My Teeny Weeny Budget

Saving Food from Waste has always been a mission of mine, and it started many years ago. I like to use up every last scrap of food, or repurpose it, freeze it, make a new recipe from it, gift it, anything that uses it.

Not only food, I also started many years ago by creating a local Freecycle Group for North Somerset, where I live. I gave that up after a few years due to red tape and politics. Things have moved onwards now, though, and I gift and receive on Marketplace and Olio.

I initially joined Facebook to unite my extended family, but from that, I discovered groups. The old Yahoo groups had gone and I did miss them, I was also a regular on Martin Lewis MSE website, where I often participated.

So creating Facebook groups became my new hobby. From there, I realised the downside of Facebook and that much gets lost, accidentally deleted, removed, difficult to find, and that their search facility doesn’t perform well. If you create a lot of content and anything happens to your account, you will lose everything.

So here we are with my website, which my son helps me with on the web front when needed. Websites do of course, cost money and a fair amount of work in initial setup and annual costs. This one was created to complement the Facebook Group Feed Yourself for £1 A Day so that our meal plans can be found, shared, and printed for anyone, not just Facebook users. https://www.facebook.com/groups/651859231575794

My Teeny Weeny Budget is something I started doing 4 years ago, with a set amount to spend on food. Only food for humans, no other categories; those are separate budgets. I think my first one was £500 for the year. The following year £600. Last year I had a lot going on in life so I didn’t set a budget but just carried on the same as previous years. This year, I’ve set it at £1095, but I know I will never spend that amount!

Now you may wonder how on earth a family of 3 adults manages on that! Well, if I had to buy everything, I could not possibly manage on such a small amount, but my volunteer roles provide the free food, which covers the majority of my meals. That way, my current budget of £1 per person per day (£1095) is achievable. My budget is never about deprivation. It is about saving food from waste and saving money. If I need something, I buy it. Do follow my Facebook group to see many more of the meals I create.

Volunteering

I have 3 volunteer roles, all dealing with food. I volunteer at a food bank where I also handle their out-of-date expired donations. These, although not suited to the foodbank, are still perfectly edible as they are all best-before dates. I pass on what I can of this to the Community fridge and Olio. Very little is actually discarded, although last year we did receive a bottle of sauce dated 2009.

My next role is for Community Fridge, where I help at the table, handing out free food to people, collected from local supermarkets, and also doing collections. This means I get a few things allocated to me from here.

Then, I am an Olio volunteer and committed to 3 times a week, but often do 4 or 5 listings. I get a lot from this. It means running about late at night and having lots of people come to me to collect. All of this requires transport, time, and commitment. It is not a free ride. However, that suits me, and is rewarding in so many ways, socially, not just getting free food.

So this is how we live on such a tiny budget. If you are interested in Olio do download the Olio app and volunteer, or just enjoy collecting from others. Olio is not only food. It has non-food items, and also a section to sell items.

I will do another log soon and tell you what I bought foodwise during January 2026. I keep a spending diary so it is all logged. I will also tell you some of the meals I made. As I have been doing this for many years, I now have a good store cupboard, but this can be built up over time.