Money Diary: Trips To The Pub, A Quiet Weekend In & Lots Of Keto Recipes
Welcome to the first instalment of what I (Emma Woodhouse) spends in a week. This week includes trips to the pub, a quiet weekend and making lots of new Keto recipes.
Let's see how I did ...
Monday
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Today started off with me nipping to the co-op to get a couple of Pepsi Max’s to drink at work. I bought a 600ml bottle which was £1.55 (rip off) and a 2-litre bottle for £1.50.
Later that evening my boyfriend and I decided to go for a walk (something that we love to do together) and then decided to go to the pub for a drink (£2.25) and then we nipped to the Spar shop to get a couple of packs of chorizo and salami to have as snacks throughout the week which cost a whole £2.00.
Daily Spend £7.30
Tuesday
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Today I nipped to B&M to get some toiletries (£19.92), drinks (£1.96) and some items for me to sell on my amazon store (£80.91). I thought about going into town to get the toiletries I needed but I knew that the price would be at least 20% more. Why pay more for exactly the same thing.
Again, my boyfriend and I went for our daily walk and a sneaky visit to the pub (I only drink Pepsi Max, don’t worry, I don’t have an alcohol problem, LOL) and that cost £3.38
Daily Spend: £106.17
Wednesday
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Today I decided I wanted to try a couple of Keto recipes so my friend and I nipped to Tesco for the ingredients, along with some other extra bits (£17.22).
On the way to work, I had a craving for a Pepsi Max so I nipped to the local shop and bought a couple of small bottles (£2.00).
I also received a refund of some Jeans I bought my boyfriend from Amazon (£19.99)
Total Spend £19.22
(plus a £19.99 refund)
Thursday
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Like most days I had a craving for a Pepsi Max to drink at work so I nipped to the same local shop (I’m becoming a bit of a regular there) and bought another couple of Pepsi Max’s (£2.00), one I’ll save until tomorrow.
As my boyfriend is going away for work this weekend we decided to go for a lovely walk around our village and have a sneaky drink at the pub (£2.25) before going home to a lovely spicy chicken dinner with peppers and onions, ingredients of which I bought yesterday.
I ordered some equipment to help make Keto recipe videos on amazon for you guys. It has proper changed the way I see ‘dieting’ and have to share my yummy finds (£34.98)
Later that night I attempted to make a second batch of pud in a mug but I wasn’t happy with the sweetener I have been using so I ordered a 1kg bag of Erythritol (£8.50) as it’s extremely low carb unlike agave and Total Sweet.
Total Spend: £47.73
Friday
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I intended on having a no-spend day and I was almost successful until 8pm but unfortunately, I had to nip to Aldi and do a mini food shop for the next coming week. I bought a roast chicken, steaks, eggs, and lots of veggies (£14.50).
Today I day the day off work, spent time in my soft office (my bed) and worked on my side hustle.
Total Spend: £14.50
Saturday
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Today was a relatively cheap day. I spent the day hanging out with my bestie. We took both of our cars to get washed (£7.00) then went back to mine and chilled.
We had dinner with what I had bought earlier that week. I made Keto bread for him to try and we watched Celebrity Catchphrase on TV.
Total Spend: £7.00
Sunday
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Today I had a me day. My boyfriend wasn’t back until 11pm, so at lunchtime, I decided to take a walk into my local village (I wanted to get my steps in on my Fitbit) to the co-op and get myself a pack of Pepsi Max’s to drink for the next few days (£6.04)
Total Spend: £6.04
TOTAL WEEKLY SPEND: £207.96
(and I received a refund of £19.99 which went back into my clothing budget)
So to review the week, I spent:
£115.89 at B&M for my side hustles.
£42.22 for Groceries all covered by my ‘grocery budget’. Sadly, grocery bills can’t be avoided however by shopping in the right places (aka Aldi) you can bring your weekly spend way down!
£7.88 at the pub, that doesn’t sound too bad upon reflection.
£19.92 on toiletries. Again, all budgeted for and the products I bought will last me a few months.
£15.05 on Pepsi’s, wow that’s more than I would’ve like to spend.
£7.00 on getting my car cleaned. This is a one-off expense really and I probably won't get my car cleaned for another couple of months.
All in all, this wasn’t a bad week. I budget £175.00 per month for my ‘grocery budget’ so I’ve stayed within this weeks budget and the numerous trips to the pub and the car wash came out of my ‘fun money’ budget.
Despite me spending over £200 this week, every penny was budgeted for. That’s the wonderful things about budgeting, if you set yourself a weekly/monthly budget anything you spend won’t affect your lifestyle for the rest of the week or month. I had fun without putting myself in the red.
Next week I intend on having at least one no-spend day.
How’s your spending going this week? Have you stuck to your budgets? Do you even have a budget? What could you have improved with your spending this week? Let me know in the comments below.
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