No spend for 2 months

[Digitaldedado]

I want to reset my spending habits, I've worked out a budget and I want to stick to it. I've seen my disposable income and frankly it made me feel a bit sick as to what I'm actually doing with that money.
What are the best tactics to avoid spending on unnecessary items?
I've already accounted for bills, savings etc
Any tips? Already I'm thinking oh I've got this friends birthday coming up, that appointment etc .... so I fear I'm destined to fail before I've started.

I’m not doing a no-spend but trying to be more mindful of my spending. Last year I fairly successfully cut down how much takeaway coffee I bought on my commute - I already had a keep cup so I added some nice coffee to my shop and made myself a coffee before I left so I spent probably £6 on coffee in the shop but didn’t spend £3-4 every time I got to the tube station.

You said you’ve been through your disposable income, is there anything obvious to cut out? Do you spend when you feel sad or bored?

I spent an hour at the weekend unsubscribing to all the marketing emails I get that are constantly tempting me to buy. I'm hoping it'll be an out of sight out of mind approach!

You should include birthdays and regular appointments in your budget for a start. Birthdays at least are predictable, work out what you spent last year on birthday pr Christmas gifts for people, then divide it by 12 and that's how much a month. And if that figure is horrifyingly large then work out what you CAN afford and buy smaller.
Same with appointments, if you can't afford everything you have been doing then you need to decide what you can cut back on.

I haven't used it but have heard good things about the app 'you need a budget'
It doesn't just set a monthly budget, but you need to break it down and decide what you need to spend on each different category, and don't forget to include occasion expenses too. Like eg car insurance is an annual cost, but you should he mentally putting aside a 12th every month if you don't want a big hit all at once

oh, I don’t know… I think I live a pretty frugal existence. I set aside £150 per week for any non-essential costs. The £150 pw (£650 pcm) is meant to cover my clothes (which I very rarely buy), going out (I rarely do), haircuts (once every few months), gifts, cosmetics, hobbies, the odd item for the house, the odd play or exhibition etc.
Even though I am conscious of my spending, I end up spending more than the allocated £650 every single month. I ask myself how is that possible, and then I look at my bank statement and see exactly where the money went. Then I tell myself that on that particular month I had to spend more because of y,x,z, but I would spend less the following month. Except that the following month other expenses come up!

I do wonder if people spend more or less than £650 pcm on themselves? Perhaps I’m not as frugal as I think I am?

Personally I spend much less. I’m on about £150 pcm for the types of spending you mention. That is for just me, no family included in that figure.

I think a no (or limited) spend couple of months could be a good reset for OP. I might be tempted to open a separate account and transfer money to that every time I see something I would have bought, to act as additonal incentive / to get something larger you want.

@ViolinsPlayGentlyOn

The figure of £650 pcm is just for myself, so I guess I am not as frugal as I thought I was (but I genuinely feel like I barely go out or buy things).

I sometimes miss how little I used to spend during covid (esp the covid lockdowns). How was that possible then and is no longer possible now?
The truth is that I noticed small changes - during covid I used to go for a walk in the countryside with a sandwich and a bottle of water in my backpack. At the end of the walk I’d come home without wanting to do anything else. Then the pubs reopened and I got back into the habit of stopping at the pub for a drink or meal at the end of the walk. I guess all these things add up

I already save over a quarter of my wage, it's just the unnecessary that I want to stop. DH have an account for spending on us - jointly and that's a health amount a month (for dinners, drinks etc)
It's just the 100's that I spend on myself that I could be investing better ! Either on myself or family.
I'll check out the budget app

It sounds like you have quite a lot of spare money, so it is OK to spend some of it.

However, you need to consider what happens when you don't have so much coming in, eg when you want to retire, work less or suffer loss of income due to ill health, redundancy etc. How you fund large purchases like cars, home improvements, a house move etc should also be factored in.

Are your spending habits impacting the above sort of things? How would you cope if you lost an income?

Plus, like others have said, you know that things like birthdays, appointments etc come up that will need money spending on them, so you need to expect to spend money on those. But if you feel you are wasting money on non essentials that don't give you any pleasure, you could just stop buying/doing those things, look for cheaper alternatives or do them less often.

Pots. You need pots or “spaces” in your banking app account. Some are long term goals and some are short term monthly budgets.

I started doing this last Summer and it’s already changed my life completely. I stopped spending so much and I have saved approx £800 extra!

