Grocery Budget & Clutter Sales

At the end of January I was horrified to find out how much I had spent on my groceries and drinks during that month. I wanted to radically reduce this amount and had very little success in February. There was a reduction but only minor. For January the total was £606.14 and for February the total was £598.30. Hardly a radical reduction when the amount in question is just £7.84. However, what has been of great value has been keeping a record of my spending and I have come to realise that I keep too much "stock" in my pantry, fridge and freezers and that I am sucker for using up money off vouchers sent to my the supermarkets. I usually get them from Sainsburys, Waitrose, Tesco and M&S.

I would not have spent so much in February if it had not been for three £8 off a £40 spend vouchers from Waitrose. In my mind I HAVE to use them up and have bought lots of long lasting items such as cat food, toilet paper and laundry liquid to use up the vouchers. If I try to not fall for using up any vouchers in March I am hopeful I can use up my "stock" and reduce my spending for March.

I have still been planning our meals and have been doubling up any cooking in the oven, so for example I cooked a roast beef dinner the other Sunday (beef was half price from the butcher's counter in Waitrose). I also cooked a chicken at the same time for using during the week for a couple of evening meals and sandwiches for work lunches.

I used the same accounts app for my grocery spending to keep a check on how much money I made in January & February on selling my clutter on eBay. I took into account postage costs plus eBay and PayPal costs. The amount I made was not huge and was more satisfying in freeing up space in the house than becoming a potential eBay millionaire but it will certainly help towards some spending money for our holiday in April. I managed to sell just over 40 items most of which were make-up, books and shoes. The smallest amount I sold an item for was £2.49 for an eye-liner and the most was £25 for a pair of boots that I had not worn for years. 

I will give the eBay selling a rest for now as it can be time-consuming in addition to me working full time as well and I seem to have reduced some of my clutter within our home. I think I will start again once we are back from our holidays in April.

Freebie Magazines & Papers

I bought an Ann Harvey dress on line and used their click & collect option to collect it from a local Bon Marche shop. This is not a shop I usually go into and I wouldn't really have thought to buy clothes from them. Even my dad who is nearly 78 calls it the "old lady shop" which I am sure Bon Marche would not be pleased about. Anyway, the lady who served me was just delightful, she was so pleasant and helpful which makes a refreshing change from the service you often get on the high street.

She gave me a free magazine called BON which I thought would be flicked through and then thrown away. How wrong I was. There was a voucher inside for £60 off wine with a company called naked wines.com. I bought a case of 12 bottles of mixed white wines including my favourite cava for £44.99 delivered free in 2 days time to my local Majestic Wine Warehouse. This works out at just £3.75 a bottle which is a price I would struggle to find in any supermarket for a half decent wine. The wine is already stored in our spare fridge in our garage for next weekend when we have a family gathering for my dad's birthday.

When the wine arrived there were some vouchers inside for other companies and I have used two vouchers for a free Graze box for myself and David. These are usually £3.99 each so we have done well to have got one each. I've looked at this company before but dismissed it as you had to sign up for weekly deliveries but this offer was just for the free box.

I also found a great Easter recipe for Easter egg rocky road which I will be making for Easter weekend. I am trying to keep the sweet treats to a minimum but you can't beat a mini chocolate binge at Easter.

I picked up the free Waitrose Weekend newspaper and found a very interesting article about a new food app called Olio which has been developed to cut down on food waste. Members publish any food they have to give away for free rather than throw away. There is also the option of selling on the food. It was developed by Tessa Cook who was the former managing director of pay day loan firm Wonga. She was going on holiday and had food in her fridge to give away but struggled to do this and thought it was a real waste to throw away perfectly good food. I signed up straight away and browsed what was available within a 5 mile radius of where I live and found available a large 3kg pack of tapioca and a large pack of coffee. Neither were for me, but I am sure it will blossom with more members and if you want to have a look or join the details are available on this link Here.

