Tracking Groceries

We tracked spending on food for nine months, the funny thing being that the months after I stopped I spent far less on food. I'd love to say I'd saved the money but we have had to use the cash I'd saved on other things, but it's better than over spending! 

With the amount we spend on food I should be the size of a house! Over the period of tracking we spent on average £163.35 a month on food. That was a lot more than I thought, I think I thought we spent around £130. I think I thought we spent more on non-food items that we really do. I know just from the cash left in the grocery account each month we've been just over £100 for the past few months. We've been eating from the freezer lots, but the pantry is still nicely stocked. 

Which leads to eating out. We don't go to restaurants all that much but we do enjoy a coffee or two at the weekend, and I can generally be tempted to a cinnamon roll and something from the food stall on Lancaster market. I'm not a huge fan of food, but brunch is a meal I genuinely look forward to, it's a break from cooking for me, and still less money than going on holiday, something we don't do. I don't think we'll have even one night away this year. Dan's office occasionally all treat themselves to lunch, or he attends celebration meals and things like that, it all adds up.

I've spoken before about my dislike of picnics and how I don't really believe they save money (for two of us at least), we actually had to take a picnic with us on Sunday as we went to a family thing. WOW they are hard work, we seemed to spend a full day making things, and when we got there all we had was a sandwich, soup, a big salad, a couple of pasties and a huge pile of washing up! Worth it for some people, not worth it to me, I'd rather just grab some nuts and a cup of water, just enough to keep hunger at bay than deal with all that faff.  

So we averaged £91.36 a month on eating out, coffee, snacks and other things eaten outside the house. Again, it's been far less recently. It is more than worth it for the days there is no washing up!