Category: no spend year

Categories
no spend year

No Spend Year Week 6 Update

Here we are creeping up towards the middle of February and whilst things may be calming down for us financially health wise we had some turmoil this week. I started the week with a tooth extraction that had a couple of things go wrong. Ouch is all I will say ha ha. I did end up spending some money on pain relief for the couple of days following that after I got to the point of being kept awake all night by it. Our daughter also unfortunately had a health battle this week against a kind of mystery virus. The poor girl was running a fever like crazy and was up vomiting through the night for a couple of nights. We are both feeling better now and ready to get on with life 🙂

We had a win this week when we managed to replace our lawnmower. I sourced a secondhand one from marketplace for only $70! We had to run up to the tip to dispose of our old lawnmower and noticed that a tip shop had opened up, we were able to get a fuel can for our new to us lawnmower for only $5 so we are so happy. It is heaven to mow the lawns now, it almost doesn’t even feel like a chore! The total cost was also right in budget and we could cash flow the entire purchase including the fuel with the money in our sinking fund.

We are finishing up week two of trying Hello fresh at the moment and we are still loving it. The cost is making it a little bit difficult to stay in our grocery budget but we are managing for the most part. It is forcing us to not purchase junk food and that is a wonderful thing!

So what did we spend?

$3.75 over on our grocery budget. This is an improvement since starting Hello Fresh but I plan to keep working on this until it is zero.

$14.95 on my prescription for pain medication after my tooth extraction. I tried to forego this, I really did by the second day it was clear something had gone wrong when my face was too swollen to even open my mouth.

$24.95 Was spent on a dinosaur book and a dinosaur blanket to comfort my daughter during the worst of her fever, she is all about dinosaurs at the moment and those small gifts brought a smile to her face at a time when she couldn’t even hold down water. It was worth every cent in my eyes when my heart was breaking from my inability to make her healthy again.

$3.00 was spent again on our daughter for a new pair of swimmers. I included this as a fail because I did promise to thrift her clothes for the year, I can not however bring myself to thrift underwear or swimwear so I purchased these new. They were on the clearance rack and an honest bargain.

As we have talked about last week and over on You Tube we will stop including the cars in the no spend year figures as we had exempt them back at the start of the year.

  • This week $46.15
  • This month $83.55
  • This year $219.05

Even with some comfort spending around health issues we are determined to end this month having spent less than we did in January.

Go ahead and give us some encouragement by following our story this year, here or on Instagram where I post pretty much daily, or over on you tube where we share video updates of our finances along with frugal recipes we have tried this year.

Categories
no spend year

No Spend Year Week 5 Update

January is in the bag already and I cant believe how fast this year is rolling along. Week 5 is finished and overall it really was a quiet week. Our first week with Hello Fresh is complete and I have to say we are loving it! Overall our grocery budget is a little bigger than it was before, however we are not running to the supermarket for extra bits and pieces so it actually is costing us about the same as it was beforehand. The meals so far have been fantastic, and that is awesome, I get a little nervous about quality of vegetarian meals sometimes but these have been great, not once have we felt like we are sitting in the corner with a bland salad!

This week also brings some further decisions toward replacing our poor dead lawnmower. We borrowed a petrol mower from a friend and we are in lllooovvveee. Whilst we don’t exactly live on acres of land we do have what I consider to be quite a large block, and that makes mowing with the push mower a mammoth task. The petrol one had the job done in under an hour and was so so so much easier to use! It also looks much much nicer when finished. We think we will try to source a secondhand one, we have at the moment $80 in our sinking fund for buying things we want, so I will keep adding to that and comparing second hand mowers until we find a perfect match!

So what did we spend?

I splurged $27.40 at the grocery store that was not budgeted for. It is Alex’s birthday week and although we agreed not to get presents for each other I felt really guilty on the day that I had nothing to give him. I made a trip to the shop for some of his favorite treats and we curled up on the couch as a family and watched a couple of his favorite movies. It really was a lot cheaper than many of our past birthdays, but still a fail in the case of a no spend year.

$10 of extra diesel went into my car this week as a top up. We needed to drive a little more than normal and unfortunately I was going to run out of fuel. I just put enough to get me to where I really had to go for the week and no more.

We are doing two separate tallies this week, one with our car repair bill and one without. We are becoming more of the mindset that we should not have included our cars in the no spend year figures as it was something we intentionally did, and deliberately sourced and organized finances for. We may stop including the cars next week.

