No Spend/Low Spend Save Money With Us!!

Hey Beauties!! Hope you’re all fabulous!!

This week I want to talk about how I’m going to do the next 3 months on No Spend/Low Spend. I’ve seen loads of YouTube posts on this over the past month or 2 and it got me thinking “Hey I can do that!!”. We all know what it’s like after Christmas when the bills start rolling in, it’s a new year and people want to crack on with the latest trends or plan their next holiday, the money has to come from somewhere right?! Also there’s the January sales where we go wild buying things we don’t REALLY need but the price just drags us in!!

What Is No Spend/Low Spend??

Now me being me when I first heard of this I thought people we actually not spending any money at all thoughout the time they were doing this. Like what were they eating?! How were they paying bills?! Let me explain. Throughout the month I’ll be paying my bills, gas, electric, rent ect, but I wont be doing any of the ‘excess’ or ‘random’ spending. I HAVE to use what we have in the house. So that’s no new makeup, no new clothes, no extra cleaning products because I havent got that scent yet (Tell me I’m not the only one who does this?!) you get the general idea yeah??

When it comes to food shopping I can only buy what I actually need, if it’s in the cupboard I really don’t need to buy 3 more because they’re on sale for 20p less!! And this also means no stopping in the middle isles at Aldis and no browsing through the clothes section at Asda!! How hard can it be right?!

The basic idea is that you stop carelessly spending so that you save more money!! We want to finally do our bedroom out as we neglets our needs/space to make sure the kids have everything they need and nice holiday’s so that’s the inspo for this.

What Can I Buy??

I’m setting myself limits on what isn’t classed as a ‘Necessity’ but more of a limited spend hense the ‘Low Spend’ part. This can be anything from trips to the salon to meals out ect. So what exactly are we allowing ourselves to buy??

• Nails – This is the only ‘majour’ spend out I treat myself to regular and as it’s only every 3-4 weeks anyway I’m going to keep up with this.
• Drinks – I must admit I’m one for popping into Costa a minimum of once a week and can go upto 3 or 4 times a week!! Also my husband has a habbit of grabbing a Costa from the machine at work (even thought he takes coffee in a flask!!) and gets random energy drinks or HAS to buy a bottle of something while we are out even if we’re on our way home!! So this is all stopping and we are giving ourselves ONE costa trip a week.
• Food shopping – As I said above only buy what we need, BUT, we eat ALOT of meat (sorry veggie/vegan friends!) so if we come across meat that’s on sale we are going to grab it and freeze it for later on rather than pay full price at a later date when we may run out.
• Date Night – we are gving ourselves a date night once a month, mammy and daddy need a little time away from the sprogs now and again just to keep our sanity!!
• Products – When it comes to cleaning supplies, hair care, makeup, skincare ect we are only allowed to REPLACE and item once we run out. So if we run out of say Flash cleaning spray, my 6 bottles of Zoflora in the box will do the same job. So only replacing!!

We plan on doing this for 3 months so until end of March. I’ll write a post in April to update you all to see if we’ve managed to stick to it and if we’ve seen a difference in our bank balance. Hopefully we will and we can make our bedroom finally a cosy space of our own!!

Has anyone else tried this or done something similar in the past?? How did you find it?? Let me know in the comments below please, I love hearing others experience’s!! If you haven’t, would you give it a go??

Top Tip

It’s always good to have a reason behind doing something like this to keep your eye on the prize shall we say. So for us it’s our bedroom. It may not seem like a big thing, but as a family of 4 with bills, school and a holiday being our main priority, it’s often hard to find that extra bit of cash to do the little things. Here are some idea’s of reasons to try this.

• Saving for a holiday
• New car
• Driving lessons/test
• Saving for a mortgage – we all know how ridiculously expensive that shit can be!! Every penny helps!!
• Extra cash for Christmas
• Maybe you’ve been trying to save for that new games console
• Spending money for an upcoming trip
• College/Uni funds for your children when they’re older

The list really is endless when it comes to chosing a goal to keep you motivated. Just remember that no matter how big or small your goal is, no matter what anyone says, it’s something that YOU want. My parents have always taught me from a young age ‘Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’ so I think it’s about time to make my life that little bit easier. What would you like to save for??

Wish me luck guys and gals!!

Much Love – Mrs Slee-Jones xx