? Despite having a disastrous start to the month! Already had 2 nights out. And bought some jeans in sainsburys. They were only £14 and my others have holes, so needed. Managed to steer husband away from lunch out today, but he's angling for coffee and cake somewhere. Shopping due tonight, tomorrow I've no plans, which cpuld be dangerous.

Mon - thurs in work, which should help! A little in awe of people managing 20 plus no spends days.

Is there an app to track spends, or do you just record on your phone calendar? Thanks.

I want to join! Last month was a bad month for spending, impulsively bought two new phones and DH an early birthday gift which set me back almost £900! This month I'm determined to rebuild the bank balance.
Already stopped myself from booking an overnight stay in another part of the UK and a two day visit to Spain so that's £300 saved there.

So far this month I've paid nursery fees which was £24 for the month and I purchased milk yesterday so £1.45 I believe. All the usual bills don't come out until the end of the month so I just have to use my self control until then.

Desperately need to save for June as we have 4 birthdays across 3 days and I'm dreading it

Desperately trying to get back into the hang of budgeting April was just such a mega busy month that it fell by the wayside!

Hoping to find a few hours over the bank holiday to go back over May's spending plan, plus do some meal planning, and of course the never ending cleaning/ tidying/ washing which comes with having small children...

I have four family birthdays coming up over the next six weeks, so any April savings will probably be swallowed up by those!

3 Nsd today. Tomorrow is food shop and a planned lunch out so will be spendy 😩

Monday we have no plans so that could be dangerous. I think the weather is meant to be rubbish as well so that heightens my twinges to spend!!

Went to M&S on Friday to pick up milk for a friend. Bad move! Got suckered in by yellow stickers, of course.
3 x sandwiches (1 for lunch, 2 for the freezer)
Fruit platter (my contribution to joint meal with aforementioned friend)
Strawberries x 2 ( 66p reduced from £3)
750 grms mince (made 8 portions of chilli for the freezer using bottom of the fridge veg).
So not too bad.
NSD yesterday but off to visit a friend who is just out of hospital so can't go empty handed - maybe I'll take her a frozen sandwich 😅

I feel you @ElizaBalfour I always find budgeting so much harder when it’s busy. April and May are crazy for me which makes impulse buying more common. Trying to be disciplined.

Yesterday I bought the electric toothbrush (did not realise they were so expensive!) and paid for something on my card that someone gave me cash for. I never use cash so I’ll keep that safe for when I have an urge to spend on something frivolous. DH bought a takeaway while I was out even though I left him dinner 🙄 was thinking of having a takeaway tonight or tomorrow but he’s used the quota 😂 we have no bank holiday plans which could mean either no spending or lots of spending. I want a run of NSDs to let the credit card balance settle (I buy everything on there and pay it off straight away but I want to know what the actual balance is once purchases and payments have cleared).

@Songlines sounds like some good bargains!

Hello everybody. NSD yesterday, woohoo.

The sun is shining here so that has cheered me up a bit, despite ds going to bed far too late and waking up at 6 am. Sigh.

We're planning a visit to the local park on our bikes later. I'm fancying a curry takeaway for dinner (a treat, but effectively 2 meals so not as bad as it could be), but we have food in the house already so we may be sensible and cook.

Annoyingly a computer doodad that I bought from Amazon doesn't work at all, so that needs to be returned. But trying not to browse any shopping related websites!

Hoping for a rare NSD today. Been to the park with DD this morning and hoping if the weather stays nice to do water play this afternoon.
She had a big day out to the zoo with dad and grandma yesterday but Tesco vouchers to pay entry so just lunch, and it was grandma's birthday present.
Tomorrow we are having lunch out with a friend then I'm out for dinner too so that will be a speedy day.

Glorious sunshine means like @Cuwins we were at the park for hours and saw at least 5 of ds' little friends from jiu-jitsu and school. Fun times and only spent £6 on snacks, but like @HowDidThisHappenDinesh (although your DH was cheeky) we skipped the takeaway. 😇 DH cooked his famous tofu veg pasta instead. I'm feeling very lucky tonight. 😋

Long may this nice weather continue! I hope everyone is well and good luck with spending mindfully tomorrow.

Thanks to the accountability of this thread I've had another NSD today. I was going to call into a local shop to pick up some nice nibbly things to take to recovering friend but looked at what I'd already got at home, and she was delighted. So win/win and 3/5 NSDs this month.

DH’s takeaway habit is my nemesis 😅 however we did also get 2 meals from his cheekiness yesterday (well he did, lol, and he put it on my credit card but sent me the money himself so I can’t be too mad). And we did skip it today, ended up going to DMs for dinner so I also skipped washing up! Good day.

Similar to you @moimichmethe doodad we bought (electric toothbrush) didn’t work (came with wrong plug and only one head) so we ordered that stuff yesterday. Also bought some stuff for holiday later in the month while i was on amazon, and topped up my oyster when I walked past the machine. So no NSD here. Not sure what the plans are today, might involve a pub trip but weather’s rubbish so we might stay in and avoid temptation! Have a lovely bank holiday Mindful Mumsnetters

I qas doing well today, until I realised there was 15% off h and m. So £30 spent, on some trousers and a couple of tops.

And yesterday, after doing well on Saturday, we ended up going out to watch a band for a while.

There's always tomorrow. 2/6 nsd