Mortgage Free ASAP

Queen-Bee_2

Thanks GreenT, after a cracking start, when I made radical changes to my outgoings and lifestyle, I went off the boil a bit - at least when it came to my postings! I now live a very MSE kind of life, studying hard and trying to spend very little..

One thing I'm thinking of focusing on over the next few weeks is how to cut my weekly shopping budget. For the last week, I've been living out of my larder, but this evening I went to Sainsbury's and promptly blew £18.50 - and with the exception of a ready meal for this evening (a rare £2.75 luxury) it was all low-grade essential stuff like tea-bags, cat-food, star-drops etc... It's never going to last me 7 days, which raises the question - how DO people manage to get everything all-in for £20?
QB

LilacPixie

Glad to see your ticking along QB. Grocery shopping is the current bane of my life. we are spending £70 a week plus the odd £10 top up here and there. I need to get a grip.

SmlSave

Hi Q-B, good luck with reducing your grocery bill I swear its one the hardest things to do cause its so easy to pick up bits and pieces thinking "oh, £1.25 isn't that much"

Also DH's also tend to go off and buy things like cider!

greent

Oh yes - grocery bills! I'm never quite convinced by how low some people manage it (how does not including things that your OH has bought work, for goodness sake?) I guess we could cut ours, but I buy free range chicken, pork and eggs and I also buy steak (but only whoopsied) and there are certain brands that I will NOT compromise on. I buy lots of BOGOFFs etc - but NOW only stuff that I know we'll use, and preferably storecupboard stuff (like tinned toms etc) The only 'ready' foods I buy are yorkshire puddings (aldis - about 56p for 15 (18 at the mo - special offer) and Aunt Bessies Tidgy Toads (£1.45 for 2 meals worth - DD has them once a week when we're eating something (eg hm pizza) that she doesn't like (I'm not good at yorkies/ toads!!) Everything else is from scratch. Homegrown stuff in summer (and frozen for winter where too much) I still don't think that £450 for 6 (1 in nappies, 1 in pullups) is *too* bad though. 2 years ago I was spending £700+ for 5 of us....... And I do include a LOT of stuff in the GC - some do only include food (can you tell I'm trying to justify myself here! )

Queen-Bee_2

It's not exactly a MFW issue (but certainly related).... I'm tempted to post my typical grocery (food and general household) spends for a couple of weeks so others can see where it all goes.

I don't have a DH clocking up untoward spends or (alas) a little one in disposable nappies, but am still finding it TOUGH!!!
QB

SmlSave

I think it would be interesting to see your grocery spends Q-B.

I know that a fair bit of mine goes on alchol!

greent

It's definitely a related issue to MFW - less on groceries = more towards mortgage (theoretically) Post your spends up, QB. I'll post mine up on my diary. I'll keep a more list of all spends (I don't at the mo - I used to, but found it far too time consuming after a while) for a couple of weeks (inc DDs for household stuff - in which case I guess it should be a month........)

Queen-Bee_2

OK, the weekly spend looks as if it'd be helpful. I used to keep a spending diary on line, but my entries seem to vanish after a couple of months, so then I started keeping it in a little red cashbook. However, over the last 8-9 weeks, that has also fallen by the wayside.

What I'd like to do is set up some kind of spreadsheet that classifies expenditure by category - ie food, pets, household, decorating etc. But not got round to this either yet! Looking at the drawer full of receipts I've accumulated however, it should be something of a priority - in my head, I have the idea of all my shops at Sainsburys, but the reality s that all those coffees and papers, and decorating materials etc all add up...
QB

LilacPixie

I know QB. We have a freezer of meat literally loads of it. Cupboards are full to bursting yet still we seem to be spending. I suspect with us it's takeaways, that nipping into a cafe for lunch at the weekend (lunch for 4 can easy be £20) I still think bulk cooking is the way to get grocery bills as low as possible. I can make a chili or a bolognese or even a lasagne to do us 4 5 times each for around £7. Even less if I aquire some cheap whoopsied mince.

Queen-Bee_2

My new Monday-Friday lodger signed on the dotted line today. I'm so pleased, they seem really nice, were friendly to my (unfriendly) cat and the thought of the added cash is a financial relief...
QB