Low spend May

[bungletru]

Trying a very low spend May
would love to share ideas with anyone else struggling (or not)

Current plans:
—no Amazon deliveries unless absolutely necessary
-grocery shopping -only in person no online orders /maybe just 1 this month
-food - in bulk, curries, casseroles, etc.
-limit takeout no dining out this month
-no socialising (we have a wedding so that takes priority)
-find free things to do with the kids (2 &4m old) other than prepaid stuff
-no long journeys

I would love to be on board too. In May we have:
x 5 family/close friends birthdays
school trip payment £120 on top of the school meals @£5 a day
Wedding
Half term
Friend's party (we will take drinks)

I would l love a month of eating scrambled egg/beans on toast type of thing and lots of long evening walks and drinks (if any) at home - but DH not onboard what so ever.

Yes

We have just book a bigger holiday for this winter. So I would like to make some savings.
Also Had in laws here a few weeks April so lots more days out, restaurants etc so spent more than usual

Starting today:
Only buying top of fresh foods. Will try and use up cupboards and freezer supplies as much as possible the next 6 weeks

Ds birthday - homemade cake. He has a few simple gifts but I bought a few months ago on offer

Try and go places at weekends that don’t cost ( or just low cost)

@Alongwalkhomealonemy problem is I can’t eat simple/same things all the time. I get really upset 🤣

@Caspianberggoing to try and get our freezer food used too!
love that you’re baking the cake, it’ll be lovely! Cakes are so expensive nowadays.

wish we were national trust members as you can have some lovely days out with their memberships!

I definitely need to join please. Car is in the garage tomorrow and the estimated work is £700. So that’s going to have to go on the credit card for the next couple of months. Worked out today we have spent £51 in the Co op over the last 2 weeks so that has to stop. I need to pay for our son’s prom and buy him a suit. Grandma has said she will go halves on it. Good luck everyone.

Yes please 🙏🏽

We are just spending too much money and even though we can afford it, I’d rather the money was in my bank account or paying for our hobbies rather than frittering away 🙈

We will go for no take aways or eating out
no heating on
take my work lunches with me
no take away coffees!
no unnecessary spending 🙈

Not sure how far we will get but any savings are good as we have 2 expensive hobbies that need funding!

Good luck all 💕

In March I actually wrote out everything I was spending in my phones notes app.. it made me feel accountable and spend a little less, especially when I thought about having to do inner it before I’d paid. It would make me think, is this necessary? Do I really want to pay for this or can I do without?
it did help in March but I totally skipped it in April 🤣

Can i join? My husband lost his job due to a chronic health condition making it hard for him to work. So we are trying to live on just my wage. This covers four of us, including our two kids (6 and 16 months).

Our plan is no meals out, maybe one date night takeaway depending on how the budget pans outs.
Going to carry on with our usual batch cooking, online shop (fewer impulse buys and i have a delivery saver i bought last year, so no new delivery costs). Taking a packed lunch/leftovers for lunch.
We are having some (long planned) work done to the house, so our savings will soon be gone.
The car is due an MOT next week, and we think we might need to give it up as it may be expensive to fix various issues. I commute by bike so this is okay in the warmer/drier months.

Can I join in too? We have been living month to month for far too long and I really need to start getting some savings pots in order for MOTs, birthdays, Christmas, school uniforms. There should be a little money to spare on paper but in reality it always gets frittered away by about the third week of the month.

i have an MOT in May which I am dreading
i need to cut back in preparation

rather than meat free monday, i think we might have to have meat day,
ie meat once a week

Yes please! I want to account for everything this month!
Got paid yesterday and had after paying rent, savings and one unexpected expense I have 1498 left. I will get child benefit and a small amount of other benefits that will total 444 from now until the next payday. So that’s 1942.
but still need to pay
Life insurance 40
Internet/tv/2 phones 90
Bin charge 23
Apple 20
Disney 10
DS club 25
so that’s 208
That’s 1,734
and then obviously food and fuel etc.

I know I’m missing something, but I’m not buying any clothes etc this month. I had a spend spree last month so that’s sorted. No birthdays this month. Have a dinner out but I have a voucher for that.
Im taking part in an activity in work all next week which means I have free breakfast and lunch so that will help.
I want to save as much as possible this month for a holiday I booked in July with my dc.

I need to join also. I have just taken on a temp second job for 6 weeks because we are really stretched right now.

