Each year my first feature in February generally finds me feeling a bit burned out. The materialistic spend-fest that is Christmas followed by the penny pinching weeks in January when anything that's spare in the way of cash is spent snapping up the basics in the sales. Like next year's winter's coat for the children.

By the time February 1st rolls around I've pretty much had it. Sick to the back teeth with counting pennies, doing a shop that's made up entirely of economy brands, and trying to make it all last. And to top it off, it's winter. The days are short, and dark, and cold. And there's nothing nice to look forward to. When it snows it feels like Narnia. Always winter, without Christmas.

So what can you do to brighten things up a bit, and introduce a little bit of cheer into your life, without actually spending anything. Or spending very little. Just what do you do when you find yourself awash with frugal fatigue? Here's a few tips.

Budget 2013: A positive budget for all (Graphics by Dayang Norazhar/The Mole)

Fiscal Cliff. Triple Dip Recession. Aaargh. These are all things we have read or heard about almost constantly over the festive season. If you weren’t feeling worried or depressed about money in November, you probably were by the time the last day of work rolled around. So what can we do to batten down the hatches and prepare for the New Year?

Well, one really great thing about the bank holidays and Christmas break is that it gives us a chance to stop, breathe and regroup. We can assess the year gone by and look towards the year coming up, and ask ourselves what we want to achieve and what mistakes we want to avoid making again. Here are ten things to consider as you step into the New Year.

Okay, so right off the bat, I’m going to say in defense of myself and protection of mothers everywhere: don’t just buy mum something from Poundland, unless you’re in such financial difficulties that you’ve had to pick the pennies up off the street to scrape together the one pound, okay? If that’s the case, I’m sure the thought would be appreciated. If it’s not the case, maybe add one of these to your ‘real’ gift. Kind of like a stocking filler gift. You know?

But really, there are some pretty nice little trinket-y goodies and add-ons on offer at Poundland for… you guessed it…. a Pound.

• Head over to Poundland for Mother’s day bargains

If your mum keeps cards on display then files them away for years to come, don’t buy one of the Mother’s Day cards from Poundland. If she keeps it for the afternoon before recycling it – go for it.

For the mum who likes being in the kitchen, there’s a cute  ‘Fab Mum’ Apron and Oven Glove set or you can find an assortment of ladies scarves or even a handy ‘Best Mum’ foldaway reusable shopping bag that would be perfect filled with favourite chocolates. Speaking of which, you can’t really go wrong with Thornton’s Classic or Ferrero Rocher, can you? Or how about Toblerone… mum will never know you only paid a quid for it.

While you don’t really want to skimp on your mother – who, after all, endured x hours of labour with you ( ;) ) – you don’t have to break the bank either… spoiling doesn’t have to be expensive!

Thanks to lucerysmum at HUKD

Do you do it? Talk about money that is. How you handle the subject of finances around your children will form the basis of their own understanding in the future. You might think that there's just one approach really - money is money. If need money you earn it, if you want something you buy it, if you can't afford it you save up.

Are we teaching this to our children?

A survey last year by US research firm MacGraw-Hill found that one third of Reception age children were interested in knowing more about money, and what it is. That jumps to 80 percent by the time they're in Year 3.

And yet, many of us feel more comfortable talking to our children about sex than about the family budget.

Click here to read more...

The key to economic and financial success is a good budget. That you stick to. But like diets, households budgets can fail. The biggest reason that they do is down to those invisible expenses. The items you are most likely to forget to include when you draw up a budget.

Some of these forgotten items will be specific to you, your family, and your needs. The only way to make sure you include them is to spend time preparing before drawing up your budget.

Get your bank and credit card statements out. Go through them, looking at each item. You're going to need to do this for the last year, to be sure you don't miss anything. It is a tiresome chore, and one I know you'll be reluctant to do (it pretty much killed me) but you only ever have to do it once.

Other easily overlooked expenses, however, can be applied to most of us. I trawled around the internet, and sought expert advice, and this is what I found. Basically it seems that all these easily overlooked items fall into four categories, explained below.

Account for the variable

According to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, people typically underestimate how much they should allow for regular bills such as utilities like the phone, mobile contracts, and petrol. On average, by £150 per month.

One biggie here is clothing and shoes. Apparently most parents, when drawing up a budget, make a rough estimate at this. But this nearly always falls short of the reality. You need to sit down and write out a list of the clothes and shoes you'd need to buy for a child throughout the year. If a growth spurt hit them next week, how much would it really cost to buy them everything, new?

Saving is not an abstract

Don't just set aside a certain amount of money from your earning each month without thinking precisely about what you are saving for. It is almost inevitable that you will vastly underestimate how much you need to save otherwise. Or you'll be tempted to dip into savings as you think it is just money sitting there.

There are three specific things you need to work out a 'savings' budget for.

First, you need to save up about six months worth of your living expenses. Not your actual salary. Just how much you need to cover all the basics, should you and/or your partner lose your jobs. This is a short term savings amount. You might have to bite the bullet a bit and tighten belts, but once you have this amount saved you can strike it off your budget.

Second, put some money aside for big expenses. You want to go on a £3,000 holiday? Buy a new car? Do up the bathroom? Have a figure in mind, and when you want to have it by, then divide the two to see what you need to save each month.

