Goodbye Adventure-Packed August and Hello Spend Less September

With holidays and the summer holidays having come to an end, it will be back to our normal routine towards the end of this week and back to normal monthly spending, thank goodness.   Well, almost.  Predictably perhaps, this month I am going to try to manage my budget with extra care (I've said this before I know), avoiding unnecessary spending on anything other than absolute essentials.  By doing this I'm hoping I can start snowballing my second credit card, as my first one has now been paid off.   I'm still using it occasionally to pay for Approved Food orders and internet purchases, but I am paying it off every month to avoid any charges. I'm hoping to pay a couple of hundred pounds off the second card this month, with a view to clearing it by the end of the year if not sooner.

In addition to this, I have started the new Household and Cleaning Product Challenge and I am still carrying on with the Beauty Challenge I joined in with a couple of months ago, to minimise spending in both these areas and use up items clogging up the cupboards and cluttering up the house.  I will also be carrying out a cull of my wardrobe this month, as many of the items in there I do not want to wear again and will be sending to the charity shop.  I won't be replacing them, for the time being anyway, as I do have quite a lot of  clothes and I'm hoping to wear the ones I have left more often.  I will also be getting out the winter clothes bag later in the month if it becomes cooler and sorting through that, sending anything I don't want to wear this autumn/winter to the charity shop too. 

I think that living simply in the campervan for 10 days helped me to realise how little I actually need to enjoy life, so I feel the urge to purge and will be looking into all areas of our home with this in mind.  OH will certainly not mind a bit as he is always complaining about how much stuff we have.  He will be more than happy to get rid of some of the excess that is cluttering up the house.   Talking of stuff, I seem to have almost completely curbed my charity shop spending recently, which should help, as I hopefully won't be accumulating any new things to bring into the house.   If I am looking for anything specific I may still venture into one and I do still enjoy a good rummage at a car boot or jumble sale from time to time, so I can't rule this out completely, but to be honest I rarely get the chance these days.

Spending wise I made it through the month of August, just.  I left some money in my account for our return from holiday which just about lasted.  My No Spend days currently total 56 so far this year and I am aiming for 75 for the year, but may need to revise this figure upwards again depending on progress.

My main priorities as we go into September will be:

1     Buying the rest of Little Bird's school uniform.  (I still need to get her some shoes, another skirt, some polo shirts and socks/tights, which we will be going out to buy this week before school starts.)

2     Spending some time working on my small business, which I need to do some serious work for, to make the most of forthcoming pre-Christmas trading.

3     Keeping up to scratch with the allotment and hopefully save money on food by using food I've grown instead of buying it. 

Plenty to keep me busy as always and if I get any spare time for my patchwork and making new clothes or other items from what I already have in my fabric collection, then that will be a bonus. Has anyone else got any plans this September?