It’s relatively easy to do anything once.
Doing something day in day out, week after week, takes a little more effort.
That’s what forming habits are all about. A habit is something you don’t have to think about, you just do it.
I’m probably not quite there yet with making the reduced grocery spend a habit – not yet anyway. Hitting a target of £50 each week is still a challenge.
How do I meet that challenge now the honeymoon period is over?
1. Meal Plan – I can’t emphasis this enough. Without meal planning I couldn’t keep within my £50 budget. There’s little room for error, every purchase counts, even item has to have a purpose and place.
2. Monitor store cupboard supplies – To spend 50% less on groceries for a week isn’t too difficult, but as store cupboard supplies diminish it gets harder, things need replenishing. By having a system where you replenish a little each week rather all at once helps to flatten the natural spikes in spending patterns.
3. We are eating less – It really is that simple. I’ve noticed we eat less, which is no bad thing. The portion sizes have reduced, and the snacking is much less. We’ve never been big snackers anyway, but now our groceries have to last 7 days we are even more mindful of what we choose to nibble on.
To spend less is a decision, and planning with a good injection of willpower keeps you on track…
Let me introduce you to this weeks groceries!
£23.81 – Home Bargains (Staple and Store Cupboard Items)
£7.93 – Cooltrader (Cold and Frozen Items)
£8.29 – Market (Fruit and Vegetables)
£10.95 – Butchers (Meat)
Total = £50.98
Okay so 98p over – but this is due to an extra box of 99p Bran Flakes that the Hubby insisted I buy. He’s struggling to keep to just one box a week (he needs just a little bit extra), I wasn’t happy when I tallied up and realised it was his request that had taken me over budget!!
(*I will also have to replenish milk and maybe bread this week so likely to spend another £3 approx)
Talking about the Hubby he posed a question the other day that made me think. He asked whether the reduction in spend was mainly due to the way I am now shopping (going to 4 separate locations), or whether I was actually just purchasing much less. Could I stick to £50 by going back to online shopping at my usual supermarket? Could I do it by using the local farm shop? Could I do it by shopping at a low-cost supermarket but get all my groceries from one store? I love an experiment, so watch this space!
Have a great Halloween y’all – if it’s your thing (it is here as any opportunity to have a bit of fun is very much welcomed) 🙂
Ah jo, i think the answer to your question will be no. I once did my weekly shop (aldi, homebargains, iceland, tesco) then came home and put it all into the asda online delivery using my receipts, where i couldn’t match a brand i used the smart price as an alternative. I used asda as i live across the road from a megastore and in years gone by i used to shop there. Drumroll pleeezeee…. My exact shopiing came at £28 more… to say i was feeling smug!! I am very interested in your findings!
We are on a very skint month in November ( too many birthdays) An i have £60 a week for the next four weeks, so every mouthful will have to be rationed….here goes..
Sharron x
Sharron – I don’t like going into an experiment with any preconceptions but I have a strong feeling you may very well be spot on regarding the outcome. I know a couple of weeks back when I did an online shop at Sainsburys I was £25 over. We all know that shops take a hit on certain products to get us through the doors, and then make it back on other items plus impulse purchases – hence the overall basket costs us more if just visiting one store. By doing what you do (and I now) and shopping at multiple locations we make the most of the lower priced items. I’m going to have a good think about how I’m going to approach this as I do not want to waste money on the experiment, but at the same time would like to do the comparison. For example I know of two products that I won’t find cheaper elsewhere – 9 rolls of decent quality loo roll at £2 and Robinsons 1 Litre Cordial at 59p – both from Home Bargains…
Hope November isn’t too tough for you on the budget! £60 is tight when I know you have two extra mouths to feed to myself! Good luck! xx
Sharron – please can you drop me an e-mail I have some good news to share! I don’t e-mail readers without their consent – Jo 🙂
I have sent you an e-mail!!
Sharron x
Ah jo, i think the answer to your question will be no. I once did my weekly shop (aldi, homebargains, iceland, tesco) then came home and put it all into the asda online delivery using my receipts, where i couldn’t match a brand i used the smart price as an alternative. I used asda as i live across the road from a megastore and in years gone by i used to shop there. Drumroll pleeezeee…. My exact shopiing came at £28 more… to say i was feeling smug!! I am very interested in your findings!
