She’s winding me up with this ‘no spend January’. In the first week she has had a night with friends, trip to the theatre, dressed her children in crazy expensive snowsuits for their skiing lessons, a trip to town to exchange items (most would be returning at this time of year), and goodness knows what else that I haven’t seen or kept up with. She hasn’t got a clue, no spend for my family of five means eating eggs, beans on toast and soup on rotation all month, selling my kids old clothes to pay off the overspend from a very modest Christmas (£50 spend on each of my children and my husband and I went without gifts entirely). Once all our bills and food is paid for my family has less than £200 left over for spending and that includes anything the kids need like clothes, shoes, uniform, swimming lessons, ballet, birthday gifts, days out, playgroups, socialising and putting towards holidays and Christmas, and also the fuel and running of a car. It’s a struggle for us every month to the point where I don’t drive my car because I can’t afford the fuel, and I’m sure there are much worse off families than us so I feel lucky most of the time. She has no idea what it means to struggle, I can’t believe more people aren’t annoyed by her. It’s easy to do a no spend month when you are sent treats every few days in the post, and have a free holiday or two to look forward to. I don’t begrudge people who earn more money that I do, that’s life there’s always someone better off than you, but to go onto social media and talk to your audience of young families, many of whom will be living on the breadline, and harp on about ‘no spend’ in one breath while boasting of a theatre trip in another is just vulgar.
