£80.77. That's the final tally for our Thriftuary spending.
That's just over £40 per person for a whole month, which isn't bad at all.
Now, there is an important consideration. For various reasons there were a number of meals that we got for free. Some of them were on expenses or were generously donated by friends in some form or another (Dr K was invited to a birthday party where there was chicken. She brought me a doggy bag). One of them was a stag do meal that I couldn't get out of. Those haven't been included in the final figure. Nor have the occasional freebies: office cakes, office sweets, donated Twixes and so-on.
If we were to assume that we'd had the scheduled meal instead of the free meal, we would have spent an additional £7.30, which makes the final total £88.07. That's still £9.53 less than last year, and still only around £44 per person. I still haven't included the twix!
There's a few of interesting things that have become apparent as a result of this years challenge:
- A little bit of planning means that you don't need to go hungry. As long as you like mince based meals.
- In the event that my boss finally notices that I never do any work and sacks me, I will be able to afford to eat handsomely on just £40 per month.
- I have a lot of very excellent friends, who wouldn't let me go hungry!
Here's a chart showing the daily totals for the entire month, with 2013's chucked in for comparison.
| Date | 2013 | 2014 | 2013 Total | 2014 Total |
| 1-Feb | £2.30 | £2.28 | £2.30 | £2.28 |
| 2-Feb | £4.12 | £3.79 | £6.42 | £6.07 |
| 3-Feb | £3.08 | £2.37 | £9.50 | £8.44 |
| 4-Feb | £0.63 | £3.44 | £10.13 | £11.88 |
| 5-Feb | £4.09 | £3.52 | £14.22 | £15.40 |
| 6-Feb | £2.21 | £3.21 | £16.43 | £18.61 |
| 7-Feb | £3.05 | £3.74 | £19.48 | £22.35 |
| 8-Feb | £7.31 | £3.96 | £26.79 | £26.31 |
| 9-Feb | £3.99 | £3.69 | £30.78 | £30.00 |
| 10-Feb | £3.79 | £1.22 | £34.57 | £31.22 |
| 11-Feb | £1.39 | £0.88 | £35.96 | £32.10 |
| 12-Feb | £3.70 | £1.22 | £39.66 | £33.32 |
| 13-Feb | £4.63 | £3.13 | £44.29 | £36.45 |
| 14-Feb | £5.48 | £2.88 | £49.77 | £39.33 |
| 15-Feb | £2.69 | £3.79 | £52.46 | £43.12 |
| 16-Feb | £5.45 | £2.34 | £57.91 | £45.46 |
| 17-Feb | £6.69 | £3.26 | £64.60 | £48.72 |
| 18-Feb | £2.38 | £3.41 | £66.98 | £52.13 |
| 19-Feb | £1.76 | £1.93 | £68.74 | £54.06 |
| 20-Feb | £2.12 | £1.09 | £70.86 | £55.15 |
| 21-Feb | £2.94 | £2.84 | £73.80 | £57.99 |
| 22-Feb | £6.32 | £0.83 | £80.12 | £58.82 |
| 23-Feb | £1.75 | £2.13 | £81.87 | £60.95 |
| 24-Feb | £3.25 | £3.51 | £85.12 | £64.46 |
| 25-Feb | £2.06 | £3.24 | £87.18 | £67.70 |
| 26-Feb | £4.46 | £6.70 | £91.64 | £74.40 |
| 27-Feb | £3.92 | £2.37 | £95.56 | £76.77 |
| 28-Feb | £2.04 | £4.00 | £97.60 | £80.77 |
