Really important this, for things like loo roll, and cleaning products. How often do I just buy things out of habit, or because they're on offer? I currently have 5 rolls of loo roll (decent stuff) and 2 packs of the stuff that's usually on offer in Home Bargains or Farmfoods and only gets used as a last resort.
This is my staple stock for cleaning now, along with lots and lots of hot water. The lemon vinegar is probably ready to be 'decanted', but that's a job for another day.
Going shopping with a 'proper' list, rather than buying things out of habit. Consciously checking the fridge and the freezer, and realising that NO I don't need to buy another pizza, we can survive until next weekend.
I've been shopping to Tesco, and bumped into an ex work colleague who thought I'd only just started shopping, when in fact I was on my way to the till. This was things to top up what I've got, in order to make a meal. The reason I was in Tesco, rather than friendly local shop was simple. I've got vouchers so decided to use some of them. Cost of shopping £18.32 of which £5.45 was spent on drinks for J, and £5 was on some flowers for sister (birthday present) so the actually grocery part of the shop was only £7.87, so I decided not to use the vouchers after all.
I've taken some ham out of the freezer, which was frozen at Christmas, and will be having that for sandwiches during the week.
All in all, not too bad, and unlike my lovely friend at Peppermintpot I'm still 'sort of' in budget.
We'll see how next month goes, as I won't have a fully stocked freezer to fall back on.
We're going to have the same issues if we continue through next month with the grocery challenge. having said that I still think it's doable to aim for a fairly small spend through the month - we'll see!
ReplyDeleteI've loved the way that this whole challenge has made me stop and think about things.