How much could you save in a week?

We’ve challenged a selection of our team, content creators and the public to only spend their money on the essentials for one week. Check out the My No Spend Week hub for some inspiration on saving. Maybe a ‘no spend’ week could change how you view your spending habits?

We’ve quizzed our diarists all about how they feel about their spending habits before their challenge week and then after, how they might approach saving and spending in the future. Today we’re hearing from Suzanne who works in our Marketing department. Read more about Suzanne's job and her career path here in our Career Academy.

Hey there, my name is Suzanne and I work as Senior Campaign Assistant for Nottingham Building Society. I live in Nottingham with my husband Sam and son Sebastian, who is 15 years old. I love shopping, eating out and having long weekends away with my family.

Are you a saver?

I can save, but I’m not the best at it to be honest. I have very much lived for the here and now, making sure we have lovely holidays, weekends away and eating out. If I need to save for a holiday then I always put money away so that it doesn’t hit the pocket too hard when paying for it. My main saving goals are for holidays but due to travel being uncertain we recently had our garden redesigned and decked with our holiday savings. I would say I was a saver for when we have plans, but if we don’t have any plans then I don’t save!

My bad spending habits are definitely spending far too much money at the supermarket on food we don’t really need! I love food and wine and so I like to have plenty of lovely things in the cupboards and fridge to eat. Oh, and coffee and cake from Costa! As soon as I see a Costa, I go in and before I know it, I have spent £6. Lockdown meant I spent more on takeaways as we normally would eat out each week as our little family treat. We always like to support local independent restaurants and cafes especially throughout the lockdown. I managed to save some money still each month but then spent it the following month on things for the house or garden. At least we now have everything we need for the house and garden!

I always start thinking about saving for Christmas in July and Ideally I would put approx. £100 away for Christmas so I have £600 for presents and eating out.

I would love to save more money but we have committed to overpaying on our mortgage as of last year, so that we can get our mortgage paid off within the next few years. This will hopefully bring its own benefits once we have paid it off and then can look to save more for retirement.

Take the No Spend challenge

Monday

I was off work today on annual leave but it's cold and raining so it's days like today that I just want to spend money! But I was good today. I went to visit a friend of mine who is going to live in Cyprus next week (lucky thing). We said originally that we would meet for breakfast at a local deli, but she had so much to do at her house, she changed the arrangements last thing to meet at home and she would make breakfast for us both! Result…a saving of approximately £10.

I did buy my sister a birthday card and found some stamps in my purse so I spent £2.50. I also went to our friends allotment today and picked up some vegetables – beetroot, carrots, spinach, sweetcorn, leeks and lettuce, so saved myself around £8 by not buying from the supermarket.

Tuesday

I worked from home today which helps me not spend any money. I made a huge veggie lasagne on Monday, so I saved a portion of this for my lunch today too so saved spending any money on lunch. I didn’t leave the house, only to go into the garden to water my plants and hang my washing out. No money spent today! Bonus.

Wednesday

Today I worked from the office. Normally lunchtime would mean me taking a walk into town and buying food from somewhere. I’ve not been back into the city since lockdown and still feel a bit nervous about going in, so I stayed in the office and bought a vegetable wrap from our onsite cafe, the Tuck Inn which was £2.50. No more spend on this day!

Thursday

I worked from home again today. I had to go shopping for some foodie bits as we were running low, so I popped to my local Aldi and spent £9.65 on bread, eggs, milk, prawns, fish, mince, cheese and fruit. Essential grocery shopping so hopefully doesn't count!

Friday

Today is my day off. I went to visit my old boss today in Sheffield. We were going to go for a picnic in the local park but because it was so hot, we decided to have lunch at the house and go for a little walk later on when it got cooler. I had to put in petrol for my journey but that was all that I spent today. Petrol cost me £15, essential though?

Saturday

Today we went out to a music festival which was being held outside due to social distancing, so I spent money today! But I've hardly spent anything Monday to Friday this week. We met with some friends for lunch at Larwood and Voce which I paid for and that was £63 for me and my husband. This is quite a lot to spend on lunch, but we had mains, puddings and wine. My husband then bought the drinks for the rest of the day and a cab home.

Sunday

Sunday is a day of rest at home! I had made a Thai vegetable curry on Friday morning and popped it in the freezer so we got this out and had this for lunch today. We had made a late brunch too and then went for a walk after lunch. We like to have a lazy day on Sundays, watching films, snoozing and eating nice food…and not spending money. My husband ordered some takeaway food later on but he paid so all good!

The verdict

I think that I have actually done really well this week. I was making sure I was aware of my spending and I definitely made some choices to not spend. Monday to Friday I only spent £5 which I was proud of. My No Spend Week will definitely help me going forward to be more careful what I spend my money on and make a conscious effort to save as and where I can. My total spend excluding grocery shopping and petrol was £68 for the week.

Your No Spend Week?

So, what do you think? Could you go a whole week and only spend on essentials? No treats or coffees or new clothes? Let us know on Twitter and Facebook and if you’d like to write your own ‘My No Spend Week’ diary – send us an email telling us all about yourself to socialcomms@thenottingham.com. Check out our range of savings accounts and our Essential Savings Guides too for some more tips and tricks for saving money.

The featured content creators have been asked to take part in and keep a diary of their ‘My No Spend Week challenge’. However the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed belong solely to the content creator. The opportunity is open to members of the public too if they also wished to take part in the challenge. There is no commercial relationship between The Nottingham or content creator and any products or brand mentioned in their diary.

Last updated on: August 20, 2020

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