no spending for a year?

spookybuffy

got a knock from the postman today and he said i have 8 parcels waiting for collection. 8?!!! think i spent abit in jan sales. I popped into qds got next year decs for 39p to 49p each plus more chocolate for the kids. They had tray blocks and other chocolate boxes for 49p.

This is my last day i can spend anything until 2013. Its abit scary but i have to do it if i want to reach my goal! Im gonna write regularly on here at least once a week, little dairy entries, help to keep me going. anyone can join in too!

determined_new_ms

wow so inspiring spookybuffy! This has been on my mind since I read the thread yesterday. I think I'm going to have to take each month as it comes and at the beginning of each month evaluate if I want to continue...

Derivative

I admire the sentiment of trying to save money, but I think there does come a point when cutting back can be too much.

£1 here or there for a newspaper I am almost certain will increase earning potential in the long run. Yes, you could read news online, but will you?

Caramac

I am not buying any clothes/shoes/handbags in 2012. I am fairly debt-free so am doing it for a more simplistic life, and to save for a rainy day. I have so many clothes that I have hardly worn and I want to stop mindless consuming. I will attempt to make January as no/low spend as possible.

Derivative

Caramac wrote: »

I am not buying any clothes/shoes/handbags in 2012. I am fairly debt-free so am doing it for a more simplistic life, and to save for a rainy day. I have so many clothes that I have hardly worn and I want to stop mindless consuming. I will attempt to make January as no/low spend as possible.

I also plan to do the same (with exception of the handbag). I may need to buy a new pair of shoes as mine are beginning to wear through now, but I reckon I can do the year without clothes.

spookybuffy

determined_new_ms wrote: »

wow so inspiring spookybuffy! This has been on my mind since I read the thread yesterday. I think I'm going to have to take each month as it comes and at the beginning of each month evaluate if I want to continue...

then take it month by month if it makes it look easier at least then your still doing it. you mite find once you see how much money you save for that month multiply it by 12 and then you get a ruff idea what you can save.

Kirri

I keep thinking about this now, wondering whether to do it 6 months of the year ie no spending Jan-Mar (after the mild excess of Christmas) then spend a little in Apr-Jun, then Jul-Sep no spending (I tend to be too busy to go near a shop then anyway) and Oct-Dec spend again if necessary. I don't think this year I could do a full 12 months of no spending but half of that might be bearable.

Hmm can I do it... I think most things I could do without with no hardship though, for work reasons (if I can find a new job that is!), I could probably do with a few new/extra items of clothing.

spookybuffy

Happy new year all! Good luck with the no spending no matter how you do it! :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

Kerfuffle

Hi spookybuffy,

I've subscribed to your thread and I'm really interested to see how you'll do.

I've already joined some challenges that I think compliment your challenge so I'm going to come along for the ride with you. However I don't feel this is something I'll be able to manage for the full 12 months so I'm going to take baby steps and say that in the first instance I'll join you for January, and then I'll see how I do.

Good luck with your challenge.

Malory

I grew up that way (in the US).

For books, I went to the library or my parents bought books for me at the used book shop (around 5 cents for a book). I was tested as having the reading level of a 17 year old when I was 7, so I don't think I was disadvantaged in terms of education.

Nowaday, libraries are being shut down or their hours are limited, and small, independent book shops can't compete with huge chains.

We never took holidays.

If we went out to eat occasionally , it was at the local, independent coffee shop (you don't see those anymore, either), which didn't cost much more than cooking and eating at home.

Gifts were all things that were useful or educational. For example, if my coat was getting shabby I would get a new coat for my birthday. Or I might get a bag to carry my schoolbooks in or a board game that was supposed to help with certain types of skills.

My parents bought my clothes at the discount shops. I got new clothes if I outgrew my old clothes or if my old clothes wore out. There was no such thing as throwing clothes away because it was a new season. Sometimes I got clothes from relatives or friends who outgrew them. If once and a while I did get a fun toy, it was the cheap, discounted version that you got at the equivalent of pound shops.


At the time, there was no such thing as "the one toy that every kid has to get at Christmas". You got what your parents could afford. Marketing wasn't that horrible. I think it all started with the Cabbage Patch Dolls in the 1980s. And there were no Nintendos, Xboxes, Wiis, etc. And no pay TV, just a small number of channels.

My parents did pay for me to go to dancing school, take guitar lessons, join Girl Scouts and attend summer camp, so I wasn't deprived completely.

By the way, we were not rich but we were not poor either. We could have spent more money on luxuries but my parents preferred to save for the future.

I was born in the 1960s but my parents were born in the 1920s (Depression era).