Day 38: New month

 

It's a new month so I arranged for my big monthly shop to be delivered first thing this morning.  By 8.30am it was all packed away with a chicken roasting in the oven and a gammon joint in the Crockpot.  This cost me £105.03 plus £2 for the saver delivery slot!!  It really doesn't look much.

Last month I set myself the challenge of getting my food and supermarket shopping down to £120 a month (£30 a week) plus a £10 treat allowance.  I spent £122.74 plus £11.22 on 'treats' so I'm rather pleased I got close!  And I still have plenty of stuff in the storecupboard/fridge/freezer from that.

Fridge items to last the month.  I'll need to top up on the fresh salad stuff that my garden and plot can't produce.  I'll go to my big Lidl for that.

Storecupboard items

My vitamins and anti histamines will last the month but the cold and flu tablets are for my Winter first aid kit.  During lockdown, paracetamol etc was hard to get so I like to keep a decent stash just in case!! 

And these are my holiday treat items.  I'm going away for a few days with my Gin Queen friends so I'm packing some GF items that I can rely on if I need them.  I do have a holiday budget (accommodation is free as it's my friend's holiday lodge) but it will be interesting to see how much it costs me overall.  

I've not been on a holiday since Christmas 2019 when I went to see my son in Melbourne.  One of my friends has already been to Cyprus for a week and then London for a week.  My other friend has been to Shetland for a week and stayed in her lodge for 2 weeks.  I've always preferred staying home for the Summer holiday and going away at the October break or at Easter so this wee break is my only 'Summer holiday.'  But I'm ok with that 😊

Day 7 and a new challenge

 

Today's job on the plot was to thoroughly weed the polytunnel!  The tomatoes are growing well with lots of flowers, the bell pepper plants are bigger and the self seeded nasturtiums and calendula are thriving.  But once the weeds were out I could see big gaps where I could easily plant some more edibles.  I'll take my seed tins tomorrow and see what I can do to fill those gaps!  Definitely lettuce and maybe beetroot.

I planted up the 2 barrel tubs beside my shed with some bargain echinacea plants I got from Sarah Raven last year and the rock daisies from my Dobbies haul.  They look a wee bit sad but hopefully they'll perk up.  I've got a few echinacea plants at home as well.  I'd love to have a go at making my own tincture as it's good for boosting the immune system when you've got a cold.

I picked some raspberries to freeze although I ate a lot more than I saved!! Ooops!  They were perfectly delicious 😋

As it's the start of a new month I thought I'd take a deeper look at some aspects of my spending in the first 6 months of the year.  I started with my supermarket shopping.  I added everything I spent in Sainsbury's, Tesco and Lidl since January and divided it by 6 to get a monthly average and then by 4 to get a weekly average.  Then I googled the average cost of food for a single household in the UK.  Interesting article HERE with some links to ways to save on food.

The average spend is between £27 and £40 per week depending on your income.  My average spend is £36.  Definitely on the higher end but that includes all my non food items too (toilet roll, dishwasher tablets, shampoo etc)  The article doesn't say if their numbers are just food alone.  

So I'm setting myself a new challenge to lower that amount to £30 per week maximum or £120 per month for all food and household items.  I've ordered a Sainsbury's delivery for tomorrow (Sat) using their saver slot (£2) to start off the month and hopefully can score a few Lidl veg boxes to keep me going the rest of the July.

I'm also going to allow myself a £10 treat allowance (stealing Vivi's idea!!) so if I fancy some crisps or a magazine then it's already in the budget!!