Ever gone cold turkey - spending wise?

NotCricket

I watched spendaholics last night on BBC3 and was interested in the cold turkey week. As I've just handed in my notice to leave my job (as it was making me go mad/depressed) and have nothing yet lined up to go to, I was thinking that I'm going to have to be extremely careful with my spending.

I was wondering whether it's worth me doing a couple of weeks of cold turkey to help me focus - what do you think?

bigbeff

Oh is that on every week? I would be interested to watch that sometime

Not sure what you mean by cold turkey - absolutely no spending, that would be very hard to do.

bargainbetty

I did a cold-turkey food week.... made an inventory of everything in the cupboard, fridge etc, and then allowed myself only £10 for a fortnight to buy extra bits.... had to use everything up first. I managed to go three weeks only buying milk and a bit of fruit. It helps if you can cook, mind you....

I think the idea is that you reduce every piece of non-essential spending to the bare minimum...

SkintMonkey

You can catch old episodes on bbc iplayer...

They ask people how much they spend a week, and the people always suggest way low of what they actually do spend. Anyway, the presenters slash that a really small amount in comparision and the people have to survive on that for 7 days. A good way of finding out what you need, don't need and realising what you can infact live without.

Nichelette

I think it's a really good idea to try, especially if you are going to have to cut back whilst you find a new job. I allowed myself £20 a week for one of my uni terms to try and claw some money back (I was living at home which made it easier, though I did have to spend about £10 a week on travel) which really helped, I managed to save about £1500 that term. I'm currently trying to live on £10 a week until I get a permanent job... It's kind of working, but I can't afford to do much socially which is a bit depressing.

violetblue

Every so often, maybe once or twice a year, I try to have a cold-turkey month. I spend as little as possible on food (using up what's already in the cupboards and freezer), and really limit the non-essentials too.

I find it does help me to re-focus on what I need to buy versus what I want to buy, especially when I've been going a bit mad with the spending.

It's looking like October is going to be a cold-turkey month for me! Hopefully it will also help me save some money which can then go towards Christmas...

always_amazed

I go cold turkey quite regularly; but that's usually because I've got nowt left to spend :S

I think if I did it voluntarily it would be a brilliant idea and it would really help me.... I'm just not quite brave enough to try it yet... MSE and DFW are slowly building up my willpower though; so I'm not writing myself off yet!!

postingalwaysposting

I will be in the same boat as you in a months time as I am also giving up my job with nothing (yet) to go to. However saying that I do already budget what I spend. Last week I did a no spend week and I plan todo that this coming week too. It definatly helps you focus :j