No Spend April!….Tightening the purse strings

Good morning guys and happy Friday! We have made it to the end of the week!

Now we are back from Amsterdam we have realised how much of our savings have actually taken a hit. We spent 900 Euros over two days and don’t get me wrong we had a great time but ultimately we are trying to save for a wedding so splurges like this shouldn’t really be happening, especially when I’m a student!

My aim for April is to really try and have a no spend month. This means only spending money on our essentials such as our bills, cars, food etc and basically trying to avoid the splurges and impulse buys which lets face it we are all guilty of doing.

I usually do a weekly grocery shop but have found that midweek I’m back in my local Asda picking up bits we don’t really need just because I am bored and want to get out of the house, so I’m sticking to my weekly food budget and I’m tightening the purse strings with unnecessary food purchases. Instead my aim is to use up all the food we have in the cupboards, the fridge/freezer and the pantry. This may mean a lot of dishes are thrown together but hey needs must.

We also realised how much we spend on eating out, since Christmas we have ate out at least once a week and coming in at an average of £60.00 for a meal for three averages around £240.00 per month!! That’s half a pair of Louboutins! Shocking!.

Instead of expensive days out to the cinema we are going to make use of our own home cinema which is a little neglected at the moment and we haven’t been in there for such a long time and I don’t know why! We have reclining lazy boys and a 100 inch projector with an immense surround sound system. (Note to self – spend more time in here).

I’m also going to try and get round to organising my little ones old clothes for ebay. They are all in a bag at the moment ready to be put online but I just don’t seem to have the motivation to actually do it, its such an effort! But its a great way to make an extra bit of cash so this is a definite on my list of To Do’s for April.

With the Easter Holidays coming up Rose will be off school for two weeks so in an effort to really avoid spending ludicrous amounts of money we are going to do lots of free or extremely cheap activities such as adventure walks, strawberry picking and baking.

Do you have any suggestions to help an impulsive buyer along on this no spending journey? If so I would LOVE to hear from you, all advice and suggestions are welcomed greatly.

Much Love

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