a year as a minimalist / / part two

So, part two of my five part series in a build up to my 'Year as a Minimalist' challenge. Part two is about... my weekly grocery shop.

The main questions here are:
1. What do I need to live on in a week?
2. For snacking, can I make do with cheaper snacks? Both in terms of calories and price?
3. What things can I buy on offer?
4. What are my essential spends - things can be bought in advance?

In order to work these things out, I kept ALL my receipts from my weekly spends during my second year. (That sounds pretty sad doesn't it...) and it enabled me to work out what type of things I regularly buy. I worked out that I usually do a grocery shop every four days or so; so as to maintain freshness of produce. The first of these two shops usually involve me buying my 'essentials' i.e. vegetables, meat, bread. But it's the second shop where I spend a bit more - usually on bits and bobs that I don't really need, per se, such as expensive fruit juices, that bar of Galaxy...

Having identified these facts, I can now try and combat them by taking a shopping list with me every time I go for a grocery shop.

To tackle question two - making do with cheaper snacks. Well, this one is easy - just buy fruit. In the summer, berries are usually on offer so summer snacking is simple but winter snacking? Not so simple. I guess I'd just have to see what is on offer at the time - tying in with question three.

To identify what I can buy on offer, this involves a little bit of research on my part. Waitrose do a weekly 'weekend magazine' which is free and it can give an indication of what is on offer. However, they also do a mini A5 leaflet with current offers as well as future offers on it so I will have to start looking out for these.

And finally, things bought in advance. Now, this might sound contradictory to the whole concept but it isn't, trust me! Firstly, things that can keep include shampoo, conditioner, soaps, toilet roll, etc. Now, if you notice that you recently opened your last bottle of shampoo, or are onto your last roll of toilet roll, it might be a good time to buy another two bottles of shampoo or another multipack of toilet roll if they happen to be on offer. If your desired brand isn't, it might be worth considering a switch to a brand that is on offer...temporarily of course unless you desperately want that brand. As a student, for me, anything goes when it comes to loo roll as all that happens to it is that it gets flushed down a toilet so I tend to buy the cheapest. With shampoo, however, I stick by my beloved 'Aussie' brand as it has been the best for my hair (trust me, I've tried Head and Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Tresemme, L'oreal... you name it, I'll have tried it) and I'd ideally like to keep my hair healthy :)

Any other suggestions as to how I can minimise my weekly spend will be appreciated too! I'm on a strict budget next year as my student loan is considerably less than last year and I get almost a third less than I did in first year!

This concludes part two; part three coming soon!

happiness project update #1

So, it's been about a month since I started my happiness project (credit to Gretchen Rubin and her book of course); and I think it has been quite successful. I'm determined to keep up a 'One Sentence Journal' for a whole year and here is a snippet for you all to peruse at your own leisure. If you wish to of course.

I've skipped out one day where there was something more private but other than that, I have blanked out the usual 'sensitive' information :) This journal also lets you see just how simple I am too! Clearly, for me, the little things make me happy...for the majority of things anyway! Let's leave it at that... Moving on swiftly.

These are my 'Daily Do's' for August. Note the 'Get dressed everyday' 'do'. This is because when it comes to university holidays, I have a tendency to be a bit lazy. I don't change out of my PJs unless I'm leaving the house for whatever reason and as a result, I spent quite a number of days in PJs during Easter and Christmas hols this year due to exam revision! To make up for that, I'm going to get changed every day and actually make an effort. Thus far, I have found that this has had a positive effect on the beginning of the day as it actually brightens my mood a little!

You may also notice the 'Goal a day'. Examples of which are below in a badly designed collage! I have planned my goals in advance and they can be small or big. For example, 'bake' as in bake a cake or cupcakes or whatever else I wish and 'watch The King's Speech' because I bought three DVDs a few weeks ago and have once watched one so far! For some reason (even though it's the summer hols and I'm free as a bird), I've not had the time to watch the other two!

So, this the first update of my 'Happiness Project'. I'm not sure if it's working yet as this is my first official full month doing it but we'll see! Hopefully these daily goals will spruce up daily life and make things more bearable for my friends who I keep moaning to about being bored (living in the countryside has its definite cons even if the 'views' (of fields, might I add) may be 'nice'.

new layout!

Hope you all like it! It's more fresh than the camel colour used previously. Anyway, a more (hopefully) interesting post coming tomorrow!

a year as a minimalist / / part one

Some of you may have noticed a new page on my blog: the money page. This is going to be for a challenge I am going to do throughout the last year of my undergraduate university course (it feels like yesterday that I moved into halls of residence in my first year too! How scary!).

The aim? "To minimalise all my purchases for 12 months from September 2011 to September 2012"

I'm going to do a five series post in the build up to the start of this challenge which will cover different parts of my spending personality. Note, though, that I'm not trying to cut out all purchases but instead, I am going to minimalise. So I'll be saying 'no' to that bar of chocolate I pick up at the supermarket on the whim and I'll also be saying no to taking a bus for what would be a forty minute walk (after all, exercise is good! And if I walk, I can at least feel less guilty about skipping that gym session!).

So this is the first part. This part will concern my wardrobe because, as most of you should know by now, I love my clothes and I love fashion. I have a wardrobe chock full of clothes I wear but also clothes that I rarely wear or only wear once in a blue moon. So first things first. The big clearout. Anything not worn in the last year were put in a box and anything that needed 'fixing' were put in another box.

Here is my wardrobe after the clearout:

Now, this is far from done. But the first part is to determine what is missing. So, what essentials do I need that are missing? Or do I have all bases covered? If I have gaps, do these really need filling?

Well, from this, I realised that I'm not really missing anything at all! I have most bases covered: pretty day dresses, pretty cocktail dresses, smart shoes, casual shoes, a pair of well fitting jeans (bought from Primark a few years ago too!), enough cardigans, enough winter coats (more than enough if I dare say it... A girl needs variety!), etc.

All in all, the first part of the challenge is successful, thus far. Now, I just have a month to get it into my mind that I have enough clothes as that will be the mentality I will need for this year long challenge!

For those interested, clothes that didn't make the cut into my slimmed down wardrobe have since been listed on eBay (except from any winter coats as I haven't decided with those yet!). Anything that remains unsold after this Sunday will be put on my Blogshop (which is currently down while my eBay shop is up!).