May Grocery Challenge

I have read other peoples grocery challenges and I'm over-awed by how little they spend, I know that it's not a competition to see who can spend the least of all but it is still remarkable to see how low these budgets go - I am seriously impressed.

However.... I have set myself a little mini challenge of trying to buy only goods that have a special offer of some sort, a BOGOF or short date reduction or whatever. I know that there will be some things that never really have offers such as milk but I think that it should be pretty easy to get 90% of my groceries at less than normal prices, so long as I don't get carried away and buy expensive things just because they have an offer then I'm bound to be better off ...I hope!

I can easily shop for 5 with a budget of £40. I feel a bit guilty cos in true MSE style I could screw a bit more off the budget but a) I'm feeling lazy and b) I fancy a few treats. SO for May I shall stick to the £40 per week I've kept to since New Years.

hi Math...
how exactly do you get your budget so low. I work on £60 a week for 6 of us and think thats quite good. I do menu plans. I buy value labels...
would you / could you possibly post your weekly meals and weekly shop to give me some ideas????

As luck would have it I've been to tesco today and spent £51 which cost me £44.19 with coupons. I know it is over budget but this week I plan to make double curry, double chilli, double rissotto, double bolognaise so I'm buying four of next weeks (or the weeks after meals) in reality.

I always but value range products and use coupons (whether I'm buying the product or not - my local Tesco is very good about this) The weeks I don't buy laundry stuff or cat food I buy extra to cook double and freeze and make a shed load of sarnies for the freezer. Almost everything is home made cos the mini MATH's eat like piggies and I would have to buy two ready made 'family' meals.

JUNKY STUFF My kidz are allowed 1 choccy bar a day, 1 bag of crisps and 1 yogurt and I buy exactly the amount I need for one week. This has made the biggest saving buy a skip full of choccy biscuits and the kidz will eat them. Before MSE I used to stock pile stuff which would just dissapear down the kidz throats or I would end up throwing stuff away but I now keep my cupboards and fridge as empty as possible. I aim to be able to see every single item in my larder without having to move anything, that way I know exactly what I've got and what I need to use up.

FRUIT & VEG Is dirt cheap especially if you only buy what is in season. I prefer to shop at Tesco cos the quality and shelf life is there but if I know I'm going to use something up quick I will buy off the market. The fruit bowl is available for picking at all day and this has helped stop my kidz craving and nagging for junky expensive choccys. I've also increased meal sizes and this has stopped the kidz and me picking between meals.

MEAT I have drastically reduced the amount of meat I buy and this has helped to cut my bill. We still eat meat most days but have more other stuff with it.

THIS WEEK

Breakfast: Value range wheetabix, porridge, coco pops

Lunches: Sarnies, yogs, value range cake bars, fresh fruit

Dinners: Chicken Curry, Cheese Rissotto, Chilli Potato Pie, Meat Loaf, Roasted Veg Pasta, Chips 'n' egg 'n' spam, Lemon Cous cous 'n' salad, bolognaise (for the freezer).
Trifle, Rice Pudding, Doughnuts, Treacle Tart, Apple Pie, Fruit

Suppers: See breakfasts:D

HTH

MATH wrote:

Apart from the fact I'm already under Mrs MATH's thumb

That's OK, hubby's under my thumb too

I read a lot on these ere boards of MSErs shaked up with spendthrifts but rarely two together who love to save, save, save. - would it Work?

Dunno. If it did, think how rich we'd be :rotfl: