Twenty is Plenty - Final week

So my grocery shop for this final week was initially £24.57.

I say initially, because I came to my senses and returned some stuff I didn't need. I'd gone shopping with friends, which meant my head was in la la frivolous mode rather than lean, mean, thrifty machine and I ended up buying cereal and then stuff to make bagels and even, annoyingly enough, doubles (this is why I need to check my cupboards before writing my shopping list). For one thing, the ingredients for bagels from this supermarket was grossly inflated and I could've got it cheaper elsewhere. Also, I knew I wouldn't make bagels that week - the ingredients would just lounge desolately in the depths of my cupboard. Fortunately, the supermarket in question allowed me to return most of the surplus ingredients (but they don't take back frozen or fresh, which makes sense).

So in total, it came to £19.61.

And for the entire month of February, I spent £101.45 on food.

Whoa. It sounds a lot, dunnit? I guess there's a lot I could have done to cut it down but one thing I realised during my frugal food February is that I use food as a manner of hospitality. With that £100, I fed myself for at least 29 days, pizza to 11 people for an evening, teriyaki meatballs to 3 other people, pasta to 2 other people and the Wonder Thing on a few occasions too. I could budget to the nth degree and calculate and ration how much I eat to optimise savings but that all goes out the window when friends come over and that has a knock on effect on my food spending.

Not that it's impossible to feed people and yourself on under £20, but it takes a lot of foresight and planning.

And soup, I'd imagine. Soup goes a loooong way.

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