A Year in the Life of...

boxofpaws

That’s a brilliant breakdown. Is the plan to do it every month to work out an average? I think I need to start doing this to work out how much we need to retire. 

I have been logging all my spends so I think I will copy you and do a summary. I’ve already done groceries so should be easy to do the rest.

17 trips is….impressive?

girlatplay

It's not really for an average, it's really to see where I am overspending so that I can tweak those areas.  Will be fun to see if I can reduce the amount I spend each month.  I don't want to deprive us of food.  I have had issues with food over the course of my life and in previous times I would have cut it right back to save money but that's not happening now and I can't let it get to that stage again.

It's really interesting to see where it goes.  I know what my budgets are but didn't really think about my spends in whole terms, just in terms of each individual budget.  Seeing that I've spent almost £500 is a bit of an eye opener.  I really don't think that 17 (🤣) food trips are necessary.  When we meal plan we do very well but it's not a job I enjoy so I need to force myself.

When we move I will probably do a shop for pantry items so that we have a good stock in.  There will be some net free proceeds coming back to me after the mortgage redemption, deposit on new house and solicitors fees are paid.  I plan to put them into the EF but I'll take a small amount and stock up a bit as we may well be eating a lot of beans and rice for a while.  This will skew the spends results a bit but will be worth it in the long run.

girlatplay

This morning I have
- rounded up the dipping account to the nearest £1 as the odds would have annoyed me
- opened an online savings account for my bestie's hen/wedding and put £8 in it
- made an overpayment to the mortgage taking it into the £85k's!!

Still got other diaries to catch up with but I'll need to do that later.

Better do some actual work now since that's what I'm being paid for.

EssexHebridean

Woop to mortgage OP's and other well organised financey bits to start the month! 

Good plan to start saving now for the hen do - although I have to say I do find it frustrating that the very inclusive "old way" of maybe going to see a show and for a meal or something like that now seems to have gone completely in favour of massively expensive weekends away to glamorous locations - it leaves so many folk struggling for money, or simply having to say no and feel like the poor relations. 

17 food shops made me laugh - mind you we've been into three separate supermarkets in the course of the past few days between us - the main weekly shop then two others to get stuff we couldn't get on that first one. definitely not planning on any more though! No question you definitely spend more when you go in more. That's a great breakdown on spending though - it's really interesting how much we spend in different areas when we actually look at it in detail. 

girlatplay

EssexHebridean said:

Woop to mortgage OP's and other well organised financey bits to start the month! 

Good plan to start saving now for the hen do - although I have to say I do find it frustrating that the very inclusive "old way" of maybe going to see a show and for a meal or something like that now seems to have gone completely in favour of massively expensive weekends away to glamorous locations - it leaves so many folk struggling for money, or simply having to say no and feel like the poor relations. 

17 food shops made me laugh - mind you we've been into three separate supermarkets in the course of the past few days between us - the main weekly shop then two others to get stuff we couldn't get on that first one. definitely not planning on any more though! No question you definitely spend more when you go in more. That's a great breakdown on spending though - it's really interesting how much we spend in different areas when we actually look at it in detail. 

I agree about hen do's.  Normally I would say no to expensive ones but she is one of my three best friends (we're a group, been pals since school and I really couldn't pick one over the others).  I am the poor relation in this group.  Wasn't always the case but, circumstances.  I refuse to miss out just because I don't earn as much as them.  By starting saving now I am ahead of the game and it won't hurt so much when the time comes.  To be fair to her, she hasn't said what she wants to do so it might not be a big do, I just want to be prepared for any eventuality.  If it's something small then I'll have a nice little bonus.


I told LMG about the 17 trips.  She laughed but out of surprise and disbelief. She agrees that should not be necessary if we are organised.  I am just about to write out a list for her for tomorrow and it should last us until next week.  She is working lates this week (finishes at 10pm) so I only really need to concentrate on tea for me.

