No Buy Year

Rosa_Damascena

YORKSHIRELASS said:

Hi all

I haven't spent anything other than necessary food purchases in the last week except parking at a local beauty spot car park on Saturday.  I keep thinking about buying an annual pass for the National Park which gives me unlimited parking in 7 or 8 car parks for the year for £60.  That would give me lots of walking and running options and we would just need diesel to get there.  We are happy to take a flask and food.

This thread is really helping me focus my mind on these things! 

If I lived in Yorkshire it would be a no-brainer for me! There isn't that much in Essex (although we do have a stack of Saxon and Medieval history, not much under the auspices of the NT or English Heritage). 

Florafauna

NSD for me today. My local lido where I swim 3-4 times a week has just opened a cafe. I'm going continue to take a flask and snack from home. I don't want to literally double the price of a swim 

bouicca21

Is today a NSD or not? I’m out to lunch but I’ve included socialising in my essentials.  However the restaurant is near the posh sausage shop.  I have no need of posh sausages, I’ve plenty of main meal type stuff in the freezer.  But I really fancy posh sausages …

Cherryfudge

@bouicca21, it will depend on your categories but if you have allowed for entertaining guests, perhaps get sausages and they stay allowable so long as you take them home and share them with guests?  

One of the difficulties of not spending, of course, is that we need to spend at least a bit. I think a real test is whether you would spend if you only had the price of that item to last you for everything till next week. Is that too harsh? Yet there are plenty living with that reality, and anything else is not really 'no spend' but 'reduced spending'.

kimwp

bouicca21 said:

Is today a NSD or not? I’m out to lunch but I’ve included socialising in my essentials.  However the restaurant is near the posh sausage shop.  I have no need of posh sausages, I’ve plenty of main meal type stuff in the freezer.  But I really fancy posh sausages …

If you can afford it and you're going to enjoy them - get the sausages.

MrsCatz

Go for the posh sausage, especially if you don’t pass that way often.

Worlds_Worst_Superhero

Had a fantastic day out on Sunday!

I went along to a local Climate Action group event in the community centre. It was an opportunity to meet like-minded folks, have a good catch-up and watch the film "Once You Know", followed by a delicious vegan meal and huge slices of cake 😊

There were a few tables set aside for Swapping- you can take along any unwanted items and swap them for anything there that takes your fancy. I took along a some new rolls of gift-wrapping paper, packs of Christmas cards, a diary (I received 2 as gifts, but will only use one) and a load of books I've read once and will never read again. 
I came home with a DVD of a horror film we plan on watching on Tuesday night ( Film and Homemade Curry Nights have now replaced our previous date nights of cinema and restaurant) and a rather lovely weekend bag to replace my old one that got damaged on our last holiday.

It wasn't exactly a no-spend day as I had to pay £2 for bus travel, and gave a £5 donation to the group for the meal, both of which I had already set aside as "essentials", but it really helped me focus on my reasons for doing this No Spend challenge.

The next Climate Action group meeting in February is focussing on Energy Efficiency in the home. I'm planning on using up my leftover bits of yarn to knit some hot water bottle covers to take along to swap.

Worlds_Worst_Superhero

Yesterday (Monday 15th January) was a No Spend Day.
Spent the evening listening to an audiobook (free via my library's Libby app!) and sorting out some unwanted books.
One huge bag of fiction books for my partner to drop off at the charity tomorrow, and a box of specialist reference books boxed up and ready to be sent to an online book resale company.
That's one bookcase decluttered- and £25 I can put towards our holiday fund.

Cherryfudge

Worlds_Worst_Superhero said:

The next Climate Action group meeting in February is focussing on Energy Efficiency in the home. I'm planning on using up my leftover bits of yarn to knit some hot water bottle covers to take along to swap.

What a great idea! And you've reminded me I picked up some packets of seeds from a Climate Action day I went to in the autumn, so it's time to plan where to plant them.

Florafauna

NSD for me again today, nearly bought some sewing stuff and a new swimming costume but realised I was only shopping for the buzz and didn't need either of them. 
Walked away, came home and drank tea instead