Low Spend 2025

[YourLimeCat]

Does anyone want to join me in a mutual support Low Spend year? I entered premature retirement this year at the age of 60 due to health issues and I will be living off a saved Civil Service pension for the next 7 years. Due to no rent or mortgage to pay its not too dire a situation but it would be good to have somewhere to share tips with fellow low spend attemptees.

Agree with the pricey clubs and activities! If it's not that then it's the parties, the general growing out of things after one wear, the "mammy can I get xyz" when popping for milk.. we don't buy DS toys throughout the year but the other bits soon add up!

ElizaBalfour sadly the sensors aren't covered by a recall. Just unlucky. Hopefully that's it car wise for a few months.

TimothyIsNotAnArmardillo Hope your car bill isn't too bad. We often have random food to use up and it's still nice.

That70sHouse Sounds like you're making some great adjustments. It's worth looking in charity shops occasionally - I know which authors work for me and their books often come up there for £1.50.

Just worked out that I've spent £32.63 in Tescos and Lidl without really dipping into the freezer and store cupboard stuff and includes a bottle of wine. There's only two of us though and I haven't bought cat food (they currently have approx 7 weeks supply as just taken had a delivery of a bulk order for some of their stuff which is cheaper on Amazon). Pleased with that.

Hello,

Hoping this is okay..

Too cashback are doing up to £18 cashback on £45 minimum shop for Sainsbury's..
I will pop my referral link below, I would get some too from TCB for referring but you also get a £10 bonus on top so up to £28 cashback for a £45 shop..

www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/cadburyswholenut

Thank you!

Car wasn't ready so I won't know what the bill is until Monday.

Unfortunately the boiler has stopped working so I'm waiting for the repair man now. Am hoping it's something tiny and cheap to fix.

Thanks for the tips on books - I do occasionally see stuff in charity shops but I have quite a big pile to be read already and I was just looking for a couple of specific ones that aren’t novels and I’d checked a few times and hadn’t found them so just bought them. It felt like a nice treat and I will pass them onto my mum after too.

I was hoping for a no or low spend day today but forgot I’d already arranged to meet a friend for lunch with the kids in tow. It was nice but also slightly chaotic with 4 small kids between us so I might suggest pizzas at one of our houses next time which would be cheaper and then the kids can roam freely before/after food. However I often get y to avoid hosting as I can’t face the tidying before but especially after - whenever my kids have people over to play they seem to take out every. Single. Toy. And it takes me forever to get things straight again. They’re meant to help me tidy but the younger two are only 3 and 1 so it’s basically me who has to do any sort of organisation beyond lobbing things in a box.

Looking forward to warmer weather when it’s easier to meet at parks/for picnics etc instead of gravitating towards cafes!

DH’s birthday present £80. I’ve spent £44 for 2 bras, haven’t tried them on yet. I haven’t bought any for about 5/6 years.

Hi, can I join you?

I’m a carer for my disabled daughter and definitely feeling the pinch. A lot of money and time goes on extras to make her life a little easier, and I’m also that drained things/bad habits build up. I’m doing a big declutter too.
My spend hotspots are top up groceries in the nice but expensive local shop, children, garden and books…so anything for those I’m now resisting impulsive buying.
Today I’ve bought electrolytes and coal, both necessities.

Well, I haven't been no spends this weekend but I have been less spends. I have done my weekly shop which came to around £100, but that is for 5 of us (3 adults, 1 bottomless teen and an 8yr old) . Normally I just throw things in an online basket and buy without meal planning, looking at freezer etc. So I did a meal plan, wrote a list and mainly stuck to list. Also was much more comprehensive so should mean I don't need to do a top up in the village shops which always adds up to aorund 30 a week by time u bought snacks etc which I don't really need. So that should save some money this week.
Yesterday we went to a kids activity club that has a cafe. Normally spend quite a bit as we stay for 4 - 5 hours and I open a tab. Yesterday I set the kids expectations. You can have this and this. Anything over that you pay for. So that was much better.

Spent a grand total of £2 this weekend! Kids had some sweets from the tuck shop at their music class yesterday but then today all we did was go for a walk round the nearby lake and we took a flask of hot chocolate with us. Must be the lowest spend weekend we’ve had in months.

On the other hand I did have to fork out £165 on Friday to have some fencing replaced that was brought down in storm Darragh or whatever it was called, so it’s swings and roundabouts really but at least this wasn’t frivolous spends!

@That70sHouse that's very impressive!! I had a day of little spends yesterday - £2 here, £3 there - and £35 today at Lidl. Depressingly £35 didn't even get me much to make meals with, it was mainly stuff for this week's packed lunches, cleaning stuff, snacks for the DC after they finish their sports etc. Nothing wildly hedonistic but still a bit more spendy than I'd like

@AdoraBell I do desperately need some new bras

Bathroom desperately needs doing, so after three years of a leaking toilet (three plumbers can't work out why!), many more years of a chipped bath, ill fitting bath panel, stained grout and manky carpet, and latest a leaky sink connection (haven't repaired knowing new bathroom imminent) we're about to spend £1,000s. Luckily it's about £2k less than we originally thought.

Anyway, we saved a little on bathroom paint today. Would normally buy Dulux or Crown, but we've gone for Wickes saving about £15. Amazon seems to be cheaper on bathroom extras than what we've seen locally, so will get rest from there.

Sadly the kitchen and carpets throughout have seen better days ...

I’m always looking for ideas for a low spend year.

For 2025, I’m looking to cut down on takeaway coffees and I'm planning to get a coffee maker with a milk frother so I can take lattes with me in a travel mug.

