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?

I did no spend 2024 and it was life changing, I'm totally in for no spend January and beyond.

Just downloaded The Year of Less on Kindle for £1.99 - I feel like it will pay for itself quickly!

I find meal budgeting tricky - dinners are relatively straightforward but how do people plan for breakfasts, lunches and snacks when they don't know what appetites will be and food doesn't really run weekly? It's something I've never really cracked, and I think it's where I waste loads of money. Any tips gratefully received.

Takeaway coffees are most people’s demon, I’m sure of it. I am going to rely on our coffee machine at home. £4-£5 on a coffee is insane.

I got gifted molton brown shower gel & body lotion so I’m going to try and make it last a good couple of months.

I am also not going to buy any lunches out when I go to work - fortunately, I’m only in the office one day per week.

I am not planning to buy any new make up in January - I enjoyed my space nk beauty advent calendar so will enjoy the new bits from that for a while.

I am planning to put a few things on Vinted and only purchase something if I really really need it once something on there sells.

but how do people plan for breakfasts, lunches and snacks when they don't know what appetites will be and food doesn't really run weekly?

I make soup and freeze, bread rolls n the same method that the no knead loaf is made and freeze, homemade pizza, then add cheese - I do cook the pizza dough for 7/8 minutes and then add all the topping but the cheese.

Breakfast is ether frozen croissants (6 pastries for £4), pain au chocolate, (go in air fryer) porridge with cocoa powder, water and frozen or tinned fruit or bacon sandwiches ( again freeze rashers of bacon in-between baking paper and get just one or two rashers out at a time and snacks homemade biscuits and sponge cake - again a lot of cookies can be made up and then instead of putting in the oven - freeze on a baking tray and then pop in a bag - just cook as needed

https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/vanilla-freezer-cookie-dough/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/frozen_chocolate_chip_95194

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/6_soups_on_a_shoestring batch cook soup, pop in freezer bread rolls

chocolate brownies and banana loaf are easy to freeze in portions and get out when required www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/make_ahead_bakes

I'm in. I made some good progress in the last six months with finances but this time of year is an expensive one and we have two holidays to pay for in 2026 so I really do need to rein things back in and divert more money to the holiday fund..... particularly as our mortgage rate increases from January!

My plan is to set a weekly budget of £150 for food and activities as realistically that is where most of our day to day spending goes. I can be really frugal in the supermarket and spend £80 on the food shop for our family of four but then going to Costa and the cinema at the weekend means we can easily spend the same again. We have National Trust membership and library cards so we can easily do free activities at the weekend as long as we plan ahead, take picnics on days out and avoid grabbing a coffee and cake "just because."

I also want to operate a one in one out policy on clothes and use up my toiletries before I replace them.

Yes. Want to send absolute minimum in Jan. Feels tough but am here to try

Yes I would love to join!

I did no spend January back in 2023, and found it really helpful. It was eye opening seeing how much money flies out of my account on a regular basis.

I have gotten a lot better at packed lunches and careful meal planning. But nonetheless have spent £5600 already this month. I’m on a salary of £2400 per month, and that doesn’t include mortgage or car payments.

I know it is Christmas (and DP and 2 dc birthdays) but I’m horrified at how easily that money has been spent.

I am expecting one refund of £100 to come in and that’s it.

I have a lot of stuff to sell on vinted, which is my focus this holidays.

in terms of where my money goes- it is mainly groceries, children’s activities and beauty treatments. I try to make regular waxing/threading appointments and keep up with haircuts and colour.

buying lunch at work has been an issue in the past- but I’m mainly on top of that now.

I don’t buy clothes, coffees or have subscriptions, and very rarely go out eating or drinking. Nonetheless money just disappears.

I track my spending on a spreadsheet and typically average 3-4 transactions every single day. I really want to see how that can be reduced with no-spend Jan.

I’m joining along!

meal plan around what I already have in the freezer and cupboard

try and cut down meat consumption

less impulsive spending - my biggest problem. I’ve made a section on my notes where I can write down what I want to buy. If I’m still thinking about it after 60 days I can buy it.

no new clothes/shoes/accessories. I have plenty. Continue listing on Vinted and any sales money gets thrown at debts.

no new toiletries/make up until i run out of what I do have. I have masses.

I'd like to join in. I literally have every item.of clothing I need so although I like the idea of the sales, I need nothing. I'm trying to wear my clothes right out as well. My car is 11 years old so it's due some new bearings and brakes soon. Just had the e hast replaced. I'd love to run my freezer right down again as well.

