changing shopping habits

I run my own business from home, and one aspect of it that never holds a lot of appeal (and I suspect this is true for many business soloists) is doing the accounts. But that's just what I couldn't avoid yesterday, so I knuckled down and got on with it. Thank goodness I did, because I hadn't realised that the Global Financial Crisis may have finally caught up with me.

Oh, things aren't really desperate, and if I absolutely had to I could dip into the travel fund, but it does mean we all need to tighten our belts a little and become more frugal - which really isn't a bad thing when you think about it.

It also means we need to change our shopping habits. We've become a bit lazy - it's easy to pop down to the local IGA when we run out of something, or opt for takeaway when cooking just seems too hard. It's easy to grab a few extra items in the supermarket, or head to the shopping mall for something to do.

I consider myself lucky that I don't find shopping much of a recreational sport, so avoiding the malls is not a hardship, but when I do need to go there for something, it's hard to resist the lure of shiny new things calling you from every direction. My particular weakness is books, and I realised last week that I spent hundreds of dollars on new books last year, many of which I haven't read yet. I really have no excuse to spend any more for quite a while!

The new shopping plan of attack - lists.

I will list what we have (and realistically, it will probably be me who drives this, although I will try to involve the family), and how we can use those things. Doesn't matter whether it's food supplies (I think we could last quite a while on what's already in stock, with the addition of fresh food as required), clothing (I will inventory school uniforms, and see what can be re-used for this year), laundry and bathroom items (including all those bits left in bottles and boxes) or other items.

Hopefully, as part of that process, I'll be able to do a bit more sorting and decluttering.

Then I'll list what we need, and prioritise the list. I'll meal plan around what we have, and make a shopping list with only those things that we need to complete the plan. I'll list the items of clothing the children need (they keep growing, and shoes will need to be on that list!). I'll list the laundry and bathroom consumables required, and anything else I can think of that we need in the short term.

I'll be avoiding much of the processed food that seems to make its way into the trolley, and going back to basics, and I'll be making things like laundry powder (I'm using my first batch now, and I can't see any reason to go back to the commercial stuff, even if money was no object). I'll also be looking at refashioning clothing, to see if I can get a bit more use out of it, and seeing whether I can sew other things we might need (I already have some fabric that's been sitting around for years, so that's another stash I need to inventory).

The funny thing is that I've been gathering information and reading a lot over the past year or so on a lot of these things, but didn't seem to have time to do more than read and bookmark for 'one day'. And now that work is a little slower, I have that time available. I just need to use it wisely.

I've mentioned my Pollyanna nature before, and I can certainly find plenty to be glad about in this situation: time available to try new things, the opportunity to put some of the frugal ideas I've been gathering into practise so they become habits, the incentive to work on a more healthy diet and lifestyle for the whole family. And it's all happened at a great time: Miss Tizz wants to learn to cook, and the X-man wants to make things with Daddy, so it may just have a really positive impact on their behaviour and life skills :)