A Paupers Pension Tale (Not many nuts to dig up)

sheslookinhot

My budget for food and household items is £600 per month, (3 adults) actual spend is around that budget give or take 10%.

Daughter is moving to her own house in a few weeks, will be interesting to see our actual spend when she flies.

Amateurretiree

Two of us, non drinkers for most of the year, spend about £300 a month on food/toiletries etc. That’s enough to stock up on coffee etc when it’s on special offer. Could probably spend less but seem to have got into the habit of providing toilet roll for son’s household!

cfw1994

SuperSecretSquirrel said:

<snip>

We used to spend a fair amount on top eating out and on the occasional takeaway, but we stopped that during the first lockdown and the habit hasn't really returned.

We took the lockdown as our National Duty to ensure we helped our favourite takeaways keep going & probably had more 🤪

Started when our local microbrewery did take-outs....well, it's a dirty job, but a pal & I cycled to it religiously, worshipping at the Church of the Mash & Press at least once a week, sometimes more last year 😎🍻

Pleased to say they all survived: just doing our bit!

bluenose1 said:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/satay-sweet-potato-curry

Will have a look at that, thanks - the BBC Good Food site is our go-to for menus - despite 3 shelves of cookery books - many great recipes there!

kipsterno1

Sea_Shell said:

It includes actual holidays, and magazine subs

Have you looked at the 'libby' app for magazines? Most local authority libraries have a link if you have a library card. I can currently access over 180 magazines for free on my tablet. 

Sea_Shell

kipsterno1 said:

Sea_Shell said:

It includes actual holidays, and magazine subs

Have you looked at the 'libby' app for magazines? Most local authority libraries have a link if you have a library card. I can currently access over 180 magazines for free on my tablet. 

Its only the Radio Times!!!!    But that's where I categorise it.    DH wouldn't want an app version of that.   It sits on the coffee table and is just there, to be flicked through.

jimi_man

sheslookinhot said:

My budget for food and household items is £600 per month, (3 adults) actual spend is around that budget give or take 10%.

Daughter is moving to her own house in a few weeks, will be interesting to see our actual spend when she flies.

Similar to us. Around £150 p/w for four adults, including alcohol and toiletries. That's almost exclusively at Sainsbury's with the odd local butcher foray thrown in. A lot of that is the (adult) children who eat and drink a fair amount.

We've budgeted for £80 p/w for the two of us - at Sainsbury's.

bluenose1

kipsterno1 said: Have you looked at the 'libby' app for magazines? Most local authority libraries have a link if you have a library card. I can currently access over 180 magazines for free on my tablet. 

Wow, @kipsterno1. Use Libby every night to read books on my kobo. Had no idea re the magazines and newspapers. Can’t believe all the magazines there are and quality is brilliant on my iPad.

Amazing that they are all free. Many thanks for the recommendation. 

Ceme3000

Some Libraries also give you direct access to the Pressreader App where there are thousands of daily newspapers and magazines.  I've just flicked through today's daily papers on it.

If your library supports it (I know Shropshire and Bedfordshire do to name two), then all you do is download the Pressreader App then when you login choose library. You then enter your library card number and pin number.  Check your library website to see if they support it. Other Libraries may give you access to the Pressreader website via libby (South Gloucestershire do it this way for example) 

You can join your library online, you don't have to visit, and your card and pin number is given to you immediately, so you can be up and running on libby or pressreader within a few minutes.

Sea_Shell

Ceme3000 said:

Some Libraries also give you direct access to the Pressreader App where there are thousands of daily newspapers and magazines.  I've just flicked through today's daily papers on it.

If your library supports it (I know Shropshire and Bedfordshire do to name two), then all you do is download the Pressreader App then when you login choose library. You then enter your library card number and pin number.  Check your library website to see if they support it. Other Libraries may give you access to the Pressreader website via libby (South Gloucestershire do it this way for example) 

You can join your library online, you don't have to visit, and your card and pin number is given to you immediately, so you can be up and running on libby or pressreader within a few minutes.

Wow, thanks for that.  Our library is on the list!!  Just logged on.

Works best on a bigger device, bit small on a phone, but the option to just read the text articles works well.

Annie1612

I downloaded the Libby app a couple of days ago and apart from magazines, it seems all the other material consists of audio books which I sadly don’t get on with. I’m guessing it depends on what your particular library provides or am I missing the readable books section perhaps?