Usually with me now is the time that I buckle down to a New Year New Challenge, and I guess in a way it could be called that this year.
But there is a big difference this year, I am not challenging myself to see how little I can spend and how long I can make things last, instead I am simply monitoring how long the money that I managed to save through table-top sales and Facebook Marketplace sales, and the bits and bobs of money that I have popped into my little box and my pottery drawer will last me over the coming weeks and hopefully months.
There are so many people on social media doing No Spend or Low Spend years that it has become a bit same old, same old. It seems that us long time bloggers have influenced the influencers to take up the baton and run with it ... making money for themselves in the process. Good luck to them!
Well I am happy to be out of the limelight, living slowly and simply in my little home and using my savings from the past year to fund this brand new year for as long as they can.
I don't want to buy any clothes, shoes or books in the year ahead as I really do feel that I have enough ... but if I need to I can and I will. I have food, toiletries and cleaning products that could easily last me a few months and although I wouldn't run my larder down to silly levels it would be nice to run it down to a level that means I don't have to catch flying jars of salad dressing as they fall out of the cupboard ... I actually missed that one and it landed with a crash and my Caesar dressing was no more.
I added up the money from my two little pots and emptied all the cash out of my handbag, and this is what it came to. I was surprised, pleasantly surprised, I had sort of expected it to be in the three hundreds or thereabouts.
Now usually I would be seeing how much this gives me per day, per week and per month ... and yes you know me so well I did have to work it out:
£1.62 per day
£11.38 per week
and
£49.35 per month.
Not a shabby amount at all and one that I don't doubt for a moment that I could manage on if I was just to use it for food. I've done it in the past, I once managed for almost a full year on one pound a day, before I ran out of steam, but not money!! Even with the rising prices that we are currently contending with here in the UK and in many countries of the world, I feel that I could just about do this, and if truth were told I am almost tempted to give it a go.
But I don't need to prove that I can to anyone, not even myself!
I also have a couple of coupons that I will be using to bolster out my cash, and I've just checked and I have Nectar points available too. I'm not adding them to my cash total as hopefully I will get a couple more over the course of the year, they will just be used up as and when they arrive and should help my money last a bit longer.
I found a couple of unusual 50p's in my little stash of coins.
... and I would rather pass them on in my spending and let someone else have the thrill of seeing an more unusual coin in their change.
So as it's no great challenge this year I have just put some of my cash into my handbag along with the coupons and I will spend as and when I need to, in any amount that I need to. All I will do, is perhaps count my money at the end of each month, monitor how it's going and write it in my diary ... just out of interest of course. 😉
Good luck to anyone that is Challenging themselves over the coming year and I wish you well with whatever you are doing. Leave a comment if you are blogging about a Challenge and I've no doubt whatsoever that me and my readers will come over and cheer you on.
New Years Resolutions - None
New Year Goals - to read more books, lose some weight ... and have fun.
Sue xx
