Frugal Friday

Frugal February - end of week 1.

1 down, three to go and so far, so good. Shopping last week went to plan - Meal plan & list, albeit I did make some considered changes while actually shopping but for the best reasons I think.
Started at Lidl - leeks. 2 x 69p for good sized packs.
ThaT supermarkeT saw our main shop although I had in mind what I had on my list for Aldi also.  We grabbed MrEH's pears in T's as they looked like decent ones for only 4p more than Aldi's price. My list for Aldi included Blueberries and plums from the Super Six offer, and my list for T's had a pack of their fresh pomegranate seeds - I buy those regularly for £1 and we use them in couscous. I'd noticed a few weeks back that T's do a pack of frozen pomegranate seeds for £2 - 300g as opposed to the 80g Packs of fresh, so we decided to try those instead as better value - then realised when we got there that they were part of a "3 for £5 offer". I quite often buy packs of frozen fruit to have with yogurt or porridge so decided this was worthy of altering the list for! That also meant that I abandoned the plums & blueberries from Aldi, just using S6 for the citrus "Easy Peelers" and buying my planned Greek Yogurt & butter.
£25.79 spent in total.
£7.50 was food money which was stashed at home, and the balance was spent on the Credit card via T's Pay+ app.

Also on the food side of things - a "sort of unplanned" spend as we got a very good offer from a meat supplier we have used before - their stuff is great quality, with good provenance, and is all high welfare, grass fed rare breed animals - the deal we got means that I have ordered what I reckon will produce at least 35 portions and that will include several Sunday roasts which I always budget a bit extra for, for a spend of £50.40 - I ordered extra items to avoid paying postage as it seemed to me that spending £5 on delivery when I could spend it on food instead would be a bit silly. I'll count 50% of that as part of this month's food spend as obviously it will last well past this month. Having ordered this means that my meal plan for the upcoming week will need to really focus on using up items from the freezer as if at all possible I'd like to avoid turning the second freezer on to store this order. It also means we won't go to the Farmers Market this month.

Having started well on the shopping front I need to continue that, but my next focus is to think about how mindfulness can help with spending and most of all with not frittering! It's one of those silly habits that you can just slide into without realising - popping into a charity shop because there's one nearby and emerging with a handful of paperbacks. Going into Poundland for a single item that's needed but coming out with a fiver's worth of bits and bobs. Or going to the supermarket for milk and ending up with stuff that will either go to waste or throw your meal plan off track entirely - whichever it is (or maybe all of them!) it's easy to end up "losing" hard earned money buying things you never planned for or even needed. I started thinking more about this last month - trying to get back into the habit of stopping to think before I spent, and already it's made a difference - the end of January saw a surplus in our joint bank account after the credit card bill was settled. A great feeling and I have the feeling we can do even better this month.

As I mentioned previously I've had no choice but to do a fair amount of clothes-buying over the past few months - having gone from a size 16 (bottom) 18 (top) to a 10 (bottom) 12/14 (top) not a lot of my old stuff is even close to fitting! I've kept what I can - some shirts that were on the right side before I can still just about get away with now. I've also got a few t-shirt style tops from before which are still OK for wearing under other layers. Beyond that though, it pretty much all had to be replaced, and the same will have to happen all over again when summer comes along. So for the past few months as well as buying what I've needed to set myself up again, I've also been keeping an eye open for summer clothes at a good price - which seemed sensible. There are still things I need but I intend to use this month as "thinking space" - time to really work out where the gaps in my wardrobe now are and what my priority is for further purchases - so to initially whittle it back to the things I need rather than getting bogged down with wants. As I think of items I'll add them to a list so I can keep my eyes out for the items I need at a good price. The good thing about being smaller is that there is a lot more chance of me finding bits available in charity shops - I already have a pair of summer trousers set aside that I paid about £2.50 for a couple of months ago.

Planned spending this week:
Saturday - beers at the Rugby club while we watched one of the 6 Nations matches - MrEH paid from his weekly spends.
Sunday - Bird Food from the RSPB Shop = £14.50
Monday - I was out doing some photography stuff for the day. I took a flask with me and some food, but still needed to spend for a few bits. = £3.90 (Cash from purse)
Tuesday - Entry for a 5k race I'm taking part in. = £18 - not cheap but it's at a venue I really want to run at, and it forms part of my goals list for this year so to me, that's value. (CC as paid online)
Thursday - My usual weekly gym session = £7 (Cash from purse). 
"Personal" spends for me - £3
Unplanned spending this week: 
- Tea & Cake at the RSPB Reserve cafe - MrEH's treat and from his weekly spends.
- £25.20 - 50% value of the meat I ordered.
Spending prevented this week:
- Fancied stopping at the services on the way home on Monday to grab a bar of chocolate but instead told myself just to head straight home.
- From habit planned a visit to the Turkish Supermarket for flatbreads on Tuesday then decided that I'd do home made ones instead. 

Although the Cafe visit was not planned ahead we did make a conscious decision to do that rather than it just being an impulse or habit thing. The reserve is one we visit from time to time - we went there because they have a shop so we could get the bird food that we needed, and as RSPB members we got a lovely walk round the reserve absolutely free of charge so £7 on tea & cake seemed fair enough.  On Monday I also saved some money by choosing to fill the car up with diesel in Lincoln rather than at home - saving of 4p a litre on a full tank.  I've also stepped right away from using the contactless option via my phone for payments at the moment. And strangely enough I've got back out of the habit just as quickly as I slipped into it in the first place! It's made me uncomfortable realising just how fast you can slip into bad financial habits like that - there is no question that handing cash over makes you think more than paying by card, but even the act of physically getting the card out and entering your pin number still provokes more of a thought process than paying by contactless does.I don'[t consider myself to be someone who routinely spends without thinking, or impulse buys, but even I found myself getting sucked into spending more because of the ease of it.

There is a great article on the Clearscore Website about mindful spending which touches on many of the same points I've mentioned above and is worth a read. It's amazing how even when you think of yourself as living a quite frugal lifestyle you slip into odd habits that you'd rather avoid - but I'm already finding that this is relatively easily countered too with a bit of thought.

If you're having a frugal month how are you getting on with it and have you learned anything about your spending habits so far this month?

Robyn