I’m in. I try every January and October to have very frugal months. I find it really helps reset me. As much as I try to keep Christmas low key and avoid consumerism as much as possible it’s surprising how it creeps up.

18 months ago, I lost half of my job, I bumbled along with a bit of casual work on the off-days, but I have debt from when I earned double! I've managed to now secure work for the other 0.5 of a week (half of what I earn the rest of the week but makes a huge difference) until August.

All of the debt is 0% (priviledge I know), but I need to get as much gone as possible in case the contract isn't extended.

I know I will have enough basics in food to get me through Jan - 25kg sack of potatoes bought for Christmas for about the usual cost of 4kg will do some heavy lifting!!
I don't buy drinks at work thanks to a bulk buy of tea pigs last month.
ALWAYS take lunch - one sunday every couple of months spent making samosas is a good investment.
Dry Jan not only means not buying wine, but I eat less because, no blood sugar spikes.
I also had plant seeds for Christmas, so no buying for the garden later in the year, and I have been collecting leaf mould and making compost in bins offered for free on FB. (yes some of this is long term).

Main expenditure for Jan is six months of dog food, parking and petrol.

One thing I did towards the w s of last year was look properly at what I was spending. I have a spreadsheet but I also began to look at the month ahead and work out that I would need £x for a night out or £x for a birthday present. It helped me realise that while I was thinking salary minus bills equals money to spend on me (!!) that wasn’t really accurate. I’m actually going to redo the spreadsheet today in prep for the new year.

I like a January financial re-set but I would recommend you write down how much you spent in total on Christmas, divide it by 12 and put that monthly amount in a savings account for next Christmas. My car bills are all due in January so I also have a car fund. It takes the pressure off the seasonal spending.

I’d like to join please, house is bursting with stuff that I need to declutter and I really need to stop the impulse purchases!

I do all of this and have for years, it’s takes away all the pressure doesn’t it?

I'm in! I need a good year overall to finish some decorating and clear some debt. I can do it all in 2026 if we're careful on everything else. We've done really well so far over Christmas so I'm hoping we can start 26 well.
I will just need to get my boys a wardrobe and some toy storage for under their beds (we moved the bedrooms around in Oct half term) so I can sort their room out for their Christmas toys and DS2 birthday in Feb. But that is part of the decorating that's needed so it is within the plans.

I'm in too!

Work lunch (im in the office 4 days a week) are my great weakness, especially on a Friday.

I'm in.

For me, it's not takeaway coffees, but coffees out in cafes, with friends or family. It feels like a little treat after my very stressful job all week, and I hate hosting so meeting in a cafe is less stress and more neutral. It's my only social life really, so that will be hard.

There's a sort of guilt I feel about NOT spending too, though it's difficult to explain. I currently have my eye on a very normal top in M&S, but I feel like if I don't buy it, I might not find something the same again, or it light finally make me look better, or I might be missing an opportunity I'll regret. Anyone else have this feeling?

I did this about 5 years ago and it turned into a low spend year. I ‘shopped’ from the food cupboards and freezer before I went shopping, mended things or repurposed them rather than buying new, sorted out the garage so could actually find things for DIY rather than nipping up to B&Q, only bought knickers and socks….and presents for birthdays etc.

I still ate out as a treat or with friends, or would have a coffee out. But far fewer, just can’t be arsed cooking meals out.

it was liberating, perfectly possible, and saved me so much money. I’m going to do it again, I’m coming up to retirement and want some extra in the savings.

once you get in the mindset of ‘roughly’ meal planning (in my case), not going to the shops, unsubscribing from all marketing, it’s not that hard.

I have added all my bills and divided by 12, I hated having one month with car tax or insurance and MOT etc having to be paid for - so have pocket accounts all labelled so each month the money left is for me to spend or save as I wish

I’m in although I don’t have a lot of spare cash anyway so do a lot of those things. I do have Amazon prime which I will cancel and apart from a child’s birthday in Jan won’t be buying anything else.

I have started this for Jan too now. I used to have them but I wasn't strict enough when it came to borrowing from pots when I'd run out of money. So we tried a credit card for essentials only and having a good size spending pot, which also went terribly wrong.
So we are back to pots and we've learnt our lesson now so fingers crossed it will go much more smoothly. We've been really good since I made this decision after our summer holiday in Aug so we are ready for the start of our new finances.

LOVE this idea!!!!!

I wish I could but I have birthdays to pay for now 🤦‍♀️

If going out shopping take cash only leave the cards at home