New Year, new challenges!
Posted: January 1, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: budget, budget challenge, cash, challenge, frugal, limited budget, money, spending, spending challenge 4 CommentsJanuary got off to a good start with plenty of rain and hearty gusts of wind to discourage any inclination to shop during the limited New Year’s Day opening hours – already I’m two quid up!
I’m limiting myself to £2 per day for food, travel, clothes, entertainment, and anything else that doesn’t come out by direct debit, and as usual I have withdrawn the total cash so I can see exactly where I stand throughout January.
Since I came in under budget for October and November, this reduction should push me a bit more, although I did make several bulk purchases of staples I was out of over December which will make the going easier, most notably 5kg chickpeas, 5kg split red lentils, 10 litres value soya milk and 16 loo rolls. I also visited my parents over the holidays and came away loaded down with frozen goodies, mostly soft fruit, plus jars of pasta sauce and a box of apples. I shouldn’t need to buy very much food at all apart from cabbage and carrots, I hope!
Not expecting to blog every day, might do a weekly summary plus anything notable.
If anyone reading would like to join the £2 a day challenge please let me know in the comments, or set your own amount. If you’ve never done anything like this before I really think it’s an interesting thing to attempt, just to drive home how much many of us will fork over loose change in the usual course of things, not realising how it adds up, and how seldom we would go back to purchse that thing if there hadn’t been cash spare on first sight. Limiting for two months made the freedom of December seem very luxurious to me, even though don’t think I went over what I would spend in a normal, unconstrained month.
dropscone 
I’ll try to spend 100 euros a month, so that’s about 83 pounds. I am, to be honest, still unsure if that only goes for food or also for everything else. I dont spend much money on other stuff but what if I have to buy new medicine, etc? It seems weird to restrict my food intake because of meds.
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That’s awesome! I’m doing a saving challenge in Feb! With the college expense in Jan, I could never do it this month!
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I’ve started my new challenge too 🙂 Best of luck with yours, I look forward to reading your posts 🙂
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I recently went shopping two different times with two different friends. I was there to visit with them, not shop for myself, so I left all cash and cards at home. Knowing I could not buy a thing changed my experience completely. I simply looked at all the interesting things in the stores without that compelling thought, “What might I do with this …” Or, “How cute that might look in my life…” It made me see how I have a consumer mindset, thinking about having things rather than just appreciating looking at them. (Window shopping, for example, has never worked for me, just made me eager to own new stuff!) I’m getting a lot more mindful about purchases, even staples like you described. Looking forward to reading more from you. Perhaps you have a book here?
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