This week's been quite interesting, not least beginning to really learn the value of quiet times in our own home, and how just small job like tidying a shelf that has been annoying us can make our enjoyment of that home all the greater. We had some more snow at the weekend, and also a meeting one evening with a group of neighbours who we intend to form a group with to fight against something occurring locally to us - I may well write more on that in the future but not quite yet. In several cases these were people who we live really close to and yet we've never had a conversation with before. It's nice to build some more local links.
Our Grocery shopping this week has cost me the cash total of £3.87 thanks to that £5 Morrisons voucher. I did change plans slightly - the milk was bought from Tesco as they are cheaper for the 4pt bottle I wanted. Mushrooms likewise came from Tesco - I needed them for cooking on Sunday and didn't shop until Monday - their Value ones are currently British so I was happy to buy them. I dropped the bread flour from the list as it's currently more expensive than I am willing to pay in Morrisons - I'll get it at Lidl (Thanks Scarlet for the suggestion) or failing that, Sainsburys. I added eggs to my list of purchases as they were on special offer and I will need them next week in any case, also a large pack of cream crackers - we're trying Morrisons own brand for a change - and a pack of dried stew & soup mix - the type that can just be thrown by the handful into dishes that are being slow-cooked. I also had a little nose around the various basic-brand items that Morrisons do with a view to buying those in the future. I already know that their "Savers" toasting teacakes are some of the nicest we've tried as I got a load yellow stickered the other week so we'll be buying those again - happy to pay the full price of 50p a pack, but if we can get them at 9p again then so much the better!
Personal spending is still low - Since the challenge has begun from the £60 I have withdrawn from the bank I have put aside £20 for Clarinet lessons, and just £8.55 has been spent elsewhere. I currently have £22 in my purse - the other loose change has gone into savings as usual. We had a night in the pub with a pal on Friday - I bought a round of drinks but as we were all drinking beer it's far more pocket-friendly than wine, or spirits, and we elected to walk home rather than getting the bus. It was a fine dry night, if cold, and we felt that the walk would do us good. The just under four miles took us a little under an hour. In with the change I have received when I have spent I've been given 4 x £2 coins which have gone into my "Don't Know What For" Savings pot. A group of good friends and I have all elected to save our £2 coins through the year to see how many we end up with - after a shaky start when the country's entire supply of the wretched things seemed to be hiding out in Sheffield, they must have escaped and be making their way south again now I think! It'll be interesting to see how many we each end up with, although as someone who doesn't spend actual "cash" very much (a lot of our spending is done either via the Clubcard Plus, or on the Cashback card) I'm certainly not going to be counting out a fortune in December!
We've started to think along the lines of perhaps utilising the grocery money we are saving this month, and the freezer space we're gaining, by purchasing a whole lamb again. You might remember we did that once before, I blogged about it then. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, from stripping every scrap of meat that we could, from the bones, to choosing which bits to mince and which to dice, and then working out what recipes would best suit each cut...we kept a note of each meal we got from it, and astonished ourselves at the end how cheap the "per meal" price ended up. So far, after two weekly shops, we have spent just £17 of our £150 per month Clubcard Plus money, so it may well be that we decide to dedicate some of the savings to some Devon-reared happy meat freezer filling goodness!
Total spends to date are all on the "Simplify It 2013" page, and I am pleased to say I can declare a run of 5 consecutive "No Spend Days" from Sunday to yesterday, inclusive! Impressive, eh?! Shopping this week is Sainsburys, and I aim to get the best value I can possibly squeeze out of those £12.50 worth of Nectar points! And here's the shopping list...
Robyn
4 comments:
Everything is looking very organised and successful in your household so far this year.I currently have a freezer full of pheasants but once I make some space I'm also thinking of bulk buying either lamb or beef.
The lamb worked out so well when we did it before we honestly wouldn't hesitate to do the same again. I'm going to contact the people we bought from before so let me know if you want the details of them and I'll email you. They were very good and their packaging was superb.
Looking great here! I don't know much about morrisons, there's not one here but I hear they are frequent on the mainland and often see them in Scotland, so m watching with interest. Tea cakes already on the to try list :-)
I know you will Keep up the good work you're over half way!
If I had the option to shop in Morrisons all the time, I probably would. They compare well on price to T's, and are far cheaper than S's, and a nicer shopping experience than A's....and the cheap teacakes are indeed delicious!
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