Over in the Saturday Savers Club, we're getting ready for our first No-Buy Month of the year. It will run from 1-31 March, and is a great way to check how you are spending money, and to see whether you can boost your savings by being extra focused for a month. You can read more about it in this post.
I set out my spending rules for this time round a week or two ago. They look like this:
Allowable Expenses
- housing costs (mortgage or rent, utilities, telecoms, local taxes, insurance).
- fresh food, toiletries, and cleaning materials - aiming to use up pantry and freezer foods.
- eating out or take out - four times during the month (includes coffee shops and pubs).
- leisure - audiobook subscription, healthy living club (raffle), postage, transport.
- essential repairs and replacements plus two new items of clothing.
I'm going to be away for a couple of days during the no-buy month but they will be covered by my holiday savings. I'll probably have a look at the shops while I'm away and have more time, so I've included a clothing allowance, and there's postage and transport to cover birthdays and outings to friends.
NO-BUY Items
- No shop bought, non-essential treats
- No yarn, fabric, books, patterns, notions, stationery or cosmetics.
- No new items of furniture, housewares or technology.
- No seeds, plants or gardening items.
I've just discovered xigxag audiobooks, which looks amazing and is an independent UK company. It doesn't have a monthly subscription: instead, you buy when you want and you are rewarded with increasingly lower-priced books the more books you buy, plus they always have some books available at the lowest price (£3.99). That works well for accommodating a no-buy month and goodbye Amazon!
I got pretty good at stream-lining my expenses last year (the first year of the Saturday Savers Club). My utilities are about as low as they can be, given the huge increase in energy prices here, and most of my food is delivered, avoiding costly trips to my local shop for "a loaf of bread" which always ended up costing £20 (my particular weakness which, I discovered yesterday, is also shared with my neighbour).
This time round I want to concentrate on using up older stock from my pantry and I spent this morning going through the cupboards and getting organised.
Dry Goods
This was both much better than I expected and left me wondering how I was going to use up everything in one month! I've pulled the older stock to the front:
- pot barley
- yellow split peas (for pease pudding)
- brown and green lentils - the wide, shallow ones, delicious in a braise.
- quinoa - I looked up how to cook this again. I like it, but kept passing over it.
- brown basmati rice - a good sized pack. It gets left because it takes so long to cook.
- mung beans - I forgot why I bought these, but I'm going to sprout them.
Tins and Jars
Just seven tins of various fruit and vegetables, now sitting in splendour on their own shelf at eye level. I also discarded some old packets of sauce mix and desserts from when the young people were here (three years ago now).
Baking and Dessert Ingredients
Bits and pieces of jars and packets that need using up:
- desiccated coconut - never opened!
- ground and flaked almonds.
- end of a jar of honey, also peanut butter and cocoa powder.
- bottom of a bottle of maple syrup.
- and in the fridge and freezer, some almond milk and frozen banana pieces.
- stale bread from the loaf I dropped when I was putting it in the oven. Edible, but hard work.
These have (mostly) been used up and transformed into:
- vegan chocolate pudding - to use up the almond milk, maple syrup and some of the cocoa.
- chocolate gelato - frozen bananas, peanut butter and the rest of the cocoa.
- bread pudding - anything that's left, including half the packet of coconut.
The gelato and bread pudding can be frozen and eaten later in the month. I also made some granola to use up some jumbo oats that had been hanging around a long-time, together with some bits and pieces of nuts and seeds and dried fruit.
I have meat and fish in the freezer that I'll be using up and I get fresh fruit and vegetables, milk and eggs delivered, so I'm pretty much set for the month. Toiletries and cleaning materials are also in good stock, so apart from one or two items (salt, yoghurt and bread flour) and a few bits and pieces (fresh ginger and herbs), I shouldn't have to buy very much. I wonder if I could set a budget of £10 a week for any extras?
The No-Buy Month has an extra purpose for me which is gradually divesting myself of things I don't need any more. I have dry goods, garden supplies and cleaning materials from heaven knows when which all need using up. I also seem to have a surplus of electrical items - extension leads, lamp holders, adaptors and bulbs. A lot of them are destined for the re-cycling centre. I've already sent bags of old chargers and cables, DVDs, video and audiotapes and CDs.
I love it as the space opens up in the garage and around the house.
There's no special reason for the name Silver Moon, no back story or romance. I just like it.
Three things newbies should do in their first week and, for most things, forever afterwards!
