Buy nothing for a month challenge

Monkeynut

LouiseJ wrote: »

Slight personal victory today as I talked myself out of getting a takeaway due to being run off my feet all day but I forced myself to make dinner and now feel very virtuous:A

saved about £15 I reckon for the 4 of us.

It's these little things that I feel this challenge really helps with. Particularly when it's mid month and I have been good so far, I think that I wouldn't want to ruin it now.

Something like a takeaway that in the past you may not have given a second thought to becomes a conscious decision to not have in order to save money - and chances are be healthier too. Even if you have something really quick in the freezer - pizza etc that costs a couple of £s in the supermarket with your shopping, you can keep it for when you're having one of these type of nights, and really the time and effort it takes to stick the oven on and bung it in is nothing, and usually will have cooked in half the time you'd have waited for Mr Dominos to deliver it!!

20somethinghousewife

Ok I'm not officially doing the challenge this month but I HAVE been spending as little as possible and recording every penny. Thought I'd post what I've spent so far to give me the motivation to continue for the 2nd half of the month. My plan to be debt-free basically involves spending as little as possible on non-essentials so I'll be joining in if this challenge continues in future months

Allowed Spending:
Direct Debits (all bills & min repayments) £891
Business expenses (variable, we have our own company)
Food, cleaning products, toiletries £250 every 5 weeks
One tank of petrol for non-business use, approx £40
Prescription £7.40
Charity donations £10
OH's spending money (playing squash) approx £12
TOTAL (apart from business expenses) approx £1210

Extra Spending:
Kindle book £1.99 shouldn't have bought as I have hundreds of free ones to read on there
Feed for garden birds £1 and I haven't even put it out yet
Highlighter pens £2 which I haven't even used yet
Allergy tablets £3.87 not even used yet
OH's night out, snooker and beers which I don't degrudge him at all £12
TOTAL so far £20.86

So basically I could have been perfectly on track for the challenge so far. Wasted money on unnecessary purchases BUT I think I'm doing pretty well all the same. Last month my non-essentials list came to £385 due to re-decorating a bedroom and a trip to Ikea :cool: so this month should even things out.
Have managed to include a meal out and a take-away in the food budget too so I don't feel like I've missed out on social stuff.
Hmmm cinema with friends tomorrow but it's an Orange Wednesday so won't be TOO expensive. Will check in again and update at the end of the month.
Enjoying this thread though, keep up the good work everyone!!:T

Method_in_the_Magners

thanks to all for the advice on this thread - long time lurker finally coming out lol!

castri09_2

i would love to start this challenge next but at the moment the children are off on their school holls.everyone is doing very well keep up the good work.i would like to start the challenge on the 1 sept if that is ok

lindsayg_2

Cracked yesterday too. I've been getting round to buying bathroom scales for weeks (so I can save £17 pm doing WeightWatchers at home), and a set came up on one of those 'Deal for a Day' emails. So I bought some scales.

Then I was on a roll, so I got another DfaDay, and bought a month's worth of Army Fit Camp sessions for £20.

So both total bargains, but still, spending.

Today I resisted the urge to go out for lunch and made lovely Chinese chicken soup to eat in. So far, so good

gien

I've just caught up with this thread - everyone's doing a fantastic job , I'm really impressed.
Although I'm not signed up this month I've started doing a spending diary, am being careful and will join up in September (which will be a terrible month for us). I'll have to think carefully about planning what we'll all need as the children are back in school.
Keep up the good work!

Winchelsea

Wednesday another no-spend day. Ate out of the fridge, store cupboard and garden again - baked bread, made a lovely stir-fry etc, ate really well. Had tasty porridge for breakfast, with brown sugar and a handful of sultanas - yum!

Busy day - plenty of entertainment, including my free (don't you just like that word?!) art class for carers.

Hope everyone else is managing OK. We're well over half way through the month now - thanks rictus!

bugslet

Monday and Tuesday were great, NSDs.

Yesterday I found it was someone's birthday, someone who has been very helpful to me over a number of years and an all round good egg, so I spent some money on butter, ground almonds and raspberries and with the contents in the store cupboard, made him a rahter fab ( if i say so myself) cake. So I did spend, but I kept the spend low and it's worth it to me.

rictus123

Well iv not cracked!! Every penny iv spent is because iv had to!

Iv got £400+ in bank,credit card balances are £0 and one is in credit..overdraft is cleared...and its payday in the morning Woohoo

Got bad news about my car though. Im owe £1400 to hand it back. So will be trying to sell privatly and hopefully if i have to pay anything it will not be more than £800 or so(less than half a months saving)

So this weekend will be spent getting car and van both brand spanking new looking, as clean as i can manage and will be putting in local paper and on ebay aswel...not too sure about how my car will do but vans seem to do well on there?!

Getting rid of both then il need something that will at least get me to work in Scottish winters....away to have a look, i think ebay could be handy here.

Looking at having another no spend month....or very very low at that next month. So no spend month + rid of car + van = more money in bank + a better motor for winter = success. Will see how it goes though, im not selling to cheap and may have to mot van before i can sell...mot is up in 6 weeks.

Even the odd slip up wont do much harm...still be massive surplus at end of month. Got a lot of overtime lined up for rest of year before winter...£££££ for me

FireWyrm

Days 17, 18 and 19 = NSD's

However someone in the household who shall remain nameless spent £20 they shouldnt have. That someone was soundly reprimanded for breaking my record. They were fined 1 month takeaways instead since it had to be squared up. :rotfl: