Redsquirrel's 'Striving For Better Days' Diary

Karmacat

Blimey, £150 between now and Christmas????? That *sounds* horrific, but actually.... I'm single, and I allow £10 a week for fresh food, which is £130 between now and Christmas, roughly. And £50 a month for a supermarket shop, which is another £300. And I have a *lot* in my storecupboards, cos I did a big shop at Mr T to qualify for a big discount.

Okay, I'm on - my normal budget for food between now and Christmas would be £450 (good lord, put that way it sounds a lot) I'll try to cut that down. Its basically £25 a week, averaged out, if I cut that down to .... no, lets go for the challenge that you're on. £150 between now and Christmas! Wow!

I better get growing with that mustard and cress!

redsquirrel80

Excellent KC, it'll be great to compare notes!! Must admit I don't think I have the patience to work out the costs of my meals everyday (especially not for 6 months) so will just be counting what I spend as I go along. Although having said that I'll definitely be doing some costings out of interest, for example yesterday was..

Toast for breakfast - about 2p (2 slices from reduced loaf of bread)
Lunch - free at training course
Snack - banana - about 12p?
Tea - pasta (6.8p) + 1/8 tin tomatoes (2.6p) + homegrown onion (free) + little bit of cabbage (5p) + homegrown chilli (free) + 1/8 pack of cheese (18p) = 32.4p

---

Total for day 46.4p

Now, if I'm including cleaning products etc, do I have to work out how many squares of toilet roll and grammes of soap I used...? :rotfl:

Karmacat

Oh my god, I never thought of costing each meal... :eek: and thats a tiny amount to eat, I eat *waaay* more than that. It will definitely be a question of counting up what I spend, I *know* I won't cost each meal for 6 months. It'll be a bit of a storecupboard challenge too.

Karmacat

Oh my god, I never thought of costing each meal... :eek: and thats a tiny amount to eat, I eat *waaay* more than that. It will definitely be a question of counting up what I spend, I *know* I won't cost each meal for 6 months. It'll be a bit of a storecupboard challenge too.

Thanks for this, redsquirrel! :beer:

Off now to do my mystery shop (I get £1 to help with groceries!)

redsquirrel80

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

Well done, she is one of the reasons i am doing the same as well. I have a bit more to play with as am budgetting for 4, so it works out at 55p each, even so you will be surprised when costing up meals what it can come to.

here is a link you maybe interested in

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=750489

And i am doing it trying to fit it around SW!!Not too bad at mo, but buying all the fruit can be a pain, especially as my lot eat it! And i prefer HM bread to the cardboard which passes as a healthy extra.

Thanks Bob - that looks like it'll be really handy!

There's a few things that I can't decide where to put.. namely, if I do buy lunch or snacks out... those sneaky bottles of wine (though I really should have less of them, so maybe including them in the budget will help me cut down!).. the odd occasion when I have to feed other people.. and whether things like make up and perfume come under 'toiletries'.. hmmm....

redsquirrel80

Karmacat wrote: »

Oh my god, I never thought of costing each meal... :eek: and thats a tiny amount to eat, I eat *waaay* more than that. It will definitely be a question of counting up what I spend, I *know* I won't cost each meal for 6 months. It'll be a bit of a storecupboard challenge too.

Thanks for this, redsquirrel! :beer:

Off now to do my mystery shop (I get £1 to help with groceries!)

You didn't see how much I had for lunch - well, it was free, I had to! :rotfl:

Have a good shop!

redsquirrel80

Doing quite well with today's list, quiet at work (again) so got the job application completely finished and submitted - really fancy this one, so fingers crossed!

(Land_of)_Maz

Why not allocate yourself £30 for sneaky bottles of wine between now and christmas?

And deduct from your budget as you go?

redsquirrel80

Maz3374 wrote: »

Why not allocate yourself £30 for sneaky bottles of wine between now and christmas?

And deduct from your budget as you go?

That's an idea.. comes to about 12 bottles of Tesco's cheapest!

Have decided so far that make up and perfume is going to be bought as far as possible with vouchers/ Advantage Card points, and any extra will come out of my weekly spends budget - I don't normally count it in my grocery budget, so it'd be a silly time to start.

Still can't decide about meals for other people, I'll deal with that when it happens! Am going to add in things like lunch/ snacks at work, to basically try and stop me buying them. Planned meals out, e.g. going for dinner for friend's birthday next week, will come out of weekly spends not grocery budget.

Oh and food bought with Clubcard vouchers, or vouchers from surveys, or by somebody else (parents often do this when they visit) is 'free'

boredofbeingathome

sounds like a plan squizz, i havent included a wine budget in every day stuff..so must look at that..cleaning stuff, i already have tons at mo, so am working my way through that.
And i agree about free food....