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?

A planned spend today as I did the weekly shop and filled the car with petrol. I did succumb to one unplanned spend - £6.99 on a silicone bar mould from Amazon.

Reading @BandedSnail's post reminded me that I used to make flapjacks and oat bars all the time and I want to get back into it. The last couple of times I made them though they kind of spread in the tin and became too thin so I'm hoping the bar mould will sort that. If I can get them to hold their shape better they will transport well for the kids' packed lunches too.

I think I'm going to aim for a spend day followed by a no-spend day (which is how it's just naturally worked out so far) as I like the structure of that and if I am thinking of buying something I only have to wait one day - by which time the urge will have passed, hopefully.

Spent £20 on nail appointment today but that was planned, also got a £75 refund from Halfords so that's gone straight to savings 🙂

£30 spend today for a friends birthday dinner.

£5.70 withdraw from Vinted fund.

Tomorrow should be a no spend day and hopefully the rest of this week mostly. Although picking up a new car Friday so will have some bits to pay. Changing number plates over and whatever else needs paying.

Thank you- amazing! 😋

DH won £40 on a £2 bet !! That will pay for a bill he needs to settle this week.
I didn't buy my usual fabric softner (£8 for a large bottle) - we can do without it this month
Few yellow stickers in the supermarket yesterday, great bargains.
Dinner plans out for a birthday next week have been cancelled - saves me spending
I'm strictly no takeaways ALL year (birthdays will be the ONLY exception). DD 14 wanted KFC tonight as we were out late from her class, she had to use her own money. I was fully prepared to cook for her when we got in

Does anyone do surveys and if so which ones and are they any good ?

I've set a weekly food/ cleaning stuff/ toiletries budget. Any money left over on Friday can be spent on treats. I'm hoping this will just lead to a permanent change in habits.
We dont usually buy random stuff, but do succumb to snacks, fancy cheese, fizzy drinks, wine...I'm hoping to get these back to being occasional treats for the weekend if we've not overspend in the week.

I won’t join cause I’ll fail miserably at it !
There won’t be any buying of perfumes , clothes , runners , books , we all got them for Xmas.
I’ll still be spending plenty in the supermarket though , & slight addiction to coffee, but I’ve switched to Decaf , every cloud & all that 😂

Had to buy cat food yesterday (£70) but that should cover her kibble needs for six months.

First day in the office today, so £1 parking but tank is still half full from December. Lunch is dahl and salad, and I take my own fruit tea bags in.

So far this year I’ve spent £24 on dh birthday gifts ( yoga mat and blocks)
£80 on 3 new pairs of jeans but will only keep 1 and they are reduced by 2/3 and desperately needed so max spend will be £32.
no food or other shopping yet as cupboards are full still from Christmas.

Had to buy some imodium yesterday (definitely an essential) and our usual amazon subscriptions are about to be delivered (dog food and cat litter), but generally I'm doing ok on just getting essentials.

I do YouGov.

I’ve just spent 20 on Duolingo diamonds or whatever they are without thinking. Doh!!!!

Spent 28p on a birthday card 😂long gone are the £1.50 cards for me

@notnorman does You Gov pay out much ?

I used to do Prolific Research - might restart it. Not huge amounts per survey but they add up quickly and they pay out as soon as you hit £6 so you don’t have to wait ages for the dosh.

You can see your progress towards the £50 voucher/cash. I’ve been doing them for one month now, since start of Dec at one per day ish - and I’m 1/4 of the way there.

Had planned a no-spend day today but DH spent £12 at the barber's (rude!) However I just sold something on Marketplace for £20 so feeling good about that.

I thought today would've been my first no spend day but I had to spend £4 on visitor parking for a house alarm salesman DH had arranged to come. I feel a tad annoyed😂. But I'll try again tomorrow.

Yesterday was a sort of win. We had a day out at a central London museum (free). Only spent money on the tube, DH got one coffee (£4.80, he was upset as he planned to get a 99p pret filter coffee but we were in a rush) and the kids got a couple of dried fruit packets on the way home as a reward for good behaviour (£1.70). We brought our own packed lunch. So £6.50 + tube fares😁.

Saturday: no spend day, trip to the library and a walk
Sunday: no spend day, vegged in the house and park
Monday: no spend day at work

Tues: forgot packed lunch, spent £10 at Tesco and £10 on first aid stuff at Boots. Which, in my defence, was necessary!

That's 5NSD so far in Jan, my 13 target is looking a bit low. I'm changing my challenge to get as many as possible with a minimum of 13.

An impromptu lunch out yesterday.

Took all the empty Christmas chocolate tubs to a pub for recycling and had a lunch while there.

Was just under £10 as it was only the drinks that needed paying for as I used some Club card vouchers for the meal.

No spending today, same for tomorrow.

Ugh. Forgot my lunch. 3.75 in Tesco meal deal. Proud for not buying anything else.

have a planned dinner on Friday night so looking forward to that. Need to meal plan for Thursday and Friday after I’ve looked in the fridge and freezer to work out what needs finishing up.

Went to Lidl with my 10% voucher and maxed that out with a massive shop so got £20 off. Got my free vouchers too so will get a sack of spuds etc free in the next 7 days. Hopefully I can next month's 10% off too if I'm careful. Hopefully will just be topping up bread and milk for the rest of the month.

I’m interested in all of this.

I spend FAR too much on groceries and ‘must-haves’ from Amazon. I’m really going to tighten up with all of this.

First shop of the year delivered today, a fairly expensive one as we had run out of everything laundry related, but no unnecessary items on there.

Meals all planned and using stuff up that has been around for a while in the cupboards and freezer, and fridge is clean and tidy.