Sunday, February 09, 2014

Thriftuary 2014 - Part One

Welcome to Thriftuary. Again.

 You'll recall that last year, Dr K and I engaged in an outrageous, radical and, some might say* insane challenge to subsist on as little money as possible for a whole month.

You'll also recall that we succeeded in doing for the grand total of £97.69 which was enough to beat my challenger, Ben.

It was not, however good enough. We decided that we could definitely do better then that. Loads better.

And because just trying to beat the previous year is not challenge enough, we decided that we weren't allowed to go food shopping during Thriftuary at all. So, all of our food had to be bought and in the cupboards by February 1st.

This was going to need some serious planning. Spreadsheets and everything. God I love spreadsheets...

Here is my lovely Thriftuary menu plotted out on a spreadsheet.


There are a few unpopulated cells on there, because I hadn't worked out quite how much stuff was going to cost at the time I took the screenshot, but it's pretty much there. Seven days of meals, cycled round 4 times to make the whole month.  We may or may not get sick of some things by the end of this.

In practice, we didn't stick precisely to the menu. Rather then making a stew this last weekend, I served up a rather ill-advised experiment with Szechuan Beef, which Dr K advises me tasted like the arse of a badger that has been dead for three weeks. In a ditch.

Anyway, here we are at the end of the first week (actually it's nine days in because I've been poorly-sick with a cold and am also lazy) and I have a table and a chart to show you. Tables are good, but charts are awesome:



I've plotted this year's figures against last year's for your entertainment. As you can see, in general, we're spending less this year than we did last year. In fact at the end of day 9, we've spent nearly £2 less than last year and we're averaging £3.10 a day (or £1.55 per person, per day), compared to £3.49 a day in 2013. 

There were a handful of freebies: I had a paid-for lunch on Monday as I was at a work conference (and took full advantage of both my own pockets and friend's handbag, to liberate a few items of fresh fruit). By pre arranged mutual agreement, Ben and I took part in an undocumented Nando's on Monday evening in order to facilitate some essential work based networking. Unfortunately we were unable to find a loophole that meant that our boss had to pay for it, but we agreed that it was exigent and unavoidable circumstances.  We have our own loopholes, for stuff like this.

There were a few slightly more expensive items left over from January in our fridge - things like yoghurts and cheese. We've used most of these over the last week and included their actual cost in the figures, which means that next week, where we have no expensive, creamy luscious cherry yoghurts, should be even cheaper.

If this trend continues, we're set to beat last year's figure by around £10.

I'm so hungry...

For anyone that's interested, here's the detail of what we've put in our faces over the last few days:



Date
Item Volume Cost Total
01/02/2014 Tea bags 6 0.06 2.14

Milk 120ml 0.1

Chicken 300g 1.2

Rice 300g 0.2

Peas 50g 0.1

Pepper 50g 0.1

Oxo 1 0.01

Goat yoghurt 32g 0.17

Onion 1 0.2
02/02/2014 Tea bags 6 0.06 3.65

Milk 120ml 0.1

Eggs 4 0.4

Onion 1 0.2

Bacon 125g 0.25

Braising steak 176g 1.3

Onion 1 0.2

Carrot 200g 0.2

Potato 300g 0.2

Peas 50g 0.1

Oxo 1 cube 0.01

Yoghurt (activia) 1 0.46

Yoghurt (goat) 32g 0.17
03/02/2013 Oats 50g 0.04 2.15

Milk 100ml 0.1

Tea 6 bags 0.06

Milk 120ml 0.12

Can of sardines 1 0.5

Satsuma 1 0.08

Cream cheese 50g 0.22

Almonds X10 0.1

Sweet potato 170g 0.22

Cauliflower 1/4 0.22

Cheese (value) 20g 0.12

Pork 70g 0.31

Butter 5g 0.06

Buffet lunch Expenses 0

Nando's 'Expenses' 0
04/02/2013 Tea bags 6 0.06 3.18

Milk 120ml 0.1

Bread 2 sl 0.2

Peanut butter 20g 0.1

Spread 10g 0.05

Carrot 100g 0.1

Pear 1 0.2

Oats 50g 0.04

Milk 100ml 0.08

Almonds 12g 0.1

Avocado 1 0.44

Liver 1 pack 0.73

Bacon 125g 0.2

Onion 1 0.2

Potato 300g 0.2

Carrot 200g 0.2

Yoghurt 1 0.18

Biscuits from yesterday buffet 2 shortbreads 0
05/02/2014 Tea bags 5 0.05 3.28

Milk 100ml 0.08

Bread
0.2

Peanut butter 20g 0.1

Apple Free 0

Pork mince 364g 1.4

Tinned tomatoes 1 0.34

Onion 1 0.2

Peas 50g 0.1

Pasta 100g 0.06

Oats 50g 0.04

Milk 100ml 0.08

Almonds X10 0.1

Ryvita X1 0.06

Cream cheese 25g 0.11

Satsuma X1 0.08

Egg X1 0.1

Yoghurt 1 0.18
06/02/2014 Tea bags 6 0.06 3.07

Milk 120ml 0.1

Bread 2 slices 0.1

Spread 10g 0.1

Peanut butter 20g 0.1

Pear 1 0.2

Oat biscuits X3 0.1

Cream cheese 25g 0.11

Avocado X1 0.44

Satsuma X1 0.08

Almonds X10 0.1

Activia Yoghurt X1 0.5

Eggs X4 0.4

Bacon 125g 0.2

Pepper 50g 0.1

Onion 1 0.2

Yoghurt 1 0.18
07/02/14 Tea bags 3 0.03 3.67

Milk 60ml 0.05

Bread 2 slices 0.1

Spread 10g 0.1

Peanut butter 20g 0.1

Pear 1 0.2

Carrot 100g 0.1

Almonds X10 0.1

Avocado Free 0

Cream cheese 25g 0.11

Oat biscuits X3 0.1

Egg
0.1

Nuts Free on table 0

Beef mince 300g 1.4

Onion 1 0.2

Kidney beans 1 tin 0.3

Tomatoes 1 tin 0.34

Pepper 50g 0.1

Chillis 5 0

Oxo 1 cube 0.1

Rice 100g 0.04

Peas 50g 0.1
08/02/14 Tea bags 1 0.01 3.62

Milk 20ml 0.02

Chicken 300g 1.3

Rice 200g 0.8

Peas 50g 0.1

Oxo 1 cube 0.01

Pepper 50g 0.1

Avocado
0.44

Greek yoghurt 100g 0.22

Activia yogurt 1 pot 0.46

Oats 100g 0.08

Milk 200ml 0.08

Almond snickers Free 0
09/02/14 Oats 50g 0.08 3.19

Milk 100ml 0.1

Tea bags 2 0.02

Eggs 4 0.4

Bacon 125g 0.2

Cheese 20g 0.15

Biscuits (free at a friends) 4 0

Braising steak 176g 1.34

Onion 1 0.2

Carrot 50g 0.05

Pepper 50g 0.1

Oxo 1 cube 0.01

Yogurt 1 0.46

Apple Free 0

Orange 1 0.08

* No-one said it.

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