April - starting No Spending Days

[HawthornFairy]

Anyone else? I’ve never really seen the logic of them before as if something needs buying it needs buying, but feel with the cost of fuel/food prices it’s time to at least try!
We break up for Easter holidays today, not sure if that will help or hinder tbh 😂
Would love if others join me, support each other.

Well it's not impossible is it? Just stay at home... Or Go to the park, take a picnic. Go for a walk, take an apple...

I need to do this too. I have been too free and easy with the taps on my card. I used to be very frugal but it has slipped considerably. I have a greenhouse and love buying seeds and plants. I'm growing food so that is my excuse! Loving all the tips on this thread.

Accountability post:
Gonna hand wash the car instead of the self-service jet wash thing. Or not wash it at all!

Grocery shopping: I'm already pretty good with this. We eat well. I plan and (with my 17yo often being out) cook meals that can easily be heated up/frozen.
Have booked a car boot plot for the w/e so am spending time sorting out the loft.
I want to do some gardening. I have a £20 B&Q voucher so will use that to buy plants.

I had to pay for another club renewal yesterday (£49 for my running club). Other than that - no money spent. I did a race and we didn't get tea and cake afterwards.

@Pinkginwithice a greenhouse must be amazing. I bet you have lots of lovely plans. My children planted rainbow carrots in window boxes this morning, they like them under their bedroom windows lol.

@BringBackCatsEyes I’m avoiding the car wash too, have given that as a chore to my adult daughter who owes me a favour. Let us know how the car boot goes.

I’ve spent on an inessential today, theatre tickets for next autumn, but they are going to be our Christmas and Birthday treats combined and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity of good seats by putting it off. Does mean I am definitely having a very careful month now though!

I think buying theatre tickets is a VERY good way to spend money now. Much better seats available for a start!

I do no spend days when my kids go to their fathers house as much as possible, I see it as a challenge. Filling my time with free things for myself, walks, the gym, eating the crap food at the bottom of the freezer.

I made a profit today!
My son couldn't use his football season ticket so we sold the tickets back.
I also made about £2.11 on selling books to We Buy Books

Oh hang on, I gave aforementioned son a tenner to go into town with his mates.

Still a small profit.

Hoping for a relatively low spend today. I need to buy tofu for dinner plus another vegetable for a stiry fry as currently only have peppers and onions.

Low spend day hopefully for us. Getting the train into town so my daughter can have an eye test.

Can I join? As per my username we are in the process of moving house so lots of spendy days ahead but if we can curb the unnecessary spending that would be great. I think some of it comes down to being more organised eg yesterday on a day out we spent £8 on 2 bottles of water and 2 packets of crisps, daylight robbery! We were out longer than expected, kids had drank the water we took with us and I forgot to take snacks. Lesson learned!

Welcome @Movinghousemum
It does feel good to prepare for days out and avoid buying water etc.

Today I spent 80p on a baguette for garlic bread.

And £300 for my son's school transport. No way to not spend that.

I continue to clear the loft and prepare for the car boot sale.

Our special NOW tv offer finishes on the 20th. I went through the process of cancelling - going through all the 'are you sure?', 'really?', 'last chance' etc to finally get to the 'we really don't want you to leave so here's an even lower offer than you were on'. So, that's £6 saved a month.

I need to buy some oranges today.

@BringBackCatsEyes £300 on school transport😬 essential but a lot of money. Good that you have managed to save £6. I fixed with British Gas at the beginning of March and it went up by £15. Then I saw it was supposed to go down at the beginning of April. I messaged them and asked them to put my direct debit down. The reply I got started “Let me explain how it works” I said I know how it works but tariff prices have gone down from 1st April and my May direct debit is showing the same amount as April. If I click on my tariff it shows it is £14 cheaper than it is now. He asked if I wanted to put it down to that. Yes I do!! I was under the impression it would go down automatically.

There’s some dedication, well done. I am managing well, resisting wants and mindfully buying the needs. Though I did have a moment of surprise when I finished work, checked my phone and saw messages from teen DD saying could I please buy supplies as she’s been given…a baby lamb!

@Starlight40 I'm with Scottish Power and don't think I can face looking right now in case there's something I need to do.
I already spent about an hour on hold, cut off, on hold, etc etc with the school transport people, AND my passport and docs have not even been scanned out of the Post Office since Mon 30th March - 48hr signed for delivery my arse.

I had to fill up the car today (25 miles left in tank).
The pump was really fast so it was up to £70 well before I was expecting and I thought OMG, it's going to be £100 to fill it up. But no, it stopped at £77.

£2.25 on oranges.

Hmmm...going to the pub with some friends.

Managed no spend days on Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon. That's 4 so far for April!

Yesterday I went to the supermarket (stayed in budget) and today we went to the park where there was (unexpectedly) a funfair so stung for £10 on rides. Tomorrow we're having a cinema trip but just to the local independent one which is £5 a ticket.

Ive resisted so many Vinted and online book purchases to preserve my no spend days!

Milk bought today and that’s it.
DS likes his hair cut more often than I think is reasonable. He’s got a part time job now and is paying for his own cut tomorrow. Result!

A baby lamb @HawthornFairy ! That sounds adorable!!!!

I was on track for a no spend day yesterday but ended up in A&E with what the GP suspected might have been a blood clot- turned out to be my first (and only I hope) episode of gout. Dear Heavens it's painful. So, £12 taxi to A&E, £23 taxi home (double because was after 8 pm). My lovely DS1 though bought takeaway pizza from his own pocket money because i had 'had a bad day'.

Tomorrow (Today!) also not a no-spend day as DH is away and not back until late tonight and forgot to pay the entry fee for his Very Outing Hobby this weekend. I think that's around £40.

A&E ended up being only 5 hours which I thought was pretty good. And because we are relatively rural it was a game of 'say hi to who you know'. Two teachers from school (separately) our postman, and the lady who runs the cattery we use were all there as well for various reasons. So the time passed. Thankfully all there for quite minor issues but sent there by our respective Gps to be sure that things were not worse.

Lots of people struggle with micro overconsumption. A coffee here and there, buying small things just for the sake of it. It all adds up over time, I know im guilty of that so have been doing nsd as much as I can

I've done pretty well this week.
I have spent, but nothing grand.
Bits and bobs of food - fruit and naan
Coffee pods - I do have a subscription, but when my adult son comes home it messes it all up (rude!).
The one thing that wasn't essential, was a new phone holder for the car - it was under a tenner.

I've made some money by selling some trainers on Vinted and also received compensation from the PO for losing some post. Oh and DS bought some food home from his job yesterday so I didn't need to use my own food for dinner.

We do need to know more about the lamb @HawthornFairy. Do you live on a farm?

I have done no spend days for ages. Most days, I spend £0. I am lucky enough I can walk to work (3 miles each way) and I can work from home 2-3 days per week. I also bring a pack lunch and treat to work. Treats are mainly bought as part of weekly grocery or I make them at home. I also bring my own fancy teabags and travel mugs to work.

Spending as a family for weekend is part of a monthly budget, £50 max per weekend. As we are a family of 3, this budget will not stretch for both lunch and treat. So I prepare pack lunch for our outing and use the budget to pay for cakes, tea/coffee and/or ice cream. It helps to vanquish the miserable feeling as we are more or less still "eat out" most weekends.

I do my grocery online and mostly buy things when they are on sale and stock them up for future use. I also meal plan weekly.

Holidays are different, though. We could end up spending more than a hundred/day.