We are on a very skint month in November ( too many birthdays) An i have £60 a week for the next four weeks, so every mouthful will have to be rationed….here goes..
Sharron x
Sharron – I don’t like going into an experiment with any preconceptions but I have a strong feeling you may very well be spot on regarding the outcome. I know a couple of weeks back when I did an online shop at Sainsburys I was £25 over. We all know that shops take a hit on certain products to get us through the doors, and then make it back on other items plus impulse purchases – hence the overall basket costs us more if just visiting one store. By doing what you do (and I now) and shopping at multiple locations we make the most of the lower priced items. I’m going to have a good think about how I’m going to approach this as I do not want to waste money on the experiment, but at the same time would like to do the comparison. For example I know of two products that I won’t find cheaper elsewhere – 9 rolls of decent quality loo roll at £2 and Robinsons 1 Litre Cordial at 59p – both from Home Bargains…
Hope November isn’t too tough for you on the budget! £60 is tight when I know you have two extra mouths to feed to myself! Good luck! xx
Sharron – please can you drop me an e-mail I have some good news to share! I don’t e-mail readers without their consent – Jo 🙂
I have sent you an e-mail!!
Sharron x
Ah jo, i think the answer to your question will be no. I once did my weekly shop (aldi, homebargains, iceland, tesco) then came home and put it all into the asda online delivery using my receipts, where i couldn’t match a brand i used the smart price as an alternative. I used asda as i live across the road from a megastore and in years gone by i used to shop there. Drumroll pleeezeee…. My exact shopiing came at £28 more… to say i was feeling smug!! I am very interested in your findings!
We are on a very skint month in November ( too many birthdays) An i have £60 a week for the next four weeks, so every mouthful will have to be rationed….here goes..
Sharron x
Sharron – I don’t like going into an experiment with any preconceptions but I have a strong feeling you may very well be spot on regarding the outcome. I know a couple of weeks back when I did an online shop at Sainsburys I was £25 over. We all know that shops take a hit on certain products to get us through the doors, and then make it back on other items plus impulse purchases – hence the overall basket costs us more if just visiting one store. By doing what you do (and I now) and shopping at multiple locations we make the most of the lower priced items. I’m going to have a good think about how I’m going to approach this as I do not want to waste money on the experiment, but at the same time would like to do the comparison. For example I know of two products that I won’t find cheaper elsewhere – 9 rolls of decent quality loo roll at £2 and Robinsons 1 Litre Cordial at 59p – both from Home Bargains…
Hope November isn’t too tough for you on the budget! £60 is tight when I know you have two extra mouths to feed to myself! Good luck! xx
Sharron – please can you drop me an e-mail I have some good news to share! I don’t e-mail readers without their consent – Jo 🙂
I have sent you an e-mail!!
Sharron x
Impressive Jo! It looks like you bought a ton of food a (and even toilet paper!) while staying within your new budget.
I did a similar experiment this week, but I felt like I didn’t get much food. : /
It appears as though we’ll be having lots of potato-based meals this week. Ha, ha. Cheddar and broccoli baked potato, hash browns and eggs, etc. 🙂
I got pretty much everything I went for, apart from 2 salmon fillets and a pumpkin. I’d run out of budget and the pumpkins had sold out anyway! (I would have purchased the pumpkin as it was for the kids to carve and I was making soup out of the inside.) Fortunately we went to a local fundraiser at the village pub (it’s a hard life :)) yesterday and they had pumpkin carving for £2 and you got to keep the pumpkin! Result! Even better in that my Kids won and we got our £2 back as the prize!! These things happen for a reason 😉
Interesting that you don’t feel you got as much groceries, I may do a list of what I buy one week. Potatoes and eggs are so versatile though – frittatas work well as a combination… Let me know how you get on??
p.s – we of course donated the £2 back through apple bobbing and spent quite a bit more cash on other activities! All for a good local cause!
Impressive Jo! It looks like you bought a ton of food a (and even toilet paper!) while staying within your new budget.
