My 1st Diary - SOA Done, Snowballing Ready

specialkaye

lol Nando's is niceeeee joke, well it is but maybe not for a romantic birthday celebration.

and i can see your reasoning also. Youve made a plan and are happy with it so now its just a case of sticking to your budget . Do you have anything saved for emergancy car repairs or illness as they can really throw the made laid plans out of whack.

How is the grocery budget? its easy to over spend on this so keep a tight reign. Have you managed to down brand anything? Loads of people can't even tell the difference on some products so is maybe worth trying. Maybe its something you and your wife can do together.. make it a challenge between you? See who can save the most without the other being able to tell the difference?

ecoverbee

We used to spend £40 per week but this week we are going to switch to fortnightly as weekly we always seemed to struggle. £80 should get us some good meals as we can buy meat which before we seemed to never afford. Will be making meals plan this weekend.

Car is covered as its brand new but we have been putting money aside each month (technically its still my 1st month as we only just started this journey) for car insurance, car tax, and also a little more for any other problems.

Thanks
andy

Igamogam

ecoverbee wrote: »

We used to spend £40 per week but this week we are going to switch to fortnightly as weekly we always seemed to struggle. £80 should get us some good meals as we can buy meat which before we seemed to never afford. Will be making meals plan this weekend.


andy

:huh::huh::huh::huh::huh::huh: Confused. £40 a week same as £80 fortnight?? Errum.......how does the whole meat thing fit in with this idea - just curious;)

beanielou

I think £40 is ok for a week.
What sort of food do you buy?
Where do you shop?

ecoverbee

I know what you mean about the £40 is the same but by the time we get wash powder, cat litter and cat food, food for work we hardly have anything left. By using £80 instead we should be able to bulk buy which will save us but will have to see how it goes as its new for us.

We shop tesco, b and m bargains

beanielou

Ditch Tesco for Aldi.
I have and cannot believe how much less I spend.

rising_from_the_ashes

ecoverbee wrote: »

I know what you mean about the £40 is the same but by the time we get wash powder, cat litter and cat food, food for work we hardly have anything left.

You can save huge amounts by buying this in bulk online rather than at the SM ...... loads of good stockists to look at eg Zooplus, Pet Planet etc - shop around as prices / offers change daily and don't forget to look at Quidco / Top cashback etc.

I've cut my cat litter costs from £20 / month to £7 / month :T and can also get their dry food for £3.50 / kg in big bags compared with £8.50 / kg if bought at the SM / pet shop.

ecoverbee

Thanks for the comments. I researched Go cat as that's what we use and online is around £20-£25 for 10kg but sometimes the supermarket sells 2kg for £4 which works out about the same. Usually its £4.20 for 2kg so there isnt really much saving.

As for cat litter we use tesco value litter which we found is amazing value, when we used other brands the cats wouldn't go near it and end up pooping on the floor next to their litter. Not nice so we always use the tesco value litter and its under £2 which usually last a week.

Thanks
andy

specialkaye

If you had a bit of time you could research cat food that would save you money in bulk online and then buy a little bit in the supermarket to see how it goes down with the cats. You could maybe even do 1/2 and 1/2. Our cats will eat the cheap stuff for a few days before going off it again for a couple of weeks but over the months it adds up quite a bit with 3 cats.

If you had a garden could you teach them to use outside?

Youve made excellent steps in your first month and it often takes longer than that to work out exactly how things work best for you. Increasing your shop from weekly to fortnightly is a good idea and you should be able to get more for your money. Anything you underspend could be used to save for when a stockpile item comes on offer? Cleared the shelf of Iams the other day and worked out id saved nearly £2 on each bag saving me £40 and no cat food needed for nearly 6 months. Luckily i had a pot saved for such a bargain and room to fit it all!!

ecoverbee

Just been to Morrison's and the cat food GoCat is on offer £2 per 2kg so grabbed 2 bags for the time being which should last a while.

We will be definiely looking at using money to buy items in bulk when they come up

Thanks
andy