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?

Sorry, being a bit thick probably, but how does carrying your own tea bags everywhere save you money?

Haha, every January is No Spend for me!

I'm in! Just got a few essentials to buy but then there is enough food in the house to last. It is a friend's birthday shin dig mid month for which I will stick to a budget but otherwise £0 spending!

Means I don't pay for a cuppa.. I get hot water and milk free and add my tea bag

Do you mean free from cafes? And what about the cup, do you carry that as well? I’m intrigued haha

I think I look forward to no spend January even more than I look forward to Christmas 😁

My rules are :
Use all food in the cupboard/freezer/fridge before I can buy more apart from staples (milk, food for baby, veg)

No other spending apart from bills.

I like to look at things, put them in my basket but not actually check out.

In on this.
My mum passed on 23rd December since then my eating has gone OTT and along with that my spending has gone OTT.

We never buy coffee out, I always take a reusable coffee cup with us, maybe you could do that

So sorry for your loss. Although, I do think now is the time to be kind and compassionate to yourself. It’s not even been a week has it, bless you

I will join in. I’m already doing a no toiletries/beauty ban for most of the year unless I’ve run out. I will need toothpaste and hand soap for family use. Suspect I’ll need soap, deodorant and moisturiser for me at some point but honestly I have so much other stuff. This is my third year of trying to use up things. All mostly sealed! I get bored though and have things in use on rotation.

Books I have enough of! Need to read more. And use up my audible credits. Must pause that for now.

I will however allow myself a meal deal on office days. I struggle with making lunches at the best of times and it’s the only way to make sure I eat at work. Maybe in the summer I’ll make salads but for now once a week it’s my treat.

Yes from cafes. Don't carry the cup lol.i Don't go to cafes for a cuppa ... like you would a coffee. .. but if I'm out for food I might get a cuppa after .. and it's free

@December2025 be kind to yourself. That’s a big loss to navigate.

My mother used to do what she called ‘going on frugals’ after any expensive time, especially Christmas. I usually do similar for at least January - don’t buy anything we don’t actually need, use up all the odds and sods out of the freezer, lots of cheap seasonal veg in soups with pearl barley/lentil fillers, etc.

I hardly ever have takeaway coffees anyway, and do almost always cook from scratch. This year we were away for Christmas with relatives, so alas there is no mass of turkey leftovers to use up, but I did cook a piece of gammon before we left, so that’ll do for a few more meals. I do miss all the lovely leftovers!

Yes plse! January is a long month and I really want to pay off our credit card by end of March so we can start planning a hol for this year.
I too have lots of clothes so don’t need to buy any at all. I’m planning not to buy at all this year if possible although I have a work event in Sept I’ll need a dress for.
I have cosmetics, skincare, toiletries so want to be really strong this year. Kids have loads of stuff too so they are all good.

im going to go through my handbags this week and see what I’ve not used for a while and get them on Vinted too.

I’m in

My main issue is Dh’s lunches. If we’re not organised enough and don’t have something for a lunchbox, he eats out and spends loads
Any ideas? Originally I was saving some of the evenings dinner for his lunch the next day, but there sometimes isn’t enough as he eats a lot at dinner! Huge appetite but still slim, v annoying
Then I wondered whether to buy 5 cheap ready meals-chicken curry etc and add bread rolls-doesn’t seem hugely healthy though?!

@December2025sorry to hear about your Mum.

You’ve given me a really good idea. I have gastro issues and found a cardamom tea that doesn’t upset me as much as regular tea. I can’t have any fancy hot or cold drinks anymore so I might try this when I next go for a meal and fancy a cuppa after!

We often do a month where budget is £50 a week to cover fresh veg , fruit , bread and dairy and shop from the freezer - I take out £200 in cash and it really focuses us on clearing out the cupboards etc

I love this thread!
I met my friend today and we were talking about the very same sort of things to have a spend free January. Some ideas we had were

Challenging each other to list 5 things a night on vinted and having a challenge to reach £250 - who can get there first! We both have kids so always have tonnes of stuff!

Instead of going out with our 2
other friends, we are going to do some
”bring a plate” nights at each others houses which is loads cheaper than going out.

too good to go app -
if you don’t have this it’s great, we both get boxes and bags from here and it’s a good way to save and get some nice bits and bobs a lot cheaper.

Batch cooking to last the month and menu planning so to avoid waste.

we both also do park hampers vouchers we both got the big purple cards this year to pay for lots of the bits we needed for Christmas. Our council tax bills are over 10 months and so on the months we don’t pay (Feb and March) we pay extra off our balances.

And the 1p challenge - I bought my 3 other close friends one of those giant tins you have to open with a tin opener and printed off the chart for them all - hang on I’ll attach it

This is the challenge imagine opening a tin with this 😻

Yes, I’m going to try this

I am also guilty of the “just 99p” book habit. I use BorrowBox and borrow ebooks from my local library for free!
Only coffee out is if I score a freebie. I take a flask of not- cheap- made in the Nespresso from home!

We’re going to work backwards and get the bigger amounts put away first if we can!

I’m definitely interested
im about to walk out of my job, 144 hours a month and no plans yet what im going to do next 🤦🏻‍♀️ I do know that I can’t carry on with what im doing now.
im not going to buy anything online, not even going to visit Vinted, Amazon, EBay, Temu or Shein on my phone 🫣 I’ve been scammed on PayPal for over £550 so as soon as I can I’m going to be contacting PayPal as I’ve got to wait till a specific date to contact them. My husbands pack lunch is a big expense for us but I find it cheaper if I make him something that he can warm up in the microwave so it’s usually stew, lentil dhal, ratatouille and stuff like that, he also has a yogurt, fruit and homemade cake every day. I’ve got 2 large drawers in the freezer full of chicken for my lunches and as I’m not going to be at work soon I won’t be needing lunch, also I’ve got a lot of food intolerances, so I tend not to eat out.

I’m in! I’m drowning in stuff and
ive got some big spends
this year that I don’t want to dip into savings for.

Only buying to replace when I’ve used the last one up. I have enough make up and skincare to last a year and im
goingto wear out my clothes before I replace them.

With regards to food- I’ve learnt to waste a lot less over the years. We’ve had a bit of moaning about eating the same thing the next day but apart from that it’s fine.

reducing the need for perfection or having silly rules like only having carrots with a roast instead of whatever you have left in the fridge.

there’s a lot of veg really cheap in the supermarkets which will freeze well. I’ve chopped some carrots and frozen them with butter/leftover parsley

learning to make my own things too - a lot less UPF and save so much - my own pickled onions for burgers today with excess red onions.

looking forward to other ideas