I did a similar experiment this week, but I felt like I didn’t get much food. : /
It appears as though we’ll be having lots of potato-based meals this week. Ha, ha. Cheddar and broccoli baked potato, hash browns and eggs, etc. 🙂
I got pretty much everything I went for, apart from 2 salmon fillets and a pumpkin. I’d run out of budget and the pumpkins had sold out anyway! (I would have purchased the pumpkin as it was for the kids to carve and I was making soup out of the inside.) Fortunately we went to a local fundraiser at the village pub (it’s a hard life :)) yesterday and they had pumpkin carving for £2 and you got to keep the pumpkin! Result! Even better in that my Kids won and we got our £2 back as the prize!! These things happen for a reason 😉
Interesting that you don’t feel you got as much groceries, I may do a list of what I buy one week. Potatoes and eggs are so versatile though – frittatas work well as a combination… Let me know how you get on??
p.s – we of course donated the £2 back through apple bobbing and spent quite a bit more cash on other activities! All for a good local cause!
Impressive Jo! It looks like you bought a ton of food a (and even toilet paper!) while staying within your new budget.
I did a similar experiment this week, but I felt like I didn’t get much food. : /
It appears as though we’ll be having lots of potato-based meals this week. Ha, ha. Cheddar and broccoli baked potato, hash browns and eggs, etc. 🙂
I got pretty much everything I went for, apart from 2 salmon fillets and a pumpkin. I’d run out of budget and the pumpkins had sold out anyway! (I would have purchased the pumpkin as it was for the kids to carve and I was making soup out of the inside.) Fortunately we went to a local fundraiser at the village pub (it’s a hard life :)) yesterday and they had pumpkin carving for £2 and you got to keep the pumpkin! Result! Even better in that my Kids won and we got our £2 back as the prize!! These things happen for a reason 😉
Interesting that you don’t feel you got as much groceries, I may do a list of what I buy one week. Potatoes and eggs are so versatile though – frittatas work well as a combination… Let me know how you get on??
p.s – we of course donated the £2 back through apple bobbing and spent quite a bit more cash on other activities! All for a good local cause!
Great to see you sticking to the around £50. I have been spending around €50, and we eat well, lots of fresh stuff, but much less (sweet) yoghurt and biscuits or croissants. 🙂
Can I ask something? Would you mind posting a photo of your fridge when its full? ie. after shopping My MIL happened to stay with us from Friday, she arrived a couple hours after I did my weekly shopping. When she looked into the fridge, she noted that I’d need to fill up the fridge before the long week-end! :))) She was very-very surprised when I told her that I have everything for the week and will only need fresh bread and milk.
Hi Laura – a few weeks back I posted a photo on my Facebook page of my fridge after a shop
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=176601722418027&set=a.147976661947200.38596.138547782890088&type=1&theater
I will do a post after a shop soon though anyway!
Well done on your spend – that’s even less than £50!
Thanks Jo. Good to see your full fridge is as empty as mine. 🙂 🙂
(MIL did not starve by the way.)
€50/week not including washing powder and conditioner/essential oil AND when it’s me doing the shopping. (DH tends to impulse shop when it comes to groceries)
‘december 8’ was a copy and paste mistake 🙂
…the Halloween ghosts seem to have made my previous post vanish. So here it is again:
Thanks Jo. It seems that your full fridge is as “empty” (according to MIL) as mine.
Re €50 – that is without washing powder and fabric conditioner/essential oil. Also, when my DH does the shopping, even though he has a list, he seems to always spend more…impulse shopping & not sticking to the list. 🙂
Spooky – something seems to be going on with your comments! 🙂
We are probably around the same budget then as my £50 does include detergents and also toiletries – as you know the £ isn’t that strong against the Euro anymore! Hmmm if I remember correctly wasn’t it DH that arrived home with a microwave once? Now that’s what you call impulse shopping!
Great to see you sticking to the around £50. I have been spending around €50, and we eat well, lots of fresh stuff, but much less (sweet) yoghurt and biscuits or croissants. 🙂
Can I ask something? Would you mind posting a photo of your fridge when its full? ie. after shopping My MIL happened to stay with us from Friday, she arrived a couple hours after I did my weekly shopping. When she looked into the fridge, she noted that I’d need to fill up the fridge before the long week-end! :))) She was very-very surprised when I told her that I have everything for the week and will only need fresh bread and milk.
