I mentioned in my 1p Money Saving Challenge post that in addition to this annual challenge, I’ll also be doing different monthly money savings challenges. If you made a commitment to save money in 2019 but lost your way in January, you can make up for it by joining me for the Frugal February challenge!
What is the frugal February challenge?
FRUGAL FEBRUARY, SAVE £250 IN 28 DAYS
The purpose of the Frugal February Challenge is to adopt as many money-saving ideas as you can during the month. During frugal February you should live as cheaply as possible. Try to eliminate all non-essential spending and only spend money on necessities. But why February, you ask? Well, the main reason for this is February is the shortest month of the year. This gives you the best chance of succeeding and ‘Frugal February’ has a nice ring to it!
My goal for Frugal February is to save £250! This is a large target outside of our regular family savings, but I’m unwavering in meeting this goal and have broken this major goal into mini-goals. When you see how the goal amount has been broken down below, you’ll see that my target amount is obtainable providing I put in the work and remain committed to goals!
Renegotiate Mobile Phone Contract
My mobile phone upgrade has been due for a few months now, so I’m finally going to contact EE to upgrade my contract. Instead of staying on my current price plan and getting a new handset, I’m instead going to opt for a SIM-only contract and shave £20 off my monthly phone contract.
No More Breakfast On The Go
I used to buy coffee and pain aux raisin every morning at the station on my way to work but I’ve actually stopped doing that since the start of the year. However, instead of saving that money I just spent it elsewhere. In February I will put the money that would have been spent on breakfast into my savings account – if I’m successful this will be another £40 added to the pot.
Photo by Jonas Mohamadi on Pexels.com
Reduce Weekly Food Spend By 35%
Our weekly food budget for Tesco is £70 which we usually stay within. However, for the month of February, I plan to reduce this budget by £25. I’m not planning to starve my family, instead, I will get creative with our meals, using up the food we’ve had for months in the freezer and food cupboards. The food shop will solely be fresh produce and any household essentials. Additionally, I’ll be sticking to non-branded products to help keep costs down. Over the course of 4 weeks, that’ll be an additional £100 into my savings account.
Apply The 72 Hour Rule
For four weeks I’ll try and eliminate impulse purchases. This goal will be the most difficult one for me as I’m always buying things on impulse. One tactic that I’ll be using to help with this is Carl Richards’ 72-Hour Test. The principle is, instead of purchasing something that you see straight away, wait 72 hours and if you still need it then proceed with making the purchase. After a few days pass, many items will lose their original appeal. My estimation is that I should be able to save £30-£50 in February by effectively applying this rule.
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com
Sell Things From Around The Home
The final thing that I’ll be doing to save money in February is turning things around our house into money. Our attic is filled with boxes and boxes of stuff that we don’t use and I’m sure there are items in there that I can sell. My goal is to make £100 from selling things around my house.
Are you interested in taking part in the Frugal February challenge? Do you have any suggestions on other ways to be more frugal and save money? If so, do let me know in the comments below, it’ll be great to hear and learn from you!
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure policy for details.#
External Resources:
As well as drawing on personal experience for my blog posts, I also get inspiration from other amazing bloggers out there. Here are a few blogs that inspired this post.
This is excellent Tolu….
The food shopping saver is excellent, that it one of the ways I always save by reducing my weekly food spend. Another thing I do is buy in bulk, but only replace once finished…..for example I use to just buy more chicken and then squeeze it into my freezer, after realising that I already had enough..
Also thhe balance I have in my current account a day before pay day, I am now going to transfer 50% of it into my savings.
Keep sharing
God Bless. Xx
Thanks, Auntie! I do the same thing every week. I have so many packets on chicken in my freezer that I don’t actually need to buy any meat in February!
Good idea regarding saving the balance at the end of the month – I’ll start doing this too. Thanks for your support and comments
Loving this and loving Auntie Paulette’s 50% saving tip. I’m definitely aiming to work on being more mindful in my spending especially whilst on mat leave lol x
Thanks for your comment Merich, I’m glad you liked the post.x
Loving these tips! Really need to start putting these kinds of tips into practice. They are so practical and very helpful! I’m still planning the 1p a day one but haven’t started yet 😆🙈 but I will try and do this one for definite!
Thanks for your lovely comment Tasha, I’m glad you found them useful!x