Fiscal Fast – 7 days no spending (at all)

hoglet121

Day 5 here and still going - made corn tortillas last night as I fancied wraps for lunch and had none in. Also fancied egg and salad cream as a filling, had no salad cream so had a bash at making it. It wasn't quite perfect but certainly good enough, and I had heaps left over so that can be used in something else.

One of DH's loaves defrosting to have with dinner tonight.

I have to say this has been much easier than I had thought, once the initial daily habits were broken (coffee) I've just got in with it. DH has been on board too which has really helped. We have plans to do this every month or so, tho I won't be going back in the coffee shop after doing some maths and realising I spend over $1000 in there a year. You can get a lot of beans for that!

craigywv

today was most deftinatly NOT a nsd, as proposed yesterday I went home burgers and spent 60 quid odds.......................got son most of his Christmas bits and pieces all but the chocolate, they had a fantastic sale on test tube aliens usually 15 or so pounds down to 2.99 so himself and my nephew will be having fun with those, spent 40 on son and rest on toilet rolls and dry food stuffs great prices.i am happy I went, so shall fiscally fastilly now for next few months as want to buy oil for over winter while its cheaper shall get it next week and have it in. also want to run freezers down as my garden veg salad etc have went crazy I could sell the amount I have gotten this year so I expect to have to freeze a lot at end of season good luck all xxx

Living_proof

You sound wonderfully whacky, craigy, and so organised. Good luck with using your triffid crop!

GreyQueen

Well, after falling off the wagon in Wilkos on Sunday (total spends £8, shocking, I know) I was back in the land of the righteous yesterday and had a NSD.

Today will almost be another but for £10 for my archery lesson this evening. That class will then close down until early Sept, and the alternative is at an out-of-town venue on another night, one only accessible to those with cars, so I will have a few weeks 'off' and save the money I would have spent.

I'm back at work this week, after being on annual leave, and was comparing my domestic staycation with a proper holiday. Apart from a couple of days visiting family, which involved a busfare of £7.50, I just pottered around at home and on my allotment and read books and ended up feeling incredibly rested and chilled, unlike most holidays which leave me feeling as if I need another one to recover from them.

Ssshhh, don't let it catch on, people in the holiday industry need a living too.

Frugalsod

hoglet121 wrote: »

Day 5 here and still going - made corn tortillas last night as I fancied wraps for lunch and had none in. Also fancied egg and salad cream as a filling, had no salad cream so had a bash at making it. It wasn't quite perfect but certainly good enough, and I had heaps left over so that can be used in something else.

One of DH's loaves defrosting to have with dinner tonight.

I have to say this has been much easier than I had thought, once the initial daily habits were broken (coffee) I've just got in with it. DH has been on board too which has really helped. We have plans to do this every month or so, tho I won't be going back in the coffee shop after doing some maths and realising I spend over $1000 in there a year. You can get a lot of beans for that!

If most people actually thought about where they actually spent their money then they would find saving a lot easier. You have discovered that you spend $1000 in coffee shops annually, so that is one area of saving.

Now if you plough that $1000 into something for the home like a food processor or home insulation. These can have very good rates of return and again save you money going forward. For example if you buy a good food processor that allows you to make all your own bread cakes etc. That could save you another $1000 a year. So after a couple of years you would have reduced your outgoings by $2000 a year.

If you then invested that $2000 annual saving into something else that can reduce your overheads like low energy appliances then these will not only further reduce your outgoings. The trick is to pick those investments that have the highest payback rate.

It could be topping up your bank account so you never get hit by bank fees or charges, or being able to pre pay phone line rentals and get a hefty discount. In the end you will have the same standard of living but without the expense.

[Deleted User]

Morning chums ,wednesday and day seven of NSD today.Not going anywhere near a shop at all today,I will splash out 40p from my little brown purse tomorrow on a Sun newspaper if only for the £5.00 coupon in there for Morrisons of meat and fish (not a good newspaper but worth it for the voucher )
Speculate to accumulate I think the expression is.Thursdays spending on my day to London is coming from my ' Happy Cash Stash' as I am going up to London on the train with my DGD Holly and we are going to Selfridges for lunch then to the theatre. I will look at but not buy when we have a mooch around the shops (can't say the same for Holly though):):):)
Well done chums for doing so well in your quest to hang on to the money.I am working my way through my food moutain in the cupboards and still have stacks of stuff to go yet.I am going to make a list of all stuff I have in tins to see what's to go before it gets thin on the ground :):)
Have a good day chums
JackieO xxx

craigywv

Living_proof wrote: »

You sound wonderfully whacky, craigy, and so organised. Good luck with using your triffid crop!

HAHAHAHAH you hit the nail on the head whacky is right and a proud whacko too! nsd for me yesterday and today I shall be in garden digging up some space to plant a few winter veg. son aged 11 away there now to grandparents caravan for a few days so I can dump his bedroom ,while the cats away and all that. dins tonight is broccoli cheese I found in freezer for me with salad from garden oh is off work tonight yayyyyyyy so he having fish and mushy peas and garlic bread.washed my big patchwork quilt in bath last night 3 washes and one fab con soak and oh draped it over the whirlybird last night ...its nearly dry and smells great so that's it done for winter saved 22 quid!!!!! yes that's what I was quoted for service in laundrette. the lighter one on bed at the mo will be done tomorrow as today the dogs bedding all been done and 3 winter coats all done too so happy with that. im rambling on so have a good day all. tonight im making hm raspberry ice cream from garden as have quite a lot to get through good luck all xxx

PenguinOfDeath

Another NSD for me yesterday, didn't manage it on Monday as I went to a sm with a friend and ended up topping up the weekend's shop with something bits I couldn't get, to be fair I could have done that in Saturday so it would have counted in one but I ran out of time.

Within that shop I got another Xmas pressie (half price) so one step closer, aiming to get my Xmas present shopping done by October apart from alcohol.

Should be another NSD today, unless I have the opportunity to go to a store on route to a relatives where I can stock up on things like loo rolls, I'll take that though as the stock lasts me for at least a couple of months.

Frugalsod

2 NSD for me so far and I am on a mission to clock up the NSD this month. I feel that I have spent too much on my spending days and am now setting myself a new much tougher target for the rest of the year. I want to get through Christmas and have less debt after Christmas than I do now and so I am going to keep my spending to an absolute minimum.

hoglet121

Day 7 - wow what a difference this week has made to the bank account. I'm going to continue on for as long as possible, dinner tonight will be a curry from the freezer.

Friends last night and girl in the coffee shop (boss was paying ;-) )asked how much we think we've saved.... well taking the cat surgery as a one-off, which we paid cash for without taking anything from savings, and taking a few other factors into consideration, I think we are about $400-500 better off than we would have been without doing the fast.. Scary stuff eh?

This coming weekend was looking like it was going to cost a fortune - day out at a theme park for cousin's son's birthday. I've decided to go as a spectator to cut some costs, then found a deal for theme park entry on a website similar to Groupon, and had a voucher for that site, so I've saved 80% of DH's entry price by doing a little research.

This week has really made a difference to how I think about money - I though I was pretty hot on money saving before, but my eyes have really been opened to how we are still frittering away bits of money without even thinking about it. Now to continue on in the same vein...