Atrixa's Saving Diaries

MovingForwards

Congratulations!

If you've a plaster, put it on as sometimes it will keep the nail in place as it grows, I do it with my fingernails as I occasionally catch one and rip it off the bed 🤢

You're doing well on the spends.

riotlady

Congratulations!!! well done on beating your PB! 

Ovens on a bus sounds incredibly swanky but also... unnecessary? What are they expecting you to cook?? 

atrixa

Goodness knows, riotlady. I should have checked if there was a loo on there, the mind boggles what that would have been like.

So the toenail is fine, there was just a blister right near it which is healing nicely now. I'm taking a break from running for the next few days then I'll start another 5k improver program next week. It would be great to break sub-26 there.

I made some pasta sauce last night to put in the freezer- works out cheaper per portion than buying pesto, at least at full price. I'll make my own soup at the weekend, got loads of recipes to pick from. I'm thinking split pea as they're so cheap.

Spent £15.29 in Mr M today- got stuff for mine and bf's tea tomorrow (pasta bake and then homemade cookies) and the rest of the ingredients for my sweet potato, chickpea and spinach curry that will go in the freezer. I can usually get at least 5 portions out of that recipe, but if I bulk out the veg I can get a few more and feed it to bf for tea next week. Didn't buy any rubbish.

Running grocery total for Feb now £129.43, 9 days until payday.

Skint_yet_Again

Grocery bill looks good especially if that is for two of you. Sweet potato, chickpea and spinach curry sounds yum 😋

atrixa

Poor bf wasn't feeling well yesterday, but all that stuff will keep for next week. 

Curry is now on the hob, looking forward to that with some rice tonight!

Having tea out tomorrow (free except for drinks) and Saturday (date night from meals out budget) so won't be having tea at home until Sunday now. 

Looks like I won't be going to spend any money on travel this weekend due to the weather, so that's £25 back to spend/save. It'll probably go in my car fund.

Plants Update: all chillies except the Ring of Fire have now been repotted into bigger homes, they're all over the house now. I might buy some shelving for the porch at some point to make more use of the south facing window. I'm really looking forward to experimenting with hot sauces and things, bf would love those.
I've got chives, parsley and coriander on the go. The coriander is looking a bit limp and lifeless, tbh. Hopefully it will perk up. I've bought some basil seeds from my house budget which are apparently a lot easier than most other herbs. I can use that in my homemade pasta sauces. I'm sowing monthly so I can have a constant supply, but I've only managed to harvest chives so far.

Hope everyone is staying safe during these storms.

MovingForwards

Hope BF is feeling a little better.

Parsley pesto is supposed to be really nice, coriander can be a bit temperamental, chives are prolific seeders and get everywhere; the flowers are beautiful as are onion and leeks.

Have a great evening.

atrixa

Bf seems completely fine now. He had a sore throat and that's gone away with no other symptoms, LFTs all negative.

It's chucking it down here at the moment and it's so gloomy. I've had a lovely weekend, little housewarming on Friday, tea and drinks out yesterday (I had mock duck with plum sauce and a mai tai, yum!) and a breakfast out with bf and his mum today. It's nice to be more sociable.

In terms of the grocery budget, I spent £5.60 in Mr M's on some basics and some soup ingredients. I'm getting really good at avoiding yellow sticker stuff I don't need and junk that wasn't on my list. One mistake though was buying courgettes that I forgot were out of season, so it was about £1.35 for two. I used to be on the ball with making shopping lists based on in-season veg but I went off the boil last summer. I'll take it into account in my meal planning in the future. Total for Feb is now up to £135.03. Payday is Friday, and realistically, I will only need odd bits for breakfast and maybe some ice cream for me and bf on Wednesday to go with our homemade cookies. Really hoping to come in under £150 now. 

atrixa

Spent £8.41 in Mr M on some basics. Still quite a lot missing from the shelves here- I haven't seen any flat or portabella mushrooms for weeks now, but they have plenty closed cup. That's me done for the month. Total grocery spend in Feb: £143.44.

This is a LOT less than what I've been spending recently. What went wrong in previous months was probably:

Combining grocery budget with other things i.e. alcohol, some meals out, toiletries- these are getting separate lines now. 

The rising cost of food, can't really be helped, but it's very noticeable and can be mitigated by making savings elsewhere and pre-planning.

Buying sports nutrition and including it in the groceries budget- worth it, but can be expensive. This is getting it's own line in the future so I can keep an eye on it. I've done a bulk order of my usual bits to save more per item.

Lack of planning- I often batch cook but I haven't had a full monthly plan before and I've often resorted to buying mock meats as an easy option. These can be pricey per portion.

Buying treats and unnecessary items. This month, cutting most of that out has made it much easier to maintain my weight, too.

Finally, taking my eye off this section during lockdowns. Food was pretty much the only pleasure we had, so the reckless spending commenced.

I'm going to try to reduce that total by another £20 for March, so will challenge myself to only spending £123 next month.

I've already started making my own soups and pasta sauces, so hopefully I can achieve it!

I've had my pay rise put through on the system, probably missed payroll cut off, but I'll get the backdated pay next month. I'll up my pension contributions for next month

MovingForwards

It helps logging things as a pattern emerges and adapting is easier.
How have the other spends met expectations or budget?

Congratulations on the payrise!

ForestBluebells

I’m very impressed with your food budget. I like the idea of separating out spends which complicates the categories