Tuesday, 31-01-23: low spend/no spend January

Morning, everyone!

It's the last day of low spend/no spend January and it's really gone quite well, thanks to the embarrassingly large stockpile of stuff I had at the start of the year.

Did I stick totally to the 'no spend' part.  No, not entirely, but I'm happy with how it went anyway.  I spent so much less and used up loads.

I've done a thorough sort out and audit of all my 'stuff' and there's still so much to use up so I'm going to continue with a low spend vibe which means that I'm still focusing just on buying essentials and very little else although I'm wondering about that delicious red pepper and chilli jam I had last week.

There are a few 'no spend' items I need to get so the focus through February is on low spend, not no spend.  If I find it getting a bit out of hand, I'll go back to no spend again.  I really don't need any more clutter.
In fact, I am pondering about making every other month as much of a no spend as I can manage.  Just having that focus helps me

Also, this month I want to keep everything food related good and organised after spending a fair amount of time sorting things out.  I want to keep all the audits up to day, all the cupboards tidy and to continue to have a clear knowledge of what's there to use.

This will all continue to make my Slimming World journey much easier.  I can forward plan, work out combinations of ingredients and just know where I'm going and with what.  The aim is to lose a bit of weight, of course, but also to make use of what I already have responsibly and to stay healthy

Low spend February - bring it on!!

Yesterday's meals:

The yogurt was really nice with stewed apple and cinnamon folded in.

I'm not sure chicken curry has much of an affinity with pickled baby beets but I enjoyed lunch anyway.

Later on I had an apple and two easy peelers.

Good, old fashioned spaghetti and meatballs and it was delicious.
I had jelly to finish.

Today's plans

B:  fruit and yogurt

I will have a banana before Groove class and the rest afterwards

SW:  2% Greek yogurt will be half a syn

L:  cheesy meatballs, side salad; fruit

Leftovers from yesterday evening.

SW:  one and a half syns for three meatballs, half a syn for the sauce and one healthy extra A for cheese.  No spaghetti added today.

D:  corned beef hash jacket potato, green veg; jelly and yogurt

I saw this in a Facebook group I help to admin and it looked so very good.  Basically, it's a jacket potato halved, the potato scooped out and fried with onion and corned beef to make a hash, then back into the potato skin, sauce of choice added, topped with some cheese and heated again until the cheese melts.  The last bit can be in Nellie so no need to turn on the oven.

It sounds nice, doesn't it?

I will have one half of the potato tonight and the other half for lunch tomorrow.

SW:  one healthy extra A for cheese, the corned beef (the lean kind) is two and a half syns for half the can (100g) and sauce (probably Crucials brown sauce) will be one syn (for two tbsps).  The last of the jelly with some yogurt is one syn.

Ex:  A Snippet and Groove class

Summary:

two healthy extra A

no healthy extra Bs

seven syns

What do I mean by low spend?

February is going to be a low spend month.

Through January, I have spent very little on non essential food and other items.  The idea was to spend nothing on non food things and I didn't quite achieve that but I was happy with how it went, all the same.
I was so pleased to be able to make some charitable donations as a result; it's so nice to see positive outcomes.

'Essential' means  food such as fresh fruit, veg and dairy/eggs and other essentials including things like cleaning products and toiletries although I think I am fine for the latter, plus anything necessary that comes up through the month

As for all other spending, there are a few items I need but not an awful lot so I'm really hoping it will also be low spend.

(Of course, all regular bills, direct debits, etc, will still be paid as usual)