  • This week $37.40
  • This month $37.40
  • This year $8972.90
  • No cars $172.90

We are do determined to make this month cheaper than January and we are on track to do that!

Go ahead and give us some encouragement by following our story this year, here or on Instagram where I post pretty much daily, or over on you tube where we share video updates of our finances along with frugal recipes we have tried this year.

Categories
no spend year

No Spend Year Week 4 Update

I GOT MY CAR BACK!!! After months of problems and weeks of sourcing finance from multiple places, followed by having to wait even longer for parts and an available spot at the dealership, it had finally happened.

I try not to think about how long these repairs will take us to pay off, to truly just enjoy having a working car and a clean slate to start our debt journey from. No chasing our tails with trying to make minimum payments on things whilst trying to save for repairs. All that is left now is to have my teeth finished.

This week had also brought the decision to trial Hello Fresh. It is a subscription based dinner meal kit delivery service. Whilst we very clearly understand this is not the cheapest way to eat, we have some health goals also this year that we feel this might really help us to achieve. We also believe that by cutting out pre-packaged food while I grocery shop we can still stay within our budget. I will keep adding my thoughts on this service as we progress through our trial.

A great surprise for us this week was a completely unexpected bonus, we were stoked to have this come through and after a bit of bad luck this month it seemed like we were really due for a win. If you would like to you can check out what we did with our bonus.

So What did we spend?

We went $10 over our grocery budget this week. This really was my fault as it was our first week with Hello Fresh and that was a bit of a spontaneous choice, not budgeted for last pay cycle. Groceries were not supposed to count towards no spend figures, I will count this however as It was both over budget and avoidable.

I spent $3 on a set of paintbrushes for our daughter’s art and craft box so she would stop using her dads good brushes (that are of course, much more expensive.)

Including the repairs to my car at $6800 and we are up for what is hopefully the most expensive week of the entire year. I almost feel that car repairs should not be included because they were actually necessary, So I have tallied the numbers with and without cars to see the difference it made. So our totals are now:

  • This Week $8913.00
  • This Month $8935.50
  • This Year $8935.50

A grand total of that is $8880.00 on car repairs leaving $135.50 as money spent this year. If every month were like January we would still spend $1626 this year, so we will strive to make February better and cheaper!

Go ahead and give us some encouragement by following our story this year, here or on Instagram where I post pretty much daily, or over on you tube where we share video updates of our finances along with frugal recipes we have tried this year.

Categories
no spend year

No spend Year Week 3 Update

Another week had rolled around us and another interesting one it had been. The most important thing to report is we have successfully secured the finance for the car repairs and dental work I need. We are officially $10,000 further in debt and hopefully this gives us a clean slate to work from. The good news is my car is booked in this week and in only three days I should be back on the road again!

At least I made some cash selling things!

Unfortunately this week also brought the sad death of our lawnmower. She was only 18 months old but some were just not destined to live a long life. We have some decisions to make regarding replacing her, if we will choose electric or petrol, new or used and I will report what impact that has on our finances in a future update.

A big sting this week for us was our phones. We thought we had done the right thing by changing from our post paid service to a pre paid service saving ourselves $55 a month. Our handsets were on a 3 year payment plan with the same company but once we transferred our numbers away from them they will not honor our payment plan any longer and are demanding the full account to be paid upfront. $1850 is quite a sting for us and we cannot really handle that at the moment since our emergency funds are depleted. We will see what options they are willing to offer us and hopefully we can come to a compromise on this one.

I had my next step dentist appointment this week, I feel like I’m in that chair almost every week at the moment, and this expense will not be added to our no spend tally as we agreed medical costs are exempt. It is however another account looming over us requiring immediate payment. The big appointment for the surgical removal of my really bad tooth will be coming up soon and no one is looking forward to that! (I have agreed to stay awake during the procedure despite them needing to remove some of my jaw bone just to save money!)

So what did we spend?!?!?!

We took a trip to a local animal sanctuary, we have an existing annual pass so entry was free, although we purchased 2 bags of feed for our daughter to feed the animals. It was worth every cent. Total cost $6.00

We had to purchase some super glue to fix a light fitting in our study, the cost was $2.00

Lastly we had a little bit of a personal fail on the weekend and treated ourselves to a serve of hot chips at a cost of $4.00 Our totals are now:

  • This Week $12.00
  • This Month $2122.50
  • This Year $2122.50

Go ahead and give us some encouragement by following our story this year, here or on Instagram you tube or Facebook.

Categories
no spend year

No Spend Year Week 2 Update

Two weeks into the year already, and here we are with our second update for our 2020 no spend year.

Anyone familiar with us already knows that we have a pretty major car repair looming over our heads at the moment. We have decided to go ahead and source some finance in the form of a personal loan to deal with this and get this car going again. This unfortunately will put us even further into debt and that seems counter intuitive for everything we are doing to get away from debt, however this does make the most sense after all the numbers were crunched.

My second step dentist appointment was this week also, as discussed we are not including any medical or health care into the no spend year figures, but it is just another expense looming over us. Still better to take care of all my teeth now than to wait until they are too bad to be repaired (ouch!)

Trying to stay one step ahead of things running out around the house, I have noticed my supply of general household cleaner is getting low, so keep an eye our for my attempt at a home made cleaner that will be appearing here and on our you tube.

One expense we had not planned in advance was an impromptu drive up the coast to visit my parents in law for a few days. This decision came as we were supposed to go to Bali, we have had tickets booked for months, unfortunately at the last minute my husbands work told him his leave was shortened and he had to be back at work before we would have returned from Bali. It was going to cost us more to come home 1 day early than what we had paid for the entire original trip, so we simply did not go. We did want to do something, and a visit to the in-laws seemed to be the best compromise. We lost $1500 on our flights this week, but saved that much again by not going at all.

Now to get down and dirty with our figures for week 2, we spent $93 on fuel that was not planned. My husband and I are on a clothes buying ban this year so I have included a new pair of sandals for Alex after he lost his on the beach last this weekend. There is $10 for that. Our totals are now:

  • This Week $103.00
  • This Month $2110.50
  • This year $2110.50

Go ahead and give us some encouragement by following our story this year, here or on Instagram you tube or Facebook.

Categories
no spend year

No spend year 2020

So I thought I would go a little deeper into what we are doing with our no spend year. we have set out some rules for ourselves to make this a bit clearer and easier to stick to because obviously we do have to spend some money.

Rule #1 We are paying rent/ utilities/ groceries/ Swimming lessons/ pet vet bills.

Rule #2 NO luxury items. At all. If it is possible for me to make a cheaper alternative at home from staple household supplies then I will. (that should be interesting)

Rule #3 No bulk or stocking up shopping beforehand. If something we own breaks or runs out during the year, there will be a serious discussion about if we should replace it or not. If we do we will replace it with a quality and permanent replacement as we try to move away from single use items.

Rule #4 We want the smallest utility bills possible, so everything from turning off a light to negotiating with supply companies is on the table for us. Also all subscriptions will be cancelled.

Rule #5 A complete clothes buying ban for my husband and I. As our daughter is only 2 and growing 17 inches a day she will inevitably need clothes this year. we will purchase everything possible from thrift stores for her.

Rule #6 Our cars will be properly fixed this January no matter the cost. this is long overdue and needs to happen before we cause further damage and bigger problems.

Rule #7 We will buy gifts for our daughter for her birthday and Christmas but no gifts for ourselves for any occasions this year.

As we move through the year we will keep a list of everything we wanted to buy and constantly update it. I’m willing to bet by the end of the year very few things on that list will still be important to us.

Our no spend year will be vlogged in detail on our you tube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv3QDuYnFXfYv9PTgOVUog including updates with real figures, triumphs and fails, along with all sorts of money saving recipe attempts. this is where we will be discussing any purchases that need to be made throughout the year, and our progress on digging ourselves out of a mountain of debt.

Until next time xx CC

Categories
General family seeks freedom stuff goals no spend year

What are we doing this year?

We have lived too many years saying we should and we will. I am decidedly not getting any younger unfortunately and if we dont make some changes to our lives now there simply wont be enough time left to reap the benefits. We really want to make ourselves accountable for our lives and every decision we make. We are focusing on three things this year, the first is having a no spend year, that we are vlogging primarily on you tube. The second is getting our finances in order, from busting debt to eventual financial independence, this we are documenting on Instagram. Finally we are smashing our fitness and weight loss goals, so we can end this year feeling so much better than we are starting it!

This blog will focus on tying all of these aspects together with some of the other little bits and bobs that make us who we are.

Looking forward to this year, and seeing just where all of this will go!

Join family seeks freedom on our other platforms and share this year with us https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv3QDuYnFXfYv9PTgOVUog

https://www.instagram.com/familyseeksfreedom/

xx CC

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started