January no spend preparation

[ivykaty44]

The last two years I’ve done a no spend January & it’s been good, at the end of both I had saved myself enough to buy an armchair and a flight to Portugal

This year I want to take things a little further, I’m going to prepare a store cupboard & freezer with foods I can make meals from, thus reducing spending further - no supermarket trips (bonus as I don’t like food shopping) and no impulse spending temptation

Thinking things like pasta meals, frozen prawns, bread maker, homemade pizza with Mediterranean frozen vegetables.

Also have you ever noticed that boring household washing powder etc is often on offer in December- so buying three large boxes last year... I’m nearly finished them this year!

Anyone want to join me for a no spend January & start prepping now? 😊👍🏻

I'm in!

I am going to keep a spending diary as well. My worst habit is getting little bits of food or a drink for DS after school or sport so will need to keep on top of that.

@GinisLife

My top tip is to open a Starling bank account. Me and DH have just done this (in December).
We have a joint account where all our income goes and all direct debits come out. We calculated how much 'spending money' we each needed weekly and worked out the monthly amount. Now we have a direct debit to transfer that amount into our individual starling accounts. Only food and petrol comes out of our joint account now. With the starling account I have set up 'wallets' that automatically saves a set amount each month from the main account. You can't go overdrawn, you can see exactly what you've spent really quickly. I've already saved over half of the money I would usually spend! The big thing is that we don't actually have cash anymore, just use Apple Pay everywhere.

I'm in.
We have haemorrhaged money the last year with house and bedroom works,broken down large appliances,a vehicle repair on top of the normal
Sat and added up the dc school trips,uniform,clothes etc etc for the coming year inc riding and phone etc and it comes to a whopping £250 a month between them

These are things they will continue to have but have got them on board with saving on other bills like stop wasting food,electric etc etc.

It's a family challenge for the coming year.

I spend too much on coffee and food out (over &200 in a week on coffee cake and the odd lunch )am shocked myself.
Dh is cutting out the alcohol as just a couple an evening is well over £120 a month

It's been a real eye opener.
I set our food budget at £450 a month but every month we spend at leat £600 as we pop to the local Sainsbury's for bits we don't need so all in here.

Have a Monzo card and plan to put £20 a week in there and then &20 a week in another account and save £12.50 a week in a cash pot.

Also set up a standing order for me and dh to put £100 each a month into savings to build up our contingency account again after depleting it

Ok I need a couple of small utems for the shop today... then my purse is going to be put away!

I also got shower gel/body lotion sets for Christmas, DH too so no need to buy any for a few months, at least. DDs are different story but I have over £25 in Boots Advantage points so that will cover shower gel/sanpro and the odd packet of paracetamol. DH must have loads of Nectar points as he buys petrol there most weeks.

I'm in! I also read No Spend Year recently, which while a bit extreme and wouldn't work for us, it really made me think about the money I spend each month on "stuff" with not much to really show for it. That book inspired me to log into our online banking and total up what we had spent in the year on eating out, clothes, "popping to the shops" aka needing milk and walking out with a bagful of snacks and no milk and I was shocked by the amount. It felt like wasted money.

Well, I have to buy toothpaste and bread today- that’s it though!

I've been deleting emails from online stores and unfollowing on Instagram to take temptation out of my way. I've also clocked how many times I think about spending money, I'm answering every thought with "do you need it though?"
It's small steps but I'm really trying to retrain my brain!

I'm starting today!

Good luck everyone!

I went to Tesco this morning. I ignored all of the sales. Usually I would pick up bedding and other random crap because it’s in the sale!

I spent £19.40 - bread, milk, cauliflower, frozen berries, dog food, squash, yogurts, eggs, chia seeds and risotto rice.

That’s me done until next week. My food shop budget is £120 a week for the 5 of us including toiletries and cleaning stuff. So I’ve already saved £100 this week 😇

Hey!

I’m going to join in with this. I had a tough year financially thanks to the family court process and my ex stopping maintenance (nearly 2 years later CMS have finally nearly sorted it), but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m an awful spender and the less money I have- the more I spend! I’m more frugal when I have money. So this year I really need to get on top of everything.

My goals are to be out of my overdraft for good and to have £400 in a savings pot. I’ve set up a Monzo account to transfer over £200 personal spends every month and will set up a ‘pot’ to round up and transfer amounts to the ‘pot’. I also plan to transfer the balance at the end of the month to the ‘pot’

In order to achieve this I need to

• stop buying breakfast () and lunch out when I go to work in the office
• plan food shopping and meal prepping more effectively (at the moment we are useless/ over order certain things/ waste food/ not buying smart. We can have a food delivery come and still have nothing to eat for dinner!)
• stop picking up odds and sods during the week as I am lethal.
• drive to Aldi/Lidl rather than walk to Waitrose
• try, for a whole year, to buy my DDs casual clothes second hand on eBay (bye bye next account!)

I’m waiting for my Monzo card to come before I transfer the £200. It’ll obviously push my overdraft over in one go, but hopefully, over the course of the month it will ultimately be less than I usually fritter away

Good luck to everyone!

I’m taking the children to the library and the park today. Will remember to take flasks and snacks from the house

Good day for me! Only spends we're bread and some carrots to have with dinner.

Took DS to the park and made sure we had lunch beforehand so not to succumb to the cafe!

Spent £1.85 yesterday in emergency Yorkshire puddings at the local shop. Normally I'd walk round the shop and randomly put shite in the basket so deliberately didn't pick up a basket and went straight to the right section and to the tills yay 😁

Today's spend was a big fat £000

Way overspent on random sale items in between Xmas and new year but literally £1.85 in two days is a miracle for me

Fingers crossed tomorrow's spend world be under £2 as need to buy a loaf of bread.

I failed! I went to the Zara sale 😳

In my defence I brought 2 tops: a top that I wanted before Xmas and a tshirt to replace my bed tshirt which I've had for about 15 years!

DH bought bread today, I tagged along and slipped pasta and tomato purée into his basket 😁 starting to buy a few bits for Uni while offers are on. I bought him a coffee in Sainbo’s though. Then note books and pens for DDs, they are sitting A-levels this year and are busy studying. The bloody dog chewed DD1’s underwear after DH left a door open good job he’s cute, so I’ll be buying replacements next weekend

Keep going everyone 👍

A no spend weekend! All meals have been cooked from supplies at home! DH brought me a coffee back from when he was out but that's it.

Very pleased!

Spent 35 bloody quid today snacks for work and teens studying, and a piece of pork because I craved a roast 🤦‍♀️ It was bloody lush though. DH wanted to wait in the car and ended up buying coffee because he got too cold 🥶

My snacks will last the entire month, not sure about the kids. I’ll make a salad/veg salad tomorrow for them.

Well done twinkle 👍

A no spend weekend for me too. I've eaten all meals at home and I've avoided my usual little stop offs for treats. I've opened a Plum account to start skimming off the pennies and I'm starting the working week with meals planned and a full fridge. I'm excited to see how I get on this week, especially as I have had little control over my finances for quite a few years now. I'm feeling empowered and positive!