Week Three in my 30 day heart healthy no buy month, where I'm sticking to a £30 a week food shopping budget, a food plan with 30 foods including whole grains, legumes, dairy protein, oily fish, nuts and seeds, and a few pantry items. Eleven slots are allocated to fruit and vegetables which can vary. I'm aiming for 45g fibre, 75g protein and six-eight portions of vegetables and fruit a day. This is part of long-term lifestyle changes I'm making with the aim to reduce medication over the next year.
Can I do a heart-healthy no buy month? - Initial challenge post.
Heart Healthy No-Buy Month - Two Weeks In
Are the Stars Aligning?
No sooner had I started my 30 day challenge than my nearest grocery store decides to give me two sets of coupons. In one set, I have three vouchers for 50% off up to £13 on spend over £15; in the second set, if I complete certain missions (eight visits, three purchases each of own brand yoghurt, fresh fruit and ready meals), £8 in my pocket.
Someone must have told them I'd been flirting with Lidl, taken in by their sweet treats and coupons, lucky spins and the Middle of Lidl bargains.
Between them, my coupons add up to potential savings of £47 in a 25 day period.
£8 for eight visits and nine product purchases.
Eight visits is easy as the walk to the shop and back is one of my daily Active 10 routes and now they have a purpose, rather than walking to the shop pretending I'm not going to buy anything and coming home.
Greek yoghurt is price-matched with Aldi at 95p for 500g; the cheapest fruit is a bunch of small fair-trade bananas at $1.05 - so essentially both items are free and I would be buying them anyway.
The ready meals is where you start to lose money: the cheapest items are french fries (£2.15 for two portions), chicken pie (£2.45 single portion) and stuffed mushrooms (£2.75, two portions). They come in at £7.35 (cheapest is three sets of french fries, you could spread them over three weeks, £6.45).
So: £6 for £6 worth of yoghurt and bananas; or £8 for £6 worth of yoghurt and bananas plus £7.35 worth of ready meals or sides, coming in at £13.35? The danger is, of course, that you've crossed the threshold and may well come out with more than yoghurt and fresh fruit. Indeed, I already have - raspberries and chestnut mushrooms, both discounted.
50% off vouchers:
The first week I had £15.22 to spend and came home with £21.70 worth of food for £15.01. The second week I had £15.21 to spend for £23.95 worth of food that cost £15.15.
Update: my local retailer also has 50% fridge filler Monday discounts. Selections from these brought my final purchases to £25.20 worth of food for £14.93 (budget: £15.21).
I used the voucher for more expensive items and treats I wouldn't normally buy:
Fresh Butternut Squash and Sage Ravioli - £4.10; Parmesan - £4.30; Geeta's Mango Chutney - £2.35; Mature Cheddar - £2.79; Maple Syrup - £5.35.
I spent more than I would have the first week to get the maximum discount I could for my £15.22 budget: otherwise, I would have saved £5.37. The second week, I could have saved £2.67 if I'd not bought the maple syrup which will go in the store cupboard. So I've spent an extra £8.04 that I wouldn't have spent without the coupons.
Treats or savings? Have the stars aligned or am I being parted from my money?
Active 10 and Pilates
I've started Active 10 and Pilates alongside the heart healthy eating plan.
The Active 10 app is designed to encourage everyone to build the number of "brisk minutes" they do each day to the recommended minimum thirty minutes of activity. The idea is to break the thirty minutes into three short walks of ten minutes each - easier to fit into your day, easier to build and achieve.
There's a pace checker to make sure you're up to speed (approximately 100 paces per minute) to reach the brisk minutes, although the app records all the minutes you are walking. You set targets, get badges, can review your walks over a period of time and so on.
Spreading the walks through the day, especially an early morning one to help set circadian rhythms, means you can adapt them around your usual routine (just a bit faster, maybe), and also for home-working people, it helps to break up your sedentary screen-time.
I've chosen two routes: one is around the block where I live and takes about fourteen minutes at normal pace. The second one is to my nearest grocery shop and takes twenty minutes there and back at my normal pace (a mix of brisk and ambling minutes).
As well as Active 10, I've started a 20-minute full body Pilates workout for arthritis designed for people over sixty. The instructor also runs in-person classes for people between 64 and 83 and live online classes followed by Q&A sessions, so has a realistic sense of activity for people over sixty. She has playlists for over 60 and beginner sessions, intermediate and targeted eg balance, core, injuries, desk-workers, morning and evening) sessions, at various lengths from eight to thirty minutes.
After a week or two of trial and error, I'm seeing nice changes in posture, function (the sit-stand test) and running up and down the stairs. I've decided to have alternate rest days when I only do the joint mobilisation activities from the Pilates video and some stretches.
Conclusion
I'm enjoying my grub, I've stashed more than half what I spent in June on food shopping in my savings and, added and unintended bonus, I've lost two kilogrammes and an inch from my waist. I'm also whittling down the pantry. I love a tidy shelf! I'm looking forward to gearing up the Active 10 and Pilates.
A big expense coming up is replacing teabags, a box of 210 PG Tips coming in at £4.85, that will need some managing to ensure fresh food needs for the week are met. Still, I'll be back to £30 in week five, so it should be fine (weeks three and four had £15 a week allocated towards an order from Leicester Wholefoods Co-op, minimum spend for free delivery: £30).
So all in all, worth doing.
Update: as a Co-op member, I also get two money off coupons each week. This week they included 50p off my teabags, bringing them to the same price as Asda and Lidl.