It's not easy, but I think what has really helped us was having an organised, disciplined and intentional mindset. Also, having a mindset that we’re not here to impress people.

We focus more on spending money on experiences, days out and travel rather than buying things.
Our home has a minimalist aesthetic, so we try to avoid clutter. So anything that we buy or bring into the home is intentional. If we want to buy something that is not essential, we wait a few days to think about it before making the purchase.
We pretty much have capsule wardrobes that are of high quality.
We try to repair things rather than buy them new.

We have a yearly house/wardrobe declutter and sell items on Ebay.
We meal plan each week. We replaced takeaways with “fakeaways” from the supermarket. And if we pop into the shops for a top up, we try to stick to what’s on the list.
We use the library and borrow books instead of buying books
For days out with the kids, we have a seasonal bucket list of places to visit for free, country parks, seaside towns, museums, art galleries, etc. I organise our diary in advance so we try to visit at least one on a weekend.
If you are looking to upskill, there is a site that offers free online courses: https://www.classcentral.com/collection/ivy-league-moocs

@Iliketulips DP had a new bathroom put into the house just before he met me, he's lived in the same house for years and I moved in with him. In his head the bathroom is sparkly new but in fact it's now twelve years old and in need of some TLC! I keep it as clean as I can but there's only so much you can do when the grouting desperately needs redoing, the shower screen is cracked etc...

@whiteorchids44 I would really like to get DP round to your point of view, he's such an impulse buyer! Do you have a specific meal plan/ app that you use? It's a skill I am sadly lacking in!

@ElizaBalfour Before we had our DC I used to be an impulsive spender too. 🙈 But I am much more mindful now because we're prioritising what we need to spend on and honestly, taking a few days to think about purchases really helped me work out if it was something that we needed to buy or not.

I use chat GPT to help me put together a simple no frills meal plan for the month with recipes. It helps because I can note down specifics like allergies and dietary needs etc., as well as favourite meals that we enjoy so it knows what sort of recipes to recommend. Then I put everything in our shared family Google calendar and add all the ingredients to our online grocery orders.

I was running out of certain toiletries before Christmas and rather than replace them when I was pretty sure DH or the kids would get me some I cut the tubes with scissors. I got at least another week out of the tubes. Thanks for starting this thread OP. We’ve had a change of circumstance and need to pay down some debts so looking here for some ideas.

One thing I am stopping is pricy moisturisers. Plain Vaseline is great for keeping skin hydrated and as a makeup base.

Hello @ElizaBalfour - good to see you here!

So far I feel very pleased. My bank app says that I've spent quite a bit less this time than last month - with that being December perhaps it's not so impressive, but I'll take the win!

Last weekend I went to my friend's 40th birthday dinner but doing Dry January meant I had a low bill. No spend on Sunday, we chilled out at home after a busy week.

Spends so far this week £5.75 on fruit top-up and £4 on eating out for lunch because I was in a rush this morning. Tomorrow I'll bring food again like usual. I have met my goal of 2 NSDs per week minimum and nothing unnecessary has been purchased. 😇

I've set aside £££ for utility bill, but oddly they aren't generating it despite having our meter readings. I'll contact them tomorrow or Friday if I still don't hear anything...

Good luck all!

Hi - joining in please. I am going for a low spend year in 2025. I'm lucky to earn ok and not have debt (except mortgage) but I want to curb all the mindless consumption/frittering I've been doing.

In 2025, I want to really cut down on food waste and to stop buying stuff I don't need (clothes, beauty products, books, homeware....the list goes on). I have also started decluttering.

My socialising/activities/travel costs are pretty modest and I get a lot of benefit/pleasure from these - so most are staying as before but I am going to reduce/rotate subscriptions (e.g. just one or no film/TV sub at any point - Jan is Disney+ so I'm catching up on Pixar films). I'm been using my local library - books and eBooks (Libby app). My inbox is very quiet as I've unsubscribed from nearly everything - lovely headspace!

Looking forward to reading about how you are getting on.

I’m doing okay, using cash as much as possible is definitely helping. I put new clothes in my online basket but didn’t buy…none of the tops I own fit well but I’m still losing weight so new clothes now shouldn’t be a priority.
Have had to buy a new laptop, an annoying necessity…I’d really like to manage to get to the end of the month now only buying basic groceries!

I had a slip at the weekend but seem to be doing alright so far. What has really helped is separating everything into pots and sorting my money out in preparation for bills day. Even my groceries shopping money was put into a bank pot for the month, and I'm running on an underspend there which is nice. Hoping to keep this up for at least a few months as I've got some expensive months through the spring.

Numnumbirdy, oh yes, I do that, cut the ends of tubes - you can get another 2/3 teeth cleans or face creams out of the tubes that way.

I work somewhere that sells toiletries, and twice a year we have a double discount - it's fatal. I've stopped being tempted by offers in store as I'm determined to use my ongoing tash up. Other than toothpaste, I'm not buying any toiletries this year unless we really need them when the next double discount comes up.

I've paid for a couple of exercise classes, but like last week, I think the food shop will be low. Meeting friends a couple of times at the weekend, so might ask one couple if we can meet somewhere that we can use our Tesco clubcard vouchers.

I was tempted yesterday to do some online retail therapy, but resisted as I know I don't need anything.

Something I've noticed as an extra benefit of low spending, is that I'm losing weight. So much of my money goes on junk food!

I'll join too.

An expensive start to the year, has made me rethink how much are we wasting as a family. We had £500, car service / Mot, £300 water bill, £300 boiler fix in first week of Jan.