This week I managed to spend a total of £55.19 on food and toothpaste, we have worked our way through the toothpaste stash and so I had to buy a new pack. I have searched and searched but have been unable to find our favourite on special offer anywhere at the moment, I will have to keep looking.
I bought lots of fresh foods and three bags of frozen veggies that should see us nicely through until I have some crops growing outside, (lots of seeds are now in, some of them already peeking through the soil).
As well as spending from the £2 House Keeping Challenge money tin I also spent some of my personal spends this week, all of my last few weeks savings in fact. I had my hair cut, and then decided to treat us to a Bento box each. As we are cutting down on carbs Lovely Hubby doesn't take sandwiches to work anymore and we didn't want to take any for when we are travelling preferring instead to take a tub of salad, these boxes are insulated and keep your salad lovely and cool, ideal for when LH can't get his lunch into the works fridge if he's busy in meetings.
I also got myself a replacement timer, so no more clock watching or worrying if the old one would work. My final purchase was four more dinner plates.
Because during our 'Year of Less', we've decided that less food on our plates can only be better for our waistlines, and the large emptier looking plates looked so sad. Therefore with smaller plates they will look fuller and we will hopefully think we have eaten more.
As usual my new purchases were white this way all our crockery is matching, a brilliant tip I picked up from Jane over at The Maple Syrup Mob. It also saves lots of time when choosing anything new we need as we just head to the white section on the shelves, and any breakages can easily be replaced without the need for whole new sets of crockery or mismatching.
Now I'm off to plan out my Challenge for next month, I have to do something I've spent a lot more than I meant to on food this month although I guess in comparison to other years for us, and other folks weekly food budget this year we are doing pretty well up to now.
Up to date, by clever shopping and making good use of vouchers and points as well as money earnt through recommendations I have only spent a total of £338 on food which works out at an average of £18.70 a week for the last 18 weeks.
I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself :-)
Sue xx
Good idea about white dinner plates!
ReplyDeleteHi Sue, great post as usual. We take lunch every day to work, always sandwiches. What do you make up to take? Linda x
ReplyDeleteWe do the white crockery thing now. I bought a set a few years ago for the same reason, but of course, since then we have not broken a single item - even travelling around in the motorhome for over a year!! You would not believe, the only things that broke were the 'unbreakable' acrylic tumblers. No you should not be so hard on yourself - you are doing fantastically well with your Housekeeping Challenge - you are not resorting to the budget buys for everything, and are eating far more healthily too - just as important as having your 'forever house' is to be fit and healthy enough to enjoy it!!
ReplyDeleteYes you are doing brilliantly! I just know that you will make it to the end of the year Sue!
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of those lunch boxes, thanks for recommending them.
Sft x
We also do the white crockery thingy, apart from my fave spotty mugs :-)
ReplyDeleteI think you are doing amazing with your housekeeping challenge, your shopping always looks really fresh and healthy. The frozen veggies are great for spreading out the shoping trips. Those cool pots look a great idea, when we picnic in the summer we take a salad box each then if we have the cream tea it isn't so bad lol
Karen x
Don't you just hate just how much packaging there is on a good shop?
ReplyDeleteGood idea using the smaller plates. We have 3 (different coloured) small dinner plates that I got for nothing at my friend's garage sale and we use those for our meals. I did do the white dinner thing when we moved into our new home but have actually changed and now just buy odd plates and do the mix n match thing instead. I just enjoy a variety of colours these days.
ReplyDeleteWell done on your challenge so far, you are really doing so well!
Judy xx
That's a very healthy shop Sue! :)
ReplyDeleteI do the white crockery thing too, so much easier (and cheaper!)
:)
Another supporter of the white plate movement here:)
ReplyDeleteA very healthy looking set of ingredients Sue can't wait to see the meal plan
Ikea budget range white crockery is very good value.About 5 years ago I bought 10 white plates and they were about 39p each.i still have 9 left! I have their cutlery too. Toothpaste can be a huge expense. Even in my my local 99p store a tube of colgate is quite small.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely shouldn't be too hard on yourself - you're doing a great job with an average weekly spend of less than £20!
ReplyDeleteHave you used your Bento boxes yet? Were they a success? Something I've swayed about getting in the past but was never sure they were worth it from all the hype.