Tuesday 3 January 2012

Happy New Year


We don't normally do New Year resolutions – they can be so hard to keep. This year, however, spurred on by other blogs, we, DS & FDiL. are going to have a bash at two.

The first will be to spend not more than £30 a week on food shopping. If possible this amount will also cover the cost of toiletries etc, if we can't managed this then another £10 per month will be allowed - but I'm hopeful!

We normally do a monthly shop then top up as needed. The ever increasing cost of shopping has made our bill more expensive each month yet our income has barely changed. Therefore, the shopping has to.

This time, if we do a monthly shop, it will be adjusted to leave us some top up weekly money for meat, fresh fruit and veg etc. My weekly endeavours will be kept in a dairy to see how we do.

I'm not going to fret if on rare occasions it ends up slightly over the allocated amount as we know from doing the war rations, we are quite capable of sticking to targets most of the time. We could save money on our weekly walks by taking drinks and sandwiches but these walks are one of the few treats we have, so by having a light meal out (then soup for tea) we feel these savings will help us strike the right balance.

DS. & FDiL. normally shop weekly and though they have cut down are trying to cut down further. They need to seriously save for a house deposit so every little helps. FDiL. was shown how to make a half quantity of frugal laundry liquid then made some herself. She has lots of soap leftovers and will save these to make into this – the savings for them on this alone will be quite large. We estimate that it will reduce their wash bill by around 40p per wash! As they are on a water meter they are already taking Froog's advice on saving water for flushing the toilet and for watering the garden in the summer months.

The other thing both households will do this year, is to buy no more than 12 items of clothing/shoes each. Multiple packs of socks, pants, tights etc., count as 1 item.

Both hubby and I feel this should be achievable as I doubt we buy more than this a year between us. I need to buy some more walking shoes and a wind/waterproof jacket as well as a pair of everyday shoes, so that is 3 off my list to begin with. Those items are not cheap so money saving will not be great but such items will last us many years as the old ones have. The old ones are no longer waterproof hence the need to invest in some more.

We've never spent much on clothes. Over the years we have only bought what and when we needed to and not always new. They are only replaced once an item has worked its way down the line from new, to best, then working, house use only, and finally down to cleaning clothes.

1 comment:

  1. I had an exception on my "no more than 12 things" last year for replacement underwear multi-packs and essential footwear (like replacement walking shoes/wellies) because the latter felt like more of a health & safety issue than a fashion choice.

    I'm glad I had the exception for multipack underwear too - last year was the year that the majority of my decade old socks finally reached their end of life -- I got rid of nearly 30 pairs! (Only replaced with 10 - since it's easier to wash/dry these days.)

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