Fiscal Fast – 7 days no spending (at all)

[Deleted User]

Morning all Christmas cards all made and written out ,Just need a mortgage to post them off I have around 6 overseas ones to far flung relations to send, close family and friends get their by hand Did well at quiz last night, we won 2 bottles of white wine ,OK so its not the poshest, but its drinkable. Or at a pinch good enough for a SC chicken in w/wine sauce I collect all our winnings, and dish them out before Christmas to our team.That way we all get a bottle or two.My larder is looking pretty good at the moment as I have 8 bottles sitting on the floor atm :):)

NSD today I don't think I'm even going to poke my nose over the threshold, it looks far too cold and wet out there.So this morning as my washing is finally dry I shall be ironing and watching some catch-up t,v, I like to try and do two things at once :):)

JAMIEDODGER

I have decided to do another Fiscal Fast as it worked really well last time I did one. Started yesterday so that was day one.

Made a Leek and Potato soup, had one portion for my lunch and four for the freezer. Last night I made a lasagne for dinner, leftovers were four portions, which I kept one for my lunch today and put three in the freezer.

This morning, I cooked up some mash from a bag of wrinkly potatoes, this will be the topping on a shepherds pie on Friday and chopped three onions up into baggies for the freezer in one onion portions, for ease of assembling meals.

Tonights dinner is Pasta, Bacon and Pesto. I will cook extra penne for a pasta salad for my lunch tomorrow, to which I will add mayo and some little salad bits plus some ham.

I am hoping to do a Roast Chicken on Saturday this week, which will be a change from Sunday as I am off out to dinner with friends that night (money already set aside for that monday just gone). Kids will be having a use up night from fridge and freezer.

Puddings will be a mix of things from the freezer, tinned fruit from the cupboard and maybe a jam sponge and custard. So that should be a 6 day Fiscal Fast to start me off.

On Monday I will be doing the shopping for the week, putting petrol in my van plus putting all the weeks expenses (bus fares, school money, disco money etc) into little brown envelopes and given to relevant child. Then I am aiming to keep the purse completely shut until the following Monday! I do my budget weekly, not monthly and in cash.

I have been planning the best way to do another fiscal fast for ages, and i think this will be it. Food shopping will probably be done at Sainsburys next week as I have a £4 off a £40 spend voucher. If I manage to succeed and only spent £40 in the week, I will come in well under budget. I have to feed myself and four children 18,16,13,10 plus a dog (her food comes out of different budget though).

Made some Jam crumblies on Monday and they are nearly gone now, so will be thinking of something else to make to fill the cake box that I have the ingredients for (maybe twinks as they always go down well!).

I am also hoping that I can start to make a bit of room in my freezer, although what I have planned seems to be adding to it not reducing it:rotfl:

hoglet121

Hi all,

So far we're not going too badly - I had to prise open the purse yesterday as I'd run ou of cold and flu tablets and I'm full of cold (pleased that I used up a packed I found in the house forst rather than rush out and buy them straightaway). A small top up of fuel as the garage had 10c off a litre for 24 hrs and such reductions need to be taken advantage of. That money will be transferred out of DH's pay when it's in today as petrol would have lasted us till next week.

DH will be doing a small shop today, which we'd planned as part of the fast (we were away last week so we've been living off cupboards since) - fruit, veg, toothpaste - not much.

Other than that we have a quiet weekend planned, which quite frankly, I'm really looking forward too!

Hoglet

fairy3

Evening everyone - day 2 and going okay, no spending on this murky day but plenty of filing, cooking and trip to tip. More food out of the freezer to leave a tiny gap, YS mince made into bolognaise and lasagne.
Christmas list updated and wrapped couple of presents, sieved limoncello using old net curtain and funnel and decanted into recycled appletise bottles, will make some labels from puter.
Have sorted out some items for the food bank and collected from tosco through the week, will drop off on Friday.
Tomorrow will be tackling the inside of the windows and a hospital appointment so apart from the car parking charges the purse will stay shut!

craigywv

shock horror had to go to page 4 to find you all hope this don't mean your all on spending splurges lol...............like I have been.............shamed in tescos yesterday bought 20 quid of bits that I really DID NOT NEED! came home ,looked at it and thought WHY WHY WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! all comfort crap sweets, crisps and ready made cheesecake that was bloody awful wasted 4 quid on it ended up binned. so that's me got it out of my system I wont be doing that anytime soo. baking on the books this week looking forward to it............like a penance for stupid buying ! freezers are becoming emptier should feel happy about this but I don't , don't like empty spaces lol. well have a lovely weekend sun is shining here got 2 washes on the line and dinner in sc chicken and all the usual suspects xxx

