The Cost of Living: 15th-21st July 2017

I've nothing particular to say this week on the subject of my living costs.  That's mainly because this is the week in the month in which most of my 'unavoidable' expenses are paid, and as they're monthly expenses, it's fairly meaningless to include them in a post about my expenses over the course of seven days.  Anyway, that's what I've decided to do, so there you go.  Time to crunch the numbers:

Saturday 15th

Breakfast: Baked potatoes with spring onions, basil, pea shoots and cherry tomatoes.  All the non-potato items were home-grown.  Pretty pleased about that.  The potatoes were reduced the night before at the Co-op to 71p for 4.  I bought two packets.  A most satisfactory breakfast.

Lunch: Burger and a beer (my only alcoholic drink this month) at the legendary V Rev in Manchester.  And well deserving of its legendary status it is.  Everything it serves is 100% vegan.  Somewhere to take a sceptical meat eater if you want to impress them with how yummy vegan food can be.  £11.45 well spent.

Tea: pasta and sauce.  It was a very carb-heavy day.  I slept well.

Bought some new plants at the Flourish stall on Tib Street:  £13

Here's my little indoor "forest" -

Food shopping (Pasta, sauce, oil, tinned peas) - £7.05  I bought olive oil again.  Olive oil is very expensive now.  I really shouldn't buy it anymore.  The forecasts were correct.  Sometimes I forget.

Also bought some more dried peas and beans to grown into microgreens.  And some other household things, from Tesco.  £13.39

Today was also Council Tax day.  So there goes £82.

Day total: £126.89

Not exactly the most frugal day of my life.  Then again, hard to say anything I paid for money today was really "unnecessary", whatever that means.

Sunday 16th

Brunch:  A soup made of scraps (version 2)

Tea: At Sarah and Jon's.  Sarah made pasta with lots of veg, and we made pesto, using some home grown ingredients from the garden.  Sarah very kindly gave me some pesto to take home.  I ate it almost as soon as I walked in the door.  It was yummy.

Bought a couple of hand towels and suction hooks to hand them on from a local pound shop.  Towels were actual £2 each.  False advertising.  £5

Rent day today: £350  

Day total: £355

That's the way it is.  Living rent free would be nice, but there you are.  £350 a month isn't half bad though.  People sometimes say it's "amazing" I found somewhere that cheap to live.  It's not amazing.  It's just quite good.  £3.50 a month - now that would be amazing.

Monday 17th

Brunch: Baked potatoes with rambo radish microgreens.  This one tray has gone a long way.

Tea: Fried rice with onions.

Plant pot: £10
Food: £6.39
Monthly broadband bill: £19.50

Day total: £35.89

Tuesday 18th

Breakfast: Lukewarm porridge with cinnamon

Lunch: Rice with spices

Tea: Bread and pickles  £3.70 from Bury market

Tickets for the RHS Flower Show: £29  I'll get round to posting about this next week.  It was quite good.  Here are some pictures I took:

Look at the size of these fucking cabbages

Some kind of outdoor office space

An LGBT friendly bus stop.

Carnivorous plants.  Do not stick your cock in one of these, if that's what you were thinking.  Which you were, don't lie.

An enormous wicker wasp for some reason.

Normal people behaving normally.

More pictures here.

Day total: £32.70

Wednesday 19th

Breakfast: porridge

Lunch: Fried rice

Tea: Linda McCartney veggie sausages.  These come in a cardboard box, making them zero waste.  They are also vegan.  Well done, Linda McCartney.

Food shopping: £4.95  They finally wore me down, did the Co-op.  That assistant who asks me every single time I shop there "are you interested in becoming a member?" has won.  I now have a Co-op card. Bastards.  You get money back when you spend money, like with a Tesco clubcard or whatever.  Thinking about it, as frugal enthusiast, "couponing" is something I should look into more.

Income from book sold on amazon last week: £13.68

Day total: +£8.78

Thursday 20th

Brunch:  Rice, spinach and peas

Tea: Bagel and coffee at Infamous £6.45

Dinner: Fried rice with spinach and peas, plus an onion (leftovers from this morning).

Day total: £6.45

Friday 21st

Breakfast: Coffee and porridge.

Lunch: Lentils with home grown green things.

Tea: Roasted chick peas.

Birthday present: £7.68
Food shopping: £2.05
Monthly mobile phone bill: £51.46

Day total: £61.19

Salary: +£255.70

Total outgoings this week (minus non-salary income) £609.34
Total outgoings not including rent and bills: £106.38

WEEK END BALANCE: -£353.64

Running total for the month so far
IN: £799.73  OUT: £829.80
BALANCE: -£30.07

So that's that. Sometimes life costs money.  I wish I didn't, but it does.  Still waiting for Utopia.  Should be any day now.


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