As you may be aware if you saw my earlier post, we have been on a no spend January. We wanted to keep our spending to just monthly bills and groceries. Today, is the last day of our no spend and I wanted to update you all on how we got on.
We did it! Kind of. Well, we had 2 minor slip ups and I’m happy with that!
It wasn’t always easy, but we are proud of ourselves. Here’s some of the ways we did it:
Birthdays
We had a few January birthdays for loved ones, so I got around this by making presents and cards. Thankfully, I got more clay as a Christmas gift, so this really helped me out. I even used colouring sheets as wrapping paper.
You can check out my YouTube video to see some of the gift ideas here: Planning Presents
Stock Taking
Rather than buy new toiletries on week 3, I had to gather everything we had within the home. It was shocking to see exactly how much we had- much more than just 1 months worth! Definitely worth pulling everything together to see what you actually have.
Fakeaway
My daughter had a friend over for tea on week 3. Our usual Dominoes was not an essential this month, so we did our own fakeaway with pizza, chips, and garlic bread from the freezer. It was budgeted in the groceries bill and the kids loved it!
Upcycling / Using What We Have
We got creative when necessary. I made a tray for my spices from an old cracker box and used old flower pots to make a DIY composter (More on that soon).
Fails
My first downfall was a takeaway on week 1 due to not forward planning. It was cheaper than the chippy tea we’d usually have on a Thursday as I bought sausages rolls from the bakery, but we knew to plan better in week 2 after that.
A trip to the charity shop for my son ended up in me spending £1 on mugs. Not too extreme I know, but I knew to steer clear after that as the temptation was too much for me.
Have you completed a no spend challenge or want to do one in the future? I found it eye opening, surprisingly hard, but worthwhile.
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