So now what?

debtfreeoneday

Tuesday

- £4.29 spend

Wednesday 

+£8.85 prolific 

-£13.40 spend 

- £7.29 spend 

£103.98 in the spending pot.

It really is an eye opener tracking spending like this. All of these spends are food, nipping to the shop for nibbles, so it doesn’t come out of the food budget and instead comes out of the spendy pot. The other spend was the chip shop. Again not budgeted for, but to be fair it’s been about 6 weeks since we had a chippy tea. 

It’s absolutely whenever my spending goes off kilter is foody bits, snacky stuff. Having to own it on here is a tad uncomfortable but I can’t hide from it. It’s £25 in two days. 😬

In other news, it’s been a busy few days doing this and that, nothing really of interest. Two loads of washing done yesterday but ended up using the tumble as it was raining here. Looking brighter today so off to do the fortnightly food shop and then out with some friends for the day. 

KajiKita

We allow ourselves one takeaway a month (unless there are exceptional circumstances such as vast amounts of heavy DIY). That way we get a periodic treat but it doesn’t get too spendy. 

Do you know what’s driving the food / nibbles spend? Is it not having snacks or lunch with you? Boredom? Thirst? If you can start to unpick this perhaps you can set up alternative plans? 

And, don’t be too hard on yourself. You are teaching yourself more habits. It takes time 😊

KK

Watty1

Tracking spending was probably the biggest bestest thing I did to start rebuilding my pots.  It was eye opening to see the amounts and think about the reasoning behind why. 
As a result I discovered a love of cooking again (when I am well) and accepted a higher food spend when I am not but also noticed random spends on "stuff" when i cannot sleep properly and figured out what that was about.

That ramble might not help you at all, but for me it was more about what is behind the random spends and how can I deal with that than just owning random spends. 

LadyWithAPlan

Yes I think many of us get quite appalled when first looking at every spend - but knowledge is power  

maybe you could start bulk baking biscuits or snacks to reduce the bought processed snacks as that way you can see the amount of sugar etc in them - they will be tastier and cheaper 
I eat junk when I am bored or stressed 

debtfreeoneday

LadyWithAPlan said:

Yes I think many of us get quite appalled when first looking at every spend - but knowledge is power  

maybe you could start bulk baking biscuits or snacks to reduce the bought processed snacks as that way you can see the amount of sugar etc in them - they will be tastier and cheaper 
I eat junk when I am bored or stressed 

That’s a great idea. Thanks LWAP. 

debtfreeoneday

KajiKita said:

We allow ourselves one takeaway a month (unless there are exceptional circumstances such as vast amounts of heavy DIY). That way we get a periodic treat but it doesn’t get too spendy. 

Do you know what’s driving the food / nibbles spend? Is it not having snacks or lunch with you? Boredom? Thirst? If you can start to unpick this perhaps you can set up alternative plans? 

And, don’t be too hard on yourself. You are teaching yourself more habits. It takes time 😊

KK

Another great idea. Once a month is totally doable. We ended up having pizza last night to the tune of £27 and I thought afterwards about how long it took me to ‘earn’ that £27 

debtfreeoneday

Watty1 said:

Tracking spending was probably the biggest bestest thing I did to start rebuilding my pots.  It was eye opening to see the amounts and think about the reasoning behind why. 
As a result I discovered a love of cooking again (when I am well) and accepted a higher food spend when I am not but also noticed random spends on "stuff" when i cannot sleep properly and figured out what that was about.

That ramble might not help you at all, but for me it was more about what is behind the random spends and how can I deal with that than just owning random spends. 

I know it me totally emotional eating. Stressed, sad, happy or otherwise I eat. Hence the need to lose some weight!

debtfreeoneday

I lost track a bit over the weekend with money in and out but today:

£7.15 in from prolific 
£10 in from shop scan to Amazon voucher 

£110.17 in the spendy pot. 

debtfreeoneday

Over a month has gone by again. Got hit by horrible cold flu virus which literally took me off my feet for about three weeks!

Current state of play. 

£10 earned today from shop and scan. 

£88.80 in the spendy pot. 

Having a very lazy bank holiday pottering about. 

debtfreeoneday

Sneaks back in again. Life has been busy and popping in here never seems to make it to the top of the to do list. 

As always when I don’t regularly come in I never seem to focus as much as I should do. So will try again to pop in more. 

PB win of £50 and I’ve decided to set myself a little challenge to see how much money I can make with that £50. 

Today is a pottering at home day.  I’ve recently reworked our budget and hope to use the summer to build up some pots of pennies. So I’ll try and catch up with some surveys today.