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?

Last two days were no spend, stay home days.

Today was first full shop since the pre Christmas one and it was a hefty 86.90.
Lots of fruit/fresh veg, restock of the freezer with veg so that's something that won't need buying for a few weeks.

The thing that cost the most as in per item was a small, only 250ml, bottle of olive oil as I want to restart making my own salad dressings, probably wrong time as OO prices are nearing taking out a bank loan territory now, but taste wise is so much nicer and not such a long list of ingredients, so health wise a win.

A planned spendy day today - £41.58 at Tesco (£10 of that was 2x shampoo and a conditioner though) plus £65 on fixing and clearing our gutters and £27 at Boots. It was 3 for 2 on No7 so I bought an extra tinted moisturiser and then the lady at the till gave me a £5 voucher and scanned it straight away which was a nice surprise so £20 saved in total.

Met a friend for a coffee but she sneakily (and kindly) paid while I was at the loo so no cost there.

Planning a NSD tomorrow for balance.

Im enjoying reading everyone’s updates, it’s been really motivating.

Didn't spend anything today! But I did find myself looking at amazon and John Lewis. But i didn't succumb!

I'm not intending to spend anything tomorrow either 🤞

I’ve had another no spend day

but tomorrow will be!

8/15

i have to do a proper grocer shop tomorrow, but don’t need fuel

Ive got an empty amazon basket, it fills up and then I delete it again 😁

£4 per person per day is easily doable for us. £4 for the whole family would not be!

I’m really annoyed with myself. I somehow miscalculated my credit card payments and thought I’d paid it all off but I was actually £130 short so have been hit with interest. I always pay it off in full every month and really thought I had. So annoying.

I’ve spent another £28.33 on groceries.
also £22.65 on birthday presents and £150 on a trip for one of the dc. I think dh may have spent £15 ish in the supermarket too as he decided to cook something we didn’t have the ingredients for! I’m not going to complain though as he used to only cook two dishes and is trying to expand his repertoire.

so big Sainsbury shop today to last me two weeks, plus the cupboards are bare, as ive eaten as much as I can to aid stock rotation etc

I spend £92.45, but I got nectar savings to bring it down to £77

But they are the same nectar points I spent the other day on the present - I couldn't get them to work so asked the assistant on self check out and he huffed as I wasn't able to do it - well it seems he did't either! Even though he used my phone and said it was all done...

£216.96
plus £77

Making a total of £293.96

Today

£2.80 in Boots on medication
£15 in the butchers on sausages and pork shoulder - that's enough for 4 dinners for the 2 of us, so 8 portions.
£12 in the sweet shop on dairy free chocolate.
£10 in a cafe on 2 coffees and a slice of cake for my DH.

My DH spent £15 in the greengrocers, but I'm not counting that as it was from his bank account!

So about £40 in total.

The £30 we spent on meat, fruit and veg means we have enough food for the week now, including what we already had at home.

Tomorrow I need to buy a birthday present, we have a stock of suitable cards already.

It's going pretty well so far, I am definitely spending less and am much more mindful about it. I will also enjoy my treats more (the chocolate) as I am more aware of their cost and their value.

No spending day yesterday.

Had a takeaway tonight..
£28.

Superdrug shop on health care/medicine products of £13.48.

Charity shop buys of £5.25.

Thinking of looking into getting a vinted/Ebay account to sell off some of the very many items that I have never or no longer use, but not being to up on technology and hearing stories of scams where people deny receiving or say goods were damaged I'm not to sure about it.

As predicted, today was a no spend day.

Like @BandedSnail the purchases I'm making are more mindful now and I'm definitely spending less.

Checking in for a mid (ISH) month update.

Managing very well all in all my goal this month is to keep within the months salary and not use savings which is going well.

Had a couple of unexpected expenses pop up when don't we get that though.

A few days to go until pay day
must do better
i am Itching to do a BIG shop however

had to get a new windscreen wiper,
but it has made a marvellous difference, no noise!

