Having put aside a £10 for transport, I had £25 left for the rest of my week. I decided that I should aim to spend about £10 on food for the week, thinking that was a fairly achievable aim. 10 minutes into my supermarket shop, I realised that this would not be as easy as I thought. On food alone, I had already (theoretically) spent 14 pounds, and this was before I remembered that I needed to top-up on toiletries, adding more expense to my bill. Luckily, we were all topped up for cleaning products in the house. But what if we weren’t? That easily could have been another few precious pounds added to my bill, ones I could not afford to spend.
I was also aware of the fact that I would not be able to do any sneaky topping up throughout the week; the food I got today was it for the week. This meant I had to reanalyse my basket; should I get so many vegetables, which are perishable and not as substantive as rice or pasta? Do I really need coffee when it could come at the price of other essentials?
I did manage to cut down my spending to £12, £2 more than I planned to spend, after sacrificing some preferred goods for more practical options such as pasta and rice. However, the restrictions didn’t stop in the supermarket; the rest of my week was spent stringently measuring portions to make sure I had enough to last the week.
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