A no spend January with limited grocery shopping spend

[MikeRafone]

Im needing a detox from spending for January

Ive cancelled my amazon prime account - for now as I rarely use it until easter so it saves £35

all my bills will go out by direct debit and standing order by 2nd of the month

Im going to set a limit of £4 per person per day for the grocery shopping so £28 per person per week. We have a lot of left overs, some of which im going to freeze for January.

Coffee at home rather than out in a coffee shop, no hitting the sales for stuff no-one else wanted!

Im wanting as many no spend days as possible for January

anyone want to join?

Are you all setting yourselves a target of how many no-spend days you want to achieve in January or playing it by ear?

No spend day today!

tomorrow was going to be a no spend day but now meeting a friend for lunch and drinks so will factor that in.

Sunday will hopefully be a no spend day. Food shop being delivered.

I was doing no spend November, doing really well until my cat needed a £800 vet bill...

@BandedSnail your soup sounds lovely, I batch-cook soup every week for DH's lunches but never eat it myself 🤦‍♀️.

Been a very productive day chez MrsW, have finally managed to convince DH to get rid of some cd's (still a full mover's box of them left!) and getting £135 back from Music Magpie, this will pay for our travel insurance for the year and half of our airport parking for our March trip.

Have also arranged home insurance, travel insurance and energy switch - all via Quidco so will get £60 cashback on those (eventually, it seems to take so much longer to come through now). About to write my shopping list for tomorrow, then going to try Jam Donut to get Tesco and Costa vouchers to use for the month. Can't remember who suggested this upthread but it seems like a no-brainer - if I'd known about this last summer we'd have made £250 just on our Download tickets via Ticketmaster and our trip via Tui!

Glass of wine then attempting to get through the cheese mountain in front of a film and the fire 💕

I have not spent any money today. I stayed home and had a quiet day. But I have moved money around so it’s in the right place for bills, and given one of our teens their allowance so money is going out of the account!

Tomorrow is family day and we are headed to the beach for “fresh air”. Already lamenting the fact that 4 x fish and chips and a can of coke each will cost £70… We will do breakfast at home before we go to save where we can.

No Spend Here. I looked up new Yoga Mats and sighed, but resisted and can just keep making do.

Tomorrow I’ve a very long drive which will cost in diesel but does mean I can go to a cheap supermarket for once. I’ll keep the groceries to a minimal but stock up on tinned and frozen fruit and veg etc. My local supermarket doesn’t sell tons of butter beans or green lentils so I hope I can get them.

Day 2, the only spends were a few needed groceries, so am happy with that 👍

I’m trying to budget. My employer has a rewards scheme very like ‘Jam Donut’ so I’m going to check which has better rewards. Plus if buying online with my gift card check out Topcashback/quidco etc.
We will be using up all our toiletries because I bought loads using the Boots rewards recycling app.

We’re doing a £50 a week maximum spend , today we went to Morrisons - bill was £49.90 by pure coincidence but we forgot bags which added £1 so I was annoyed , especially as DH got a very unnecessary meal deal for lunch when we had food in fridge and obviously topped up groceries

@Ieswe i love your idea of a press up a day! I’m going to steal that one.

In terms of pants I’ve just brought some community clothing ones. They are so comfy and well made. I can see them last way longer than the 6 months my M&S knickers seem to last

No spend day yesterday. Spent €21 on groceries today as needed bread, milk and fruit. Also spent €8 in pharmacy on prescriptions for my Mum and €5.50 in newsagents for my daughter's weekly Beano.

Spent about £30 in Aldi but on yellow sticker bargains which came home and were pushed into my groaning fridge. Am planning on doing some meal prep tomorrow to empty said fridge. Will not need to do a huge shop this ,month ( I hope!)

Just writing out my shopping list for Sunday morning and it's a big one. We've hardly got anything in th cupboards, fridge or freezer. But I've barely spent anything on food over the past two weeks so it is needed.

I’m using the BBC sounds app to listen to radio etc instead of paying music subscriptions.

I’ve cancelled Amazon prime from the 11th January. Trying not to panic rush order stuff in the meantime! 🤪

I’ve found some exercise videos on YouTube so may cancel my no frills gym subscription.