Hi Laura – a few weeks back I posted a photo on my Facebook page of my fridge after a shop
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=176601722418027&set=a.147976661947200.38596.138547782890088&type=1&theater
I will do a post after a shop soon though anyway!
Well done on your spend – that’s even less than £50!
Thanks Jo. Good to see your full fridge is as empty as mine. 🙂 🙂
(MIL did not starve by the way.)
€50/week not including washing powder and conditioner/essential oil AND when it’s me doing the shopping. (DH tends to impulse shop when it comes to groceries)
‘december 8’ was a copy and paste mistake 🙂
…the Halloween ghosts seem to have made my previous post vanish. So here it is again:
Thanks Jo. It seems that your full fridge is as “empty” (according to MIL) as mine.
Re €50 – that is without washing powder and fabric conditioner/essential oil. Also, when my DH does the shopping, even though he has a list, he seems to always spend more…impulse shopping & not sticking to the list. 🙂
Spooky – something seems to be going on with your comments! 🙂
We are probably around the same budget then as my £50 does include detergents and also toiletries – as you know the £ isn’t that strong against the Euro anymore! Hmmm if I remember correctly wasn’t it DH that arrived home with a microwave once? Now that’s what you call impulse shopping!
Great to see you sticking to the around £50. I have been spending around €50, and we eat well, lots of fresh stuff, but much less (sweet) yoghurt and biscuits or croissants. 🙂
Can I ask something? Would you mind posting a photo of your fridge when its full? ie. after shopping My MIL happened to stay with us from Friday, she arrived a couple hours after I did my weekly shopping. When she looked into the fridge, she noted that I’d need to fill up the fridge before the long week-end! :))) She was very-very surprised when I told her that I have everything for the week and will only need fresh bread and milk.
Hi Laura – a few weeks back I posted a photo on my Facebook page of my fridge after a shop
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=176601722418027&set=a.147976661947200.38596.138547782890088&type=1&theater
I will do a post after a shop soon though anyway!
Well done on your spend – that’s even less than £50!
Thanks Jo. Good to see your full fridge is as empty as mine. 🙂 🙂
(MIL did not starve by the way.)
€50/week not including washing powder and conditioner/essential oil AND when it’s me doing the shopping. (DH tends to impulse shop when it comes to groceries)
‘december 8’ was a copy and paste mistake 🙂
…the Halloween ghosts seem to have made my previous post vanish. So here it is again:
Thanks Jo. It seems that your full fridge is as “empty” (according to MIL) as mine.
Re €50 – that is without washing powder and fabric conditioner/essential oil. Also, when my DH does the shopping, even though he has a list, he seems to always spend more…impulse shopping & not sticking to the list. 🙂
Spooky – something seems to be going on with your comments! 🙂
We are probably around the same budget then as my £50 does include detergents and also toiletries – as you know the £ isn’t that strong against the Euro anymore! Hmmm if I remember correctly wasn’t it DH that arrived home with a microwave once? Now that’s what you call impulse shopping!
Thanks for mentioning one of my older posts. You’re right: Spending is a conscious choice. I’m not very good with planning or budgeting, but I do try to keep from wasting things. That’s about the best I can do so far.
Gip
No Waste Tastes Great Gip 🙂
Thanks for mentioning one of my older posts. You’re right: Spending is a conscious choice. I’m not very good with planning or budgeting, but I do try to keep from wasting things. That’s about the best I can do so far.
Gip
No Waste Tastes Great Gip 🙂
Thanks for mentioning one of my older posts. You’re right: Spending is a conscious choice. I’m not very good with planning or budgeting, but I do try to keep from wasting things. That’s about the best I can do so far.
Gip
No Waste Tastes Great Gip 🙂
I have to admit that I had to look up a conversion rate between usd and pounds! I’m very impressed by how much you were able to buy!
