I was recently asked if I would like to get involved in a challenge created by Saga and their Equity Release branch. I have long since thought that perhaps I needed to complete a spending diary to see where I was perhaps going wrong – the money always seems to run out just before pay day – so I agreed. I was sent some very handy tools – a spending diary, meal planner, book, pen and some supermarket vouchers to see how I got on.
We have been trying to stick to a budget for food and fuel over the past few months – we knew our MOT was coming up so wanted as much spare cash as possible in case of the worst case scenario. We are also keen to get our food and fuel spends down anyway – whilst we buy a big food shop every pay day, both Steve and I (especially Steve when he is at work) are bad for spending unnecessary money on rubbish food even when I have made him food to take with him. The same can be said for dinners – I often find that I have forgotten to get that thing out of the freezer or pick up that one ingredient from the shop and end up choosing the bad option out of laziness – takeaway. This needs to stop, I know when I meal plan it works for us so I really needed to get back to it.
I know that when I do meal plan and meal plan properly, we eat better food and don’t feel as sluggish – plus our grocery spend goes down. Our freezer and cupboard are nearly always full to bursting, my problem is finding the motivation and inspiration to throw something together so by taking one day a week to meal plan for the whole week, I really can get myself organised. The meal plan notebook provided by Saga really helped get me back into the zone and I am happy to announce that I am back to my meal planning best.
I found that a spending diary can be so difficult but it is important to keep myself accountable. We used the £25 to get the essentials we require on a regular basis – milk, bread, cheese, toilet rolls, those kind of things – and I noted these down in my budget book. I had to be very discliplined to write absolutely everything down and of course, I didn’t know exactly what Steve was spending – although I did check up on him a lot.
I finally noticed where I was going wrong – when I was heading to the local shop to pick up those essentials whenever we run out, I would often find myself picking up a lot of unnecessary stuff that I really didn’t need. I was already slightly self aware of this but seeing it written down on paper properly made me realise I need to take stock and actually take action.
That’s why I am going to set myself a challenge from next pay day – we will buy the absolute essentials we need and a few of the things we always buy out of our food budget – Steve always takes the Slimming World ready meals from Iceland on a night shift – and apart from that, we will be using up the stuff in our freezer and cupboards as we have far too much and aren’t using it.
I found the challenge quite difficult to complete but also so rewarding as it has really helped me notice where I am going wrong and I can now take action. It is important to keep a track of your spending so your finances stay in order and hopefully I have got these in check now.
Do you keep a spending diary?
I was sent a selection of items to help with the creation of this post