No spend/Low Spend Day Four

Day Four and have only briefly left house to pop to my parents (not back at work officially until Monday) & help with online banking, new accounts, moving money etc. No spend day. Yaay.

I was kicking myself a bit about how much I have spent this year but have to say it was all planned and budgeted and I am being very careful with my cash.

There are all sorts of good habits and practices which we already have which I sometimes forget about.

Rarely go out for coffee - Last time that i can remember was Christmas shopping 2010 - and I didn't much enjoy it then.

Rarely eat out - I did eat out a lot in the last two weeks before Christmas but this was mainly as I had to take all my staff out and so wouldn't actually cost me. If we do eat out then it tends to be if there is a good deal available to us and its a family event. We don't do it just to feed ourselves.

Take lunch to work most days. The rest of the family don't take lunch but somehow don't eat out either. They do come in absolutely starving like Marvin though & eat a nice dinner.

Cooke from scratch. Pretty much every day. Not a cordon blue chef but an okay cook & my meals seem pretty popular.

Cake, biscuit & pudding baking - not all the time but from time to time. We very often have a fruit crumble on a Sunday evening through the winter. A proper old fashioned English tea time.

If we are going to make a major purchase then we consider it for months (sometimes years) and spend weeks making sure we get the best deal.

I don't buy rubbish that falls to pieces within a short time. I try not to pay too much for the things I do buy but I don't buy very much anyway other than for the endless renovation of our house.

I am lucky enough to have the NHS to attend to us medically. I also buy an annual prepayment certificate for Fahed's medication which means meds cost no more than £100 per year. Love our healthcare system.

I grocery shop according to price and quality and don't get tempted by adverts etc. I am happy to shop around and have little brand loyalty. My favourite shops are at what is normally considered to be the the top and bottom of the range in grocery shopping but I find them both good. I like Lidl, Waitrose and ASDA but I go anywhere that MySupermarket tells me has a good deal.

I have SkyPlus and so avoid all adverts by fast forwarding through them. No temptation at all. Skyplus also means not DVD or VHS player or rentals. I also ahev cheap unlimited Broadband because of my Sky bundle.

I like things with character and never get rid of something which is good just to replace it with something newer.

I am sure there are loads more where these came from.

How about you? What good habits do you have already that you tend to forget when you are beating yourself up for doing something 'wrong'?