Zero spending, could you do it?

No way could I live with zero spending, but I would like to cut down on a few things, food being the main one.

As it says in that Guardian article, I find it so easy to go into Waitrose and spend like £27. I did it yesterday, and whilst that included some flowers and £8 of dishwasher tablets, I'm not quite sure what I got for the rest of my money. I couldn't believe it when I saw the £27!

In the new year I'm planning to stop going to Waitrose (I just like it so much!), and to improve my bulk cooking. This helps massively with dieting as well, I think, if very boring.

Recently I've been batch cooking bolognese, chicken wrapped in bacon, and chili con carne. I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every single day so that helps with reducing overbuying too.
 
Moses said:
Waitrose is lol. So easy to spend close to £100 on a random biggish shop when going to Lidl would cost £20. Still do it, of course.
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Yeah well everything you buy is just nicer. I would go to Morisson's instead of Waitrose. I love Morisson's, but the local one is in a really annoying place for traffic and they changed the layout, which caused me to spurg out.

I also feel like I earn enough money that I should be able to go to Waitrose if I want, but then I've been feeling like we've lost control of our finances a bit, which is why I want to rein in the Waitrose shopping at the very least.
 
With my other half going back part time after the birth of our daughter and us not being 100% sure on earnings + childcares fees etc I did stopped spending past the necessities for 3 months to ensure that all would be ok. It turned out that everything was fine (just me overly worrying about it all) so I do have some spare to buy things if I wanted to.

However those 3 months made me realise that I was spending frivolously on my hobbies and other things like eating out/work canteen etc so it has helped me in that I'm better with my money now.

I guess for me it's all about balance. I'm not going to save every single penny and not enjoy my life, I like the phrase above about being the richest man in the graveyard, however at the same time realising that I don't need to spend money on things for the sake of it or because I want to have it and being more rational with my decisions on what I buy.
 
LOAM said:
I spend less than £50pcm on myself and that's an indulgent month, mostly it's about zero. I don't drink or smoke and I live in my clothes until they rot and fall off me.

My only vice is a cup of decent coffee from 200 degrees in Nottingham every other week.
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Hmmmm that's my favourite coffee shop in the UK
 
Andr3w said:
Hmmmm that's my favourite coffee shop in the UK
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It is amazing, we are quite fortunate to have a coffee shop that roasts its own locally. The quality is second to none and its no coincidence just how well the place is doing.
 
Mrs Poole holds all the money and she gives me £6 a week to go to band rehearsals with two different bands.
Obviously now and then I need new brake liners for my bikes but my spending over the last 3 years has been virtually nothing.
 
I'm definitely buying a lot less crap these days. I'd rather save/invest or do something a bit more useful with the money than buy crap that I don't really need.

Sounds like an interesting January challenge, though! How little can you spend outside bills? :D
 
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