I'm into week 7 of A Year of Less Spending. I'm very happy to give you a report of week 6 as it was a good week :)
Grocery shopping: £73.95 (budget £92 per week/£400 per month for three/four of us which includes food, household items and toiletries). This is my lowest spend to date. £75 is where my grocery spending is hovering when it's just the three of us (our eldest is away at uni) but I'm sure I can reduce this further.
Spending diary: There were two no spend days (day 6 and 7). I was determined to not go over £75 on groceries and having two no spending days definitely helped. My spending diary makes dull reading this week as all I spent money on (other than regular outgoings) was food and petrol. Other spending included a Saturday paper, church collection money and a donation for a gift for a colleague going on maternity leave at school. We had a buffet this lunchtime to send her on her way – pizza and cupcakes.
Motivation: I'm still very motivated and trying to get each week's spending a little lower than the last. I feel motivated to get more organised and disciplined with my menu planning and grocery shopping as I know spending less on this will leave more room for maneuver in our budget in future months.
Clothes shopping: My spick and span wardrobe is quite happy as it is thank you. I'm still getting pesky clothes brochures through the post though which I recycle immediately.
Treats: The weekend was spent quietly tidying the garden, decluttering our tiny shed and walking in the woods. This was enough to give us a break from the working week. There were no cafe visits just homemade fruit cake to come home to which was too dry if I'm honest but was still eaten with glee.
Temptations: Staying away from virtual and actual shops is keeping my spending urges at bay. I've never browsed clothes online very much but now I know there's no point or joy in it for me right now.
Menu: The week started with scrambled eggs for tea for two as our youngest was out. This was good for both weight control and budget control. Friday tea was from the freezer as I'd worked that day and it was supplemented by curry side dishes from the reduced section of our nearest (deluxe) supermarket. We had curry whilst Marcus had shepherd's pie. Other meals included homemade pizza, chicken tray bake (with loads of veg) and jacket potatoes with fillings from the freezer. As well as chilli I also found a tub of veg tagine lurking in the freezer which went well with the jacket potatoes. I think I made it early in the summer (it was unlabelled, tut, tut) and I wish I could remember where the recipe was from as it was delicious. Tonight we ate Jamie's broccoli and pesto tagliatelle (Jamie's Ministry of Food) for the second time. A squeeze of lemon improved it for us but Marcus said he thought it needed chicken. He would eat meat at every meal whereas we prefer most meals without it. Saying that, he had two very large helpings!
I'll leave you with some glimpses into week 6. Week 7 is busier for us and it could potentially be more of a challenge to stay on track with the budget. I'll let you know!
