I have just been updating my Food Diary, link at the top of the page, and it seems I am on target for the first eight weeks at least, to get my food spending down to £10 a week. It's a struggle though, every penny has to be accounted for, the cost of every morsel that passes my lips is included. Of course I already had some food in when I started, but if I monitor it over a six month period it should give a fairly accurate figure. That's if I don't starve to death during the experiment, ha ha. Shouldn't joke, but it's interesting to discover just how much you can cut from your food budget if you really try hard.
Start of project 15th October 2011
4 weeks I spent £46.08
Spend up to date £79.66. The 8 weeks will come on Saturday 10th December, so only 33p left to spend. Will I make it :o)
Of course all this could change as I run out of things. I have a voucher for £4 off at Tesco to use next week so that will help a bit. Swings and roundabouts really. I will stick at it and see what happens. No extras for Christmas, don't know how I am going to get round that when I am going to visit a friend, can't expect her to feed me, I will have to take something. Toodle pip.
More Money than Sense?
2 hours ago
Amazing. I struggled to feed two of us for £160 a month!
ReplyDeleteYou`re doing extremely well on your money.
ReplyDeleteMy spending per week sometimes exeeds £40, to feed the two of us. But, for the last two weeks I have kept it below that, as we are trying to make more meals from our freezer and stockpile items.
Do you think you are getting all your nutrients on 10 quid of food a week ?
ReplyDeleteCheck your government guidelines. I guess that would be just over $15 per week - make sure you are getting enough protein (which is expensive)
You could definitely do it on a vegan diet. Check the blog 30 Bucks a Week -young vegan couple living in Brooklyn.
One of the reasons many low-income folk have poor medical histories is that they eat low quality food so look at what you are buying carefully.
How about taking mince pies - I have just made a dozen for 70p.
Last week I spent $30 for hubby and I. Started off with an organic chicken $10( made four meals and stock for soup) and box of eggs 99c and two gallons of milk $4. The rest of the money went on fruit and veg a pound of butter and a bag of porridge oats. I make my own bread and yog. and I made cookies also. I shop almost exclusively at Aldi s and although the selection is limited the cost it is much lower than Tesco s. (I spend about four months of each year in the U.K. so am familiar with both countries) Aldi s does not mark their food down like some stores.
I also spend about $7 per month on plain flour. I try to aim at all homemade as I dont like a lot of the additives in a lot of cheap manufactured food. One of the best things you can do to enhance a frugal life is to learn how to cook.
Wow that's fantastic! You are so good at finding bargains!!
ReplyDeleteThat is so good,i'm trying to do the same thing here,i'm on such a strict food budget,not buying a thing for the next month,except Cat Food,so i will live off of everything in my cupboard's,all the best,xx
ReplyDeleteLizzie, you need a blog!
ReplyDeleteNice to be able to do this, sometimes they do have incredible bargains last thing in the superstores, good to get these knock-down sell-by today things, but they're not predictable, you need to be there just at the right time.
ReplyDeleteThis would mean being in the store(s) every night, which would probably cost more in fuel.
Best of luck with the £10 a week challenge.
Amazing Ilona, you're doing fantastically well to be eating for an average of £10 a week.
ReplyDeleteDo take some heed of what Lizzie says though and make sure you get enough protein in your diet, we don't want you getting poorly and not blogging....where would we get our 'frugal fix' then!!
Sue xx
No, Becky, I just need to get down of my soapbox once in a while..........
ReplyDelete