November frugality drive

[ajva]

I wasn't going to mention this until December 1st, but stefanc has convinced me that it might be worth noting now on LJ.

I have decided to do a bit of pre-Christmas season budget-watching. Towit, I have stocked up my freezer, and will be restricting myself to a £50 cash budget for the month of November. The credit cards will also not be used, excepting for a) journeys that have to be paid for by card and b) Christmas presents that are to be reimbursed using my Christmas savings account anyway. Don't get me wrong - I'm not in financial dire straits (I have no debt, for example), and so I'm not posting for sympathy. But my savings pile has been being depleted for the past many months (this has definitely been connected with my springtime bereavement), and I want to give myself a kick start to going in the other direction.

So, there you go. So far this month I've spent a grand total of £1. We're only a day and a half in, though. :o)

Comments

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good move.

If you're not averse, I keep being told that one of the markets in Vauxhall gives away free fruit & veg at the end of a day, but I can never get full details on this, grr! I would like some free food and it would doubtless save much cash. I'll let you know if I manage to find out more.

Guess we'll all be buying you pints this month then, eh? ;¬)

[ajva.livejournal.com]

Guess we'll all be buying you pints this month then, eh? ;¬)

Ha. Forcing that kind of de facto obligation was supposed to be the point of not mentioning it to everyone until it was over. But, you know, sod it. ;o)

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Well, what goes around comes around, right? I've spent many years being unable to afford more than a pint a night, meself, so I sympathise entirely. And I think being frugal for a bit is probably a good idea anyway. I ought to do it myself for a while.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

(Fortunately, I don't really "do" Xmas, so I never have to spend money at this time of the year. Although this will be the first Xmas in about 7 years that I've spent with my parents, and the first for about 15 that's been spent with both them and my brother present, so I will probably have to make a bit more effort than usual and take some gifts for them, because it'd make my mum happy. I plan on doing a fair amount of baking and am thinking of trying my hand at confectionary - potential disaster area! Plus, I have agreed to do a Secret Santa at the office - I will try to make that, but will obv buy it if the cooking fails...

This'll be a really weird year for me. Usually I spend Xmas being lazy and avoiding people. Perhaps I am becoming less weird?? *worries*)