Personally, I think the first of January is a rotten time to attempt to make positive changes to your life. January and February are dreary months, not exactly the best time to give up vices or pick up virtuous behaviours, so I do it around March.
The spring is the time of rebirth so what better time to make some positives changes? The Lean Times being exactly that at the moment, is thinking about how to be a bit leaner. My first point of attack is my food budget. I always had a sort of budget, where I buy what is in season, don’t buy processed food and cook almost every night. I was watching the pennies but not really putting a cap to how much I spend.
For the month on March, I am going to do an experiment – I am going to give myself £25 per week for my fresh food shopping and an additional £70 for a one time supermarket delivery which will include: canned goods, milk, cleaning products, pasta, rice, butter, fizzy water (17p for 2 liters), ground beef, tea, toilet paper and cat litter. I get delivered all the heavy items and anything that is cheaper at the supermarket and doesn’t need to be hand picked by me.
At the moment, I plan my meals every week based on what I find in my local market. They sell bowls of fruit and vegetables for £1 each. Most of the time this produce does not have more than a couple of days of freshness left in them, which makes it very easy to buy more than you can eat or cook before they go off. I am hoping with my new food budget, I will question every purchase and rarely throw food away.
I am sure that I will need to tweek this budget before it is perfect, but I think it is a good start. I have already in the first couple of days increased the fresh food allowance from £20 to £25 per week. I am hoping that I will have some change left in my pocket or I might have to revise again. It is difficult to make an exact budget as we are two adults: one with a huge appetite, a soft spot for dessert and an erratic schedule then there is me, who is quite happy to leave out the meat a few times a week. It should be a bit of a challenge to stick with the budget but what better time of year to make changes than the spring?
Have you made any spring resolutions? I promise with the added sunshine they won’t seem nearly as difficult. Drop me a comment on your spring resolutions.