Fiscal Fast – 7 days no spending (at all)

[Deleted User]

Upsidedown_Bear wrote: »

Delurking to make sure you get your fanfare as you deserve it

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absolutely GQ what a brilliant month.There should be a pat-on the-back-smiley :):):):A


First of August and a nice shiny new month.I will be using my left-over loot from July for my grocery cash .I only have to buy for two weeks and two weeks today I'm off on my holibobs so August's normal £60.00 grocery cash can stay in my account for September :):)
Well done everyone on getting through July without too much splashing -of-the -cash :):)
Onwards and upwards chums
JackieO xxx

GreyQueen

Thank you for my lovely fanfare, it made me laugh this morning.

I've kept personal accounting for all my expenditures since the late 1990s, I just jot it down in the back of the diary, listing grocery spends in a separate notebook, and total it at month's end. Usually bung it into a simple Excel spreadsheet and then pie-chart it.

I find it very useful to see where the money goes, because memory is higly likely to believe that you spent 'almost nothing' on X and 'too much' on Y, and when you look at the figures in black and white, it's often not what you thought you were doing at all.

Thinking further about my expenditures, I can see a fairly typical pattern of spaving; spending to save. For example, I got several bottles of deodorant at a reduction of 39p a bottle over what I normally pay, which is a pretty basic product. So the 4 bottles bought but not needed for immediate use saved me £1.56, or will have saved that by the time we've reached January and they've been used.

The runner bean supports in use presently are 8 ft bamboo canes. Several have broken off short, so one bean wigwam is barely 5ft, and several others are not long for this world and will probably have to be burned at the end of the season. Last time I bought 8 ft bamboos was about 3 years ago and the best price I could get for the sturdier ones (and the flimsier ones were not much cheaper but were much weaker) was 40p each, so that's 6 x 40p (£2.40) for a 6 cane wigwam, as opposed to £3 for a reduced-price plastic-coated 6 pole metal wigwam, which I hope to get more years' use out of than the bamboos, thus saving money. Plus they come apart, enabling easier storage than 8ft long canes in an 8 ft long shed.

I buy clothes secondhand, with very few exceptions like undies, and trousers, which I mostly can't get in my leg-length secondhand. The nature of secondhand clothes buying is that you can't guarantee to get what you want when you actually need it, so it becomes a browsing habit. I didn't need a lovely M & S angora-blend cardi for wearing in July's heatwave, but I will want to be wearing it this winter, and now it is here, laundered and will be put away for a few months.

I buy gifts and cards throughout the year, and never buy cards in real time, which saves me a lot of money as I 'shop' the biscuit tin in the cupboard where the card stash lives, and can find an appropriate card for all needs, including a few occasion-specific ones which I have bought from chazzers and stashed against particular dates. This means the most I spend on a card is about 20p and the vast majority of them worked out at 10p or under. Plus the lack of stress when you only have to walk across the room to get a card, not rush out to the shops.

Of course, these spaving expenditures could have been forgone in July to bring my monthly spend really really low, and enable me to report a more impressive figure to y'all. But I felt that would be dishonest, because that's not how I normally spend my money and also, it would mean spending more later this year, or next year, when I had to replace the things which my spaving purchases are replacing now, at a better price, but before the exact moment of need.

Of course, I am gainfully-employed, albeit at £10k net, of which I need nearly half for rent and council tax alone, so unemployment would see me rein just about all expenditures right in for the duration.

I can see some expenditures looming in August (bicycle-related) but will aim to keep the rest really low. Unless I see a really good spaving opportunity, of course.:rotfl:

Good luck to all fellow fiscal fasters.

Frugalsod

Miaow121 wrote: »

I'm a student so I pretty much do this all the time! My OH was awful for "popping to the shops" though - before he met me he and his housemate would go to the shop on their way home from Uni and buy what they wanted for that night and the next morning's breakfast - every single day!

The only way this would work is if you only bought YS items and lived on what you found in the clearance bin. It can be done. Though it is not always a great solution for a couple. You still need that big shop.

gien

Wow Grey Queen, those figures are very impressive.
I am very pleased with myself because I have stuck to my guns and not spent anything for the last two days, so just 3.70 so far this week, and arguably I could have saved that too.

We even went out to friends for a BBQ and I was able to take 2 salads and some kebabs, all using ingredients from the garden, freezer or store cupboard.

Looking ahead over the next few days I should be able to feed everyone without going to the shops, or at least only buying the minimum.
All the children are back on Saturday evening, then my middle one goes away again for a week and I will have 4 of us to feed next week. Mmm, we have a lot of pasta and rice and potatoes but I think my DS and DH might be craving a bit of meat. I shall have to see what I can rustle up from the freezer!

[Deleted User]

Good Evening chums,well aren't we all doing well:)
I have made my list out of stuff I need to buy tomorrow, and hopefully it will come in under £25.00. I am going to try to make it my only shop for the next two weeks as I will then be away, and don't like to think of binning food at all !!!.