Third, plan for Christmas. Here's a tip from the US charity National Foundation for Credit Counseling. They suggest that you work out how much you spent last Christmas. It is only March so you should still remember. Or better yet, have a budget or expenditure list on your computer or jotted down in a notebook somewhere.

Then, take that amount and divide it by 10. That's how much we should put aside each month, to save for Christmas.

Stuff we don't enjoy buying

It is really hard to put a proper, realistic figure on groceries that we don't exactly find exciting. It is a good idea to have two entries for groceries on your budget. One for food, and one for all the other stuff.

Take your till receipts for the last month's supermarket trips. Then go through them pulling out all the basics you really do need. Toilet paper, clothes washing powder, toilet cleaner, sponges for doing the dishes, tin foil. Yes I know, if you're like me right about now you want to keel over and diet. But it will make a huge difference to your budget if you do this preparation work right at the start.

Non-regular payments

These are ever so easy to overlook. Do you belong to any clubs or associations? Attend any networking or fundraising events on a regular basis? This is one area where I can fall down when working out a budget. For example, I belong to two organisations, one of which has a yearly fee and the other I pay quarterly.

I also never remember when my TV licence is being taken out of my account. I know I should really put that in my budget diary, but to be honest, I've barely managed to work out a budget let alone spread it out throughout the year on a month by month basis.

More than once though I've been hit by those dreaded bank charges, so that a small £12 fee ends up, in reality, costing me £37. It soon mounts up. Which brings me to a another point. Do you know when your bank takes out charges? I always forget this, but do try to always have £20 in the account for the odd £5 I've forgotten about.

And finally ...

That's everything I could find, and have learnt from my own bitter experience. You might have come across others in your own budget preparation. If so, please do share with us here!

It's that time of the year. The end of winter. You've had enough of the cold. You're fed up to the teeth with dark nights. And you're sick of counting the pennies. You're feeling the frugal fatigue.

The penny pinching before Christmas had a point - there was a big, one day financial blow out waiting as a nice reward at the end of it. Then came January where you lurched from coupon to special offer until payday, with all your reserves gone on the holidays and stocking up at the New Year sales.

Now it is February. You're struggling to find the enthusiasm for Valentine's, and you're sick of looking through the discount items for a bit of heart shaped tat. Why not just throw all caution to the wind, just go for it - spend, spend, spend and to heck with the consequences.

So what to do when you find yourself awash with frugal fatigue?

Automate the hard work

There's a lot of mental hard work that goes into making sure you spend as little as possible. I was a bit stunned when a friend told me that she had no idea what the price of things was, so really couldn't tell whether she could get a better deal at another shop or not.

But I do know what it is like when you're working full time, and have a limited amount of time to do the stuff you want at home like housework. Let alone fitting in time with the kids.

And a lot of physical hard work too, shopping around. You can't do it all online unfortunately. There are things that you can do to make it easier for yourself though, and semi-automate the process so you have to carry less information around in your head.

Setting up a budget helps. You can download a number of free spreadsheets from The School Run that will help you automate this. Just go to the Free Downloads section. You will need to register first.

Most supermarket websites will save your last shop and you can use this to automate your shopping list. It is in fact cheaper to do your shopping first online, to build up a shopping list that you can then just adjust each week as needed. But don't buy online. Take the shopping list into the store so you can make the most of special offers that might be available.

Have shopping list, will use it!

So you've got that shopping list set up online, then actively use it - don't just be a passive shopper. Nothing gets old faster than always using the no frills budget washing powder, toothpaste, hand soap etc. This is stuff you always need, so keep that shopping list to hand so you can buy the brands you REALLY like when they're on sale for the same price (or close to) the store band stuff.

Make it special!

So you're sick, for now, of the penny pinching lifestyle - because that's what it is, a lifestyle. Rather like dieting, there's no point in yo-yoing with your budget. You're either in it for the long haul, slowly but steadily saving your money and paying off debts/mortgage, or you're just doing it in spurts in which case, rather like fad diets make you fatter, you'll end up poorer not richer.

Perk yourself up where you can. Drink the Basics coke you bought for 17p out of the cut glass champagne flutes you were given when you got married! Dinner might be a pasta bake, but have a bit of fun by laying out the table properly and even dressing it up a bit with flowers or the good crockery.

Satisfy with small splurges

Still feeling that itch that only retail therapy can scratch? Try soothing it with some small, but immensely pleasurable, splurges. You could go for a cut-price deal on a spa treatment. Groupon often has these deals on offer, although you'll find they come with lots of restrictions and it may be hard to actually book the spa treatment. Worth trying though if you can make a weekday, off peak slot.

My favourite small splurge though is to go to our local independant bookstore and buy a new book. I know I can get it for a third less or more if I buy online. But it feels so good to browse amongst the shelves, to flick through those lush, printed pages as I make my choice.

The other way I indulge myself is to buy a small bag of freshly ground speciality coffee from our local delicatessen. I love the whole process - the warmth and smell of the shop, the friendly chatter. Watching them grind up the beans. It costs three times as much as the bog standard stuff from the supermarket, but it tastes so so so very much nicer. I have a special coffee break every other day, and it lasts a while. It almost feels like my birthday when I can combine it with my new book, and a slice of freshly baked banana bread.

So what do you do? When it all gets too much and you just want a break from the coupon clipping and bargain hunting, how do you unwind? Or have you spectacularly fallen off the budget wagon due to frugal fatigue and have some cautionary tales of warning to tell us? Please share your experiences here!