Frugal Food Shopping And Minimising Spending

This month I'm trying to be quite frugal when it comes to the grocery shopping once again. The menu plan has been written and I'm sticking to it closely.  It helps that I have recently been inundated with vouchers to use for my grocery shopping, from a couple of the major supermarkets.  Both Waitrose and Sainsbury's seem to be vying for my business.  I was sent 4 x £10 off a £50 online shop vouchers from Sainsburys, plus 4 x Free delivery vouchers via email, after placing my first online order with them the other week.  I used one last week and have just ordered my shopping for next week, to be delivered on Sunday night, using another.

Waitrose, meanwhile have also sent me 3 x £12 off a £60 shop vouchers, which can be redeemed both in store or online.  Next week, I'm heading there to do my shopping, possibly online, as I'm not so keen on one of the stores nearest to where I live. (I won't say why here)  As I usually spend at least £50 on the main grocery shop each week, this is working out brilliantly and I'm definitely not complaining one bit.

In terms of other spending this month, I'm currently over a third of the way through the month and am doing reasonably well on the spending front.  I didn't have a spending binge as soon as I had some money in my account as I normally do.  Instead I decided to try to get ahead of myself and order a couple of school shirts and some school shoes for LB to start the new school year in September.  I still need to find her a new school skirt, but I'll probably shop around for that in the summer holidays.

I have had a little splurge this week on something for me.  I ordered some ingredients for making my own beauty products from eBay.  I'm quite excited to finally get around to ordering them and being able to actually try some of the great recipes I've found in books and on YouTube.  I'm afraid a couple of posts on this subject might be forthcoming in the next couple of weeks.  I spent £28 in total, which sounds a lot of money, but I think the ingredients will last quite a while and make quite a lot of different products, so when you look at it in that way, it sounds quite reasonable.  It should be fun too.

The only major expense looming this month (or next), is to buy myself a new suitcase for our summer holiday. My current one has a faulty zip and can't be trusted in an aircraft, so inevitably I'm on the lookout for a new one, preferably one with four wheels this time so I can wheel it along upright.  I only bought my current one 5 years ago when we visited my sister in Australia and already it is well past it's best. I will be filling it with things to take to the charity shop or a give and take event, as it still could be useful to somebody.

I've got my eye on a couple in TK Maxx, which are the same make as my carry on suitcase and toiletry bag, which I really like and are good quality.  They were part of an offer that Tesco did a couple of years ago, and are Swiss made.  I see so many of them in the airport when we go away and I even overheard someone make a sneery comment about how common they were, whilst standing in the check in queue.

To be honest I didn't care, they are really well made, were a really good buy and keep their shape really well.  I'm pleased I bought mine anyway, and the fact that I'm going back to get another from the same brand says a lot.  I almost bought one the other day, but decided I wanted a large one (in case I want to do any shopping whilst away!) and the only one they had was slightly damaged, so I left it. On a positive note they were already on clearance, so I'm going to drive out to a larger branch of the store and see what they have there.  I'm holding out for an even better deal.

Trying to keep frugal.  How are you faring this month?