How I’m doing a No-Spend January

Hi and happy new year! As I often do, I am rebalancing my finances as we go into 2025 with a no-spend January. I am on day three as I write this, but the weather has been wild, windy and wet, so I have had few compulsions to go shopping. Apart from being dragged out to walk the dog, I am cosying up as much as I can.

Batch-cooking

I continue to buy groceries on a no-spend month (bills are paid and food is still purchased), but I keep my spending low by using up what we already have. To this end, I have been batching-cooking soup for lunches this week and for the freezer. I made my favourite Stilton and broccoli, as we had leftover Stilton from Christmas, plus I managed to pick up three heads of broccoli in our local Coop for 20p each.

I also deliberately bought too many parsnips when Lidl was selling Christmas veg at just 8 pence a pack so that I could make spicy parsnip soup. I loosely based mine on this recipe, but added a few carrots that needed eating as well and used extra milk as I had no cream.

I still have the bones from the Christmas meat in the freezer and will make some stock this week. Although I am no longer eating meat generally, I cooked it for the family. I will still eat it if it needs using or if I go for dinner somewhere and don’t want to put anyone to a lot of trouble. I’m a bit a of flexitarian, I guess!

Deleting temptation

I had a flurry of emails from retailers offering sales and discounts after Christmas. Because I can do without any temptation to make purchases, I swiftly deleted them without reading them, although I did make sure I unsubscribed first.

My other big temptation is Vinted. Clothing can be so cheap on there, but I really don’t need any more! I can’t remove the app as I have some items for sale, but apart from a swift check in the morning to see if anything has sold, I am on a self-imposed ban for the month.

Planning ahead

We have tickets for a musical at the local theatre for next week, bought as a Christmas present. I am so looking forward to going, but was worrying about how to avoid spending money whilst we are there. The bar is always rammed in the interval, so we probably won’t queue anyway, but we might want something during the performance. I have decided to slip a couple of small cans of gin & tonic left over from Christmas into our pockets as we go in.

As it’s only a small theatre, they might do a quick check of our bags, but I doubt they will go through our pockets too. We will also take some crisps.

Writing a new year budget

I spent half an hour writing my budget for January and making sure annual expenses were accounted for. These include car tax and insurance, potential MOT costs, birthdays and Christmas savings, car breakdown cover, and a couple of annual subscriptions.

As part of this process, I have been reviewing my outgoings and cancelling everything that isn’t essential. There are some things I really don’t need to keep paying for. I think it is worth doing a budget every month to help you reach your financial goals and keep yourself accountable. 

Finding free stuff to do

As part of a no-spend January, it is always a good idea to check out free things to do. In my case, I have ordered some new audio books from Borrowbox, the free library app. I will have to wait a bit as they are on loan, but since I have a pile of paper books to get through in the meantime, I think I can survive!

I am waiting on the new Richard Osman novel, We Solve Murders, along with Less by Patrick Grant, which was recommended by one of my YouTube viewers (you can catch up with my channel here, by the way).

The other thing I am planning to keep me occupied this month is to tackle this knitting kit. I have been intending to relearn knitting and crochet for a long time, so this is my chance. This kit cost a mere £2 at a charity shop a few months ago, and comes complete with patterns, wool and needles. How can I go wrong?

It’s a freezing cold but sunny day today – at least the winds and rain have settled. I had the heating on for an hour this morning, but now me and Archie are huddled under the heated blanket. The heating will go on again this afternoon as I don’t like the house getting too cold and damp, but I can’t afford to have it on constantly. It’s a battle – energy bills have just gone up AGAIN here, so I do what I can to mitigate the costs.

Anyway, this is my first review of my no-spend January. Are you joining me?