No spend day here, along with being productive. I’ve food prepped

cottage pie
tarragon chicken casserole
pearl barley & chicken broth

tortillas bagels with cheese, these go in the airfryer
apple strudel oats in the slow cooker

so ive got 18 portions for supper ready to go in the freezer

tomorrow I’m prepping chilli con carne & the rice portions which will add another 6 portions to the freezer

24 portions will see us out of January into February.

Ive got enough oats to make breakfast apple strudel oats again next week and just need bagels to make lunch.

so hopefully I can keep this month under £350 spending total

£293 spends to date

9/15 no spend days so far this month

@MikeRafone tarragon chicken casserole sounds lovely - could you share the recipe please?

A NSD here. I spent the morning baking - flapjacks, mince pies (using up a spare jar of mincemeat) and garlic and rosemary focaccia.

We rummaged for dinner and managed to find something - four different meals but we’re all fed and we’ve used up lots of cupboard and fridge items so it’s a win.

https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/creamy-tarragon-chicken-casserole/

I use this recipe, we made a couple of batches of this when my dd was pg with her first, so I know it freezes well.

I forgot to buy bacon, but I’m not sure it’ll make much difference

Thank you!

I need to have a no spend week this week having gotten a huge bill i was not expecting. Car has a full tank, fridge and freezer are full so I really have no excuses.

I had a bad weekend. Spent nearly £80 on unplanned purchases. Unfortunately the credit card interest, paying for a trip for dc and paying the balance on an Easter trip coupled with spending the entire weekend at home feeling meh opened the floodgates to impulse spending. I bought a flipping peacock vase to hold breadsticks after seeing someone do it with a swan planter on Instagram ffs. And a variety of non alcoholic spirits after a thread on here. And cat food (which was needed).
Today is a new day and was successfully a NSD.
Tomorrow I do need to get a few bits in the supermarket but will stick to only what we need.

You’re doing really well. I need to commit more fully. I think the problem is that I’m not doing it out of necessity so I just think “oh well”. But all those little bits add up.

The peacock vase made me laugh! Tomorrow is a new day.

Failed today. We walked down to village to get a mouse trap from DIY shop, tagging a visit to cafe on, then a visit to Coop which do some nice (expensive) ready meals here, then milk, yogurts, fruit and carrot from Tesco. The first and last essential, but £25 in-between not 😊

Well done everyone, particularly those who are back on the wagon after impulsive spending.

Yesterday was another NSD for me. But today ive got £85 food delivery coming.

A bigger weekly delivery with fewer top up shops seems to help me stay in control

I'm doing this so I can spend the money on weekends away instead of frittering away money on unneeded purchases, so I do have a goal as such.

I'm looking at Malaga for 3 days and have a trip booked for London in February - though a day trip. Malaga trip is coming in at £110 each, flights and pod accommodation for 3 nights and train tickets to airport

Yes @MikeRafone I completely relate to this. I fritter away money on bits and pieces. A plant when I do the food shop, a little something when I get fuel (usually edible and overpriced), a coffee and a pastry when I'm on a dog walk...

But then i won't pay out for something more substantial which will have a bigger impact on family life.

For me there's got to be a balance though, as otherwise day to day life just gets a bit miserable and that leads to bigger impulse buys.

@BerfyTigot

so my balance is to rein it back in during January, be accountable for every penny I spend. That helps to balance my year - especially after December

Also though trying not to miss out, by making snacks and having a walk in the woods and taking them with us and an insulated cup - it helps to reduce the cost

Ive still eaten out this month twice, and had coffee out and Iam meeting friends next Tuesday to eat out again.

The good thing about eating out in January is there are deals! Last week the bill for eating we got £10 off due to the food my friends eat and then another friend had a 20% ticket for January - so the bill was greatly reduced and my bill was £9.95. Another friend contacted me yesterday to say that the best Indian restaurant in town has a 50% discount until the end of January - so he has booked for 3 of us to go.

£297.45 spends to date
9/15 no spend days so far this month