The conversion rate obviously doesn’t take into account actual cost of living differences and inflation between US and UK. I’m wondering how they indeed compare? The twice I have visited American (about 4 weeks in total both West Coast and Florida) the prices seemed lower than the UK generally even taking into account the exchange rate. That has been a few years ago though! Food prices are on the increase here and inflation is high at the moment.
I’m planning a more in-depth post around what I do buy soon!
I have to admit that I had to look up a conversion rate between usd and pounds! I’m very impressed by how much you were able to buy!
The conversion rate obviously doesn’t take into account actual cost of living differences and inflation between US and UK. I’m wondering how they indeed compare? The twice I have visited American (about 4 weeks in total both West Coast and Florida) the prices seemed lower than the UK generally even taking into account the exchange rate. That has been a few years ago though! Food prices are on the increase here and inflation is high at the moment.
I’m planning a more in-depth post around what I do buy soon!
I have to admit that I had to look up a conversion rate between usd and pounds! I’m very impressed by how much you were able to buy!
The conversion rate obviously doesn’t take into account actual cost of living differences and inflation between US and UK. I’m wondering how they indeed compare? The twice I have visited American (about 4 weeks in total both West Coast and Florida) the prices seemed lower than the UK generally even taking into account the exchange rate. That has been a few years ago though! Food prices are on the increase here and inflation is high at the moment.
I’m planning a more in-depth post around what I do buy soon!
Hi Jo,
You bring up a very good point about willpower waning after the initial excitement is over. Saving money can be a lot like dieting. We go all out and then we feel deprived, and we binge.
Saving money has to also feel good to us in some way for us to keep with it. We have to get something else out of it too — whether it’s a sense of accomplishment, friendships, more time with family, feeling good about eating healthy, etc.
I was fascinated to see that you are actually eating less. Now that’s a novel idea for saving money on food! No one would dare suggest that, but I see that it’s happened as a result of your cost-cutting efforts.
Thanks for the food for thought,
Amy
The analogy with dieting is very apt! Sticking to something is rather less glamorous than starting something, but once you begin to see the fruits of your labour it can be very rewarding. Interestingly your comment came through the day that I opened our credit card bill. We put everything on card and pay it off – we get cash-back. I find that the bill makes me highly accountable for every penny I spend, and we get paid for spending – win-win. It appears there are some additional benefits to reducing my grocery spend, it seems that overall spend is down, spending less is becoming a habit.
For us eating less is no bad thing, we aren’t going hungry which would suggest we were taking in more than required. Little changes such as only giving my kids half a bag of crisps for lunch makes a £1 difference a week – this may sound mean until you factor in that I was regularly throwing away half a bag as my daughter hadn’t finished the packet. I’d rather she didn’t eat a whole bag anyway due to the saturated fat.
🙂 It made me smile that you mention no-one would suggest eating less – the UK government last month suggested we indeed eat less over here – but that was more to do with our growing obesity problem rather than to reduce spend! http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23997830-obesity-crisis-solved-eat-less-says-health-secretary.do
Thanks so much for commenting Amy!
Hi Jo,
You bring up a very good point about willpower waning after the initial excitement is over. Saving money can be a lot like dieting. We go all out and then we feel deprived, and we binge.
Saving money has to also feel good to us in some way for us to keep with it. We have to get something else out of it too — whether it’s a sense of accomplishment, friendships, more time with family, feeling good about eating healthy, etc.
I was fascinated to see that you are actually eating less. Now that’s a novel idea for saving money on food! No one would dare suggest that, but I see that it’s happened as a result of your cost-cutting efforts.
Thanks for the food for thought,
Amy
The analogy with dieting is very apt! Sticking to something is rather less glamorous than starting something, but once you begin to see the fruits of your labour it can be very rewarding. Interestingly your comment came through the day that I opened our credit card bill. We put everything on card and pay it off – we get cash-back. I find that the bill makes me highly accountable for every penny I spend, and we get paid for spending – win-win. It appears there are some additional benefits to reducing my grocery spend, it seems that overall spend is down, spending less is becoming a habit.