[Deleted User]

Good evening chums well the best laid plans etc ... I was going to do my 'big' shop this morning and use my £10.00 Aldi voucher but my son-in-law phoned to say the sink tap had sheared off and the kitchen flooded so I have been there for most of the day Managed to get a replacement (I didn't know but B &Q don't give a discount anymore on Bedroom Bathroom or Kitchen stuff:mad: discount cards hardly worth having now.)
So todays plans went right out of the window so its going to be tomorrow instead.

But on the bright side I came home to a nice cheque from my late OH's lodge as a Christmas present .They have been so good to me over the past 11 years, and never forget a cheque at Christmas which will help out.
So I may get a few extra treats tomorrow as well.

I have sent all of my cards now and only have a few things to wrap up so I'm more or less sorted which is nice as once everythings wrapped up I can sit back and relax and enjoy Christmas.I have two parties and a panto next week so I shan't be out shopping or spending cash which is even better
Well done all of you if your hanging on to your pennies.:T
JackieO xxx

GreyQueen

For shame, craigyw, the baking queen trying shopbought - and you found that it's not as good as you can bake yourself. I have been drooling at the lists of home baking you do before wondering if you'd like to adopt me. OK, I'm 50 and live hundreds of miles away, but I really like baked goods, surely we could work it out.:rotfl:

I had set myself the task of spending £20 on groceries in November and have failed ever so slightly; spent £20.42.

Have had a slow start to Dec having spent £1 on fruit and veg and £1 on clothes (a pair of jammies) so easing into the month. Didn't go to my archery class yesterday evening as was poorly so am ahead by £10 on that, although I would've been up there like a shot had I been in any fit state and the tenner would have been gladly spent. Archery class closes for the Xmas-New Year period so don't know if we have one or two more classes this month, but hope to make all the ones which are available.

Having chronic illnesses which limit your plans is a bit pants, frankly, but we do what we do.

Am quietly pootling around at the homestead on crafts with secondhand yarn and reading secondhand books. I am eating HG spuds and leeks and some sardines.

I had a particularly good allotment crop of sardines this year, so much so that I would recommend their cultivation to everybody. The only downside is that you have to harvest them in warm dry weather or the cans develop rust-spots in storage.

Apart from that, sardine trees are a low-maintenance crop with a very high nutritional return on the effort invested. I would say to any budding gardeners looking for an easy crop to also consider the spaghetti tree, as modern cultivars of pastarious aprilfoolious can thrive far beyond their natural range in Switzerland, as seen in this historic 1950s photograph:

JAMIEDODGER

Morning all,

Came under budget for the food shop last week and now back on another fiscal fast. I will go shopping tomorrow and get in the bits I need for the coming week and see how long I last. If I get an extra 4pt milk and loaf of bread for the freezer, then it seems that I can stretch the fiscal fast a few more days, as that seems to be what I run out of first.

Going to spend a bit of time on my meal planner this morning, checking what I need to get when I go shopping and I am sure it won't be a lot.

Think it will be chicken curry for dinner tonight.

Frugalsod

This last month I spent nothing from my current account bar the monthly shop at the beginning of the month. The credit card was used but each weeks spend was well below my weekly allowance so overall I reduced my credit card balance.

Today I discovered that my loan will be cleared this month more than 4 months earlier than I expected. Those additional over payments helped. And what with a last payment to a family member it will mean two debts cleared this month as well.

All that is left is the credit card but that has done better than I expected. I have knocked £500 off that balance since September as well. Now my objective was to clear the credit card by the end of next year and I might be looking to bring that date closer to the middle of the year.

GreyQueen

:T Good going, frugalsod, you must be very proud of yourself, and deservedly so.

I was tempted to buy fish and chips tonight which would have been £5 but decided not to, and eat what I already have, so have a huge spud baking in the oven with the filling being warmed through in an ovenproof dish in there also, to avoid having the oven on.

I found 20p on the pavement today and bought a book from a chazzer for 30p, so that was cheap entertainment. The publisher originally priced it at £20, so I think I've done pretty darned good.