So we're over half way through the no-spend... and we've spent a grand total of £55.14. (But there is a grey area spending zone... really we've spent £142.44)
The rules:
...can be read on the Small Notebook blog, where Nom first read them last year.
Our version:
We set a budget of £30 per week (excluding gifts, tithes, emergencies and bills). The difference between the two above spending figures is that the first excludes bills and gifts etc., although, to complicate things, there is a degree of "can we count that as a gift?" and "we bought that last month, but paid for it this month... should we count it in the end sum?".
The main change has been not spending on little unnecessary things and buying wisely (particularly with food shopping), not picking up things to put in the present cupboard, and not buying treats for ourselves.
We've also been more tight with food- making sure that we use up things that are going past their best instead of throwing them away. We've saved by eating down our reserves - stock items in the cupboards and supplies we had in the freezer - by taking food with us rather than buying meals out, and taking bottled water instead of buying a can.
We've saved money by inviting people round to ours on a BYOB basis rather than going to the pub and inviting people back for pudding when we did eat out. Where we would have bought a bottle of wine or something to take when we visit other people we've made something edible to take along, with ingredients we (mostly) already had in stock. We've wrapped presents without buying wrapping, using old packing tissue paper or wallpaper scraps.
I'm not sure how much we've cut down really; we've eaten out and we've had other meals for free, maybe we set our budget too comfortably? We'll see in the next two weeks.
If you're interested in this sort of thing, you might find Rachel's New Year Resolution an interesting challenge. It seems a more long term approach and a life style change rather than a one month diet which isn't sustainable.
...can be read on the Small Notebook blog, where Nom first read them last year.
Our version:
We set a budget of £30 per week (excluding gifts, tithes, emergencies and bills). The difference between the two above spending figures is that the first excludes bills and gifts etc., although, to complicate things, there is a degree of "can we count that as a gift?" and "we bought that last month, but paid for it this month... should we count it in the end sum?".
The main change has been not spending on little unnecessary things and buying wisely (particularly with food shopping), not picking up things to put in the present cupboard, and not buying treats for ourselves.
We've also been more tight with food- making sure that we use up things that are going past their best instead of throwing them away. We've saved by eating down our reserves - stock items in the cupboards and supplies we had in the freezer - by taking food with us rather than buying meals out, and taking bottled water instead of buying a can.
We've saved money by inviting people round to ours on a BYOB basis rather than going to the pub and inviting people back for pudding when we did eat out. Where we would have bought a bottle of wine or something to take when we visit other people we've made something edible to take along, with ingredients we (mostly) already had in stock. We've wrapped presents without buying wrapping, using old packing tissue paper or wallpaper scraps.
I'm not sure how much we've cut down really; we've eaten out and we've had other meals for free, maybe we set our budget too comfortably? We'll see in the next two weeks.
If you're interested in this sort of thing, you might find Rachel's New Year Resolution an interesting challenge. It seems a more long term approach and a life style change rather than a one month diet which isn't sustainable.