Buy nothing for a month challenge

lindsayg_2

I've had a bad few days, although I did pay for some (work related) parking from the penny jar...

Okay, back on the No Spending Horse. Here I don't come, shops!

rictus123

Good to see some folks sticking at it, we are now two thirds of the way there!! STILL managing not to spend!! Just gutted i had to spend to fix my van!!


I have 3 things left to pay...

i think £30 diesel will be enough to see out the month
£43 odd phone bill


i have just set up money to come out to CLEAR...yes clear outright, another one of my debts!! £823.53 coming out on Monday, all that will be left is one at £3,300 ish and one at £2,100....so about £5,500 to go as interest will be added onto them in 10 days.

Wasnt going to pay it this month as another expense but its a great expense in the sense im now down from 7 different debts to just 3(third debt is my car being on finance** see below) so another massive step towards being debt free!! My outgoings are going to be so low once im finally debt free!


** As for my car on finance...went and seen dealer about it. Im still owe £1400 just to hand the car back. So be at least Febuary before i can hand it back. So i might have to keep it over winter....REALLY cant do this as doesnt get me anywhere + £240 a month just to keep it and its no longer insured. So im looking at a private sale...probably be about £500 short but il pay that to get rid and clear finance....not so keen on paying £1400 just to hand it back thats all!

So not much options other than try and sell it. Lesson learned there though, NEVER take on finance...or rather never take it on with a low deposit, make sure i put down at least 50%!! Im owe £4800...car is worth £3600 for a dealer to buy and apparently £4500 private sale. Il just try and sell it and make up the difference then move on.

Stick at it guys:D

bugslet

You're doing great Rictus.

i said at the start i had tree nights out planned and the third was on Friday - managed to eat cheap though and the bill was 11.35, so not too bad.

saturday was fresh food top up at £12.41 and 0.99 on toothpaste.

Sunday I'd forgotten to get dog food in, so had to spend £3.69. I do buy dog food in bulk, but this kind of slipped under the net!

Winchelsea

Had to spend £20.01 on petrol this afternoon unfortunately. Walked 2 miles to the dentist this am to delay buying fuel, but had to drive this afternoon as running late - then it started bleeping at me as soon as I drove off!

Then had to put 40p in the tea and biscuits kitty at my knitting group. Note to self - could have walked there if I'd organised myself better

Anyway, petrol at £20 (and a penny - shaky hand!) - will do me for three or four weeks. Am using the bus when I can, with my free granny pass.

Also of course had to pay the dentist £17. Then got a phone call later as he'd looked at the x-ray he'd taken, and wants me back in a couple of weeks for some work. Ouch! on both counts (pain in the mouth and the finances!)

sharronej

Hi all,

Have been reading the thread with interest and I'll be jumping on board in Sept if that's ok?

We've just managed to get all our cc debt onto 0% and I really want to pay it off in the 0% period however I have an immediate target of getting rid of the bank loan by January but before that we've got to pay £770 for our son's ski-ing trip and then of course we have Christmas (sorry to bring that into the conversation but I'm determined to do it properly this year ).

This challenge could be just the help I need - I'm also going to have a go at the shopping budget challenge working on the old adage of 'watch the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves'. I'll have to work out planned expenses very carefully because we have a daughter at Uni who can and does ring at any moment for extra money :eek:.

Sounds like they'll be a few more of us in September Rictus - thanks for starting the challenge.

Kei

Rictus you are doing amazingly well - very well done! I too have been doing something similar, and what is clear is that sometimes when you think you 'need' something, if you wait until you have the money to buy it, you can often find that you don't 'need' it anymore. Our wants turn into needs too often.

Congrats on being able to clear one of your debts on Monday!

166million

Hi Rictus, great idea. Can I try for September please. The only uneccessary things I spend money on are 'extra' food and cigarettes. I have a budget which shows 'essential' spends, and the rest of my wages left over. This time I'm going to funnel the remainder away into another account so I have to think about each time I dip into it.

Monkeynut

Well I cracked ever so slightly. We were on a day out, which had been planned for a while anyway and we'd found vouchers to half the cost of entry, so that in itself didn't count, but we'd said we wouldn't buy anything extra while we were there. We made a picnic to take which saved money on buying lunch in the cafe, but I found £2 while I was there, so decided to use it to treat us to ice creams as it was such a hot day. Came to £2.25 for the ice creams, so technically only spent 25p on them!! I'm happy enough to let that one slide by as it was so hot that I deemed the ice creams as necessary!!

Spent £1.95 that I didn't need to in Tesco yesterday on some tea, coffee and sugar storage cannisters reduced from £6.50 each to 65p!! However they will do as a present for someone in the family - not sure who yet as depends what other bargains we get between now and Christmas but have a few people who they would be good for (unfortunately there was only 1 coffee one left so I couldn't get another set). They are a decent set, and look like they would have cost the almost £20 that they would have been at full price, so will be a complete present sorted - thus saving money in the long run

lindsayg_2

I had a good no spending weekend, but yesterday I bought fabric to recover the sofa. It's been a long-term 'job to do' so I didn't feel frivoulous, but definitely a spend.

The original challenge allows essential spending, doesn't it? Without going back to check I'm remembering this as food and petrol. What with it being September I think present shopping (especially if it's bargains) should be allowed... Gas and electric, council tax, rent, mortgage etc all obviously don't count.

What else do ppl think can be counted as 'essential', and at what point do you stray into 'non-essential'?

One of the things I've found difficult with the challenge over August (and I certainly haven't been doing it religiously, but I have been keeping it in mind when I'm out), is deciding which spending to let pass, and which has broken the vow.

Interested in thoughts, please?

166million

I would suggest buying presents for family, etc. is unavoidable, bearing in mind you can try to get bargains/ free/ homemade presents.