My plans for this year included saving as much money as I can which means getting my monthly living expenses down to a third of my take home salary. Easiest way to do this is to cut my supermarket costs. Every time I visited one last month I wrote on my kitchen whiteboard the amount spent and totaled it up at the end of the month. The first large amount was a restock of my storecupboard as I'd lasted a month without a big shop. The small amounts were when I popped into Lidl on my way home from work to get some fresh fruit and vegetables.
I'm mostly feeding myself and occasionally OH and his Teenogre but haven't yet worked out what a sensible average monthly spend should be. The £186.20 includes food AND everything else like toilet paper, bin bags, toothpaste etc. I really enjoy seeing how other bloggers cut their food costs by doing different challenges and admire how they work out what each meal costs. I'm not at that stage (yet) so for now am happy to do a general supermarket tally. Taking a look at my past supermarket totals, that's a huge improvement already!!
Throughout January I've been saving and drying my citrus peels to use as firelighters. I think it was my friend Sarah who mentioned it (?) Anyhoo I gave it a go and used them last night to light the woodburner, with mixed success! They were rather sparky but smelled lovely 😊
I bet they smelt wonderful. I always wonder how people calculate their supermarket bills, I spend a lot on animal food and litter and always need treats in for visiting children, but never buy meat or alcohol, whereas I see a lot of frugal bloggers buy huge amounts of both, you look as if you are doing ok.
ReplyDeleteI buy my dried dog food and chicken feed in bulk and have a separate 'animal costs' budget, so they're not in my supermarket total. I'm finding I'm buying less meat and am experimenting with vegan dishes. That definitely reduces food costs!
DeleteIt looks like you're doing well. I find it's good to keep tally of what I am spending as it can sometimes surprise me as to where my money goes. I am in awe of the bloggers who do these challenges. X
ReplyDeleteI'm finding keeping a tally of various costs help me concentrate more. I'm loving Sue's rationing challenge atm
DeleteI dry the citrus peel as well...with lightings in a tray on the woodburner x
ReplyDeleteI think I need to practise a bit more with them as they kept going out!
DeleteYes, was me :)
ReplyDeleteThought it was!! I'm always getting useful tips from you :-) xxx
DeleteWe’re doing the same. Costs are really high here in Australia. One mango $3 an avocado is $4. But what I do know is that we are lowering what we spend and compared to others we’re like church mice. So. That’s a good start.
ReplyDeleteMangoes and avocados are expensive here too :-( If I can't get yellow stickered ones I use frozen mango chunks. They're rather good. And a big freezer chain has started doing bags of frozen avocados but I've not been able to get any yet to try them.
DeleteI keep a close eye on what I spend but not how - I don't split it out into food, non-food, etc, but I do note things like petrol, clothes, etc, because usually they are separate payments so it's easy. We do what works for us, don't we?
ReplyDeleteJ x
You're absolutely right. What works for some won't work for others. Interestingly I've noticed my monthly credit card payment has dropped significantly since recording my supermarket spends. It's having a knock on effect :-)
DeleteAldi helps here in the US but does not do the yellow stickers as you have nor do the markets here do vouchers. I also shop the local fruit and veg stand as they buy in bulk and also grow some pesticide free stuff which is lower than the supermarket. I wish I could have a veggie patch but no can do here...
ReplyDeleteAldi and Lidl are brilliant aren't they? Hunting yellow stickers takes time (ie shopping daily) so when I find some it's a bonus. Plus supermarkets have wised up and only take a little bit off at first. It's rare to get a really good deal now
DeleteI also dry my citrus peels but grind them up with black pepper to make citrus pepper seasoning. It's lovely on chicken, fish or even roasted veg.
ReplyDeleteOooo, I'll need to give that a try!
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