February grocery challenge

tiff · 25 January 2005 at 12:27PM

I have set myself a personal grocery challenge as I am hopeless with money but since joining MSE have really learned how to cut back and do things differently. I used to spend over £100 a week on groceries and have now cut this down to about £50 a week by following all the tips on this forum and using coupons. I'm sure there are people who are able to beat that by a mile but I have to do this gradually!

For Feb I have set my weekly figure at £40 a week, £160 for the month.

Does anyone else want to join in?

r.mac_2 · 25 January 2005 at 4:23PM

I'm gonna join you tiff

Trying to feed one person on £80 for the month. The challenges for me will be:

(i) I have expensive taste
(ii) I am no good at planning ahead and end up making enough for four and wasting things
(ii) This will include my lunch at work everyday as well

Will let you know how I get on with the challenge

seaniboy · 25 January 2005 at 4:43PM

rmacdonald wrote:

I'm gonna join you tiff

(ii) I am no good at planning ahead and end up making enough for four and wasting things

Freeze it in individual tub then.........lol

Spag boll....... this should start u all off

Tesco value mince £1.50 (freezers)
4x chop tomatos £1.00
2x tomato puree 50p
value pasta 19p
herbs, garlic from kitchen

5/6 adults or 5/6 lunches

thats from a trade caterer.... sell 3.95 each
;o)

culpepper · 25 January 2005 at 4:47PM

I get out £50 on friday and do the food shop on sunday.
I usually manage to food shop for around £35 for 4 people and the rest goes on pocket money for 2 kids ,charity shop finds and anything else I can stretch it to fit.
This year Im trying to make more things at home..
Ive done soap,laundry gloop and Marmalade this month and Im just knitting my second pair of socks.
Im also trying to sell my useful-to-someone-else stuff on Ebay which has gone quite well so far.

Sarahsaver · 25 January 2005 at 5:00PM

we do it on £20 to £25 a week for 1 adult 3 kids, but due to adverse circumstances I am trying to cut it down even further!

This includes trainer pants for the boys, an dthe few cleaning products I use, and I always make sure we have enough fruit and veg.
I will have to have a personal challenge of 15 to £20 a week i think

arkonite_babe · 25 January 2005 at 5:17PM

I'd be interested in this too. I'm on a tight budget this incoming month, due to being off on sick leave. My weekly grocery shop tends to be £30 - £40. This is for 2 adults and 2 kids. It doen't include any fresh items bought through the week like bread and milk, it about what I spend each week in the supermarket.

r.mac_2 · 25 January 2005 at 5:54PM

thanks seaniboy.

Don't have a big freezer at the moment, although my parents cast off is meant to be arriving this month!

I have definately improved in the last 6 months (thanks to this site) although the odd bad habit sticks around longer than I would like!

tiff · 25 January 2005 at 7:17PM

I'm not that organised either Rmac. I try to be and I have improved, not so sure I can menu plan and stick to it due to all the unforseeable things that happen when you have kids. So that is an ongoing challenge for me, reading this forum and seeing what others do really helps.

I always check the forums several times a day so I thought by doing the challenge I can really focus on what I'm doing. My husband gets paid on Thursday this week and I am going to go shopping then. It will be a top up shop as I do still have a few things in the freezer that will see us through the week. I'm going to take the £40 cash out which I know will help. I always used to think that if I had cash in my hand I would spend it but it seems to have worked the opposite way. I do all I can to make it last. I think people must have managed better when they used to be paid weekly in cash.

Good luck to all that join the challenge.

jaybee · 25 January 2005 at 7:57PM

Count me in too! On a VERY tight budget due to changing job and only getting half as much money. Got to improve.

pavlovs_dog · 25 January 2005 at 8:03PM

you guys sure make me think...i thought i was doing quite well feeding myself and, occasionally, my boyfriend on £20 out of my student budget, but there are ways of cutting back on that....

i've started taking the store cupboard challenge (i have more tinned food than i have room for), so rather than planning meals, im planning around what i have. this shaved a fortune off this week's food bill because all i've bought is the perishables.

i cant wait til sept when i'll hopefully have a place to myself, so i can actually open a freezer without being knocked out by an avalanche of other people's readymeals! and being able to leave food ina big fridge safe in the knowledge that it wont 'eat itself!'

ahhh, this student existence!!!!!

Caterina · 25 January 2005 at 11:00PM

I would find it very hard to calculate what I spent in one week or month because so much of my food is bought in bulk that I would have to measure everything and make extraordinarily complex calculations to get even an approximate figure!

So, sorry for not joining the challenge, but will follow the challenge with great interest. Good luck!

Ciao all

Caterina

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February grocery challenge

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