Feel so alone

f0xh0les

£50 a week on food for two is a litttle on the high side, I feed six for less than that, but that is because I live close to a c0-0p and they reduce their bread, cakes, pies and doughnuts at 6pm every day. I never pay more than 20p for a loaf and they reduce the hummus and veg every other day it seems! Then I do the YS T0sco scramble twice a week and never pay more than 20p for anything either.

It sounds like I am really tight, but once you know a few tricks, it is easy, and then again, it is all stuff I would have bought at the weekend at full price, they just keep it for me until it is 90% off.

Use your freezer when you find a bargain. It pays off very quickly

Ch1979

Hi..I've recently also had a wake up call. Please try and discuss this:I have told my boyfriend and just said to everyone else that I had downloaded an app which analysed my spending and I was disgusted in myself for spending £400 just in supermarkets and outside my means (I live on my own) so am scaling back. Kind of true!
I'm giving myself £110 per week for everything. My grocery shop is between 13-20 per week, petrol 12, and fags (oops). I've saved on average 20 quid per week but have also treated myself (bought a top,earrings,and a scarf yesterday for £12) plus have gone out for a meal one week and bought art supplies. There's little difference in my living and eating standards but I am way less wasteful and enjoy shopping. Every treat has a sacrifice and its down to you to decide what is important. Someone telling you what they think is important is pointless. Know the value of the things you love. Good luck

Popstess

Thanks I will check out the old style boards again. I will definitely concentrate on cutting down on my weekly shop.
I have a real problem saying no to social events and things that cost money for other ppl like joint extravagant gifts.
Celebrations that kind of thing.
I'm a ppl pleaser and it's got me into a lot of debt stupidly. I know you will say simply say no you can't afford it end of but let's be honest if that were true and it was that easy I wouldn't be in this mess!!!

Popstess

The £20 a month is only what I put away for clothes and use for school uniform and new trainers that kind of thing for my son.
I have absolutely no idea what I should allocate for myself because that's been my BIGGEST vice!!! I don't smoke and rarely drink don't buy latest gadgets TVs tech etc but clothes I have wasted so much mine and I'm so ashamed of myself. So truthful I don't want to spend any more money on clothes so not sure what would be reasonable to allocate for it.
No idea what to allocate for entertainment for me and my son either.
The £36 is for sky, broadband and phone line I'm tied in to May but I'm going to cancel it in May and find cheap broadband/line rental. Because I have to have broadband as I work from home some days.
Yea I will have to find my own way but listening to other pols budgets helps to give me a benchmark of what I could aim for.

lessonlearned

Posts crossed......

Don't give up on being generous and joining in celebrations etc.....

I think you just need to look for creative ways to hAve fun on a budget. Look out for freebies, vouchers etc, 2 for ones on days out, using club points, that kind of thing.

Re gift giving - get crafty.....people love home made gifts, so much more thought and love goes into them.

You sound like a lovely warm generous person - you just need to stop splashing the cash.....:rotfl: Giving someone time, love and affection is much better than just giving "stuff".

Cooking someone a delicious meal and a home made gift is much nicer and more thoughtful than just splurging on the credit card.

Popstess

Also holidays we can't afford to go on holiday we haven't been on one in years. My son is going on an expensive school trip next year. so the £35 a month is to pay for that

Ch1979

It's doable though. Your available spending at the moment is 105 per week. Decide how much you need.. Say 130 so that's an extra 100 per month.How can you save £100 in your existing monthly budget? I saved my sky bill by my sister giving me her Netflix and sky go passwords and a friend gave me an unused now TVs box and google chrome dongle! I haggled my phone and broadband down 13 quid. Mixed v cheap cat litter with nice, same with laundry detergent. im using cash in my purse plus the on trees and coin keeper apps. If you love social outings and giving presents just choose which ones wisely.

lessonlearned

£50 off food bill, £36 off cable and £21 from your surplus could be your spending, treats and holiday budget. Just over £100 a month. You could do quite a bit with that.

As I say don't deprive yourself of fun times, we all need some treats now and then.

Clothes for you........well if clothes shopping was part of your downfall then you should have a good stash so shop from your wardrobe for now and maybe a few charity shop bargains now and again....

MoneyMission2015

Popstess wrote: »

Thank you everyone. Do you think £50 a week is a lot on shopping? Food and toiletries/ cleaning products? That was the budget in aiming for I spend way more when I'm not being good.
As for £70 on gifts. £50 a month goes into a savings account I can't touch for a year for Christmas this includes presents for my son bday as well as Xmas, everyone else and food etc so not much really if you think of it like that and I normally spend way over that but last Xmas I stuck to it for the first time.
The other £20 a month goes into a savings account for birthday presents for family and friends I also use this for Christenings weddings that kind of thing. I started saving the £20 a month because in the past I use to just go into my overdraft or use a credit card to pay for these things when they came up.

I will definitely will get back into meal planning and writing shopping lists and sticking to them to reduce my shopping bill.

Hey Popstess, just wanted to comment on the £50 a week shopping. To put it into perspective for you, we are a family of 4 and I spend around £60 per week. This includes everything including household cleaners, toilet roll etc. Some weeks are more than others but in general it averages out at around £60. I used to go to the supermarket and do the grocery shopping but would come out of there having spent around £100, and this would happen every week!! So I do an online shop now & have it delivered on the weekend or occasionally on a Monday evening if we're out all weekend. I used to pay for each delivery as I ordered but I paid £30 for an annual delivery pass in January, which has now paid for itself because deliveries on a Saturday or Sunday cost £5 or £6 each depending on the time, so after 6 weeks this was paid for so now the deliveries for the rest of the year are effectively 'free'. This week's shopping came to £53. In this I had 3 whole chickens, 2 are now in the freezer and 1 is in the slow cooker as we speak. I also bought loads of fruit & veg and stocked up on a few tinned items. I also stocked up on shower gel & bubble bath because it was on offer. It would have cost less but I treated my daughters to some sweets & a tube of Pringles this weekend as it's half term now, so even with my relatively low budget, we still get treats.

I could probably cut this down again but I currently don't meal plan, just can't get my head around it, as silly as that sounds. However, I know roughly what's in the fridge & freezer and I just decide in the morning what I am going to cook for tea. I also buy a lot of branded stuff, Heinz ketchup, Heinz spaghetti hoops, Branston baked beans, etc etc.

The one difference to our grocery shopping which I think helps a lot is that we buy most of our meat from Costco. It comes in huge packs so we split it into ziplock bags and freeze it. You could do the same if you have a local butchers, the meat is usually cheaper and most definitely tastier than supermarket meat!

Good luck x

Popstess

I'm not going to do a weekly shop this week I've plenty in the freezer and cupboards. I'll meal plan for next week and try and do a shop for less than £50
No no more clothes shopping for me I have plenty to keep my going I will continue topup the 20 aside each month for my son as I can't avoid buying him new clothes when he's growing.
As soon as May comes will def be cancelling sky tv.
I've haggled all my bills down as cheap as possible eg gas, electric, car insurance home insurance etc can't get them any cheaper my council tax is with the single person reduction.
If I didn't have over £30,000 in debt I'd be living comfortably but I do so I'm not