Monday

• Starbucks (catch up with a family friend) £2
• Dinner at my house (including cigarettes for the person of interest) £17.40
• The Heat (Amazon rental) – £3.49
• Returning coins (borrowed from my sub-letter last week) – £32.80
• PAYG travel £2.40

Tuesday

• PAYG travel £5.30

Wednesday

• Groceries for breakfast and loaded potato skins £11.46
• PAYG travel £4.40
• Lunch (with a friend in the park) £2.50

Thursday

• Compeed invisible action cold sore treatment £6.18
• iPhone charger cable £1
• Garlic sausage from grocery store £1.49
• Fundraiser pub quiz (with person of interest) £10
• Spotify £9.99

Friday

• PAYG travel £4.40
• Groceries for carbonara + fizzy drink for the person of interest £7.48

Saturday

• PAYG travel  £6.70
• Lunch at the slug and lettuce (shared meal) £7
• Socialising at rollerderby £19

Sunday

• PAYG travel £4.40
• Dinner with the person of interest(split costs) £9.19

The stuff in bold was paid out but dealt with by gifts or money that was already pre-budgeted and managed in a different way from my life/personal care budget and isn’t included in the totals.

Summary

Best purchase: I got some bread on the 21st that was due to go off on the 23rd and so reduced from £0.69 to £0.20. By having this for breakfast through the week , I saved on my £1 a day bagel and peanut butter. A close second is the iPhone charger I got for £1. I got the one I was replacing for £5 (and had thought that I was super savvy avoiding the £25 cost of an official Apple one).

Worst purchase: Although this was an altruistic purchase, given that the person of interest had a terrible day at work and was consequently anxious and convinced they weren’t going to sleep, I’ve put it in as the worst purchase because of the plethora of alternatives that were not only available but had already been paid for through my Netflix membership. We rented The Heat off of Amazon because it wasn’t available on Prime. I definitely SHOULD NOT have bought a bottle of wine (£19) or a meal at JD Wetherspoon’s Ice Wharf (£9.19) in Camden but I was super close to spending another £6 on each of those occasions so they don’t win the prize.

What will I do better next week?: I paid at least 20p in charges for plastic bags from grocery stores. I have a ton of these at home and one in my big backpack but I keep forgetting to take them with me. Need to improve this situation. I’ve also got to remember to register for the Tesco club and Nectar cards so that I can get money off and cash back eventually. Doesn’t cost a thing and since I’m actually cooking more, it should build up a decent amount of savings eventually.

Observations: I was optimistic about getting the bus to work which is why I was over on the transport budget. I’m beginning to enjoy finding ways to cut costs and no longer think of my current situation as the end of the world. On Wednesday when I got my friend to meet up at the park instead of our usual restaurant, I was pretty chuffed to save £2.50 on my social budget for the day. I also now find myself wondering whether I shouldn’t transfer my side hustle income for the month from its intended purpose of funding a vacation to a much worthier cause like creating an emergency fund. The jury is out on this one.