If you are thinking of stopping spending, then initially this will be difficult. You will have to master the art of saying no, mostly to yourself. To begin with, it might be easier to make up excuses as to why you are not attending a wedding, birthday party or day out. I just brass it out now and tell them no and don’t give a reason. People stop asking in the end, they know me well enough that I no longer spend money. If this is going to become a new way of life for you then it will be hard to begin with as you may be used to paying to be entertained and used to going to the cinema, theatre, restaurants or gardens or attractions. I haven’t been to any of them since 2008 and although I miss the theatre, not going hasn’t killed me and I assure you I miss it so much that I still read reviews.
Even now, I get ‘ I would like’ pangs. We relented this year and used Dearly Beloved’s ‘ebay fund that he’d made selling stuff to buy me a really good sewing machine. We haven’t relented and bought a new sofa, even though we both would love one. We are now in the process of finding ways and means of earning extra money to save up for items of furniture and for household maintenance but it will be all done on a strict budget and with the aid of ebay, ‘preloved’ and freecycle. A sofa will turn up in the end!
What about you? Up for the challenge? Mine is to have two spend days a month (which doesn’t mean running round spending just because it’s a spend day) and the rest to be no spend days. All spending will be planned for and only that which we really need is on the shopping list. What do we actually need? As ever, I always love to hear from you.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx
The final Countdown!
Hello Dear Reader,
I’m getting excited now, I always do when I approach a new year. I love a challenge, in fact, what ever life throws at me, even if I don’t like it, is to be tackled, stamped through and pushed into as I will never be beaten! I am always best with a deadline, with a target and with a to do list. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s work related, house work, to do with money or just the poop life throws us every now and then, bring it on!
Now I know I’m a tough old bird, a bit battle scarred and I live in the world of not giving a fig but here is the totally bleedin’ obvious route to a frugal 2013. Here comes resolution #3.
3. No spend days!
So chuffin’ simple isn’t it? Or is it? I’ve had more comments than I can mention telling me that Uncle Bert saved all of his money and died the day he retired. I’ve been told that we all deserve a treat, that we all need holidays, that we all need to ease up and we’ll all get there eventually. Well those are not the words of winners. Winners resolutely stick to a plan, keep at it and don’t give up. Winners do not need nights out, paid entertainment or to go on holiday. They do the opposite. They keep going no matter what and they achieve what they set out to do. Just like me, they will get narked with the whole chosen lifestyle every now and then but the long term rewards are certainly worth it.
No spend days are all about planning carefully budgeted spending. They are about setting a budget at the beginning of the year and making sure you have thought of all eventualities. How much does it cost to service the car, to pay for a set of tyres, for the fuel to get to work and save money to replace it as it will not last forever. How much does household maintenance cost? How much to repaint a house every four years? How much to replace work wear annually? When you’ve sat down and worked all that out you will not be surprised how little there is left.
So what do I mean by having no spend days? I get paid on the last day of the month and on the first day of the month all the money is gone! I pay my mortgage, into our savings fund for everything I have to budget for throughout the year, I make my monthly mortgage over payment, I pay the direct debits for utilities, insurances and local taxes, I put money into my diesel and food account and I eek that out so I have a bit of money if I need clothes or thread. I don’t leave myself with money to play with and I’m so used to it now that I just live that way. I went away twice last year and got married so that accounts for any holidays in 2013 or 2014 and we’ll just potter around locally on days off and look forward to a week away in 2015. It’s a goal and we will get there.
I no longer spend without saving and planning. If I have any food money left at the end of the month and either of us needs a hair cut, new pair of shoes or new clothing, or item of furniture then that’s what we buy it with. Now, most days are no spend days and that’s the way I need to keep it for 2013 to pay down my mortgage.
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Hi John. Is there any way you could grow some of the chicken/turkey/duck feed?
I'm sure I remember reading a permaculture idea where you grow certain plants which produce seeds that the birds can eat, (the plants providing shade for the poultry and the poultry providing manure to feed the plants). I'll see if I can find the info, I'm sure I read it in a book and not via the internet.
Sunflowers are another one that's easy to grow but provide food. I know that it won't be a huge amount off the feed bill but, every little helps!
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Hi Froogs, have been trialling an after-Christmas no-grocery-spend week of my own, was very happy, and will do it again.
BTW, many theatres, esp regional ones, will swap tickets for a spell of voluntary ushering…
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I need to get control on recreational shopping. It might just be at charity shops but it still adds up.
I am setting myself a deadline of no spend until Easter. That does not include necessities but only fripperies.
Also going to try to spend £20 week on food- but cheated with a big stock up yesterday!
Will continue writing down every spend- it is very enlightening.
Happy New Year Froogs. As inspiring as ever.
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I sound very similar to you John, we also have a lot of animals - chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, sheep and as of last week goats!!
We have managed to find a local supplier of animal feed that gives good discounts on bulk orders so we are able to stock up each month. (Someone in our village who had chickens did visit everyone with chickens to see if they wanted to bulk order so maybe this might be possible if you have a few people in the village)
Are you a member of a local smallholders group? Some of them have member discounts or offer bulk buying together - membership is usually very cheap anything from £12 - £20 per year and the money saved will outweigh the cost. You also get to meet like minded people and can barter between you all.
We also have a stall nearby who sell horse carrots/parsnips in massive nets for £1.50 - we usally get these for all the animals and also take some for ourselves (saving on our food bill)
Do you sell turkeys for Xmas? Our animals have to pay for themselves so we sell the majority of the chicken, duck and goose eggs and we rear turkeys to sell either as poults (babies) or sell at Xmas. Our lambs are raised for meat and then sent for slaughter - some meat we sell and some meat we keep for ourselves. We don't make much profit on the lamb but we get to eat meat that we know the history from day one.
Give me a shout if you want more info or to have a chat!
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I use the little money bags from the bank to split my money for the monthly costs.
I'm aiming for 2 spend days this month as I bake my own bread and now buy long life milk in bulk.
These were things I always seemed to run out of and ended up “popping” to Lidl and spending £20 on stuff I never went in for.
When my present batch of shop bought detergent runs out, I'm going to make my own wash powder/liquid and use vinegar and bicarb to clean the house.
I'm looking at other ways of cutting down too.
I'm going to have a look on tinternet to see if I can find a simple way to cut my hair. It's shoulder length and quite curly so even if I make a hash of it, it will not look too bad.
I don't want to pay £15 for just a trim at my local hairdressers so I'm going to buy a decent pair of scissors and have a go myself.
Good luck to all of you and thanks Froogs for posting so regularly and helping us tackle our spending habits.
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I used to have 2 Bichons and clipped them myself - with cheap new sharp round pointed medium scissors (awful job as they hated it) just be careful around the legs to keep them fluffier or they'll end up with 'chicken legs' and try not to over cut around the beard area too. I found giving them a shower and then cutting to be easier. If anybody is having trouble clipping claws there's a great video on Youtube where you desensitise them with the clippers and treats so they aren't afraid and after about 5 minutes of doing this I clipped all of our new dogs claws.
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Thank you for replying froogs. I totally agree with you. Happy new year
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You're so dedicated and it's great that you can inspire so many people - Hope you had a lovely family Christmas x
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Dear Froogs. You have given me more food for thought. In this case the food in my freezer. I freeze vegetables from my allotment and batch cook dinners for freezing. It's New Year in just over an hour and the first job for 2013 is to do a complete list of the freezer's contents and make a menu plan for the month of January.
I am pretty organised sort of person anyway, but I just need to tweek a few things and using up the food I already have stockpiled is the main thing.
Love your blog.
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