I waste a lot of money

I generally spend without being really conscious of my spending.  Actually focussing on every single dollar and what is important really makes you realise you don’t need a lot of the things you actually buy.  There is no reason I couldn’t do this once a month with a little planning.

I like buying in bulk

The main thing I have missed this week is not buying larger quantities of things.  Due to the daily limit I was buying 6 eggs instead of a dozen, small packets of nuts instead the largest available – and this isn’t very economical.  Last week I bought 36 rolls of toilet paper – I live on my own.  But it was such a bargain and saves more trips to the supermarket.

There CAN Be a big variety in price out there

Parsley at Banana Joes (with no plastic wrapping which is a bonus) was $1.49 while at Woolies it was $3.  DOUBLE!  And ginger syrup at the health food store was $4.15 but $4.77 at Banana Joes.  I found this quite fascinating.  I usually shop for ease and convenience and don’t do any comparisons.  But I get generally most of us don’t have time for shopping around.  Today’s shopping involved 2 shops to get what I wanted for the right price – so I would need to be less fussy if I was doing it while working full time.

It was quite easy and even fun

Often a challenge can seem quite, well, ‘challenging’.  But I approached it with curiosity and a what if attitude and ended up really enjoying it.  Maybe because there was no pressure, I did not have any measurements for failure and I didn’t care what people thought of me.  I wonder if other challenges would be much easier than expected if we didn’t put so much pressure on ourselves.

Planning ahead was the only way to succeed

Knowing what I needed to buy each day to get through the next day or 2 was the key.  It needed to be a little flexible when there would be more leftovers (or less) than expected.  Having staples in the pantry really helped – I knew at any time I could make home made baked beans which is why I stocked up on baby spinach to ensure I would always have enough veggies/greens with all meals.

WOOHOO!!!!!  A total of $68.65 spent

The weekly menu

Monday

• Purchased organic baby spinach, organic tin of cannelloni beans, cherry tomatoes (on sale) and a lemon $9.25
• Pre purchased paleo muesli with full fat yoghurt
• Leftover mexican quinoa with scrambled egg (looked horrid but tasted ok)
• White bean, avocado and spinach salad

Tuesday

• Purchased organic baby spinach, 6 organic eggs and a 75c bottle of sparkling mineral water as a treat $9.75
• Pre purchased paleo muesli with full fat yoghurt
• Leftover white bean, avocado and spinach salad
• Omelette with spinach, tomato, spanish onion and cheese

Wednesday

• Purchased 2 x $5 glasses of wine at Happy Hour
• Pre purchased paleo muesli with full fat yoghurt
• Leftover white bean, avocado and spinach salad
• Dinner was cooked for me!

Thursday

• Purchased organic slivered almonds, parsley, whole cauliflower and a bottle of sparkling mineral water – total cost originally $10.05 but I used my voucher at the store and it cost $9.75
• Pre purchased paleo muesli with full fat yoghurt
• Leftover omelette
• Cauliflower and chorizo bake
• Baked banana bread with bananas from last week

Friday

• Pre purchased paleo muesli with full fat yoghurt
• I was taken out to lunch (I tried to move it to next week but she wasn’t available and offered to pay today – as someone who isn’t very good with other people paying I graciously accepted and tried to get my head around it – people are allowed to do nice things for us!)
• I rocked up to a friend’s house after a few drinks and they fed me

Saturday

• Pre purchased paleo muesli with full fat yoghurt
• Leftover cauliflower and chorizo bake
• Avocado on spelt toast

Sunday

• Purchased organic sausages, cauliflower, cream, gravy, organic blueberries and organic butter for $29.90 (and organic blueberries were my splurge)
• Pre purchased paleo muesli with full fat yoghurt and organic blueberries
• Banana bread
• Sausages with onion gravy, cauliflower mash and peas (was going to be dinner for Saturday and Sunday nights but I was too lazy to shop on Saturday!)