I am planning to avoid the pub and cafes. Make all my own lunches and to go through the freezer and pantry for meals and use up as much as I can. I have for a while had the last week of the month all freezer meals which ahs helped but this month I am planning every second day something that has already been put away. It often gets a little creative at times!

I don't get paid until the first. I have £70 left in my current account and £400 on my credit card. I am usually in my overdraft by the end of each month and for May my aim is to get through without that. I will be putting the funds from my temp job into my holiday account so that I can try and work out my spending as it would be normally and without that cash injection.

Collected my car from the garage and it was just over £400 which is a big improvement on the £700 I was quoted. Out for tea to tonight as we are going to watch my son in a musical. I did put the money aside on payday as i knew we wouldn’t have it at the end of the month.

Get all your summer clothes out now. Mend anything that needs a little sprucing up, now. Polish and reheeled sandals if necessary. Work out what extra you actually need (if anything). No random/spontaneous purchases.

Sell anything that DC's have outgrown and you can't 'hand-down'

Search Facebook pages for free activities every week. Look at local arts centres, theatres, heritage trusts etc. Check out 'Visit (insert county name) sites. You'll be surprised how many things there are to visit that you didn't know we're there.

Buy your 4yo some flower seeds or seedlings - tomato plants etc - and get her interested in gardening. Very low cost and months of interest.

Already spent 39 today 🤣 30 to charity and 9 for lunch…😆

I had to buy a hostess gift today as I was invited to a lovely 3 course lunch. So a nice bunch of flowers, a box of nice chocolates- about £20.

I am going to spend some time this weekend getting out my warmer weather clothes and make a clear headed review of them and what if anything I need to buy.

Today was a no spend day. Yesterday I spent £1.39 on 4 pints of milk, and £5.65 on hot chocolate (options honeycomb, reduced to £2.50), pringles (£1.75) and 4 white chocolate creme eggs (reduced to 35p each). Snacking is definitely part of my budgetary downfall. Going to try to include planned snacks so I can use up the crackers in the cupboard rather than hunting for sugar.

Need to do a food shop today. Will check cupboards and freezer first and try and just buy essentials.

Otherwise have a quiet weekend at home with some gardening and diy so no spend there. Already bought some plants and paint last week. Need to sand various wood outside

Also a cupboard check day for dinner. But I know we have ham and eggs and ALOT of bread and various jams so I might do a DC favourite and do breakfast for dinner with scrambled eggs, ham, toasts, tinned tomatos and marmalade. There are ingredients for a salad which I can put together for lunch so as a disclaimer the children will get some nutrients today!

Oh- and I need to spend £2 for parking at swimming so hopefully that is it for the day.

@Meadowfinchi have a load of clothes I want to sell on Vinted but don’t necessarily have the time to do it :(
I definitely don’t need new clothes for myself this year, just the babies.

those of you mentioning your cars and MOTs. I feel your pain. I have MOT service and used to have insurance all in one month. Managed to move the insurance to the other side of the year thanks to DH.

finding everything so expensive and need to pay off a credit card - but on maternity pay it is hard!!

I went through my cupboards and fridge and freezer. I then put the ingredients into ChatGPT and ask it to create a shopping list and a meal plan that used ingredients in an efficient way. I told it how many dinners I wanted. And it just created it. It’s great. I’m going to go into my shopping this morning based off the meal plan. The rest will just be school lunches and a few other home essentials I need. I will report back on how much I spend. 🙌

That's a great idea! I have never used ChatGPT but will try it for this!

So here’s my shopping list, €83.77. I had a good few bits at home, but still got quite a bit. This will do a while.
dinners will be
chicken fajitas with rice
shepherds pie with green beans
pasta with a tomato sauce with pork mince and veg
thai green chicken and courgette curry
beef (at home) stir fry with noodles
pizza night (already had one pizza at home)
chicken burgers
carabonara - have main ingredients for that at home, just needs eggs.

thats 8 dinners so not too bad.
the crossaints, hash browns and waffles are firm fave breakfast foods for my two and they’ll have a piece of fruit too.

lunches I have, bread rolls with chicken goujons(already at home), chopped veggies, yogurt, crackers, fruit and some popcorn(at home)

I usually have couscous salad or leftovers for lunch and sometimes get lunch at work.

I may need to buy lettuce during the week and that’s all.

Just back for shops, not as good as above, €140…
But that included about €60 on food and soft drinks for Ds birthday party - 8 kids and parents
Plus we pay for crate and bottles here on purchase and it gets refunded on return empty - so that’s about €10 worth back.

So not too bad for party costs, the rest is at home so no hire or other costs