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Blog: Living on a budget (Week 5 – £10)

So, it’s Week 5 of my experiment, and I’ve been criticised for not staying on budget the last two weeks, which firstly raises the debate of just how easy it is to go over-budget when you know there is money sitting in the bank (very), and secondly, has made me determined to meet or beat my budget this week, £10. It has been a sad week in my household, or rather, a stressful one. You see, to make the £10 week work, I have refrained from smoking. I don’t say “given up” as the second this is over I’m going to toke down a whole pack at once.

So, I walk to the supermarket (that’s right, no bus for me!), and buy the biggest bag of frozen chips you have seen in your life for just 99p, and they’re genuinely better than the named-brand ones I usually buy. Jelly for just 8p? I think so! I get a pack of sausages (73p) to go with the chips, and some carrots (30p) so I can tell my mum I bought vegetables, and my shopping comes to an impressive total of £2.10.

All is good for a couple of days. I genuinely and truthfully restrain from even looking on the iTunes Store, let alone buying anything. I’m pretty grouchy from the lack of cigarettes and sugary fizzy drinks, so treat myself to a two litre bottle of cola (14p), which reminds me distinctly of being fourteen years old and drinking cheap vodka with even cheaper coke at parties. Not nice. However, I’m lucky enough to catch my local supermarket at Sunday closing time where all the baked goods are marked down, and grab myself a loaf of bread for just 13p. So far I’ve only spent £2.37, and I haven’t gone hungry.

Instead of heading to Monkeyshine as is the Thursday night ritual, I have a night in watching DVDs with my friends and don’t spend a penny – there’s even wine flowing! I’m appalled at myself the next day when I don’t think twice about paying £2.50 for a ready-made sandwich, something which I’m going to avoid in the future –that’s more than my basket full of shopping had cost earlier in the week. So the total is now running at £4.87, with two days to go.

Impressed with myself, I get a little cocky and buy a bottle of real, genuine coke from a vending machine (£1) before a lecture. It was beautiful and certainly worth it, even if I did feel an overwhelming sense that I should have resisted, so I resolve that instead of buying a new bottle of Volvic every week, I shall refill a bottle from the kitchen tap, meaning (at least in my mind) that I can buy my bottle of coke guilt-free.

And there you have it, a whole week and I’ve spent just £5.87, just over half my budget for the week. It can be done, but I wouldn’t want to do it every week, and I’m pretty sure the nicotine withdrawal means I’ll have no friends by the end of this.

Part 1 – http://inquirelive.co.uk/node/901

Part 2 – http://inquirelive.co.uk/node/913

Part 3 – http://inquirelive.co.uk/node/945

Part 4 – http://inquirelive.co.uk/node/1039

Part 6 – http://inquirelive.co.uk/node/1095

Comments

• I’m sorry my comment made you have to give up your cigarettes this week!
  
  Well done for staying on budget. 🙂

  By Jessie on 9.12.2023

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• I actually really enjoyed reading this article and am feeling inspired and guilty at the same time!!!

  By Lauren Crowley on 30.11.2023

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• Because it’s entertaining. Stop being so anal and lighten up.

  By George Berry on 30.11.2023

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• Lisa, i still don’t get the point of your articles. I don’t see why readers would be concerned with one’s attempt to survive on an unrealistic sum of money for a series of weeks.
  
  This week you managed it, but i can’t see readers now feeling inspired to follow in your footsteps.

  By Andy Jackson on 29.11.2023

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