June 2015 Grocery Challenge

sheba · 4 June 2015 at 11:17AM

Well, the 'pace yourself Sheba' plan has gone belly up already, have spent a further 93.61 on groceries and eateries so am already up to 148.02/500 with 23 days to go!! Must try harder!! Hope you guys are faring better!
Ttfn
Sheba

chazsucks · 4 June 2015 at 12:55PM

joedenise wrote: »

chazsucks - I do what you're planning to do. I do a big main shop at the beginning of the month after doing my mealplan for the whole month using as much as possible from freezers & cupboards.

My big shop incorporates any meat that I need; anything I need for the freezer (veg which are getting low; ice lollies which DH likes instead of a pudding most days!); loo rolls & kitchen rolls; tinned foods to stock up cupboard; any cleaning stuff, washing powder etc.

I then do a weekly shop for fruit, veg, milk, bacon (I don't like frozen), eggs and anything I've forgotten in the monthly shop which runs low. For example, today I need to buy a new big bottle of light soy sauce as used the last of my current bottle and hadn't noticed how low it was. Really should have got that on Tuesday when I did my big shop!

I'm not actually doing the challenge this month as we will be off on holiday soon so decided to leave it for this month and restart in July.

Good luck for your 1st month.

Denise

Thank you that's really helpful, I think we just need to get more organised hopefully this month will be good

Have fun on holiday! x

chazsucks · 4 June 2015 at 12:59PM

cw18 wrote: »

I used to work full time and shop for a family of five, with the nearest large supermarket being over a 10 mile round trip. The first weekend after I got paid I used to hit a large Mr T for all the dried goods, tins, jars, frozen items and long-dated things (like cheese) we were likely to need for the month - plus milk, veg and bread for that weekend. Then each weekend until next payday I used to pick up veg (often walking to the next village for a small green-grocers instead of driving to a supermarket), with milk and bread being picked up at a small supermarket on the way home from work as and when needed. (Hubby & I ate cooked meals at work and the 3 children all had cooked school dinners, so I didn't really need a lot during the week.)

Then 4 of us moved (eldest child moved in with my parents to attend a college by them), and found ourselves within very easy walking distance of a small supermarket and an A!di. I still drove out once a month to a large Mr T or Mr A (or both as on same complex) for a big stock-up, but found I gradually bought more and more locally as and when needed.

After a number of family changes, I'm now catering for me full time, main meals only for my elder son, and my OH at weekends. I get most of my fresh meat in bulk from C0stc0 (having managed to get a card) and some other items from there as well, with the majority of everything else coming from the local (small) Mr M and A!di as and when I need it. About once a week I walk to the next town up (3-5 mile round trip depending on whether I use roads or country paths) to pick up one or two bits from Mr A (very small) or Mr T (small), and once a month I might do an 8-10 mile walk to visit large Mr A, Mr S and Mr T plus a Lid! (I have a large backpack I use to carry the shopping, but it's still not what I'd call a 'main shop').

These days I find I can stick to a list, and as long as I can do that it doesn't really matter whether I shop once a month, once a week or once a day

That is such a good point, I always have a list but end up getting so much other stuff too! I'm hoping we can really get organised this month and do this! I think also having so many shops around us means we just go and keep spending! x

chazsucks · 4 June 2015 at 1:02PM

Just spent £45 on a sainsburys home delivery, with £1 delivery charge for Sunday evening. (was £60 used a voucher for £16 off)

Have been using my supermarket and have a list for asda (£15.46), morrisons (£9.88) iceland (£6.50) and tesco (£4.35)

So that's around £82 we'll spend this weekend and it should last a fortnight.

Billie-jo · 4 June 2015 at 5:01PM

Spends yesterday of £32.46 Seem to be spending a little more than usual and I expect its because am cooking more meals for mum as she is just living on crisps, cakes and tinned fruit if not. She does eat them and enjoys her food its just that she forgets to cook/get things out of freezer etc because she has Dementia. I am worried that if she did cook she would either forget things in the oven or not cook them properly and risk food poisoning. May have to reassess the budget from next month but we will see.

chazsucks · 4 June 2015 at 5:33PM

So OH just went out to get a couple of lightbulbs.

Decided to stop at tesco garage on the way home. Spent £16 on things that I do not have on my lists for this month... like doritos because they are on offer!!! and then £10 on the LOTTERY!

We don't even play the lottery! He said it's because it's a big jackpot... I said isn't that the worst time to play the lottery anyway as more people will be playing??

So that's £71 down in one day, sigh

scotmumof3 · 4 June 2015 at 5:52PM

NSD for me today

DS2 and I are having LO bean chilli and DH is having sausage as he isn't allowed anything spicy. He is not happy

cw18 · 4 June 2015 at 6:57PM

After reading about a number of people using it, I decided to have a play with MySuperm@rket this afternoon.

I was under the impression it told you where the cheapest place was to buy each thing, but it only seems to tell you who's cheapest for the whole basket (and they're not all complete/correct baskets due to 'unavailable' or 'replacement item')

Is there any way of finding the cheapest place for each individual item without printing out a list of the items and then looking at the basket in each store and manually noting the cheapest price?

If not, I may as well stick to manually checking each supermarket's site when I need something

6mmglitterthing · 4 June 2015 at 8:10PM

Found out my OH spent £5.67 on reduced items, which is a lot better than I thought it was going to be and most of it went into the freezer for a rainy day.
Yesterday I spent £20.20 on fruit, veg and yogurt for lunches for the rest of this week and the next so that is all sorted.
OH has gone camping for the weekend, which means I will just eat out the fridge and cupboards until he gets back. This mean a NSD for 4 days in a row (hopefully).

So in total I have spent £32.94...not bad for a week for us

chazsucks · 4 June 2015 at 9:42PM

cw18 wrote: »

After reading about a number of people using it, I decided to have a play with MySuperm@rket this afternoon.

I was under the impression it told you where the cheapest place was to buy each thing, but it only seems to tell you who's cheapest for the whole basket (and they're not all complete/correct baskets due to 'unavailable' or 'replacement item')

Is there any way of finding the cheapest place for each individual item without printing out a list of the items and then looking at the basket in each store and manually noting the cheapest price?

If not, I may as well stick to manually checking each supermarket's site when I need something

I thought you could type in a product and it'll show you where it's cheapest.

And it KIND of is but in a more convoluted way.

How I have been using it...
on the left hand side there is a box to choose a supermarket... I just click any of them.
Type in the product I'm searching for and usually a few pop up.
Click on the one that I'm looking for and once you click on it it has a pop up with a list of prices at all shops...
I see which is cheapest or has the best offer and write it down on my list.

I have an a4 sheet with each supermarket I visit (nearly all lol) and under each I've got the items that were the cheapest. at the moment it looks like this. Does that make sense?

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June 2015 Grocery Challenge

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