Stoptober 5

So it is the very end of Stoptober. I was quite tempted not to include the final couple of days but then decided that was a bit of a cheat !

How have we got on with our "no unnecessary spending challenge " ? Well, there are still over £500 pounds in the bank from this month's salary, so I think that it has made quite a difference. However, you could also argue that this has been balanced out by the extra money from savings which was spent on 'back care' items. Having said that, we will still come out ahead and all the back care stuff will help me to continue to function and doing all the frugal things I do, so I suspect that is an investment in the future !

I don't think the family have noticed that we have been in 'saving' mode and thanks to all the new cake recipes, appear to have been quite appreciative of all the home cooking. There have been a few times in the month when I was tempted to spend and then lists about what to do and how to distinguish a 'want' from a 'need' have been very helpful.

I have learned that even though we are pretty good at frugal living on a day to day basis we do still spend money when we don't need to and that watching every penny for a bit can be fun. That said, I also learned that having to do it all the time probably wouldn't be fun but rather wearing and I'm glad that we don't have to. I feel very blessed that we have savings to help when we need them !

Would we do this again ? I'm not sure, maybe a different sort of a challenge would be fun to take on in the future, like saving change or trying to minimise waste. But now I'm off to do the accounts and work out to the penny how much we saved in Stoptober !