Weekly shop halfprice!

I did our weekly shop today. When I arrived at Aldi I realised I didn't have my bank card with me but thankfully had a tenner and some coins in my pocket, plus the money that my parents had given me to pay me back for the shoes I bought for my 2 yr old recently which they had said they would get. So that meant I had £45.50 to do my whole week's grocery shopping with (and that was including the £1 in the trolley)!

At first I was annoyed with myself for leaving my card behind but then I was quite excited by the challenge! After all, the money management course we did recently said cash-only is the way to go. So I went round with my list choosing the cheapest possible options of everything, and keeping a running total of it all in my head (well, outloud actually). This isn't easy when simultaneously trying to passify a toddler and have pleasantries with other shoppers but I managed it and it was really exciting that we managed to get all our shopping without having to do a second trip with more money! It came to a total of £41.32 - for a full week's shop!! Usually I could easily spend about £100... So Aldi (or I guess Lidl) and cash is the way to do it if you're in a position not to be choosey!

Much of it was the same stuff as my last shop that I posted about. The rest came to a total of £6.70, which would have been £6.40 in Sainsbury's so that's interesting. But I would be tempted/blinded by the array of options in Sainsbury's which in itself makes me spend more than the bare minimum. I'm surprised though - I thought there'd be at least a notable saving! I'll shop in Lidl next week and see how it compares! Anyway, overall I did make a significant saving so it was worth it :)

I mentioned tubes of yoghurt in my other food shop post; I looked at the other options today and discovered little fromage frais pots are 69p for 6, ie 11p each so definitely cheaper than tubes. So, as the pots are quick to eat and my 5 yr old has no problem opening them, they're replacing the tubes in his packed lunches! Oh, and they did have bog standard porridge oats today :) Plus it turns out they do usually have rice cakes, they just haven't had any in lately.. Josh got a pack of the big lightly salted ones in Home Bargains today though, for 39p :) Also, I managed to get two packs of free Huggies from Boots (with vouchers)! They're cheaper in Boots than the supermarkets btw (£6.50 a pack) though I believe Costco is the best place for nappy bargains if anyone wants to shop around.

I'm thankful for what I'm learning about budgeting and spending through this, for the fact we had enough cash on us for our week's shopping today, and for the feeling of achievement in my mental arithmetic amidst multi-tasking today! Also thankful for prayer meeting with other parents from school this evening and for friends to hang out with after school :) Thankful for a husband at home to look after kids so I could go to prayer meeting! And for wellies given to us two days ago which, though 3 sizes too big, saved our bacon in school today otherwise 5 yr old wouldn't have been able to play out as we can only find one of each of his pairs of shoewear!!