Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Kantankrus_Mare

Sounds like you've done quite a lot to me too!!

foxgloves

Well, maybe it's just me then, not feeling as though I'd been particularly productive. I can be an overthinker in stressful times, so I do find that keeping busy helps. 
I have quite a few tasks planned for today, including my regular mid-month budget check-in, so I'm just going to make use of this sunshine by pegging out the overnight laundry, then I must get cracking at my desk. Reading in the garden later, once I've got it all done.
I have a feeling our grocery budget will be all over the place....... Ah well, better to find out. Knowledge is power & all that....
F x

foxgloves

Good afternoon Tulips, 
Despite spending two chunks of the day yakking..... firstly via Skype to my sister & later a 3m distance chat to my sis-in-law when she came to collect some plants, I've achieved a few things today. I've done the final laundry load of the week & that's dried beautifully in the sunshine. I've baked the sourdough loaf I mixed up last night & done next week's meal plans. I've watered all the veggie babies & tidied a few bits away into the shed.
The most useful thing I've done today, however, was to tackle my mid-month budget check-in. There were two findings with this. One was an issue with a lot of our remaining April grocery budget being in the form of cash, which really only our local market stalls are accepting now. So I've made a note in my Money Book about tweaking this to keep the accounting correct.
The 2nd thing was a muddle on my 'just for points cos points mean vouchers' credit card. This turned out to be a muddle entirely of my own making, as I had lost a vital post-it note I wrote to myself last month. Basically, I thought this month's bill should have been £146 higher than it actually was. I had forgotten that I'd paid three transactions straight across from the relevant savings pots..... once I'd remembered that, the figures balanced perfectly.
Oh & I noticed a small discrepancy between our Savings Pots account balance & the figure on our Savings Pots spreadsheet. Was amazed to discover that the £11-something difference was because we'd received some interest! The rate on that account is so low as to be nearly non-existent so I was surprised we'd received an actual noticeable amount. Anyway, I decided to add it to the Clothes Pot as it won't hurt to build that slowly towards next winter.
Another classic budget session where you feel better for actually being on top of it. Our grocery budget is stretched more than it should be at this point in the month, but as we've already said, the weird supermarket/shortages situation has led to a lot of us being out of our normal routines. Really need to prepare a smart & careful list for tomorrow's shopping.
Take care all of you, 
F x

moving_forward

Our grocery budget is being battered by shopping for what we can get for us and inlaws as well as not being able to shop around but we havent been great at sticking to a budget for a while so its probally not as bad as it could be. Noticed we were having more takeaways as "poor us having to still be at work we deserve it" type excuses. Have given self a good talking too started getting the Mr T dine in offer for Saturdays and gone back to prepping at weekends for midweek. Prep really is the answer.

Honeysucklelou2

I’ve found that the money I’m saving in petrol by not having to commute to work is going straight to the grocery budget to shore it up.

foxgloves

Yes, it's a weird time for grocery budgets alright. Moving_forward.. We've not succumbed to a takeaway since pre-Covid. I'm probably being a bit paranoid, but I feel I can't control any of the issues around anti-virus hygiene so we haven't been tempted.
Honeysuckle - You make a good point about petrol. Fuel is always bought on Mr F's 'just for points' credit card & his monthly statement doesn't arrive for another week or so. I should be able to see a difference as he is currently required to go into work one day a week whereas we are normally used to financing a daily commute of a 52 miles round trip. Thanks for the reminder to look at underspends there.
Well, in the light of grocery budget overspending, I decided to scrap my meal plan. We have done a thorough freezer inventory tonight, looked at how many meals we want to keep in case either or both of us become poorly & unable to go food shopping, & have re-done next week's meal plans very much on the basis of eating up odds & ends plus things which could do with using. Naturally this has resulted in a much smaller shopping list, for which I'm thankful! 
F x

Baileys_Babe

Like most people, our grocery budget has taken a hammering, on paper, it looks even worse as in both January and February we only spent two thirds of the budget. I'm hoping and working towards getting the grocery spending closer to the budget over the next 6 weeks. 

foxgloves

BaileysBabe - Yes, I think I need to do the same thing. Having that very thorough look at freezer contents together last night has helped. My lunch today will be grilled sardines with salad & I've excavated some leftover pastry from my Christmas baking to make a quiche for tonight. I intend to make a salad from fridge-findings to go with that so as to use the last of the salad stuff we bought last week. All of these are 'Use it ups'. It just makes me feel we are putting positive steps in place to start pulling the grocery budget back into line.
F x

moving_forward

Sounds like a plan coming together Foxgloves

Onebrokelady

Yep,my grocery budget has gone up too,I've just been shopping and tried to buy two of everything that has a long date on it so I don't have to go again for a while, we still can't get any Quorn chicken pieces but if we wanted meat the meat aisle is full 😟