Five frugal goals for November

As I did my frugal round up of October already, I thought I would also look ahead  and set some frugal goals for the month.

I don’t often write down my goals. Rather, I have a rough idea of some things that I would like to achieve or that really need doing. However, some things I  intended to do last month – and should have done – didn’t happen. I thought if I declared them to the world then I would have to get them sorted! We shall see if this works.

I already put them on Instagram, but I will give you a bit more detail in this post.

My Frugal Goals for the Month

Setting a food budget

I haven’t set a strict food budget for ages. In fact, I have been spending very little overall I think but, now I have started to make a few purchases towards Christmas, it is going up.

Ideally, I would like to get these Christmas extras without dipping into the money that we put aside for the festive season. I am setting a budget of £60 a week, which will include food for the week, toiletries, cleaning products and  alcohol (we only buy a bottle of wine and a few beers), but not pet food as I tend to buy that in one go on a monthly basis.

This means keeping a tally as I shop. I used to take cash so maybe I will do that too, then once it’s gone, it’s gone!

People in glass houses…

… should just get on and give them a clear and clean! Our greenhouse is a bit wild looking right now. It is my job to clear out all the old tomatoes and plants, to dig it over and mulch it, to clean the glass with Jeyes fluid and finally to bring in any pot plants that will need a bit of protection from the weather over winter.

Fortunately, we haven’t had any heavy frosts yet, but we might well get some this month so I need to get this job done as soon as possible. This is one of my frugal goals that I MUST get done in the next few weeks.

Upping the Depop shop

I recently opened a little Depop shop selling some of my vintage and hand made items. One of my frugal goals for November is to increase the number of items I have on there by at least 15. I hope to grow it a little more, but I have to source the items first before I can list them.

I enjoy selling older items, and not just clothing either – although some of the dresses from the sixties and seventies are fab in a gruesome, charming kind of a way! I wouldn’t wear them, but I do think they can look great on the right person. I also have some nice pieces of vintage china which I am trying on there. However, Depop seems to be heavily geared towards clothing so we shall see…

I am learning that Depop is an entirely different beast to eBay. It is like a cross between eBay and Instagram actually. You need to get people to follow you so that when you list an item they see it.

I am finding it interesting at the moment but have yet to sell very much. Time will tell if it is worth the hours spent on it.

Food bank collection

For the past few years I have written posts, along with others in the UK Money Blogger community, promoting the idea of a reverse advent collection for the food banks.

I coordinated this across a large department at work, but now I am working at home it will be just me. But every contribution counts. One of my goals is to put in an item a day for the whole of the month (well, actually, it will be at least 7 items each time I go shopping).

It is really a worthwhile thing to do. My post on this from last year is here, although I will be publishing a new one soon. You can start it any time between now and Christmas as they always welcome contributions. Have a look at the Trussell Trust website to see what they need in your area.

A bit of DIY and a declutter

I have actually been putting off the next of my frugal goals for YEARS! We have two large cupboards in the downstairs hallway, which are really useful storage and chock full of vacuum cleaners, cleaning stuff, sleeping bags, screws and tools.

We have never painted the inside of them, even when we did the hall a few years ago. I think it’s because the thought of decluttering and sorting out the vast amounts of stuff in there in order to paint them is so daunting.

However, the hall actually needs redecorating now. I doubt we will do this before Christmas, but I really want to make sure the cupboards are done this month as a starting point.

Hallways are a nightmare to paint as there is so much woodwork, not to mention the struggle to get to the highest parts of the walls and ceiling. If I could justify the cost I would employ a decorator, but that wouldn’t be very frugal!

So those are my specific frugal goals for November. As well as achieving those, I intend to crack the back of our Christmas gift shopping, but will worry about that later in the month.

Do you set goals for the month or do you play it by ear?