Christmas and Birthdays pot (long term)
Holiday pot (long term)
Savings pot (generic) (the big one!)
School holiday fun pot (for August mainly)
House and DIY pot (when it’s gone it’s gone!)
Car pot (MOT and tyres)
Fancy food and takeaway pot (when it’s gone it’s gone!)
Fun / boredom pot (you’re allowed to spend this when bored! When it’s gone it’s gone)

Pay yourself first. I am going to create more pots this week when I have some time but it was a good start for us ☺️

It has changed my mindset so much. So has cancelling Amazon Prime!

Since starting this I have been made redundant and we’re down to one salary while I job hunt. So having things like a “car pot” has actually saved us from struggling.

I’m currently doing a no spend month. I’m being disciplined and literally not spending on anything that isn’t essential - fuel and food really.
i don’t spend money on myself I seem to spend all my money on my kids - clothes, days out, activities.

Going forward I think I might use a separate card, maybe monzo, so I can send over a set amount of money weekly & that’s my money for the week. Once it’s gone, that’s it.

I probably put aside 50 a month for those things so 650 seems a lot to me.
I cut my own hair, eat out around twice a year, put 20 a month in a savings account labelled clothes.
Hobbies are walking/hiking (taking flasks and food), reading (library or books bought me on birthdays/ Xmas, and music ( Spotify) I enjoy occasional gaming and have a four year old switch lite console, which I will replace eventually.
I can't think of anything else I would need money for really. Cosmetics replaced once a year as needed, don't wear much make up, no perfume, by choice

I did a no-spend month last year. I cancelled my Amazon Prime subscription (find it makes buying things too easy) and unsubscribed from marketing emails, also tried to spend less time on social media where you get targeted with ads. If you try it for one month, you can try waiting for things you would have otherwise bought straight away (e.g. if you see something you like, know you can't have it this month, so see if you still want it next month when you've had to wait and think). Remove saved credit cards from your browser/phone and Apple pay - make it harder to make payments so you have to stop and think about them!
Put money straight into savings when you get paid so you don't have it in your account to spend.

For me, one month of very extreme no spending was a good reset to make me rethink my habits.

It sounds like you have quite a lot of disposable income so maybe you could set yourself a lower budget or a budget for specific events e.g. decide in advance what you'll spend on a friend's birthday.

Wow, you’re very good, I just can’t see how i could manage that with £600 per year.

let’s say £200 per year for shoes and clothes (including underwear, socks, replacing a broken belt, or a bag, I find that every other month something else needs purchasing. In a year when one has a big purchase (say a winter coat or good winter boots) that eats up the entire budget for the year!

£100 per year on eating out twice (could be less, of course, but I’m using reasonable figures here). But what about going out for drinks? Even going out once a month for a couple of drinks is £150 per year

£100 per year on presents - surely it can’t be any less than that if there’s more than one person to buy for for Xmas and birthday

£100 per year on cosmetics- may seem like a lot but every month something else runs out- the face cream, the serum, makeup remover, foundation, mascara, etc etc etc etc etc etc

and that leaves £100 for so many other little expenses that are not budgeted for pop up all the time.

As I was saying, I allow £650 per month for all of the above, I feel I’m quite restrained (comparing to many of my friends) and I still go over budget. I don’t know how to reduce my spending more but I’m following this thread with interest

@Gabitule you could manage on less if you had to. Apart from maintaining a basic wardrobe, this is all non essential day to day personal spending, so lowest priority after just about everything else. People will spend very little on these things either because they just don't have the budget, or perhaps because they choose to, either as a personal challenge, or they want to spend their spare money on other things - saving for a house deposit, topping up their pension, to go on holiday, etc etc.

If you can afford to spend a lot, that's fine, but many can't so they have to manage on less.

No spend months don’t really work for me :(. I spend nothing during those months but end up spending double the following month(s) as I still need the items I didn’t buy in the ‘no spend month’. Or I have to go out more to see friends, to make up for not seeing anyone during the ‘no spend’ month

The only thing that seems to help me reduce my spending is to be constantly aware of everything I buy and ask myself ‘do I need this’? ‘’Do I need this cappuccino or shall I wait and have a coffee at home’’? ‘’Do I need an uber, can I really not go through the hassle of getting home on public transport’’? ‘’Do I need another drink’’? ‘’Do i need a face serum or shall I just use a basic moisturising cream’’? But boy, sometime this is exhausting and makes me feel a bit poor and miserable. Although I love saving money, of course