For us eating less is no bad thing, we aren’t going hungry which would suggest we were taking in more than required. Little changes such as only giving my kids half a bag of crisps for lunch makes a £1 difference a week – this may sound mean until you factor in that I was regularly throwing away half a bag as my daughter hadn’t finished the packet. I’d rather she didn’t eat a whole bag anyway due to the saturated fat.
🙂 It made me smile that you mention no-one would suggest eating less – the UK government last month suggested we indeed eat less over here – but that was more to do with our growing obesity problem rather than to reduce spend! http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23997830-obesity-crisis-solved-eat-less-says-health-secretary.do
Thanks so much for commenting Amy!
Hi Jo,
You bring up a very good point about willpower waning after the initial excitement is over. Saving money can be a lot like dieting. We go all out and then we feel deprived, and we binge.
Saving money has to also feel good to us in some way for us to keep with it. We have to get something else out of it too — whether it’s a sense of accomplishment, friendships, more time with family, feeling good about eating healthy, etc.
I was fascinated to see that you are actually eating less. Now that’s a novel idea for saving money on food! No one would dare suggest that, but I see that it’s happened as a result of your cost-cutting efforts.
Thanks for the food for thought,
Amy
The analogy with dieting is very apt! Sticking to something is rather less glamorous than starting something, but once you begin to see the fruits of your labour it can be very rewarding. Interestingly your comment came through the day that I opened our credit card bill. We put everything on card and pay it off – we get cash-back. I find that the bill makes me highly accountable for every penny I spend, and we get paid for spending – win-win. It appears there are some additional benefits to reducing my grocery spend, it seems that overall spend is down, spending less is becoming a habit.
For us eating less is no bad thing, we aren’t going hungry which would suggest we were taking in more than required. Little changes such as only giving my kids half a bag of crisps for lunch makes a £1 difference a week – this may sound mean until you factor in that I was regularly throwing away half a bag as my daughter hadn’t finished the packet. I’d rather she didn’t eat a whole bag anyway due to the saturated fat.
🙂 It made me smile that you mention no-one would suggest eating less – the UK government last month suggested we indeed eat less over here – but that was more to do with our growing obesity problem rather than to reduce spend! http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23997830-obesity-crisis-solved-eat-less-says-health-secretary.do
Thanks so much for commenting Amy!
I like the picture on the right. In geenral I would say that we have become spoiled by the big box grocers on every other corner as well as the gas stations that come with them. I believe that I spend more money because I don’t plan out my meals as I should. Who has the time for that? Plus, I know I can just stop by the store and grab whatever we need on my way home since I pass 2 Krogers, 1 Publix, and 2 Walmarts on my way home. I am sure I am not alone in saying that I long for more simple days and it would be nice to live, work and play within a closer proximity. I think I would be willing to pay more for my groceries considering the dollars I would save by not having to drive up and down 78 every day. Guess my only problem would be making sure the grocer carried all of my favorites and FYI, I am a brand specific buyer of groceries
I like the picture on the right. In geenral I would say that we have become spoiled by the big box grocers on every other corner as well as the gas stations that come with them. I believe that I spend more money because I don’t plan out my meals as I should. Who has the time for that? Plus, I know I can just stop by the store and grab whatever we need on my way home since I pass 2 Krogers, 1 Publix, and 2 Walmarts on my way home. I am sure I am not alone in saying that I long for more simple days and it would be nice to live, work and play within a closer proximity. I think I would be willing to pay more for my groceries considering the dollars I would save by not having to drive up and down 78 every day. Guess my only problem would be making sure the grocer carried all of my favorites and FYI, I am a brand specific buyer of groceries
I like the picture on the right. In geenral I would say that we have become spoiled by the big box grocers on every other corner as well as the gas stations that come with them. I believe that I spend more money because I don’t plan out my meals as I should. Who has the time for that? Plus, I know I can just stop by the store and grab whatever we need on my way home since I pass 2 Krogers, 1 Publix, and 2 Walmarts on my way home. I am sure I am not alone in saying that I long for more simple days and it would be nice to live, work and play within a closer proximity. I think I would be willing to pay more for my groceries considering the dollars I would save by not having to drive up and down 78 every day. Guess my only problem would be making sure the grocer carried all of my favorites and FYI, I am a brand specific buyer of groceries