Monthly Food Bill

For some time now I have kept a spending book. When I get back from spending any money I take a few minutes to go through the receipts & enter under the catagorys of food,petrol,garden,gifts or misc. Miscs are things like postage,hen food,odd garments get enterered there although if the smalls have had a mammoth grow session then I add another column for that.

The past few months I have been pleased with our food costs,last month it was £309 & the month before £291. Theres 3 adults here & 2 children,the smalls sometimes eat as much as I do,a combination of me eating small portions & them eating alot I think lol!

Now I am quite sure theres plenty out there spending less,all I have to compare this too is what we used to spend & back ago when we had no smalls & I was working, we used to regularly spend over £100 a week on just the 2 of us. I grew nothing back then & although I bought organic, I also bought whatever wine,chocolate we wanted,magazines, all sorts of things that you dont really have to spend money,ok its nice to! but as the years have progressed & the pennies seem to have to stretch further each month,well its very pleasing to me to see that 5 of us are costing less than 2 of us used too :o)

The sort of things I spent that money on are meat & fish ,butter,flour for baking & bread,olive oil,lemons,dried fruit such as sultanas & cranberries etc tinned goods & cat food. I buy laundry products & toiletries but we use these sparingly & with thought. Gone are the willynilly tip half a bottle of something in the bath tub days. Things are used carefully & thoughtfully & I honestly cant remember the last time I threw food away because it hadnt been used up.

There is an awful lot of stuff that I no longer buy,somethings I miss,somethings I dont & somethings make me cringe when I think what I used to spend on them argggg. I am 39 this year & I consol myself with it being better to have eventually realised one doesnt need to constantly buy things~whatever they are~in order to be fufilled or happy. I wish I had started sooner of course I do,I would be even further down the path by now lol!

One thing we do now is a save a bit each month for the smalls,its only £15 each a month but added to their child tax fund voucher that they got when they were born,its mounting up into a really nice amount now,I was so pleased when I got the statements for those the other day. I also pay into a tax free savings scheme that matures in 2012 I wonder what I will do with the money then lol probably not what I would think I would do with it now I am sure lol!

So to anyone out there reading whose younger than me,start to change now,dont put it off,dont keep doing things because thats the way everyone else does them,start to do things differently. & to anyone reading whose older,then my message to you is also to start now,its never too late.

I saw on this great blog this post on budgeting & I plan to make some pretty little pockets like these soon as I think its a superb way of demonstrating to smalls how far(or not) money goes.

I used to say I wasnt good with money, but I am proud to say I now know I am good with money & thats at a time in life when theres even less of it to go around lol. Nothing like learning lessons at a tough time is there to make sure you learn it good & proper is there? :o)