Should itsthelittlethings spend less on coffee?

itsthelittlethings

Morning!

Doing overtime today, I was a bit confused when I woke up whether it was the weekend or a workday - the answer is both!

Did an Aldi shop yesterday, came to £36 which I think is very reasonable. I just need to get filo pastry which they didn’t have, and a few fresh herbs and some spices to make spanakopita and a curry this week. I also bought a kilo of decaf coffee which will hopefully see me through till payday. I have pretty much bust the grocery budget already embarrassingly enough. Need to look and see what’s done it, whether it’s stocking up and I’ll be ok for the rest of the month or whether I have just been massively extravagant. My coffee habit doesn’t help. I really don’t know how other people do it so cheaply. I don’t even really eat meat so it’s not that.

Have run into a challenge recording my spends. I used the Google Sheets budget template but I ran out of lines for spends (eek) and need to add some more but those lines don’t contribute to the formulae. I need to take a look and see if I can figure it out.

Right then, have a good day everyone and enjoy it. I’ve been given loads of tasks to get on with at work so I won’t be bored!

Organgrinder

Yes

itsthelittlethings said:

Morning!

Doing overtime today, I was a bit confused when I woke up whether it was the weekend or a workday - the answer is both!

Did an Aldi shop yesterday, came to £36 which I think is very reasonable. I just need to get filo pastry which they didn’t have, and a few fresh herbs and some spices to make spanakopita and a curry this week. I also bought a kilo of decaf coffee which will hopefully see me through till payday. I have pretty much bust the grocery budget already embarrassingly enough. Need to look and see what’s done it, whether it’s stocking up and I’ll be ok for the rest of the month or whether I have just been massively extravagant. My coffee habit doesn’t help. I really don’t know how other people do it so cheaply. I don’t even really eat meat so it’s not that.

Have run into a challenge recording my spends. I used the Google Sheets budget template but I ran out of lines for spends (eek) and need to add some more but those lines don’t contribute to the formulae. I need to take a look and see if I can figure it out.

Right then, have a good day everyone and enjoy it. I’ve been given loads of tasks to get on with at work so I won’t be bored!

It'll be the total cell. It will have a formula like =sum(B2:B16) . You just need to change the range in the brackets.

As for shopping. Every now and again I check my cupboards and freezer and plan my meals around what I have. 

Coffee wise I hardly ever buy coffee out. But if I do then it's McDonald's. I believe they now use bean to cup machines and whilst it's no match for my own it's pretty decent and inexpensive compared to Costa etc.

itsthelittlethings

I have radically cut down on buying coffee out which is saving me money. However I have started buying posher coffee to drink at home. I have one cup of caffeinated in the morning and about two decaf during the day, maybe three or even four at weekends. I use two tablespoons in each cup. It’s getting expensive.

MFWannabe

Two tablespoons?! Is that correct ? 

Or do you mean teaspoons?! 

dawnybabes

Yes

MFWannabe said:

Two tablespoons?! Is that correct ? 

Or do you mean teaspoons?! 

I’m presuming it’s ground coffee ? So perhaps tablespoons 🤣🤣. I drink strong black coffee but 2 tablespoons of instant and I’d be twitching 

itsthelittlethings

Ha ha that’s given me a laugh. Yes it’s two tablespoons of ground coffee per filter made coffee.

itsthelittlethings

Slow start to the day, I’ve run of of proper coffee (still have decaf but that was no help first thing in the morning). I finally dragged myself to Starbucks and had a coffee and bought a bag of beans. I had two cups there, got a free refill so it’s not all bad. Spent quite a pleasant hour chatting with friends on WhatsApp/ Instagram and drinking my coffee.

Overtime was good yesterday. I did all the tasks I’d been left and it was nice and quiet. I got a leftover cheese and ham sandwich which I’ve toasted for breakfast this morning.

Going to write my assignment (it’s only 500 words) and then do a gym session. I have some housework to do and then an online knitting workshop tonight.

I'm doing well with my weekly spending except I miscalculated yesterday and thought I had more money than I did so I bought a calendar for next year. Will have to rob Peter to pay Paul a little bit to account for that.

I’m going to see my mum next weekend and then might go to London the weekend after depending if I can save some money from the previous week.

Saver73

i think you mentioned in an earlier post you had a spreadsheet? I keep a handwritten list and running total day to day but also a simple spreadsheet of outgoings.  I list all my regular outgoings and then have a line for money in, money out and balance (added a formula to calculate the balance) so much less chance of miscalculating unless you input a figure wrong. You can see what your balance should be!

The spreadsheet could be adapted to add more lines for spends that don't fall into the regular outgoings category.

Impressed you are making spanakopita!  I've seen it made on bake off and other food programs but never done it myself.

itsthelittlethings

I have a spreadsheet but I was looking at my bank account. Some of my bills were showing as pending, but hadn’t been reflected in the balance yet. I took those direct debits mentally off the amount I know I pay for bills every month and then took what was left off my balance. Then when I had money leftover I didn’t realise what I’d done because I wanted to believe it. No real harm was done.

I did my first assignment for my course today and submitted it. Hopefully I will get the results fairly quickly. I quite enjoyed doing it. I rewarded myself with chocolate and tv this afternoon.