Thank you dear readers for reminding me that books can be borrowed from the local library. My copy of The Leopard is reserved and I'm looking forward to reading it in paper form for free.
So onto my third week's report of A Year of Less Spending. My week runs Tuesday – Monday as I started this challenge on September 1st which was a Tuesday.
My aims are to be more mindful of our general spending, to spend less on groceries and clothes (my weak areas) and to go back to basics with menu planning, using a spending diary and cooking more from scratch and in bulk. I hope that by the end of the year I'll have wasted less money on stuff and allocated more of our money for experiences and savings for future goals.
Here's a roundup of week 3.
Grocery shopping: £83.38 (budget £92 per week/£400 per month for four of us which includes food, household items and toiletries). This is my lowest spend to date. It includes £10.50 for a chippy tea as it was a busy weekend and we felt we deserved a break from cooking. I did buy some food for Sam to take back to uni (he went back on Sunday) which I haven't included in this figure. However, I'm very pleased with the total and week 4 should be low as there are now only three of us to feed. My stock take was more careful this week and the only item I bought which I didn't use was cheese.
Spending diary: This week I had zero 'no spend' days which is disappointing. I spent £51.10 on my big shop and tiny amounts on four other days. I need to be more organised. On Monday I had a dental check up but it was only the basic charge as there were no problems. Phew.
Motivation: My motivation remains high. I'm getting used to buying needs not wants. Keeping a spending diary certainly makes you a more mindful consumer.
Clothes shopping: My intention this month is to edit my clothes and not add to them. I promise to show you the results soon!
Treats: As well as chippy tea another treat was to visit Yorkshire Sculpture Park which involved costs of petrol, parking and coffee (we took our own lunch). Mum very kindly paid for most of this. I think the £8 parking fee for a full day at YSP is excellent value (there's no other entrance fee) and I feel sad when I hear people complaining about it. A woman at the ticket machine told me I'd need more than coins as it was so expensive – I kept my opinions to myself.
Temptations: No real temptations this week.
Menu: The menu this week was put together quickly and was a little dull. A gold star though for batch cooking enough spaghetti bolognese on Thursday for Sunday's evening meal and extra for the freezer.
As the menu was fairly dull I'll spare you any food photos and leave you with some ceramic poppies instead which we saw at the sculpture park.
Have you had a good spending week?