May Grocery Challenge

Lillibet_2 · 25 April 2005 at 10:36AM

Who's up for trying to watch & limit their grocery spending in May? For those who don't yet know the drill the idea is to set a budget for grocery shopping & stick to it! You decide what grocery shopping inculdes for you, some have seperate budgets for cleaning supplies, pet food, eating out etc & some lump it all into their grocery budget. Do whatever works for you & set a realistic amount then see how well you do. Post here for support, ideas, to brag about you're successes (we'll be jealous:p !) or to get back on track when you go wrong (it happens to us all:o ).

Personally I'll be aiming to spend less than £100 for all groceries, cleaning, pet food & takeaways between now & 25th May, for 2 adults, 1 bump, 1 dog & 1 cat. I have actually upped the amount from last month to allow a little contingency money in case of a really "off" night, that's what caught me out last month. I'll still be aiming to spend only £40 on my fortnightly grocery shoping & £5 topping up fruit & veg on in-between weeks.

Lyndsay_21 · 25 April 2005 at 10:57AM

i am up for a grocery challenge normally spend £160pm for 2 adults, toddler and a 10month old. i find it hard to bring the total down i dont buy any ready meals, crips etc so i'm not sure where im going wrong i think i might start buying from the butcher up the road instead of the supermarket! and fruit and veg from the market on tuesday see how that pans out!

elona · 25 April 2005 at 11:07AM

I went to a market yesterday and bought a sack of potatoes, sack of onions and sack of carrots - am thinking of buying a breadmaker so I can make my own and am not tempted to go into supermarket.

Just asked corner shop to get me in a gallon of white vinegar but do not know yet how much it will cost - seems reckless but it has got to be cheaper than getting small bottles for 70p at supermarket and then being tempted by other stuff.

Have unclogged kitchen sink, bathroom basin, bath and shower by putting bicarb then vinegar down it - letting it fizz and leaving for a while before putting warm water down plugs.
:j

calleyw · 25 April 2005 at 11:16AM

This last month has been a nightmare.

I have spent £125 on food this month. Normally only spend about £85-£100 a month.

So need to buckle under as we don't have that sort of excess in the account every month.

So will go and do a meal plan for the week in min when I go and make a coffee.

I think what has made it worse is that we have just moved and I am trying to go once a fornight shopping. So I am just getting use to buy that amount now. I use to go once a week. But now I don't have a car during the day makes it even harder.

Also we now have a huge kitchen and loads more cupboard space and it looks empty with all the stuff we have in it.

And it is all icelands fault for having so many good sale items

Anyway hope I don't have to go shopping again next thursday. Might have to buy some bread and milk to tide us over. But that should it.

Going to get tough and say ain't got can't have it. :rotfl:

I know meany or what.

Yours

Calley

Pooky · 25 April 2005 at 11:18AM

I'm really going to try hard this month - pay day today and have allocated £140 for all food, cleaning and toiletries (for 4 of us, 2 cats and a parrot). Had a really bad month in April and seemed to spend money hand over fist.

The freezer is full to bursting (thanks to a trip to asda at the weekend and finding cut fresh loaves reduced to 5p - couple of kingsmills for 8p too) I normally make around half the bread we eat a week but for that price it was worth filling a shelf. I've probably got the bases of at least 25 meals if I made the effort.

I'm sure I can't be the only one that's in the habit of buying replacements for stuff i've used during the week.....I know I've got a bit of a hangup about having empty spaces...so used to seeing everything full up....I must try harder.

We've got a bit of a get together with friends next weekend for a bbq - so I might need to bulk buy some meat to make burgers and kebabs etc but will factor that in to the budget - already told people they need to bring their own booze and a salad or pudding dish - think it's only fair!

I've got over £10 in coupons to use up too which will help - but my nearest supermarket is morrisons and doesnt take the vouchers willy nilly like tesco and asda so will make a special trip to use them up.

Here's hoping that this month will be better! :rolleyes:

Lillibet_2 · 25 April 2005 at 11:32AM

Hi Callyw

I switched from weekly to fortnightly grocery shopping last year, it did take a bit of getting used to, even with my @nal meal planning tactics, but now I wouldn't switch back to weekly shopping,. I find I spend about £5 more per fortnight than I used to spend in a week! I find the trick is to allow myself a few pounds to top up, mostly fruit & veg but varies if anything urgent runs out, in the in between week.

Good luck & I'm sure you'll stock up those empty cupbaords soon.....think of all the BOGF deals you'll be able to take advantage of:j

Katinkka · 25 April 2005 at 11:40AM

I would love to try this challenge. I think we usually spend over £400 a month! I have 2 children and 3 cats and one on the way. A lot of that is sheer wastefullness. I Went through the cupboards at the weekend and threw out loads of stuff which had gone out of date. I drew up a meal plan for 2 weeks and am going to try and do one big shop and supplement with trips to grocers etc. I am going to try and whittle the shop down to £250 for this month and see how I get on. IT should be doable because of all the stuff I already have in.

Where do people get their coupons from?

crazyhazy · 25 April 2005 at 11:48AM

I have already posted on the other thread for the may challenge, but it seems to have disappeared. My month started on the 18th and my goal was to spend 110 for the month. Last months was 120 and I managed to spend 113, so am confident we should manage. So far I have spent 30 on last weeks and this weeks shopping, so am doing really well.

My money saving tip from last week was buying 2 chickens for 5 and I managed to get 5 meals plus another for the freezer. Would have got another probably but my dog was round this weekend so let her have some!

This weeks shop was a small one cos the freezer is full of food, so making an effort to use it this week. Also got lots of rolls for lunches last week and froze them so still got enough left for h2bs lunches. I'm starting ebing healthy this week and have bought lots of salad stuff in for mine, so hopefully we will be able to avoid popping into the shops during the week, although forgot to buy more milk and think we'll run out so maybe not!

moggins · 25 April 2005 at 12:36PM

Last month was a disaster for me too, I don't even know what happened. Our normal monthly budget is £200, I've been trying for £160 but this month I managed to spend £210!!

I have to get out into the freezer again and write a list of what we have, I think my biggest failing was taking advantage of too many bargains so hopefully I have enough that I don't need to buy much this month.

I need to start keeping a notebook of what is going where I think.

katiepops_2 · 25 April 2005 at 12:54PM

I set a budget for us (2 adults and 2 kids) of £200 for last month ... I haven't added it up penny by penny, but I reckon I've spent about £160 so far ... still got to shop for this week though! I think I'm going to stick with £200 for May and see how I get on, and I might actually write it all down as I go along so that I know where I'm spending it.

I am definitely going to cancel the milk tomorrow - I'm sick of half empty bottles that have gone out of date, so I'm going to start buying the huge bottles from the supermarket instead (my family don't understand the concept of using up one bottle before they open the next ...). Anyway, hopefully that'll save a bit of money.

Kate

Lillibet_2 · 25 April 2005 at 12:55PM

crazyhazy wrote:

I have already posted on the other thread for the may challenge, but it seems to have disappeared.

Sorry CrazyHazy, I did do a serch & couldn't find a thread. Maybe if it turns up the mods could merge the threads?

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May Grocery Challenge

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