I've had the worst of times - now for the BEST of times!

in_need_of_direction

Love the one day closer to spring. Just what I needed to hear. Thank you.

liltdiddylilt

Oh yes definitely what I needed to hear as well. I am desperate for spring!! this weather honestly...

Have a lovely weekend hun... 3 days woo!! xx

peaceandfreedom

Hi everyone.

I must say I had a rather lazy Saturday but did achieve a few MSE-style things. One was to send off a set of books to the amazon Trade-in people and I am hoping this will result in a £20 amazon voucher - we'll have to see, haven't used them before.

The other thing was to take out a Sunday T!mes subscription - have been meaning to do this for ages as I always buy it every week. The subscription makes the paper 20% cheaper, gives access to the times websites and also gets you a premium Sp0tify subscription for a year. Very pleased with that. :beer:

I also got my accounts up to date, including the detailed grocery logging I am doing at the moment on YNAB - it's very useful in seeing where the grocery spend is going. I spent less on regular grocery shopping in December but that's because of the Christmas grocery spend. All in all, I spent a fortune in December on food. Hardly surprising - the turkey alone was about 70 quid. :eek:

However, I am expecting the January spend to be a bit lower as there is lots of stuff in the freezers. I am also trying to eliminate wastage - there are various things that don't get eaten at all including, surprisingly, biscuits.

I am still molly-coddling myself a bit because I've been a bit unwell over the past two weeks and don't want another flare-up. So I've been keeping myself out of the cold winds and sticking to indoor jobs. Today, I intend to declutter a lot of paperwork - the garden brazier will be lit this evening to burn a lot of redundant litter. But first, need to put the dinner in the slow cooker.

Have a lovely Sunday afternoon everyone - hope the weather is kind where you are. I actually got some washing dried on the line in the past two days - this is the kind of small treat that makes me happy.

Sun_Addict

I've got the Sunday Times subscription with Spotify too. Saved me a fortune as I bought the paper and was paying £9.99 a month for Spotify anyway. When you go online there's a free coffee from Nero. Don't forget half price fiction books at WH Smith on showing your card, plus free film tickets, money off restaurants and more. Hope you feel better soon by the way.

peaceandfreedom

Sun_Addict wrote: »

I've got the Sunday Times subscription with Spotify too. Saved me a fortune as I bought the paper and was paying £9.99 a month for Spotify anyway. When you go online there's a free coffee from Nero. Don't forget half price fiction books at WH Smith on showing your card, plus free film tickets, money off restaurants and more. Hope you feel better soon by the way.

Thanks, Sun Addict - good tips on the Sunday Times thing - I need to explore the website a bit more and see what's going on there.

I am fine now - just a niggling discomfort left but I am convinced that it was a long spell out in the cold wind that brought it all on in the first place so I'm being a bit precious now.

Pepperoni

Peaceandfreedom - How detailed are you going RE your grocery spends in YNAB? Our grocery spend is ridiculous....

peaceandfreedom

Pepperoni wrote: »

Peaceandfreedom - How detailed are you going RE your grocery spends in YNAB? Our grocery spend is ridiculous....

Hi Pepperoni.

Our grocery spend is too high as well, which is what prompted me to start recording it all in more detail. In YNAB I created a new budget just to record grocery details. It is quite laborious to go through each receipt and record it all but it is an interesting exercise. December was probably not the best month to start this as it is a non-standard kind of month for eating but I wanted to know what was spent so I can budget properly for next Christmas.

I will probably do this for another couple of months and see if that helps pinpoint where spending could be reduced. We spend a LOT of money on meat but I'm not sure that that can be reduced much. I think there is more scope for cutting down on cr*p that ends up not eaten.

I also think we spend too much on incidental meals because we haven't properly planned our meals. And of course, if you pop in to the supermarket for one thing, you come out with several things.

Anyway, these are my current categories in YNAB - I didn't plan these but rather just chose them in a fairly random way but hopefully it's enough detail for me to see where we could cut back:

Meat & Fish
Beef
Pork
Lamb
Chicken
Bacon
Sausages
Cooked Meat
Fish
Steak
Miscellaneous
Turkey
Fresh Food
Cheese
Juice drinks
Milk & yogurt
Fruit
Vegetables
Eggs
Bread
Butter and Clover
Cream
Miscellaneous
Store-cupboard staples
Pasta
Tinned Goods
Oils, vinegars, sauces
Olives. sun-dried tomatoes etc.
Breakfast Cereals
Other grains
Herbs and Spices
Frozen food
Vegetables
Chips
Miscellaneous
Baking Goods
General baking stuff
Dried ingredients
Ready Meals
Pasta
Pizza
Other ready meals
Sweets & Treats
Biscuits & Cakes
Ice Creams
Desserts
Chocolate and other treats
Nuts & Snacks
Nuts
Pies etc.
Crisps
Dips
Pate and other starters
Household goods
Toilet Roll
Tissues
Cleaners
Dishwasher
Bin bags
Fabric conditioner
Kitchen Towel
Toilet cleaner
Tin foil, cling film etc
Cosmetic products
Shampoo
Toothpaste
Liquid soap
Miscellaneous
Drinks
Soft drinks
Coffee
Tea
Medicines
Paracetamol
Ibuprofen
Miscellaneous

I chop and change these categories a bit. I also have a category to record when I've used vouchers to pay for part of the shop as this is useful info as well.

Hope that helps a bit.

liltdiddylilt

Wow p&f... that budget breakdown is incredible. I like how you are recording it in a completely separate budget to the normal one. I break mine down into groceries, household & toiletries in categories which has really helped me to see what my spends are on. I've cut the groceries down vastly since June!

I have actually written a shopping list for next xmas based on what was bought and not used this year. Also recorded the things that we seem to receive as gifts as I ended up with 3 boxes of choccies and a bottle of wine from work & a client at work, then endless boxes and tins of sweets and chic from mum and my MiL.

I even recorded the recipes I used to use up leftover lamb (my Xmas day Mains) and gammon

Sorely tempted to do a similar budget to you for groceries but having cut it down by £250 a month I don't think there is much more fat to trim without life being very boring indeed!

Pepperoni

Oooh thanks - thats very helpful! Never thought about doing a separate budget on YNAB for it... off to work out how to do that! I think it will definitely be an eye-opening experience! Just need to get my husband to actually keep receipts for his spends!!!

peaceandfreedom

Pepperoni wrote: »

Oooh thanks - thats very helpful! Never thought about doing a separate budget on YNAB for it... off to work out how to do that! I think it will definitely be an eye-opening experience! Just need to get my husband to actually keep receipts for his spends!!!

On my main YNAB budget for food shopping I have categories for 'Main shop' as well as 'extra shops' - it is interesting to see how much is spent on extra shops and mostly it's me that spends it. But this is because I work in a town and so am close to so many supermarkets to pick up stuff. Down to poor/no meal planning really.

OH does get mildly fed-up with me asking him for receipts all the time, but I do find it has reduced the number of cheeky bottles of wine he is purchasing out of our food budget.