Every time I visit Waitrose I get a free newspaper and I tend to visit at the weekend to take advantage of the free weekend newspapers as they include several magazines. They often have additional offers included in the weekend papers such as the £5 off Champneys voucher that I used last week in Boots.  Waitrose also have a monthly magazine that is free to Waitrose card holders. I think this magazine is a great freebie as it has money offer vouchers and great recipes.

I bought Glamour magazine which was on offer at £2. I know it is a little young for me but when it comes with a £12 lip balm attached to it for free I would be daft not to buy it. I also made sure that I bought it from Tesco because I had a £10 off a £70 shop voucher. There were three other freebie options all from the Balance Me range. The others were a hand & body wash worth £6, a face mask worth £12 and an eye cream worth £11. I chose the lip balm because it is tinted and I find these great for using on holiday during the day. I find wearing a lipstick too heavy when it is hot but a balm is great for keeping away dry lips and a bit of colour is just the icing on the cake. Even better was finding a free satchet of body lotion which was inside the magazine.

Mini M&S Haul

I was on a course on Thursday which involved travelling across Salford Quays to get to the training venue. On my journey back I realised that it was late night opening at the Marks & Spencer outlet at the Lowry shopping centre. I called in as I was driving past and had a look at what was available in their clearance section.

I managed to find some sets of 3 tea towels reduced from £9.50 to £1.99 per set so I bought three sets as my current tea towels are starting to look shabby and some are almost threadbare. I like the simple blue and white colours of these and at less than 70p each are cheaper than charity shop buys.

I also bought four pairs of these rosy red bed socks. I love M&S fluffy socks for wearing around the house with slippers when the house is a little chilly in the mornings. I bought a pair each for my sister and niece and two pairs for myself. These had been reduced from £5 a pair to 99p.

All the greeting cards are half price in the outlet store and as it is my dads birthday in a couple of weeks time I bought this lovely card for him.

The Easter eggs were BOGOF and I fell in love with this cute Hello Kitty egg for my niece. She is 19 years old but still has an inner child and know she will love this. I bought the rabbit one for my nephew who is 17 and will just love the milk chocolate this is made from.

I saw some lovely Per Una white linen trousers at the bargain price of £3 so bought them. I could not be bothered to try them on so just took a chance they would fit as they are my usual size. After trying them on at home I was disappointed to find they are too tight and as I am unable to return clearance items they will be given to my sister as part of her birthday present.

I had wanted some new bras but was unable to find one in my size in the whole store. I can usually find a few and generally in the clearance section so end up paying around £3 but this time I had no luck what so ever. I also needed some new slippers but again having size 8 feet causes problems on the availability front so there were none in my size at all. This is one of the issues when you are looking for bargains - there are usually plenty of items but not always in your size. It is just the luck of the draw so I hope for better luck next time.

Beauty Bargains

I noticed that Marie Claire magazine had a free Nails Inc. nail varnish with the April issue. I plumped for the deep plum shade that is not dissimilar to my favourite shade of Victoria. There are 4 shades available and they are:

Dark Side of the Moon - deep plum
Moon River - pale taupe
Moon Dance - vibrant orange
Moonlight Shadow - deep grey

When I opened the magazine, there was a free House of Fraser magazine inside as well as two freebie samples of Aveeno body moisturising lotion and a L'oreal rosy day cream.

I noticed that there was an offer in Superdrug where if you bought two items from certain ranges there was a free Patisserie gift set worth £10. I bought two handcreams that were £1.49 each but on offer as buy one get one half price. These were included in the free gift offer so for £2.23 I got two handcreams and the free gift. I will keep the free gift and use it as a present for someone at some point throughout this year.

