Spending Ban | January Edit

Spending Ban | January Edit

• February 01, 2015

One of the goals I've set for 2015 is to save as much as possible after a very expensive 2014. We bought our first home and spent a considerable amount to make it into our dream home. We also took a trip to Hong Kong in December, so January needed to be a month of recuperation as far as finances were concerned. 

A spending ban was implemented; I set myself some rules and documented my daily spend in a spreadsheet to keep track.

After a month, I am pleased to see that the majority of my outgoings are the usual household bills, grocery and travel costs. However, I did buy a few birthday presents (this is never the time to skimp!) and I couldn't resist a few skincare products that were on sale in Superdrug.

The Rules:

1) Document daily spending on a spreadsheet and use it to keep track of everything

2) No spending on clothes/beauty products/unnecessary items

3) Weekly budget of £50 on grocery bill for our household (there are 3 of us)

4) Limit buying lunch to once a week and no more than £10

5) Limit dinner/takeouts to once a week, with a £20 budget

6) Limit 'pocket money' to £10 a week. This includes coffees, snacks, and miscellaneous items

The Outcome:

- I broke rule number 2 and spent £14.96 on 4 skincare products. If I were not on a spending ban, this is actually quite a bargain!

- Did not quite manage to keep grocery bills down to £50 a week and overspent by £47.74 in the month. My grocery bills do include things like laundry powder and loo roll though, so I guess I need to make some provisions for this.

- My other food limits ended up in a table like this. Most of the areas are green and well within budget. I think it counteracts the 3 in red! 

	Snack £10/wk	Dine out £20/wk	Lunch £10/wk
Wk 1	£4.79	£0.00	£0.00
Wk 2	£3.05	£23.66	£0.00
Wk 3	£5.79	£0.00	£0.00
Wk 4	£5.35	£14.55	£18.89
Wk 5	£9.94	£0.00	£12.05

Conclusion:

This month made me realise just how much money I usually spend on coffees/breakfast/lunch/eating out, and if I start treating them as indulgences rather than daily occurrences, it can make a difference to my savings. On the downside though, I have to admit it made me super stingy on myself, and that can't be right! I will relax this a little in February, but this spending ban is here to stay for the next few months.

I will share tips on how to save soon. My friend Mandy has some great tips from when she did her spending ban back in October. 

Are any of you guys on a spending ban and are there any tips you can share with me? I'd love to hear.