So we're into August now and Uber Frugal Month is officially over. We also dedicated this month as "No Spend Month". So let me tell you how it went.
We began the month really well, no spending at all.
We immediately switched out my youngest child' disposable nappies at night for cloth which was a super easy swap and I can't believe we didn't do it sooner. We also took nappies off my 3 year old at night as we felt he was ready to go dry through the night. This all went well. I also started using cloths for going to the toilet. This also went well thought there was a small increase in washing.
We cancelled our Netflix membership so that's a small monthly saving. Then we were invited to a party one of my children's friend's. I thought at first I would make a gift, but completely left it too late and ran out of time so had to buy something. I felt ok about this as you could argue it was an essential purchase, but I was disappointed with my lack of preparation. We were planning on cancelling our Ancestry.com membership but needed to download to family tree so that ended up not happening. (Still planning on cancelling this as soon as we have figured out how to download the thing.) Things carried on well after this, just buying our weekly food and other consumables. Then we got ready for our holiday.
We did have one sunny day!
We saved a lot of money on our holiday by camping (probably half the amount we would usually spend on a weeks holiday). Unfortunately things went a bit downhill from here. I had to buy some footwear for us all that we could use in the showers, so we ended up buying myself a paid of cheapy crocs and some jelly shoes for the boys and some sliders for my husband. On holiday things went even more wrong. We bought snorkels and goggles for the boys and a selection of brightly coloured buckets and spades. I also made some purchases at a Museum for both myself and the boys (though my purchase was educational so somehow feels justified?!) We also ended up spending quite a bit of money on the camp site washing machines and dryers, and on reflection using cloth over the holiday was probably not cost effective compared to disposables because of the expense of the machines and dryers (it rained so no chance of line drying.) We also spent more on food by eating out and a fair bit was wasted due to not having a fridge. I think this could have been solved with better planning, and now we have done it once, I think we could be more efficient with meals in the future.
When we got back from our holiday my husband bought some new trainers which were on sale and I ordered some too, though sent mine back because, although they were cheap they weren't quite right so decided it was better to get pricier ones that fit perfectly for running in the future when I really need them, than cheaper ones that might bother me (and were also not essential). He also bought some trousers and I bought a new set of paints, (again justified by saying it's for my art business?!)
Unfortunately, because of eating out and other bits and bobs on our holiday we have ended up with both our bank accounts over drawn, but I am hoping that we are less overdrawn than we might have been had we not been "Uber Frugal" this month.
This in my sold painting, but more paintings available
HERE
On the whole it has been a positive experience and I am still taking what I have learnt through August. I am questioning every purchase rather than just buying things without thought, and looking at things with an is-it-value-for-money mindset rather than thinking "it's too expensive" or "I can't afford it" which are not abundance ways of thinking.
On a positive note, I sold a painting this month!! And I launched another mama's retreat day, this time an all day art fest!
