budgeting advice

sevenpounds03

hi there as i've said before, im new to all this and attempting to budget but not doing very well,

I cant understand how i can work out costs for food and petrol.
I am trying to get my weekly living costs for petrol, bus fare and food down to £100 but i seem to spend a lot more than that.

I buy shopping on a sunday morning and spend on average around £30 which i hope will be for the week. However its now Tuesday and i have just spent £11.35 in Tesco.

I aim to spend about £40 a week petrol but put £20 in on Saturday and then had to put in another £15 last night and the orange light is on already.

I am at a loss here. How can i work out a food budget, and avoid having to spend more, and where the hell is all the petrol going.

any advice is appreciated x

browneyedbazzi

Do you think about the journeys you take in your car? Are they all necessary? Also, your driving style can have a big impact on how much petrol you go through. If you drive aggressively, accelerate quickly and brake sharply then you use an awful lot more petrol than someone who drives more evenly. I keep my distance from cars in front, watch for changing lights/bends in the road etc so that I can avoid braking unnecessarily. Every time you put your foot on the brake you waste the petrol (and money) it took you to get up to the speed you were at!

As for the groceries, have you thought about doing meal plans and a proper shopping list based on the plans?

sevenpounds03

thanks for your reply,
journeys are all to work, then my son gets the bus in the mornings but i do drive fast ;(
Should maybe leave a bit earlier, think i will try that.

The food budgeting, im at a loss for actually. Its only for me because my son eats at my parents while im at work so its only his breakfast and supper and meals at the weekends.

Im not sure how to do a meal planner< does it include lunch as well? i usually take a salad to work and bought these things on sunday but come today, i have to buy more. its not as if i eat that much (im on weightwatchers.)

I buy what i think will do on the sunday but find ive run out of bread come Tuesday

browneyedbazzi

Meal plans would usually include all the meals you will cook/eat during the week, and can even include snacks. You then sit down with the plan, a list of what's already in your cupboard/fridge/freezer and then make your shopping list based on what you need to make the meals on the plan.

It's not that unusual to have to buy additional perishables through the week - I only buy small loaves of bread and small quantities of fruit and veg when I do a big shop then top up during the week - it means nothing gets thrown away because it went off and I always have nice fresh things.

Do you use everything you buy or find that things get wasted?

sevenpounds03

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

Meal plans would usually include all the meals you will cook/eat during the week, and can even include snacks. You then sit down with the plan, a list of what's already in your cupboard/fridge/freezer and then make your shopping list based on what you need to make the meals on the plan.

It's not that unusual to have to buy additional perishables through the week - I only buy small loaves of bread and small quantities of fruit and veg when I do a big shop then top up during the week - it means nothing gets thrown away because it went off and I always have nice fresh things.

Do you use everything you buy or find that things get wasted?

i suppose i do waste a lot, not recently but i did used to.
im going to do my weekly shop on tesco's website and cost it all then write it down. does that seem like an idea?

SJ1

You need to plan the whole week and what you need for the week. So if you cook a roast chicken on Monday night and do potatoes and veg then the leftover chicken can be made into chicken curry or risotto on wed night and maybe a chicken noodle soup with the stock. Chicken could also be filling for a sandwich. Baked potatoes are cheap and fillings aren't too hard to find for kids and for you on weightwatchers. I do think that if you are on a diet like that it's a bit more tricky as you tend to buy the things that fit with the points so my advice would be to actually enter things that you cook and find out the points and then mix and match to use it all up. I think that your budget seems very reasonable, I spend a lot more than that.

I literally plan the week using leftovers as I go and at weekend tend to go for a roast dinner to mop up potatoes and veg and dream some kind of pud up.

I do enjoy it but it takes a lot of time...

SJ

money_honey

I second the meal planning advice - it has saved me loads of money. As for running out of bread, I tend to buy two loaves and freeze one so that keeps me going for the week. Otherwise you can just budget to buy extra bread etc knowing that they will need to be bought mid-week and not with your normal shop. I also shop online quite a lot and find it saves me money, even with the delivery charge as I know exactly what I'm spending and I'm not tempted to buy more so I'd definitely recommend doing it.

GeorgieFTB

Seven

I can't echo enough the meal plans, in the old style board people put up meal plans for the week, that might help you out, at least give you an idea of what to look for if nothing else.

Takea look at the driving article and try to incorporate at least some of the ideas.

Lastly, give yourself a break, you are trying and you will get better, it takes time and effort and some skill to budget and keep your costs down, celebrate your wins and learn from your losses, check back and see how much you used to spend.

Gx

sevenpounds03

GeorgieFTB wrote: »

Seven

I can't echo enough the meal plans, in the old style board people put up meal plans for the week, that might help you out, at least give you an idea of what to look for if nothing else.

Takea look at the driving article and try to incorporate at least some of the ideas.

Lastly, give yourself a break, you are trying and you will get better, it takes time and effort and some skill to budget and keep your costs down, celebrate your wins and learn from your losses, check back and see how much you used to spend.

Gx

thanks a lot, i am trying but i want to try harder haha. Ps im being so thick but i cant find these old style boards everyone keeps going on about.

miggy

Someone will probably cross post with me but here are the famous OS threads!

Re meal planning/food costs, you could try listing everything for a week then sit down and analyse. There may be things you weren't aware of (coffee and sandwiches at work? The odd bar of choc? Short cuts when home cooked might have been cheaper? etc.)

I used a list of what we ate for a couple of weeks as a basis for a menu because that way I knew we would eat what I planned!

miggy

I meant to say: unplanned food and food that other people prepare tend to cost more than something you've thought through in advance. A good example is food for work. If you eat out or buy a sandwich, what does that cost in comparison to bringing your own? Can you keep an emergency supply in a desk drawer or the glove box?