The Second Purse Thread

Coxy11

Hello everyone,

I’ve been thinking of reviving the Second Purse Challenge for a while and a post by @Frugalistamama spurred me on.

For those who don’t know about this way of grocery budgeting, I’ve linked the original posting by @Mothership below.

I intend to set aside £30 of my monthly food budget to look for bargains to stock my Second Purse shop. Not so many BOGOF bargains these days, but there are SM offers occasionally plus of course YS goods, Olio and TGTG bags plus Approved Food short-dated stockists.

Not sure what I’ll put the savings towards but in the past I’ve purchased a KitchenAid mixer, ski wear for the family and a Nomination bracelet and charms for myself. It takes a bit of time to shop around but it is worth it.

Original posting here:

January 2011 Grocery Challenge - Page 212 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Who wants to join me?
Coxy

mandco

I’ll join you 
Going to be stocking up on pet food that’s currently on offer anyway so that’s an ideal starting point.

Frugalistamama

Yay thank you @Coxy11

🥳

I will be joining in this really helped me out when things were dire and I was struggling to feed my family.

For others looking at this it's a bit complicated to start off with but just read though the previous instructions. Once you get the hang of it you can save quite a bit. Ask any questions on here.

I can't fund my second purse this month but I am well stocked up with bargains so will start paying my second purse from that and next month I will put some money in. I'm not sure how much yet. I'll see how much funds I can get from this month.

I might add the Lidl free products to my second purse when I get them. Maybe not the whole price but what I would want to pay. Eg I got a 30 pack of crisps for free that were £4. I'd never normally buy that but I would buy a 6 pack sometimes for the kids so I could add the price of the 6 pack into my second purse.

I will be using the savings to pay off debt.

My goal for my second purse is £100. Amounts over this will be transferred to my 3rd purse which I'll periodically send over towards debt payment.

Looking forward to it!

lushlifesaver

I'd like to join too, started this month with a small Costco shop most of which should last two, if not three, months. This month I accounted for it in my monthly shop but going forward I'd like to pop £25/30 a month away to fund these purchases. I think the other big one for us will be coffee, must keep an eye out for that on offer.

For the pets I will ideally shop in larger quantities but that will start in a couple of weeks and be their own budget due to how long the food lasts when I can buy larger amounts!

Coxy11

Hi all,

So glad that you want to join - was feeling lonely lol! I’m going to spend some time this week shopping for my shop. We moved house last year and have a much smaller kitchen, so I need to find space for storage. 

I had a quick look at Approved Food but tbh there wasn’t much of good value for me. Mainly pasta and crisps/snacks both of which I’m trying to cut down on!

lushlifesaver

Storage is an issue for us too, we are in a small rented house with no 'in built' storage and no loft access. We have a garage but that is mostly taken up with a moris minor my partner was given and hasn't been able to make a start on fixing up yet (dashed my hopes of getting some shelving up and weather/mouse proof boxes to create a back stock!)

My current list for second purse purchases is:
Coffee
the snack foods youngest (suspected autism and arfid) will eat on days he is struggling
toiletries (I try and combine the boots recycling scheme with offers like 3 for 2 etc. saving the points for Christmas)
Pet food/supplies - more so for the dog than the cat but I need to also buy a couple of big storage bins before i next bulk buy food!

joedenise

@Coxy11 - do you space under the bed you could use for storage of paper goods like loo rolls, kitchen towels etc or for tins.  Space at the bottom of wardrobes or on top of them.  It's amazing where you can find spaces to store things.  The biggest problem is remembering where you've put things until you get a place for everything and then use it regularly.

I have a wardrobe in the spare bedroom where I store quite a few things like toiletries, loo rolls etc.  I've also got a big larder cupboard in the kitchen.  It takes up a metre x metre of floor space but has amazing capacity!

Frugalistamama

I moved too last year and also have less space. But this time I don't want to have a massive stockpile. My aim is to be using it.  It's tempting just keep stocking 

mandco

Starting off the challenge with a big spend & plan on doing a Costco shop this month as haven’t been for a while so tweaking the challenge slightly to start.

Basically I’m going to buy the bits I’d be getting this month anyway and any bulk buys I’ll count towards the challenge and I’ll then buy them back to fill my purse.  

Going forward I think I’m going to aim for adding £30 a month into the purse.

bulk buy of kitten food in tesco for our imminent new arrivals and hopefully enough to last till they’re ready to be rehomed = £82 on offer 4 for 3 - buy back value £109 = £27 extra in 2nd purse once paid back
however one of the items was £3.50 in Tesco it’s £4.75 in sains which is my local store so going to split the difference and buy back at £4 a pack which will add an extra £6 into my 2nd purse.

Coxy11

Good storage ideas there @joedenise. Yes can store things under our bed (it's a bed frame) but have realised in a doh(!) moment that we have a walk-in cupboard in the en-suite with shelving. The top shelves and floor space is empty but not for long..... I saw a loo roll offer on Prime - DS2 has a Prime membership so have just ordered 2 x 45 packs for £22.32 which should keep us going for a while lol. It's the Cu$helle brand and they work out to 25p a roll. Buying smaller packs with my weekly shop mounts up so this is a win for me.

We took a Hay$ travel currency card to the US with us and it had an £18.36 balance so I topped it up by £4 and have cleared it by using it for the loo rolls. Will take the remaining £8 of my 2nd purse out with me to see if I can spot anything else for stock.

joedenise

Will your "buy" back the loo rolls when you use them into your second purse?  If so will that be at the 25p a roll they cost on offer or what the full price would be to replace them?

Well done on using the currency to pay for the loo rolls.