Diary of a reformed shopaholic (I hope)

joedenise

Anything which heats up like all your appliances and electric shower all use a load of energy.  You could save a bit of electric by washing at a lower temperature.  Most stuff is fine washed at 40 or even 30 degrees.  I wash nearly everything at 40.  If you use a high spin speed your washing would be dryer and wouldn't need to be tumbled so long.  Although the cheapest way to dry washing of course is outside on a line!  Even with the horrible weather we've been having I've managed to get all my washing dry outside.  Sometimes if the weather is iffy I'll hang it out for 2-3 hours and then finish off in the tumble dryer, usually only needs about 20 minutes to finish off which is far  better than the couple of hours it often takes straight from the washing machine.

You also save money by making full use of your oven.  You say that you cooked 2 meals in the oven day before yesterday, I assume you meant separately, if so you could have cooked them at the same time and then just reheated them by using the microwave or a pan on the hob depending on what it was.  In fact a microwave uses far less electricity so could you perhaps make more use of that rather than the oven?

shoppingobsessed2020

Thanks, we don’t have a microwave so not sure how to get round that one as I hate the things as they take up so much space and only get used here for soup or beans hence why I got rid of it when we re did the kitchen.  

Lockdown isn’t a great time to start looking at ways to cut back energy use I’ve decided.  I’m have been reducing the tumble dryer usage as that’s an easy one but it’s been raining on and off the last 2 days so couldn’t get anything dry outside.  

I have hung a load out this morning in the hope it will be dry by lunchtime as it’s supposed to rain this afternoon.

im going to use the lockdown time to monitor appliance usage.  I’m relatively switched on and know heat producing appliances use more energy but it shocked me yesterday when we had barely done anything.  We don’t have a bath so it’s shower only in this house till we redo the bathroom but I think even then I still want to keep an electric shower (growing up we had an electric shower and if the boiler went funny as it often did we could still have a shower and get ready whilst waiting for the plumber, my boiler likes to loose pressure  every so often and whilst I do re pressurise it myself I’m not sure I want to be faffing doing that on a morning when getting ready for work - well it’s a long time till we redo the bathroom anyway so just my ramblings).

shoppingobsessed2020

£36.24 to the milkman for last months milk, orange juice and eggs.

£55.24/£250 spent.  Have a supermarket delivery coming this evening so need to work out how much I’ve spent as my neighbours and parents asked me to get them some bits.

starting to feel a bit panicked, we are not even half way through the first week and I’ve already spent a chunk of my budget.

savingholmes

Remember a dishwasher uses less water than doing it by hand. 

shoppingobsessed2020

Ouch.  My grocery spend is £101.14/£250.  Yikes I must do better as that’s not even week 1 done and dusted with.  The only small consolation is there is £8.50 to come back to me due to substitutes that I did not want.  I know that’s a risk you take when ordering online but some common sense is needed.  Salt and vinegar crisps instead of chicken!  Dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.  So I don’t know if I should include that refund in my grocery spend or not?  It’s included for now.

next week I’ve got to go to Costco for my parents who are isolating and need some bits so I’m hoping I reign my spending in and they accept cash and that way I can leave my card at home and just use my cash.  My dad will bank transfer me what they owe when I’ve shopped for them.

shoppingobsessed2020

Actually total of refund amount is included above as they will give me a voucher to redeem for future shops so I’m ok with that.  It’s quicker to accept the voucher than wait for a card refund.

joedenise

Might be worth phoning Costco to make sure they'll accept cash as a lot of shops aren't accepting cash now where I live, they all want contactless if possible.

shoppingobsessed2020

Thanks @joedenise I haven’t actually been to a physical shop in over 2 months now so im a bit out the loop with what is allowed or not.  I’ll take my purse and then if I can use cash great if not I’ll just use my bank card.  I’ll need my bank card anyway as I’ll top my car up with fuel whilst I’m there as it’s so much cheaper than the local garages.

Drawingaline

Yes you have spent a bit in a short space of time. But there will now be a gap where you won't spend. Last mo th I spent so much on food in one week, but the following weeks were much much lower. And as food is pretty much all we are buying atm a slight temporary increase isn't the end of the world (except to my weight! 😂) 

shoppingobsessed2020

Had a no spend day today.  However the shopping compulsion is there!  Found myself browsing le cruset and John Lewis for new crockery!  Yes our current set is old and we need a few more pasta bowls but not at the expense of a few hundred quid on expanding our le cruset collection!  However when dh gets that promotion I’m going to treat myself to a new mug.  I have a thing for mugs, it needs to be a BIG mug as im always in the kitchen getting a cuppa. 

i had a blow out argument with monkey boy.  I’m the worst mummy in the world this evening (his words).  My crime, I told him no way when he asked for a Chinese takeaway although I did do him a fakeaway instead.  chicken and noodles with a jar of sweet and sour sauce with a bag of prawn crackers, tasty less calories and a £30 saving.  He still wasn’t happy hence the argument.  Lockdown is finally getting to us it seems.

After that I found myself browsing so as I can’t eat my emotions anymore it seems I want to shop them instead.  

Well I am going to go put the kitchen to bed and then grab a shower and settle in for a self pity film night.  I’m actually really looking forward to it as I’ll do my nails and have a face mask on whilst wallowing in what a rubbish parent I’ve been (I know I’m not but I am) as I’ve raised a child that’s never really had no said to him.  He has for the big ticket items but not the small day to day things as what’s a takeaway here, trampoline park there, yes to a friend sleeping over whenever he wants on a weekend, sports equipment replaced when he needs it and no having to wait and make do, so he is spoilt and needs a reality check just as much as me probably even more so as I don’t want him to go this route ever!