Fiscal Fast – 7 days no spending (at all)

A question about : Fiscal Fast – 7 days no spending (at all)

Fiscal Fast - 7 days no spending (at all)
I've started a Fiscal Fast this week after watching Jeff Yeager's you tube videos on frugality! It's a bit like the store cupboard challenge but more so! In this case you stop spending for 7 days! Completely and absolutely (well apart from really necessary bills dd's etc) You live on the food you already have in but also no spending on greeting cards, papers, presents, drinking, cinema, going out etc., You are allowed to fill up your car with petrol and get in a stock of milk for the kids.

I just wondered if anyone else had heard of this. It fits well under the old style banner, a kind of mix of the no spend days and store cupboard challenge!

I am on day 4 today and it is very illuminating! It is not just about the spending on food but every other little thing that you would open your purse/wallet for! I have had to stop myself going out shopping twice already and I thought I had cracked this frugality life! J Yesterday it was to get a little present for my daughters new kitten! Instead I found some fleece and ran up a little blanket for her bed instead! I could also have knitted a little toy mouse from wool scraps.

If I have been missing an ingredient for a meal then I substitute or make up the meal as I go along! Getting some interesting meals from the slowcooker this week! Today we have a quorn, leek, onion and courgette casserole on the go! (Hoping to get to the bottom of the freezer as well) Ilona on her Life after Moneyblog mentioned that the store cupboard challenge doesn't go far enough as we can go to the shops if we want to! This challenge is like imagining you are snowed in and have no choice but to manage and find ways of coping! I appreciate that with small children this would not be so easy but maybe on a quiet week (no school trips, birthdays etc) it would be possible.

Anyone else fancy giving this a go? I am hoping to have saved about Ј50 on food and maybe another Ј20 on unplanned spends! I am definately going to do this again!

If you haven't already, join the forum to reply!

This Forum Tip was included in MoneySavingExpert's weekly email
Don't miss out on new deals, loopholes, and vouchers
FAQs
Privacy Policy
Past Emails
Unsubscribe

Best answers:

