Low spend April

[Imabitchimaloverimachildimamother]

Read the March one and really need to cut back here. Anyone else?

Me! I've done really well in March I think but I need to keep going.

Long story short, my DH lost his job in January which was financially devastating as our main wage earner. Started new job last week but won't get paid until May. It's going to be a lean month. We've rinsed out all our savings just to pay the bills.

I'm hoping come June/July that I can relax a little bit. Also taking on more work myself to raise cash.

My aim in April is to keep a proper spending tally on groceries.

I am going grocery shopping shortly and currently meal planning first. Its so difficult because I know how much I should spend for a family of my size but it is never what I do spend. I spend money like I am a millionaire and I really am not.

I'm in for low spend April and upcoming months 😆

My sheer fluke I ended up in aldi (i made a tit of myself in tesco and had to walk out) and I have spent 104quid. I am not even sure what I bought as have not yet unpacked and forgot my list which was dead handy 🙄

Hopping over from the March thread. Realised my “March” spending wasn’t actually quite as bad as I thought because I took the advice of someone on the previous thread I think, who suggested aligning credit card statement dates with pay dates. My previous statement date was around the 15th of the month so not ideal and I requested to change it. They did so immediately and so instead of billing me on the 15th March like they normally would, it ran all the way until the 30th so my usual monthly credit card bill was actually 1.5 months from 15th Feb - 31st March! Phew. It does still mean the payment was big but fortunately just about affordable and now it’s done and I’m all lined up which will make monthly expense tracking much easier.

I'm in!

Managed to stay in budget in March and put money into all my relevant savings 'pots', but my food spending is creeping up and I was a bit lax recording spends last week (caught up, but still..)

Need to order dog food today or tomorrow but I've got a budget for that.

Family over later and I'm just making a big lasagna to have with garlic bread and salad.

And today will be a NSD.

Bloody hell. £130 on online food shop today. Granted that does include an extra £5ish work of picnic bits for Easter hols and an extra £25 on two bottles of wine to give as gifts (visiting DB next week, and DSIL birthday). So it’s only really £100 however there was no toiletries or cleaning stuff or washing powder etc in that at all which I would normally get at least some of. Food is just so expensive now.

Oh and if anyone else fancies doing this just for a depressing kick. If you go into asda online orders you can look at all your previous orders, I looked at an order from 6 months ago as that’s how far it would let me go. It was £83.64. Then click on “shop again”, it adds all that order to the trolley again. Two items were unavailable and it still came to £98! So an average weeks shopping has gone up over £15 for me in 6 months.

I’m in. Decided I want to leave work end august 2024. Have a year off and then access my pension so need to save up.

@Coffeecoffeeinmytummy wow! I can’t believe it’s gone up that much. I may depress myself and go and do that now too. For ‘educational’ purposes. Ie so that I stop spending so much 😆

So!! I shop at Waitrose (am extremely fussy eater unfortunately).
Anyway! I’ve had a suspicion about them recently being actually better value than the Tesco where I do the other half of my shopping. I’ve been surprised how everything keeps going up in Tesco but I’ve noticed a lot of my Waitrose order, while it went up a lot at first has actually started coming down in price.

Increase of £5.79!! From exactly a year ago!!

I'll join you. I agree about having things coming out such as credit cards on same date as e.g. pay going in, I always try and ask for direct debits for the 1st of each month it's so much easier to manage.

I paid off a long term debt management plan last month which was good (Payplan) and have no credit cards now. Going to try and keep it like that for a while at least as think I would only be offered high interest ones.

I have been online shopping with Waitrose- they have been doing these really good money off codes for around £20 if you spent over £100. This made a big impact as i do a weekly shop, and use the essentials things.

Anyway they seem to have stopped this. They do have some godd offers on though in general so sticking for now.

X post Lostcats, fellow Waitrose shopper. I don't think the others are cheaper. Tesco and Co-op are extortionate

Waitrose is also closest to me and I think they kept to their prices or even lowered them a bit, it's the other shops raising theirs to Waitrose prices so shopping there hasn't been too bad. It's not my favourite supermarket food wise though.

I'm moving house soon so I've been eating down the pantry and freezer. It's meant that my grocery shopping has been half what it normally is. I've also been trying to ban myself from shopping and also trying to sell a few bits before I move.

So it's been a low spend couple of months but I'm hoping to keep it up even after the move.

I never shop in Waitrose, as I don't have any near. I think we only have one in Leeds that is big enough to do weekly shopping. But I would go there if I wanted decent ham or cheese, or some fancy bread, as the quality is lovely, so for me Waitrose is more like a shop for one-offs.

£12.79 in asda yesterday for some last minute shopping. Didn't have GF bread for husband etc.
£7.49 on Amazon for mop replacement head

This week I will obviously go Easter shopping, apart from this I think I need gel for eyebrows, so might pop in to boots or superdrug. No other spends planned.

Btw. are you expecting to spend loads on Easter food? I am hoping we won't go too crazy. No kids or guests, so no need for expensive chocolate eggs etc., no alcohol as I'm pregnant, so that should reduce bill. Just the two of us, and husband is working, so we won't be going out anywhere. Maybe a little walk if weather is nice.

I'm in!
Really need to manage my money better. I've quit smoking and switched to vaping which will save me a load of money. I've already gone through my bank statements and cancelled anything I don't need or use. We shop at aldi and I've noticed the cost has gone up.
We're not doing anything special for Easter so will do a normal Sunday roast and buy Easter eggs but that's it.
No spend day planned here

I will join in as I've just gone part time. April should be OK as I've a week's holiday already paid for AI but I need to watch spends so will start now as I mean to go on.

The new council tax and water rates go out tomorrow- they have gone up.

YY to low Easter spend, it's crazy with all the prices of e.g. easter eggs. Might try cooking something e.g. easter cakes or biscuits. Keep it simple

Actually a roast dinner doesn't have to be that expensive does it (apart from the meat I suppose) We are veggie anyway so might just do something like cauliflower cheese and some roast veggies.

I'm in again for April. Need to get ds and DH new passports, but apart from that and a deposit of £150 for a weekend away, no major unexpected costs this month (I hope!).
I already got some Easter chocolates. Not sure what we're eating that Sunday, though. Pasta if ds has anything to say about it!
Yesterday spent £37 on groceries top up and today £2.50 on ice cream for ds in the park. I don't usually go for that, but it was a lovely day and he was very hot from running around all afternoon enjoying himself. 😊
Good luck all!

104 yesterday on a full shop
35 today on wine and nibbles as friends popping over
13 on wine glasses cos smashed ALL of ours ffs
2nd April already down 152euro.

When we were little Mum used to make a treasure hunt for eggs and hide little ones around the garden. Not sure if that's any cheaper?

The only "big" eggs we had were from relatives but we loved running around finding them.

My Nan used to be given a huge egg by guests who came each year and she shared it with us grandchildren. I still remember the disappointment the year they decided to change their gift to one more practical- and turned up with about 20kg of jam sugar!

Joining in again for April.

It's going to be harder to stick to low spend this month as I'm away for the weekend and also it's school hols but have got a few budget friendly things planned!

Checking in! I finished March with a total grocery/toiletries/cleaning/cat spend of £222.50 for the month. And other spends inc bus fare at £151.85. Going to see if I can get it lower in April!

Anyone got any awesome banana recipes?? I've got loads of over ripe bananas from the community food hub and no idea what to do with them. Bonus if recipes are dairy/gluten free but not necessary as the kids will eat most things! (I cant freeze them as only have a tiny freezer so space is prioritised for batch cooking and vegetables etc)