Things always running out / cost of living

[Verbena91]

Just a gripe really. And I speak from a place of privilege as partner and I both have jobs, roof over our heads, enough to eat and so on. I just find that things keep running out! I don’t know if anyone else experiences this? Example- I’ve done a weekly shop, spent ages trying to find bargains meal plan keep costs as low as possible but something always runs out, and I’m always doing too up shops / Amazon orders throughout the week to keep things running smoothly and spending more money - usually one of the expensive items like dishwasher tablets or laundry stuff or a cleaning product or recycling bags or batteries or toothpaste or my face serum or cat litter or vacuum bags or lightbulbs or body lotion, or we need plug unblocker or my DC water bottle breaks, etc etc! I find I look at our bank balance and think “right there’s X in there to last rest of the week, no more spending” but then we always need more things!

I don’t know if I’m just terribly badly organised, or greedy, or if other people find they are always getting stuff and spending money and never at a point where all supplies are topped up and we can just get on with life and not be spending!

I'm finding it hard to budget properly. The COL / inflation means all of these things are so expensive now, even basics.

Same… trying to keep the big shop spend below a certain price is just not doable any more.
do you have Alexa’s? Everyone in our house uses it to tell her to ‘add xxx to the shopping list’ when you notice something is running low. Then each week I check that list as I’m doing the online shop. Makes the whole family responsible, not just you.

Most of the things on your list are consumables that need replacing irregularly. So it's inevitable that they will run out. It sounds like the issue is that you are good at meal planning and creating a weekly shopping list but you are not considering whether the "irregular" items need replacing.

In our house we have instituted a system whereby when one of those items gets "nearly used up but not totally" it is added to the shopping list. It took a while to train up everyone but now this means that when I go to do my weekly shop there are already some items on the list, it saves me checking them constantly, and we never run out of anything. Money allowing I will also bulk buy things on offer, so we've slowly moved to the point whereby we have the spare item in the cupboard well in advance of needing it.

Surely most of those things, laundry tablets, toothpaste etc are used at a pretty defined rate. So you knew how many you had and how many you would use when you did the shop.

I shop once a week and never in-between. If we run out of e.g. face serum or batteries we'd manage without until the next shop, which is a matter of days.

If it wasn't on the list, we'd manage without for a week. It means people remember to put it on the list!

I do usually have a spare box of unperishable things we use a lot in, so it wouldn't usually come down to the last DW tab.

When times were really hard for us, I set a weekly limit, and looked at everything for cheaper options. Obviously shops own, things like choosing a packet of biscuits over a cake as cheaper, look at weekly veg on offer. At the time, we really couldn't go over, but I your case question if really need it if not much money left in the pot, ie is there another option like doing washing up for a couple of days. If funds are tight and your supermarket isn't walkable, think about cost if travel as well.

I buy a bag of 100 dishwasher tablets when they are on offer or 3 boxes of Lidl tablets that’s 3 months worth so I never run out .

Drain unblocker can be £5.99 if you are in a hurry or £1 if you buy well. If i notice it at £1 I buy 6.

Batteries just buy multipacks on offer. Bin liners I buy a huge roll from Screwfix usually with a discount voucher a couple
of times a year. I keep the roll
atcthe bottom of the bin. Toilet rolls and kitchen rolls again I buy on offer.

I try (try!) to always have a spare of non perishable things. When someone opens the last toothpaste it goes on the shopping list for next week. When someone opens the new packet of dishwasher tablets, that also goes on next weeks list.

It took a bit of investment to get to this point, obviously, but it does save those emergency high spend shopping trips where you go for toothpaste and come back also with chocolate, extra eggs, etc whereas now we will make do without eggs for a week.

Also if the dishwasher tablets and face serum run out in the same week you can get one this week and one next to spread the cost a little more - as they aren't urgent.

Yes maybe it’s a combination of not being more organised and going without a bit more.

We dont use Alexa anymore as I don’t want Amazon having permanent access to our conversations, they get enough of us as it is.

I will try to get more on top of lists and anticipating things running out.

For anything you use up I always have the one I’m using and one as backup. When the one I’m using is empty and I move to the backup I put the item on my shopping list.

But I only buy it when it’s on sale. As I never have to buy something like that in a rush, I don’t need to buy at full price. But I appreciate you need to get to the point of having things as backup. (And some things are rarely on sale so it doesn’t help with everything.)

I tend to have the opposite problem in that I stock up a lot and discover I have lots of non perishables taking up room. Partly because I occasionally take the trolley out to Aldi so I stock up on heavy cleaning things in one go and then not have to think about it for months, and their beauty stuff comes as Specialbuys so I buy as much as I can afford when they have it, because it might not be in stock again for months. Appreciate that I'm lucky to have the spare funds to be able to do this. On Amazon they often have "save 5% if you buy 4" so I often buy 4 things at a time if I know it'll get used, especially if it has a good discount. I tend to stock up on toiletries when on offer, it really annoys me when if I run out and they haven't got an offer on as it works out far more expensive per item.

How much do you use of products. I put in half the amount of washing powder recommended and it’s fine.

Same with cleaning products, it’s food stuff only on my work surfaces so just wipe with a damp cloth and actual product rarely. Plus everything gets chopped on a board which goes in the dishwasher.

Elbow grease is free.

I feel you. A suggestion: Amazon Prime has a sale now and I always stock up on dishwasher tablets.

I always get the regular stuff - toothpaste, loo roll, dishwasher tabs, laundry liquid etc when it's on special whether I need it or not. I always have a spare in hand so I don't run out and have to buy full price. It helps spread the cost as otherwise it all seems to run out at the same time.

You could separate your food shopping from other supplies (dw tabs, cleaning stuff, batteries etc).

it seems you have a strong focus on getting the food for a good price, but then the other stuff kind of clouds the issue.

one big shop, imo, invites errors

Back in the day, we just did without. I remember a meal called "potato and point"

I alternate between different supermarkets for the weekly shop, to make the most of special offers on stuff like dishwasher and laundry tabs.

You could use the wallet system and put £15-20 a week into a non-consumable top up budget for all the things you mentioned. Buy one item each week to keep stores topped up and look out for special offers.

I like to balance very cheap dinners with more expensive ones. Pasta and fresh veg sauce feeds a family for under a fiver, so does a veggie risotto, frittata or the infamous MN chicken that can be squeezed to last for three nights. These offset meat and fish based meals.