£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Kantankrus_Mare · 27 February 2017 at 8:31PM

Regarding trying to get the weekly shop down...........have you thought about trying some of the sites where you can earn amazon vouchers?

I have done swagbucks for years and this year I have saved what I have earnt once a month. (Around £20-£25) and I stock up on something different each time.

So far since doing this I have bought Andrex toilet rolls (45), Heinz tomato ketchup (10 bottles) , Fairy liquid (10 bottles) a huge bag of yorkshire tea bags, Dove soap, kitchen rolls (12) and have just ordered fabric conditioner and more kitchen rolls as have run out.

My theory is that that all it is costing me is my time and eventually this should bring the weekly shop down.

Occasionally I will get money off vouchers for sainsburys and make full use of these but otherwise shop at Lidl.

If you are at home a lot with the pc on anyway it might be worth you looking into this.

You are doing really well though with your mind shift and Im loving your positivity!! :beer:

angelpye · 27 February 2017 at 8:39PM

There used to be a thread on here of feed your family for £20 but I think it was out of necessity rather than frugality so very cheap basics range ingredients and probably not the recommended dietary requirements but it served its purpose - if you only have £20 then you have to make it work and plenty of people have been at that point. I can't imagine trying to feed four on £20 but people do it. Think Jack Monroe meets rubber chicken thread...

Bobarella · 27 February 2017 at 9:08PM

The other huge saver is YS shopping. Can you do that at all? A lot of people base their meals around what is good on YS and freeze it. I don't know how much organic food is included but it saves on many staple items.

boxofpaws · 27 February 2017 at 9:08PM

In my spending diary I have toiletries and cleaning products in a separate category to groceries. To me, groceries is just food, and on that front, it sounds like you're doing fantastically well.

dottydebts · 27 February 2017 at 9:09PM

Food shopping is something I always really struggle with too - We are 2 adults and spend around £150 per month which isn't ridiculous, but I definitely feel there is room for improvement in both the amount we spend on certain items and the nutritional value of our food (it isn't great)

How does mysupermarket work? I've heard of it but never used it before!

Treadingonplaymobil · 27 February 2017 at 9:59PM

Thanks for all the advice and discussion! Really helpful to get some other points of view.

Treadingonplaymobil · 27 February 2017 at 10:00PM

dottydebts wrote: »

Food shopping is something I always really struggle with too - We are 2 adults and spend around £150 per month which isn't ridiculous, but I definitely feel there is room for improvement in both the amount we spend on certain items and the nutritional value of our food (it isn't great)

How does mysupermarket work? I've heard of it but never used it before!

There seem to be two main ways of using it. I use it to input my shopping list and see how much it's going to cost at various supermarkets, but ` I know others use it purely to alert them when certain products go on offer.

PurpleFairy26 · 27 February 2017 at 10:00PM

Hi ToP. Can you get toilet rolls from Home Bargains? They are 18 for 3.79 I think at our local one. Ok, they are not a 'quilted' as the leading brand. But I was presently surprised and it definitely helped with our food bill. In the early days, I bought a small note book and had a page for each of the key products I buy and how much they were in various places. I wouldn't then get drawn in to 'offers' however, if I saw something that was really good I could bulk buy and stock up. Obviously I'm sure there is a simple way to log it on a phone too :rotfl:

I think any way you cut it, you are doing really well and I feel the same as you, we don't eat extravagantly but our food budget is higher than I think it should be. So I feel your pain. I think cutting bit by bit is the way forward and looking at your budget monthly rather than weekly which allows for store cupboard/bulk buys.

I'lm subscribing

Treadingonplaymobil · 27 February 2017 at 10:02PM

A good day for debt payments…

Firstly, I redistributed the leftover family kitty money for this month today, as I know we won’t need any more before the end of the month, so that’s another little bit in a few pots and £16 more paid off the debt.

Then the buyer came for the bigger item I sold on eb@y yesterday, and after shuffling money into various pots I was left with another £62.40 to put towards debt payment.

In a way I’m really pleased with how much we’ve overpaid this month, but in another way it’s deeply depressing that in percentage terms it has made virtually no difference (I think we have paid off something like 0.5% since Feb 12th). That saying about debt just being borrowing from your future self is feeling very true right now.

Trying to hold onto the positive, we have at least managed to stick well within the new budget we set ourselves just a few weeks ago, and as well as overpaying on debt I have regained control of my business account cashflow and have £500 in there for expected and unexpected expenses, on top of March’s and some of April’s ‘salary’.

To do today:
1. Finish knitting the hat. Nope
2. Continue to get on top of the house, even if it’s only 10 minutes tidying. Done! And it is looking markedly better than it did a few days ago. Inch by inch. I’m not sure how it got so messy, I’m normally fairly neat and minimalist, so there just isn’t much stuff to get messy.
3. Post eb@y sale. Had to buy packaging, but didn't get round to actually packing it!
4. Sweep the remaining money from the family kitty into debt repayment, as we won’t need to spend on it now before the end of the month. Spare petrol and food money (fairly minimal amounts) will wait until tomorrow in case there is a sudden need for either.
5. social media while working. Done! Another £16 overpayment.

To do this week:
1. During our family meeting, focus on ways to save electricity, after the success of last week’s ‘how to save water’ chat. Done!
2. Also during family meeting, true to work out who’s going to need a haircut next month, so we can make sure there is sufficient in the budget. Done!
3. Plan out March working time. Done!
4. Update YNAB for March once we get to the 1st.
5. Sit down with DH once we get into March and chat through current budget situation, so he can see how much positive effect there is from the budget changes we have made.

brizzledfw · 28 February 2017 at 1:11AM

Looking good TOPM...very good. Particularly impressed by the new state of your business account. That's some swift turnaround

£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

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