Boots have some offers on their No.7 range. I bought two items on Wednesday and got a free gift worth £22, which contained a moisturiser, a nail serum, mascara and very wearable eyeshadow in a mink shade. I was given two vouchers to use off my next purchase so yesterday I bought their facial wipes with £5 off and two more make-up items using the £3 off voucher. The make-up I bought was a bronze eyeshadow and an eye make-up primer. I love the Boots No.7 eye primer as it really holds the colour, there is no creasing of the colour or it moving to elsewhere on my eyelid. I was told some time ago by one No.7 assistant that it had been discontinued and was bereft. I moved to a Nars version that was good but not as good as No.7 and twice the price. When I found it on sale again on Wednesday you would not believe how excited I was!!!

I got another free gift and two more sets of the money off vouchers. The vouchers run out on 28th February (today) so I thought I may as well use them up and I went to a different Boots store on my way to Waitrose. I bought two more sets of the facial wipes. I love these and at £7 find them a little pricey but with a £5 off voucher I think that £2 is a more than reasonable price. I bought another two eyeshadows, one in a mid grey colour and one in a purple colour and used the £3 off vouchers and got another free gift. I turned down the offer of more of the money off vouchers as you can have too much of a good thing.

I had been running low on creme bath and bought a fantastic Champneys one the other day. When I was in Boots I noticed that Sanctually Spa had a free gift offer. If you bought two items from the range you got a free gift set worth £12.50. I chose two bottle of their creme bath at £6 each and got the free gift. It is my sister's birthday in April so I will put this to one side as part of her birthday present. The gift contains a full size body wash and body lotion and a large travel size body scrub.

I am delighted with my beauty bargains which should last me for a few months.

What I'm Loving Right Now

I'm loving that I used a £5 off a £12 spend on Champneys toiletries on buying the most divine smelling bubble bath. The voucher was free in the Daily Mail paper a week or so ago. The bubble bath is called Summer Dream, "a Well Earned Treat" and was £12 but I paid £7. I wouldn't have paid £12 and £7 seems still a little pricey but a much better price. The scent is zingy like grapefruit but with fruity undercurrents. 

I'm loving that my cat wakes me up by tapping her paw on the side of our bed. We have a wooden bedstead and she taps on the wooden bit rather than the mattress to wake me up to be fed. It is known as "the paw of food" in our house.

I'm loving Nails Inc. and my gel manicure. I've been visiting Nails Inc in Selfridges at the Trafford Centre for around 4 years, on a more on than off basis,  to get a gel manicure and sometimes a pedicure. Their gel manicures usually last between 2 - 3 weeks and I love the variety of colours that you can have. I have had sparkles and glitter on ring fingers at Christmas too. I went for the dark plummy shade of Victoria this time and bought another 3 for the price of 2 loyalty card for my next manicure. I was given 4 full size gel nail polishes as a gift. I love all of the colours apart from the blue shade which I think may be given to my niece.

I'm loving getting rid of items hanging round the house by selling them on eBay. I am not making a fortune but am making a reasonable amount but the reward is more in clearing out the clutter and helping me get some breathing space. I was beginning to feel I was drowning under all our possessions. I have sold mainly shoes & boots, books and make-up that is not needed or wanted. 

I'm loving that David was made redundant on Tuesday. I know this sounds odd but he is 57 and will be able to access his pension when he leaves work in 4 months time. He has worked for 39 years and has worked incredibly hard. He has worked long hours and Saturdays for the last 15 years which has caused problems for home life and weekends away. He has come home some evenings looking tired and grey and I could sense he was weary. He has been "time poor" which has led to work and chores going undone around the house and garden. I already have a list of chores for him for when he finishes in June. Most are for him to get someone in to do, like new windows, but he can organise it and be home for when the work is being done.

I'm loving that we have just 5 weeks to go to a family holiday in Tenerife. We went there last year for a week and this time we are going for two weeks. We have a fabulous two bed roomed, two bathroom apartment with huge terrace. I will be sharing the apartment with the men in life, David, my wonderful dad and my 17 year old nephew. They all treat me as a princess when I'm there. 

What are you loving at the moment?