to be chuffed that I achieved a budgeting goal for 2023

[BudgetFoodie]

I always had a reasonable idea of how much the household spending was on food/booze/cleaning stuff and toiletries but I didn't keep a record. With prices going up and the cost of living increasing, I decided to track it all properly on a spreadsheet for 2023.........and I have kept it up all year. Writing everything down has definitely made me question the value of some things!

This year we have spent £4986 or on average £96 per week.

We are a family of four, two adults and two teens, adults wfh and teens take food to school/college. I am a frugal cook and I make most things from scratch, I buy things like meat and cheese on offer, batch cook and use up leftovers.

If you are feeling the pinch I really recommend tracking your actual spending, we saved enough this year to pay for a holiday.

Woo! Well done I always start the year planning to do this… lasts about three days!

It's very quick & easy to do! 😀

It reassured me to know I could see where everything was going.

However, it didn't really solve my financial problems! (Single parent,3 DC, limited support from ex). To do that, I had to really face up to not just my outgoings, but the cash flow, and the money I was spending unnecessarily. Nothing frivolous but eg a mortgage protection policy that was unneeded. Despite all that, until I got divorced I couldn't make adjustments to certain payments.

I still have less income than I need so I'm slowly making a plan for better financial security.

The app really did help in terms of visual representations of where my money was going / proportion of income etc.

Thank you everyone, this is very helpful 🙂