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.

Just spent £12 on softplay 🫠 but we took our own snacks and drinks and this weekend should be low spend as we have a series of kids parties to attend and I’ve already bought all the gifts (in the sales!)

This is a really good tip!

Had a really awful few days and felt myself converting back to old spends ways.. combinations of many things and wanting to treat myself to some new dresses for spring (absolutely don't need them) so I thought I'll just favourite them and got distracted by the school run..
An hour later and I'm glad I didn't get them as I'm not overly keen on them on second glance..

Do others do the writing down on notes and then revisit later?

@wholenutcadburys - yes, I've started adding to a notes list. When I go back to the list a few days later, I'm usually a lot less keen and end up taking it off again.

This is definitely what I need to do. Usually when I come back to the item I don't even want it or it's gone already (if Vinted buy) which makes it easier 🤣

I downloaded attapoll and did a few surveys and then my email and facebook got hacked. Maybe a coincidence but I wouldn’t advise it personally

I didn't have 'snacks' on my low spend list as didn't think was a problem area for me...I've just gone over everything I've spent since Jan 1st and it is a problem area!

A couple of posh bakeries have sprung up near my home in the last few years. They sell delicious (and expensive) cakes & pastries. No wonder my jeans are a bit tight to do up. Gulp. Snacks and treats are now on the 'heavily limited list'.

Everything else looking ok for a low spend Jan.

Low spend weekend for me.
Groceries, petrol and a birthday gift.

I was hoping to spend less this January that last January but I think the £300 garage bill will prevent that.

Well done everyone and hello to newcomers!

Checking in after a spendy weekend. £40 lunch at our favourite café and £35 on groceries top-up for the week ahead. Still over £250 less spent than the same time last month according to my bank app.

Worried about my job (a voluntary redundancy round is incoming) as well as my family in the U.S. - hoping the orange turd doesn't end the world after he gets back into power.

Now noticing I've eaten far too many calories in the past week. Going to try snacking on veg or fruit and nuts/seeds before having anything else. No more crisps, sweets, etc. if I can manage it. They're not healthy anyways, I know. And cutting them out/down will help my waistline. I have packed my lunch and ds' too.

Still doing Dry January at least and the budget is healthy. Onwards and upwards. Good luck for the coming week, everyone!

Haven't done too bad this week. Again another low spend on food. Fancied going out in the week and resisted (knowing we were out Saturday). Saturday (celebration meal with friends, so couldn't really avoid) we did really well, DH knew he'd get a discount on his meal, but when we ordered, we had two meals, a beer and large glass of wine for £26.50. Had a drink before that, and I was good and had a diet coke saving a bit of money and calories.

Need to get accessories for our new bathroom. Amazon seems better priced for the things we're looking at, so will probably save £30 (which is a drop in the ocean to spending £6k+ on new bathroom - as I said before, it's desperate though).

I've had an ok weekend, only essentials purchased. Thankfully my Amazon prime runs out in February and I've no intention of renewing it, I realised everything I want to watch on there I would either have to pay extra for or it's on a Freeview site like BBC iPlayer, so that will help curb some of the impulsive spending I'm sure!

That's interesting, I downloaded it last week and have just had an email from Experian that my details are being sold online, and had loads of spam calls...............hmm.

Hope it's ok for me to jump in, I've been lurking on similar threads for years but determined to actually stay on them this time! Sympathies to @moimichme re the work thing, we lost over 100 people at the end of 2024 and have restructured, my area wasn't really affected but I can't see that we've seen the last of it.
We do ok financially but have home improvement loans which I'd like to get rid of this year so that we can start really ploughing funds into our pensions. DH's is much healthier than mine but he earns less now so won't be able to add the same and I know full well that we don't have enough saved. I'm not exactly sure how much is enough but don't see the point in discussing with a financial advisor until we have the ability to actually do something...........
Spendy weekend as we were away at a retirement party but we have a quiet one planned this weekend before DH's birthday at the end of the month. Have made nearly £50 in various book sales this month so far, and plan to tackle the Vinted pile this week, so far today was £1.79 on veg for a casserole for tonight's dinner, mainly shopping the freezer otherwise.

A quick Google suggests attapoll is a scam. If you see any posts recommending it I would suggest reporting them as scam/spam.

Well I spent £130 on an internet shop. It’s two weeks shop. Freezers are full to the brim so meal ingredients are sorted for quite a few weeks. Will just need milk and bread.
We took my mother out for lunch £29 for three of us. I can’t believe the price of eating out lately.
I also spent £7 on seed potatoes. I look at that as an investment in my shopping bill. We haven’t needed to buy potatoes since last spring as my husband grows them. As well as other veg.
I saw someone on the site sharing the attapol site but I didn’t have the mental energy for it I felt a bit miffed with myself for not having the energy but seems I had a lucky escape.

*moimichme' fingers crossed you won't be affected by redundancies. Not nice to have that hanging over you though. Well done on the savings and dry January though.

• *TheOnlyMrsW Welcome. I don't really understand pensions myself. DH met up with an old colleague who had worked at their place roughly the same time as DH but left on a higher grade, but six months earlier. They were chatting and DH is receiving 20% more pension than him - I guess it has to be something to do with the take it was taken and market values at the time. That's a nice little sum on book sales.