• I had this planned for this week (well, tbh I have it planned for most weeks) but I've already had to get loo roll, some economies are just too great
• This is the norm for me. I only have one lot of grocery money each week, spend it on Friday and then it's gone until next Friday.
  I don't need to top up anything in the week because I now have a Master List of everything I normally have in my cupboards which I go through every week and make my shopping list from that. I had to start doing it because I would invariably forget something vital.
• Please tell me more about the Jeff Yeager videos. I've never heard of him (or them).
• I have a feeling that if I decided to do this, I would simply plan ahead. I would buy in next weeks birthday cards/presents etc this week, I would meal plan and buy in all food I needed. Not exactly no spending for 7 days, cos I would spend it all this week instead lol
  I understand the concept of what the video and yourself are trying to do, but I feel I would cheat at it
• I try to do a week's grocery shop in one go. Then I try to make it last 9-10 days because I always end up buying more than we need for 7 days. If I didn't do this, when food stock gets low, I would just go out and buy whatever I fancy and end up wasting a lot of food.
  Also means I can put away a week's worth of gorcery money into savings every so often which is fabulous
  EDIT: I love Jeff Yeager, he plays dumb to make what he teaches accessible, but is incredibly smart.
• Today is day five of my NSDs this week I still have my food money purse untouched and hope to carry on until at least the weekend I have run out of bread but have two packs of wraps in the freezer so will have them for lunches this week,or failing that some crispbreads instead of going out to buy bread.I have a two litre box of longlife milk that will do my needs as well and enough fruit and veg to keep me going I am going to see what I can do to eke things out further this week
• I didn't do a shop at all this week so I had to cope totally on what I already had in, only really possible if you have a good storecupboard I guess. It means I have saved the whole weeks housekeeping. (If I get through to day 7 that is! ) Also it is not just food but all the other little things our money gets spent on. For instancegiving a home made present & card, reading papers on line, waiting to get home for that coffee, inviting friends round for a drink instead of meeting them at the pub, not staying for a coffee after Church, etc.
  If these links have worked the first takes you to Jeff Yeagers website
  https://ultimatecheapskate.com
  This one should be the you tube that explains the fiscal fast
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbrtt...eature=related
  and this one is a really good interview albeit a longish one
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq5VU...eature=related
  I really do appreciate some of you are already doing this and I applaud you for doing so well but I found it very educational and it is helping me to focus on saving some much needed pennies! We have had a huge drop in salary recently and I wondered if this might help someone else in these difficult times!
• I'd love to try this and I think I would manage quite well but I would struggle to get my OH on board, today for example he fancied some black pudding so drove 8 miles to the butchers he likes to buy some! Now he doesn't know what he wants for tea despite the fridge, freezer and cupboards being full. He drives me mad at times! I think it would be much easier if you lived on your own or had a cooperative OH.
• Today went well! The casserole was the remaining half bag of some frozen quorn, frozen sliced leeks, an onion, gravy with a slug of "past it" red wine added and some dumplings all in the slowcooker. In the other (Mums old tower) slowcooker I put the remainders of a large tin of processed peas, an onion and a potato in stock and cooked up then blitzed and heated through with some oddments of ham, Pea and ham soup for starters. Didn't need a pudding.
  As I wrote in the earlier post I did no shopping beforehand for this - haven't shopped for a fortnight so not really planned this, no menu plan as such just winging it each day. To see how long I can put off doing any shopping. I used some dried milk powder with water for a hot choc drink this morning after walking the dog (so cold today) this hopefully will save my limited milk supply. Milk and eggs have become very precious now!
  I think it is a great idea to use up some stores, empty and defrost a freezer, save money (hopefully a whole weeks housekeeping) and will let me know where I normally spend/waste my money.
  I have some unfinished craft projects to do so not bored either! Fingers crossed tomorrow (day 5) goes well!
• I do it a lot really apart from buying in a less than Ј10 worth in A*da of fresh fruit and veg/milk. I haven't done a proper shop in ages, it's all been the
• Just made a banana custard with the last banana and I found a tin of evaporated milk in the cupboard so it made two pints of milk when watered down.So no need to open my long life stuff just yet.I also made a jelly from the cupboards and have five small portions cooling in some empty yoghurt pots With the left over custard thats in a small jug at the moment when the jelly has set I will pour some cold custard on top so I have around 6 puddings made from stuff from the cupboard to go into the fridge.
  NSD today either as I still have wraps to use up instead of bread and enough fruit in the bowls to last me a bit longer.So Day Six and nothing spent from my food purse .Tonight I have left over shepards pie from yesterday for dinner, with half a tin of baked beans and the banana custard for pud.The other half tin of beans is in the fridge in a box for tomorrow as I have found a few chipolateas in the freezer which I will have with my last jacket potato for dinner tomorrow night.(I have 8 portions of mashed spuds in the freezer so I won't go short of potato's)
  I have two 'on the turn' sweet peppers that I am going to turn into sweet pepper and tomato soup shortly from a recipe that elsiepac posted on here a few weeks ago.With a dollop of lazy garlic and some veggie stock and a tin of chopped up tomato's that will make me enough for a couple of days and help use up my wrinkly peppers.Hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am.
• Aarons Mum and Jackie O -you sound like masters of this already! I have a fruit and veg box delivered every 2 weeks, the last one was last wednesday - 2 days before I started this so with that and the veg and fruit in the freezer we are keeping to the 5 a day. Have another 7 days until the next one comes though!
  I am loving this myself, found some fruit bread slicesI had frozen long ago and forgotten about - made a nice snack toasted. I managed to make 16 fruit scones using up some milk that had started to turn, I can't afford to waste any milk now it has become a precious resource! 8 scones are in the freezer ready in case I have visitors. I must make some yogurt as I hate to run out of that, I have just enough milk to spare for that and I will flavour it myself with the odds and ends of jam in the fridge. Found some potatoes that needed using so they are peeled and in a pan ready for tonights dinner. Just have to dive into the depths of the chest freezer to see what else is lurking there!
  Moving away from food I need to make a couple of "thinking of you" cards for friends going through a hard time atm so must start looking through the craft stuff as I can't just pop to the shops and buy the cards anymore. Luckily we have some stamps in the draw so I can send them. I guess if we didn't it would be shanks pony to get them where they belong or an e card! This is certainly making me think around the problems for a solution!
  I ran out of hand soap yesterday but just topped up the containers with some cheap shampoo I had that needed using up. It works just as well and is quite gentle on the skin.
  Right this is day 5 and I need to see what I have and menu plan!
  Edited to say Hi to Ilona! I love reading your blog! What you said on there stayed with me and then, on coming across Jeff Yeagers videos, I thought time to do something about this! I am ashamed to say that I have 3 freezers in use, yes they have a lot of garden produce in but also silly odds and ends and it is all so disorganised and uses up electricity too! The oldest one (in the walk in larder) is going to go, I have decided, and then I can pop a cupboard into the gap instead (from freecycle hopefully) and use that for storing canned goods or all the preserves I have made. Thanks for the inspiration! Going to keep going and my mortgage will be paid off!
• Hi Catznine, this sounds a brilliant idea, I'm going to give it a go from today. Two exceptions - coffee with DD on Friday - long standing tradition, but I will forgo the cake - ditto with OH on Sunday.
  I have some bread in freezer, but also bread flour if desperate, about 3 pts fresh and 2pts long life milk, 2 tins of Carnation if desperate, basic veg (carrots, potatoes, onions) and a bit of frozen. I had a bit of a reality check today looking at forthcoming bills, and would dearly love to book a weekend away. Just 3 of us at home, with plenty of dried/tinned goods, and hopefully enough cat food!
  Well done on your progress so far. Will look at the links later - sound interesting.
• Welcome aboard Modern Millie! It's quite liberating to step off the whole consumer way of life for a while! Mind you I am looking forward to the choosing of a nice bar of choc for Mr Catz at the end of this, he does love his chocolate and he has been so good about it all and quite supportive where he can (he does have work expenses and had one social commitment that he had to keep) I have given sweets up for Lent so can't join in with that treat! Maybe a good book or fabric remnant from the charity shop though! The rest is going into the "pay off the mortgage" savings
• I'd love to do this, I keep meaning to empty my cupboards and freezer by meal planning from them, but forget when it comes to doing a shop!
  Have just ordered a bunch of things from Mr T, if this challenge is still running next week, I may join - if only to be able to have some space back in my freezer and cupboards! (my kitchen is small)
  Good luck with it!
• Hi Mogwai! I think this challenge is one that we can all pop into and do for 7 days and pop out of again until the next time it is needed! Bit like that skipping game It can be to free up some money short term or to save away some extra or to focus on de-cluttering the fridge,freezer and larder. Please join in whenever it suits you! I am going to see how long we can go for now but will definately do this again!
  For lunch I found a portion of leftover hm cream of veg soup and some pakoras! I love them but they are too spicy for Mr Catz so they are mine all mine! insert cackling laugh! The last of a big tub of yogurt and a handful of blueberries for afters. Free exercise was walking the dog and had a lovely chat with another dog walker, so feel much brighter! Card making this afternoon!