So fresh fruit and veg, some disinfectant, loo cleaner and bleach are required. Fingers crossed I will have a good couple of bagfuls by the time I get back from Li*ls in Maidstone tomorrow morning :):)

I am dropping DD off at her office to save her stressing about parking there. Maidstone is a bit of a nightmare for parking. Her OH will pick her up at teatime, she only ocassionally has to work down there when they are short-staffed, and really doesn't like it much bless her :) But once she's there I can whizz around to the SM and hopefully be home by 10.00.

I really don't like shopping on a Saturday but as I can do two jobs with one run it will save me my diesel :):)

I want to get home as I want to do some baking tomorrow for the boys. Eldest DD is home on Sunday from her Greek isle holiday so I daresay she will be turning up for her coffee and eggs breakfast at some point on Sunday morning.

I have to juggle my weekends about at the moment as I am full time at youngest DDs house with the boys during the holidays, so not much gets done at home :) during the week.

Right, time to have some of my veggie curry that I dug out of the freezer this morning. I'll have it with some boiled rice and some low fat yoghurt and chopped apple for pud. Then its feet up and a bit of t.v. Usain Bolt is racing tonight about 9.35 so I want to watch that
have a good evening chums
JackieO xxx

threepenny_bit

Day 5 and no spends except the petrol a couple of days ago and my medication which was $10.44 - I don't count either of these as they are necessities. I do get the money back for my meds as well so I don't worry about them.
We are going on holiday next week so am using up the fruit in the bowl, eggs, milk etc and have made 3 blueberry lemon loaves for the freezer. Only 2 may make it in there as they smell so good :P

GreyQueen

Well, first of the month and I haven't spent anything today. I nearly succumbed to an urge for a sugar fix from the shops then had a LBM about using up a tin of golden syrup (kicked from Mum's kitchen cupboard to mine and has lurked for a couple of years), oats and some butter.

The flap-jacks are in the oven now, once they come out, I shall raise the temp and once it's had a couple more mins heating, the bread rolls I made this morning will go it; getting effective use out of the oven plus getting my sweet treat from things already owned, double bonzo bonus points to me.:D

If I turns out I can make an acceptable flapjack (never tried until tonight), I shall make some more in a few days for a gathering, but I will need to have more butter for that (have more golden syrup in a jar in cupboard).

It's good to remove the prop of constantly running to the shops to fix any little want and to think about satisfying it with resources you already own, isn't it?

My travels tomorrow will take me past a Liddly and I will get a few storecupboard bits to replace things which I have used in July, using the special offers where possible.

I also have an idea for an experimental recipe tomorrow, which I shall report back on in about 24 hours.........if I don't poison myself in the process, lol.

The bike expenditures will be pretty steep but I can go from one year's end to another without spending anything at all on the pushbike, so it'll probably work out at no more than £1 per week if averaged out over the year. I don't ride buses inside the city, only intercity coaches to visit family, which is a lot cheaper than running a car, although a lot less convenient.

Keep the fiscal faith, lovely peeps, GQ xx

ETA; Kitchen report. Flapjacks now cool enough to eat and very nice indeed. How is it that I haven't made these before, it's easy-peasy. I now have tea and flapjacks and Mr Money Mustache blog to read, how nice is that?!

gien

GQ, if you like the flapjacks you could also have a go at making Anzac biscuits - the're basically flapjack mixture, with coconut added if you like, baked into biscuits instead of in a tray. Delicious.

I have planned out the next week of food and I think I'll go and get the 'big shop' today - it'll mean a spending day but at least then I can plan to avoid the shops next week, when we are all on holiday

[Deleted User]

Hi chums ,did my 'big' shop :):) and it cost £23.70 so have £7.40 left in my purse for odds and ends over the next 12 days :):)

Got quite a bit of fruit in Li%s and several bargains as well.Very pleased with what I bought, and glad I hopefully have no more shopping to buy until we go away on the 15th of this month.I suprised myself this year at how well I have been good about staying away from the SM.I did splash some 'Happy Cash' on DGS Ben as he will be off to Uni next month so I took him out to lunch ( a two for one deal of course :):)plus I got some points on my loyalty card as well :):)

All the shopping is packed away and baking is done for DGS for nibbles next week. Only have a little bit of ironing to polish off then the rest of the weekend is mine to play :):)

Sun is shining so I may sit in the garden with a nice cuppa and have a read.
Cheers everyone
JackieO xxx

GreyQueen

Evening all.

Have been gardening and had to get a few bits and pieces of groceries (sub £5) inc a carrier bag of fruit from the Magic Greengrocer which is 2 melons (stop sniggering there at the back, they're different kinds - honeydew and frog), grapes, peaches, tomatoes and a pepper. Which is a veg not a fruit, but let's gloss over that.

I also had to buy some essential toiletries but other than those things, I have been a good egg and sat on my wallet. Will be gardening again tomorrow and probably slink up to the supermarket just before closing time to cruise the YS bargains, which could see me do very well or come away empty handed, we shall see.