2019 Frugal Living Challenge

MrsMouse

Just wondering if anyone else here is calculating food wastage costs... I started doing this when I downloaded the year's planner and added a section for a monthly cost, and then to automatically add up each month. I'm rather shocked to find out mine has already hit £50 so far this year, so I'm looking at the "why" and to see what I can do about it (eg: I don't use milk during the week so rather than half of a 2 litre bottle go off, I'm freezing it for the following weekend).

Working_Mum

I don't track wastage costs as such but I try not to get to the stage where food has gone off and I need to throw it away.

I am quite aware of how much things cost (pro-rata for the bit I am about to throw away) and I always calculate what it cost originally and then ask myself a "would I throw 50p in the bin" - if the answer is no I try to eat/use up/freeze the piece of food in question!

I think it's good to be aware of waste and it's costs.

phillw

Working_Mum wrote: »

I don't track wastage costs as such but I try not to get to the stage where food has gone off and I need to throw it away.

Yeah, I'm the same. I occasionally mess up if I'm not well, but otherwise I try not to buy things I'm not going to use.

little_green wrote: »

One of my biggest frustartions is that they’ll buy a bag for life almost everytime they go shopping (if I’m not there) due to forgetting to take a bag despite me putting many in the car!!! I know it’s only 10p but every little adds up.

I regularly forget to take bags, it's annoying transferring shopping out of a trolley an item at a time knowing that you will have to do it again when I get home. But buying another bag would be far more annoying.

FrankieM

I've worked out that I have £15.03 left of my food & fuel budget.

Normally, as long as I still had money in my account, I wouldn't give the amount spent much thought.

But, like you little_green I need to see whether my budgets are appropriate or not.

Looking on receipts, there are certainly items that I've bought in the grocery shop that I shouldn't have and won't do again. And there were weeks where I didn't do a proper meal plan before hand and so there was some waste on fresh items.

It's been very eye opening...

I'm not going to even talk about the amount I've spent on snacks, alcohol and a takeaway that I hadn't 'really' budgeted for!

chocolatelover93

Frugaldom - thank you! It really has opened my eyes to how much I was actually spending and on carp. Now when I go shopping I really think about something before buying it.

Dave - I used to use it but haven't for a few years.

Little green - that sounds so frustrating my ex would be like that and wanted £10 a day to spend on whatever he wanted yet I wasn't allowed a £3 meal deal! And would have to ok any thing I bought with him first. I hope you and your partner sort something out sounds like the spreadsheet might be a good idea. Maybe you could start with a simple one and then a more complex one? Or going through bank statments and working out how much they spent on everything I find this very eye opening when I did it.

mrsmouse - I find having a meal plan and sticking to it helps but also every other day going through the fridge and see if anything else needs using before it's on the plan. I have also started to write the date next to things on my shopping list so I know it has to be within that date when I have it in meal plan.

Not done too bad this week. Made a shopping list and stuck to it! Only thing is I did buy a couple of bits probably about £3/£4 of bits I didn't need. But compared to the amount it used to be I am quite pleased with that and hoping I can get it down to £0 next week. I have been doing my shopping at Tesc0 and last week spent £53 this week I went to L!dl and Iceyland and spent £46 and that was with spending £10 extra on Easter BBQ food! So safe to say I will be using L!dl from now on!

I have recently got my despoit back from my old house (£1270 - they took £30 for a bit of paint on a skirting board :mad:) so £1000 of that is going to pay off CC, £70 to pay off OD and £100 to dad as emergancy fund and £100 to get a game I want and take my parents out for a meal to say thank you for their help.

Speaking of meals! I won a £20 meal for free this week. Went with my DS, DB and DSIL and DN and had a lovely time and didn't spend a penny! (they owed me some money so paid what was left of the bill and we called it quits)

I still have £20 stashed away for fuel and a little extra for anything else this week.

C xx

chocolatelover93

Quick question - what does everyone spend on their weekly shop?

It is just me and DS he is at nursery 3 days a week so he gets meals there that I pay for. I've been spending £40-£60 depending on what bits I need to get.

C xx

tighteningthebelt

chocolatelover93 wrote: »

Quick question - what does everyone spend on their weekly shop

Mine's highly variable depending on who is here and eating (one, two or three adults). I average around £30. Top up shops only very rarely. Took me a while to get there tbf. I'm very aware others do much better.

Hettyhound

I normally take out £150 cash on pay day and make that last the full month. I allocate £25 to pet food (one dog and two cats) and £25 to household and toiletries leaving £100 for food. It’s a nominal £25 per week but I spend more in the first 2 weeks to stock back up and batch cook for freezer and then less after that when funds are running low. There’s me and a six year old boy with hollow legs! I take pack ups for lunch on my work days (4days a week) which can be left overs from the tea the night before. My son is still on the KS1 free lunches for just over another year but then I’ll move him to pack ups too so budget will have to go up a bit. I find having cash (I have a small groceries purse) only for groceries focuses the mind and makes you root round the back of the cupboards and freezer. The meals aren’t always conventional and we do eat a lot of vegetarian meals to keep costs down but we don't go hungry. Even if I have money in my account which I normally do I won’t touch it by whipping the card out in the supermarket. As my goal is to get the mortgage paid off it might be sat there but I’ve already allocated it to the OP. Number one rule, meal plan and make a shopping list!

chocolatelover93

Thank you both so much!

I do try and meal plan but usually end up looking through cooking books and adding bits I don't have in stock. Maybe I should use my inventory and see what I have in stock first and what I could make with that. I tend to have things chilling in the cupboards for ages as well so need to stop doing that! And try and use up what I have got.

Do you tend to go for cheaper brands and yellow sticker bits? I have been trying to buy as cheap as possible the only thing I don't skimp on is toilet roll and washing bits coz DS has sensitive skin.

C xx

Shopaholic_no_more

Hi everyone

Quick question....does anyone use the Yolt app on there phone and if so do you find it a good tool to have for money management? Just checking out these new(ish) banking/money management apps and Yolt is the one I am finding comes up a lot.
Thanks in advance.