Feeling like I've failed here. Going around to family to drop present off later. I commented that I'd be late cooking and hungry, then stupidly said we'll be walking past the pub around 5.30-6pm, so we could do that instead. Now I've planted it in DH's mind, there's no going back! At least it's a cheap Greene King - they do two meals for £14. Wine for me, or shall I save money and have a coke?!

Wish I'd made a note of what we've eaten every day, as another week for our food. Don't feel like we've gone without anything.

Having a treat tonight. We've got about £50 in M&S vouchers from sparks. I need to puck DH soon, so getting an M&S Chinese New Year for £15 if vouchers.

@Sunnyside4 hope you enjoyed your treat, sounds yummy!!

@TheOnlyMrsW welcome! I had some really bad pensions advice at a previous company I worked for and now am thoroughly confused by the whole thing I keep meaning to sort it all out and un-confuse myself but frankly it's at the bottom of a very long to-do list...

@sewingstockings full freezers here too after an Iceland shop the other day, just need to organise everything better and make some meal lists! I keep meaning to do some more growing of fruit & veg too, you've just reminded me to re-download an app about it telling me what to plant when

@moimichme sympathies about the redundancies - I've been made redundant three times now. Twice it was kind of expected and once was a surprise, I'm not sure which was worse! I do hope you get a decent package if it happens to you - the last time I did get a good amount and it helped me to pay off the last of my debt, which was useful - but still, not a nice thing to happen.

Counting down the days now till payday on Friday...!

After having a low food spend for three weeks, it's definitely up this week - nothing horrendous compared to most though.

We're having our much needed new bathroom fitted this week. Fitter thought water would be off just a couple of hours yesterday, but ended up being all day. Fitter is guzzling coffee like there's no tomorrow, so when he asked for a fourth before lunch, DH made it with my bottle of water for the afternoon (he already drunk what was in the kettle). I ended up in Costa, with DH joining me! Had to laugh, while we were out, fitter knocked on next doors asking for water, to find his ex mother-in-law lives next door to us😆

Thanks a lot for your kind replies re: redundancies. They still haven't officially announced anything yet but the rumours are flying! I almost feel like the uncertainty is worse. But all I can do for now is work to the best of my ability and hope for the best. I know I contribute a lot so trying to think positively.

On frugal side of things, some money has been spent on essentials for ds/household and the quarterly gas and electricity bill is over £500 - but by a stroke of luck, I was paid early (24th) and so not only do I have enough to pay all the bills until the end of this month, I've actually managed to chuck £200 extra into savings and had 7 NSDs in the past two weeks. Really pleased with that.

I hope the bathroom stuff doesn't go massively over budget with coffee as well as costs for the work itself, Sunnyside4 - but that did make me laugh!

Good luck with staying on budget this week, everyone.

Thanks @ElizaBalfour I need to understand better but in my head it's on the backburner while we're chucking all of our extra money at paying off debts. Very spendy food shop at the weekend but that is meat, freezer etc for the month and should only be fresh top ups now, my payday is 25th so my month "starts" then. We're away for DH's birthday this weekend, Airbnb already paid for and the plan is to buy treat food from M&S with vouchers and keep it reasonably frugal. NSD yesterday and today so far 😊

If your company provided pension advice without referral to a qualified Independent pension advisors - then you may be able to complain and request compensation. It depends on the regulation at the time, but may be worth investigating. Often they have a timescale for complaint - so the sooner the better.

Boiler fix bill came in at £500 - actually good value, 2 visits / 2 parts via a trusted trade person. We're re-thinking emergency cover protection with Aviva as took 48hrs to get a plumber to us in the recent cold spell and couldn't specify when they could source the part needed / book the appointment for the final fix. So god knows how many days we would have been without heating / hot water - our guy fixed it the following day, sourced parts at 6am and fixed at 9am. But again another unexpected bill as we thought cover would be enough. Any better experiences with emergency cover appreciated.

Silver lining - forgot we hadn't changed the council tax and has been paid over 10 months rather than 12, so we have a bit of stretch in the budget for the next two months. This should cover bill and half term.

Fan heaters bought in the summer (cheaper because out of season) enabled us to stay at home, but obviously not that great in terms of electric bill.

Expensive end to the month as I needed to buy new glasses, but frugality meant I was able to buy them rather than wait for pay day which is a really positive thing for me. February will be much the same as January. On pay day I'll split my money out, pay every bill I can pay and set aside the funds for money later in the month including savings. The plan is by the time my final 0% is up I'll have saved enough to pay it off but also earned the interest from the savings rather than sending it to the black hole of the credit card, 4 months to go and I'm hopeful I can do it.

@May09Bump unfortunately the pension chaos was years ago - almost twenty now - and I was given a bit of compensation at the time although nowhere near what I thought I should have got so it's just been a hard lesson to learn! Our boiler packed up as well the other night, thankfully it just needed a good clean out (despite being serviced regularly, annoyingly) but it was a useful lesson to keep hot water bottles etc at the ready just in case!

@Wakemeupwhen2024ends oh, I hate the faff of getting new glasses! I have a complicated prescription too, it always ends up being over £200 even with cheapo Specsavers frames because I have to pay for thinning the lenses etc. Must put some money aside soon as I think I'm due a new pair this year...

Went through all my direct debits today, cancelled a few bits, rescheduled some and made a new list of all my payments - I've started with having X amount to spend per month and am working backwards from there, so every time I spend any money I knock it off the total and work out what I have left for the rest of the month. Hoping this new approach will be a bit easier to manage!