Giving up Money for Lent

Verbatim

spendalotgottostop wrote: »

hi all, i'm reasonably new and have started to try the no spend day's except for essentials, have been successful for two day's. I am struggling with what constitutes essentials on occasions, i know it's food etc but i'm running short of make up, and Estee Lauder have a special offer that finishes this week. This must be an essential spend surely.

Could you root around to find any unufinished makeup lying around at home rather than buy new?

Purpleroses

oh. my. god. someone get this flammin avril lavigne song out of my head before i go crazy!!
Another job interview today went alright, find out next week altho im not betting on it am not having any luck with work right now. didnt spend anything. took my own sandwiches for lunch with friends.
How was everyone elses day?

Seaxwyn

good today here, I didn't spend anything either

CAFCGirl

Day wasn't too bad. I took lunch into work, and just came straight home.

Right so PEOPLE PEOPLE *hands claps for attention*

Are we all agreed that each week you have an unneccesary budget of £10. I think thats a fair amount for everyone, plus if you dont spend it, you can carry it over, or you can save what you dont spend, and whack any extra at the end of each month onto debts.

Must admit I'm going to try and be a lot stricter on myself than some because i am a truly emotionally orientated shopper!
So my £10 would include junk food/munchies/make up/conditioner/magazines/eating out/takeaways.

I need to get into the habit that the only thing I need to buy is food.
I have clothes I can wear, books I can read, stakcs of dvds/videos. Plus I'm hoping that will make me get a lot more organised in terms of bulk cooking and meal planning.

One thing that's been continually sticking in my head is Comic Relief. It might sound a bit strange but recently whenever I've been in a shop, looking at something, I keep thinking "do the people shown in those clips complain that they dont have .......?" (whatever it is I'm looking at) and the answer is always no, so in my mind, if they dont, surely I dont.

It might come across as a little bit strange, but I've realised while doing this challenge that I am so lucky that this is all I have to worry about in my life.

So I think £10 should be more than enough (she says!), plus it's going to be good habit building!

So are we all agreed?

Purpleroses

sounds good to me.

winkle1

sounds good to me!

ShirleyPark_2

£10 a week sounds good to me, the option of carrying over is good, as atleast then you can save up. It's like being a teenager again with pocket money

CAFCGirl I'm an emotional shopper too, but this challenge has certainly helped to deal with that. Worse still I'm an emotional shopper that buys munchies which doesn't help the waist line either. I know what you mean about having clothes to wear, books to read etc. Plus there is always the library for books, even if you end up paying the small amount they charge for reserving the book it's a lot less than buying it in the first place.

If I can get my non essential spending to a regular £10 a week I will be soooo happy, might even get my debts paid off before the end of the year

kiwi88_2

Yep sounds fine. I'm in. LOL love the idea of pocket money!!!

brassiclint

ShirleyPark wrote: »

I read somewhere that it takes 28 days to form a new habit, so hopefully come Easter making lunch for work will definately just be one of those things like brushing my hair or getting dressed in the morning !

THANK YOU ShirleyPark ... I've been trying to remember that saying for AGES!! 28 days yeah .. right, I think I've got this unnecessary spending things sussed then ... now need to move onto getting down the gym regularly and giving up chocolate for good!!

cafcfan

Has anyone budgeted for easter eggs?:EasterBun
As I'm just following those taking part in the challenge and not doing it myself, I like to know what the offspring is up to,I was wondering if people plan to buy.
Can you leave it to the last minute after the challenge has ended? Do you go and buy on Easter Monday when they've been reduced? Or has the challenge prompted people to regard them as an overpriced indulgent item. I suppose the tradition is difficult to go against.
How about buying a smaller one than you would usually have done, or make one.