This is one of the videos we produced with the Central Bank of Malta in our budgeting series.
Let me introduce the ĠEMMA family. I am Tony. I am Maria’s husband. I work as a manager in a large business in the services industry. My wife, Maria is 40 years old and works in my father’s family business. We have two kids: Matthias, our son who is 11 years old, and is now in secondary school, and Angele, our daughter who is 17 and is finishing upper secondary school this scholastic year.
I banned Tony from coming with me when I do the weekly family shopping at our supermarket. I am very organised and plan the weekly family spending to the closest cent. Tony, on the other hand, no matter how many times I tell him, tenders to wander off on his own happily selecting anything and everything that attracts his attention. I get a shock when we meet up at the teller. Every time he falls for every selling trick used by the supermarker: from the so called €n.99 to the attractive and glitchy but expensive brands.
Ma!! Super-tuba, using Angele’s latest expression ☹☹.
No doubt, this weekly trip to the supermarket is one of the largest dents on our family’s income and budget planning. I shop from week to week so that I make sure that with fast shelf-life products such as vegetables, salads, hams, etc. I buy only what I need, and hence avoid unnecessary waste.
I am not driven by brand buying. Today I have enough experience of non branded food stuff and products which are of excellent quality. I also keep a sharp eye out for one-off deals and sales. When these are sufficiently attractive and are not constrained by an expiry date and are part of the ‘core’ family shopping profile – even though I may not have factored this cost in that weekly’s planned shopping list.
In drawing up the planned shopping list I work on the following rule of thumb: 80% of the expenditure is on food and household stuff that are a ‘need’ – essential items and healthy stuff. I budget a 20% for treats – ice-cream mainly, which is this family’s sweet tooth addiction. ????
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