No Spend Days
16 out of 31 days in the month were spend days. For the most part these were preparing for November & December expenses. In the lead up to Christmas we will both likely be working 5 days a week – and I might even have to do 6-7. The good thing is the shifts are relatively short – 5-6 hours – but the bad news is I will be working every single weekend while The Other Half will be working all the weekdays.
I took some surprise opportunities both to save money buying in bulk (Petbarn, Nowra Fresh, one of the Aldi trips was 9 punnets of large mushrooms) and to save future time by food prepping and freezing. I also did some Christmas shopping while I had the chance. More about these things later in the post.
My spending saboteur has now returned to Adelaide and I will be busy working, but I do have a couple more Christmas shopping things to do yet.
No Spend Goals For November
I would like to get back to 2 grocery shops maximum each month, and 2 other spend days. As we are already halfway through November, spoiler alert, I have failed the November goal before I even set it. :)
But now, for the great news –
Grocery Spending
Coles – 13.50
Aldi – 477.53
Woolworths – $3
Total grocery spend – $494.03
Grocery cost of $15.93/day.
Bulk food spend – $72.04
The grocery budget for October was $620 and we came in well below that – $125.97 below. I counted the mushroom bulk buy in with the normal Aldi shopping because that is where I got them from. Part of this was using two $10 off my shops at Coles, part of this was eating out of the freezer more, part of this was a couple of meals out which we did not pay for ourselves, and I was at a conference overnight where all my food was included.
Why did I spend $3 at Woolworths? We needed pizza bases, and neither Coles or Aldi had them.
Grocery Spending Goals For November
November has 30 days = $600
Bulk food budget $100
October Thoughts
The big field mushrooms were on special for $2.99 at Aldi when I dropped in there with my Aunt to get something she needed – I had not intended to do any shopping but when I saw that, I thought maybe I could stock up, cook up, freeze up, and be set for a while. That is $1 off per punnet, so I went a bit crazy and bought 9 of them. We had a couple of hours to kill before our nails appointment that day, we went home, rinsed, chopped, cooked and drained all 9 punnets in the space of an hour.
I put them into a very large bowl and into the fridge till I could return. Later that day, The Other Half and I measured out equal amounts and put them into foodsaver bags. I now have 12 vacuum sealed bags of mushrooms which will give me mushroomy Pizza Fridays until mid-January.
We’d bought two bags of kitty litter as we were about to run out on the 20th and a few days later I got this email –
This is a super great deal for us. We’re never going to NOT need kitty litter, we have room to store it in the shed, and $70 off is nearly three of the very large bags for free. I believe we got a deal like this late last year or early this year and this is why running out came to us as a surprise because we are so used to a new bag just being there when we need it. We bought every single bag they had in stock, which was 9 if I recall correctly, and we also got a bag of chicken food to take us over $250 and get the $70 off.
We bought chicken breast in bulk and made up some more kievs, and also chicken pieces as we were running out. I may have to do pieces again this month but if so I will like to buy enough so we don’t have to do it again in 2018.
Realising that Christmas is nearly here when I saw a gift for Mother that would work, I grabbed it. I know what I am going to get for Dad, and I will also pick up some spare things in case we have some extra folks arrive on Christmas Day. I had to buy Christmas themed things for myself for work, as Christmas is a bit of a deal where I am now.
I finally ran out of hair conditioner, so I had to get some more from “The Warehouse” and they had a special deal where if I bought shampoo I got the conditioner for free.
But in good news, I got reimbursed over $150 for some former work clothes purchasing, and I won a $50 visa gift voucher at the work conference.
I had to fill up the car again. This time I had to get the more expensive fuel because the other option was not available, and I was low enough on the gauge that I didn’t want to drive anywhere else. Still, I think filling up twice in a year is pretty awesome – if I need to do it a third time that is ok, and I may need to depending on how much I can carpool to work on the upcoming days.
I don’t understand your system. For me a no-spend month would be one major grocery shop then just top ups with milk, bread, eggs for the rest of the time. But in your list, you’ve been to Aldi 6 times…Coles twice; some of that may have been Christmas Shopping as you’ve said, but you do seem to go to the shops an awful lot…………
There were 5 visits to Aldi this month. My goal is to do shopping once a fortnight, but this month there were different weekly specials which I stocked up on and froze, when they were available.
Normally I don’t know about the specials in the other week, when I don’t shop. Two things changed that this month – one, we actually started getting the weekly Aldi catalogue in our letterbox which we have never had before, and two, I was there with my Aunt getting things she wanted or needed so I was there in the store to buy those specials.
Perhaps I did not explain this clearly enough in my beginning post way back in January 2018, but just in case I did, here is what I wrote.
“Realistically this is quite impossible, because one has to eat and get clean and live life, so groceries and toiletries and necessities are something most of us need to buy. ”
“When I say year of buying nothing, I mean things like clothes, shoes, homewares, that kind of stuff.”
“2. Items purchased from Aldi, Coles and Woolworths will not count as these are mostly groceries and toiletries.”
http://www.snoskred.org/2018/01/the-year-of-buying-nothing-2018.html
Is it STILL that year? I so admire you! Sorry about you and hubby’s work schedules for the holiday season!
It does seem like it is going on longer than a year, Mitchell. ;)
Thanks. I HAD forgotten your original statement.