I made Thai green veg curry last night.  Was supposed to have chicken in it but I forgot to take it out of the freezer.  Then I realised that I was supposed to go to the shop for more veg for the curry (and other shopping for the week) but I hadn't gone so I just used what I had in which was onions, leek and a bok Choi type vegetable from the veg box.  Turned out I only had a small tin of coconut milk so I only made a small amount.  It was delicious!  Enough left over for tonight so I've just had it again.
Bf is coming up for tea tomorrow night so it's cheesy veg pie with puff pastry.  LMG will have some when she gets home.
I had a rice dish planned for tonight so I'll have that on Thursday.
Friday is just me so I'll have gnocchi (saw a quick, easy recipe online so going to try that). 

My niece is coming for a sleepover on Saturday and her favourite food is macaroni cheese so we will have that (my sis doesn't make it so she doesn't get it all the time).  I do realise this means that we are having two cheesy nights this week.
I am having brunch with my sis on Sunday although it is booked for 12pm and includes a bottle of fizz so I will only need a snack for tea on Sunday.  LMG will sort her own tea that night.
I'm a toast for breakfast girl and LMG is porridge, so breakfasts are covered.
Lunch I tend to decide as I go along but is usually a sandwich with various fillings.  LMG will work out her own food based on her shifts although she might add to the shopping list in order to do that.

I'm happy with that plan. Best we've managed in a while.

savingholmes

The cooking sounds really tasty. 

The budget breakdown was interesting. Am**** is my biggest lack of planning drain. Getting more YS food and some free food has helped me in Jan.

girlatplay

savingholmes said:

The cooking sounds really tasty. 

The budget breakdown was interesting. Am**** is my biggest lack of planning drain. Getting more YS food and some free food has helped me in Jan.

I use the online river shop a lot too but I only really go on for things we need.  I don't scroll through it as if I don't know things are there then I don't feel the need to buy them.  It is really easy to randomly buy stuff from there.
I love free food!


LMG has gone for groceries this morning.  She only needs a meal for Friday at work as she has taken a portion of pasta bake out of the freezer for today and says she will have the leftover cheesy veg pie from tonight for tomorrow's meal.

Veg box arrived yesterday with loads of potatoes and I have enough onions to sink a battleship (was that your one @savingholmes? My mum uses that all the time).  Think I'm going to make some potato salad and might make up some mash and chop some onions to freeze.


Edit:  not sure why my phone changes the layout/paragraphs of my posts 🤔

astrocytic_kitten

My phone makes the paragraph spacing all over the place too. That looks like a great meal plan (and 2 cheesy nights a week is absolutely not too much!) and interesting spending breakdown too. And I’m intrigued by the experiment 😂

My Other spending category always seems to be around £100ish and I always think that’s way too much then when I look in detail I did need everything I bought and wasn’t frittering. 

EssexHebridean

My iPad occasionally introduces random new paragraphs - I've never been able to work out why but it's not possible to correct it when it happens! 

Your food planning sounds lovely - and two cheesey nights a week sounds like it's on the conservative side, to me!  

I'm with you on the giant river website too - tend not to browse as then I don't know what I "need" do I! when we do (genuinely) need something I do a bit of looking to find the best deal but that's about it. Very occasionally I'll add something to the basket while I think about it but mostly those things then get removed again. 

girlatplay

I should probably mention that the two cheesey nights are not the only meals with cheese involved, just that they are rather a lot of cheese in comparison with the others.  Tomorrow is a rice dish that has grated cheese through it and Friday is the gnocchi dish with blue cheese through it.  In fact, the shopping list (and subsequently the receipt) that I sent LMG to the shops with has 6 different kinds of cheese on it.  Not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed.

I have ordered a pair of wellies which I have wanted for a very long time.  I decided I would treat myself with Christmas money.  Christmas 2020.  I never got round to it and the money has been sitting in my account ever since.  I got them on a really good deal, £34 less than what I expected to pay.  No delivery charge.  Like I say, it's money from Ch2020 but will still make my Other spend category higher than it could have been this month.