Had some soup vegetables in the fridge so made a scotch style broth today with pearl barley. Still have carrots left over for maybe a Dahl and celery for soup.

I’m guilty of stocking my freezer and not checking it so often, so I’m following orjenise on Instagram with her January tidy up! Already sorted out toiletries and almost or just expired tinned and dried food to use up Hopefully she will tackle freezers soon! 😅

Does anyone use the Batch Lady recipes?

Food shop today .. usually around £180-£200 for 5 of us for the week .. today we got it to £115. Really pleased. Now it just needs to last a week. I would rather go without than buy anything else except milk

I’m just trying to cut spending. No real targets just overall cuts. I’ve got in a bad habit of thinking “it’s only £10/20/30” or buying stuff just because I want it. I also have lots of things to use up; toiletries, candles, cleaning products, alcohol…
I refuse to compromise on eating well while I can afford to so our grocery budget is high but I’m trying to keep it within budget and not buy unnecessary things

@Superwomanwantsnewjob im a big fan of the batch lady. I’m lucky enough to have two massive chest freezers and I make at least one of her recipes weekly but do it big enough so we eat one portion and freeze two. It’s like having my own “cook” freezer but much cheaper.

I’m hoping for a NSD

going to a house party later, have a bottle left over from Christmas and going to drive myself

windscreen cover on and will take with me, saves fuel heating the car windows up.

will have to get fuel next week, but it’s over a month since I put fuel in the car

For me my target is 15 days NSD and mindful spending, not “just” popping something in the virtual or real basket. This hopefully reduces the flow of money out of my account!

NSD for me yesterday because we were snowed in! Had to drink my coffee black though as we had no milk. It’s even worse out there today as it snowed on top of the ice last night.
Still running down the contents of the fridge post Christmas but going to need to do a food shop soon. I’m going to do a freezer inventory today and work from that.

Joining ! Got paid early in Dec and had a kids bday and Xmas. Also did a lot of decorating in the run up to Xmas and bought some furniture for new room. Also paying a holiday off Jan -May AND trying to pay off the rest of an overdraft!!

Once I have filled up car today I will Have £350 for food shopping for a family of 4 between now and 30th Jan. We are going to be eating a lot of homemade snacks and things like pasta / soup and cheese scones / lentil chilli for tea.

just restocked a load of toiletries and house stuff so now need to buy ANYTHING except food shopping and petrol this month!

We use the Good Budget app, it's free and means I can plan expenditure for the year and both DH and I can update when we spend, which is useful for some accountability. Need to make sure there's some frivolous spending allowed though to stop us from just giving up.

Some people use Chat Gpt for meal planning but I find it very hit and miss. I always come back to this site when I need a cheap week https://eatnotspend.com/

For those feeling the fear about giving up Amazon, we've gone a full year without Prime now. I'm always adding things to my basket and then every so often I'll have a look and see what we actually need. Delivery is still quick, maybe a day longer. I never pay for postage. I try to order most presents bnwt from Vinted. I usually pay about half the shop price

For anyone using Jam Doughnut or similar please remember if you pay with a gift card then your refund will be a gift card. Fine if you're spending £200 in Sainsbury's for the weekly shop but if you're trying out a new clothing company and nothing suits when it arrives you'll be stuck with a gift card you don't really need.

Today I nearly bought 2 throws for my sofa at £22 , a gravy boat £6 , a Xmas tree skirt £13 , 6 Christmas cards for next year £6. An ornamental light up house £5 .
All still in my basket online and decided to have a little nap , a cup of tea and tidy up my bathroom instead , working out that I had enough shampoo , conditioner and medicines to last until 2027.

Just did the food shop, £68 across Tesco and Aldi. Along with what we’ve got in the freezer that’ll do our family of 5 plus dog until next Saturday.

Joining as would like as low spend Jan as poss 😬😬

I've just spent £86 on the food shop at Morrisons for this week which I'm quite happy with for a family of four. We always keep some staples in the cupboards and freezer anyway so a quick pasta dish or fried rice is always possible even if we're running low on fresh stuff.

I bought myself a new purse from TKMaxx as the one I've been using is too small but I used money I'd been given for Christmas from FIL so no extra cost to me.

I've been paid £6 from selling a pair of trousers on Vinted and am expecting another £40 to come in from selling things online.