Low spend / no spend January

[dellabear]

Picked up $60 of groceries on the weekend to round out the meal plan, and we need some more fresh items already. Have not spent anything on discretionary items.

I am planning on creating a monthly budget this week which I am actually looking forward to. We usually have a budget plan but with COVID everything kind of went out the window.

I got a $25 Visa card from my insurance company as an apology after we had huge issues with the, cancelling our home insurance without notice due to an internal error. Argh. Anyway, thinking of using the Visa card to splurge on takeout this weekend. We have a few other gcs hanging around but I don’t plan to shop unless truly needed.

[dellabear]

ewall, liquor and Diet Coke are needs IMO. I mean, 2021. Lol I’m also dieting so I’ve been drinking less, and we also had a lot of wine on hand, because 2020.

[dellabear]

Heading into the last week of the month at last. I spent $70 on takeout on Friday, blowing my spending and diet goals in one fell swoop, but no regrets really. It was a nice treat after a loooonng week.

Another $175 on groceries yesterday which should take us to the end of the month.

[chpmnk1015]

-going into the last week and going so so- we had a spendier month than anticipated.. ordered 2 windows that need replacing.. have the cash for it but still was hoping to hold off til spring but one is getting bad..
-Did sell $80ish dollars worth of random stuff in basement after cleaning which paid for a chunk of the groceries last week.

[aspentosh]

As of the 26th:

Outside of our budgeted necessities (bills, mortgage, gas, food, etc) we have spent $206 this month. This includes: necessary cleaning and bathroom supplies, @@gift for DD, and some baskets for holding things. I track this on mint and it's crazy to see our expenses line stay almost flat throughout the entire month. Food (almost all groceries) is almost maxed out for our budget but hoping we can squeeze out the rest of the month.

[aprilsails]

@@@ mention

I wasn’t committed to doing this but because of lockdown we basically went nowhere and did nothing for the entire month. Just ran our budget yesterday and outside of expected grocery bills and much lower than usual gas, we have spent $94 this month. One takeout dinner and some FB marketplace clothes for the kids. We did spend a lot in the run up to Christmas so the freezer was well stocked and when we ran out of alcohol we have since gone dry.

This is easily $600 less than average. It’s sort of mind boggling to be honest. At the same time work is bonkers for me and I’m getting plenty of overtime pay, so my bank account is looking quite fat. Time to catch up on some retirement savings.

February looks like more of the same. DH just got a retroactive merit raise so he wants to celebrate with takeout sushi, but beyond that, I can’t see us spending much.

[aspentosh]

Jan 28, 2021 9:28:06 GMT -5 aprilsails said:

@@@ mention

I wasn’t committed to doing this but because of lockdown we basically went nowhere and did nothing for the entire month. Just ran our budget yesterday and outside of expected grocery bills and much lower than usual gas, we have spent $94 this month. One takeout dinner and some FB marketplace clothes for the kids. We did spend a lot in the run up to Christmas so the freezer was well stocked and when we ran out of alcohol we have since gone dry.

This is easily $600 less than average. It’s sort of mind boggling to be honest. At the same time work is bonkers for me and I’m getting plenty of overtime pay, so my bank account is looking quite fat. Time to catch up on some retirement savings.

February looks like more of the same. DH just got a retroactive merit raise so he wants to celebrate with takeout sushi, but beyond that, I can’t see us spending much.

Awesome!

And this is a good reminder that most of us could probably always do (a little) better if push came to shove.

In my (shameful?? lol) case, we are easily spending $2-3k less than normal by this point. 

[aprilsails]

Jan 28, 2021 10:50:56 GMT -5 aspentosh said:

Jan 28, 2021 9:28:06 GMT -5 aprilsails said:

@@@ mention

I wasn’t committed to doing this but because of lockdown we basically went nowhere and did nothing for the entire month. Just ran our budget yesterday and outside of expected grocery bills and much lower than usual gas, we have spent $94 this month. One takeout dinner and some FB marketplace clothes for the kids. We did spend a lot in the run up to Christmas so the freezer was well stocked and when we ran out of alcohol we have since gone dry.

This is easily $600 less than average. It’s sort of mind boggling to be honest. At the same time work is bonkers for me and I’m getting plenty of overtime pay, so my bank account is looking quite fat. Time to catch up on some retirement savings.

February looks like more of the same. DH just got a retroactive merit raise so he wants to celebrate with takeout sushi, but beyond that, I can’t see us spending much.

Awesome!

And this is a good reminder that most of us could probably always do (a little) better if push came to shove.

In my (shameful?? lol) case, we are easily spending $2-3k less than normal by this point. 

Oh since March of last year I would guess our spending has been down by $6k or more. We skipped vacations, summer camps, skating lessons, swimming lessons, went to the cottage half as often as usual (gas + liquor), we hosted no parties which would usually cost us about $2000 per year between Canada Day, New Years, birthdays for the kids, and a planned housewarming party that did not happen and likely never will. Covid coincided with 6 months of my maternity leave where I am at 40% of my usual take home salary, so it certainly helped us save in a year where we usually would not really have done so. We are truly privileged to be in jobs where we could save. I have a lot of people in my life who are struggling.

[aspentosh]

Month is done and it was a success for us.

Food budget was $11 over due to so many grocery trips (which I will take over restaurant trips)
Gas was $26 for one fill up
All utilities were as expected and within budget

$206 for purchases in January with another
@@@$95 for summer camp deposits in the hope things are better

Considering we had no income for the month (H is still looking for a job), this was very necessary. We'll be continuing into February.

[SusanBAnthony]

We finished the month spending much less than usual. Shamefully from March-Dec we spent a lot on various things to make ourselves feel better, entertainment, etc. Considering everything we couldn't spend on (like travel) we should have been spending less but didn't.

Our Jan was much better. For the first time in probably 3 years if not twice that we spent under 400$ on groceries. We have been eating down our stored food. We also didn't do any eating out, no alcohol, and tightly controlled misc household purchases like stuff from target and Amazon (under 100$ for the month).

[Covergirl82]

Ended the month not so well... We ended up buying a new washer and dryer last Friday. The pair we had were what was in the house when we bought it almost 10 years ago. The dryer was still going strong (and I suspect the dryer was well over 10 years, because it was an unmatched pair and the dryer was the older of the two), but the washer (which appeared to be new-ish when we moved in) was starting to make noises on higher agitation settings and the lid (top-load) was cracked in multiple places. We had already planned to buy a new set with my bonus in March, but ended up buying now. (Which was probably a good decision practically, because as I was moving the last load I did on Saturday to the dryer, a piece of the washer lid at one of the hinges broke off.) I hate spending bonus money before it's in our accounts, but I think the cc payment timing will work out so that we don't pay the cc bill until after my bonus is deposited.

I am going to continue to limit "extra" purchases in February, only go to Costco once, and try to do more shopping at Aldi. I'm also going to try to sell some things through FB sale groups.

[dellabear]

I had a great month overall. My credit card bill is very low, and I’ve even dropped a few lbs by meal planning and avoiding restaurants.

I’m going to continue in February as well, although we will be a little less bare bones than January. I’ll make a new thread,

[trissie18]

We did really well overall in January. We cut our grocery bill 50-75% ( ) with purposeful spending each week and eating down our freezers and pantry. We have an actual budget created and are actually following it for the first time ever. It was a great month to reset financially and looking forward to doing it again in February.