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July 2017 Grocery Challenge

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  • XSpender
    XSpender Posts: 3,811
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    No spending on food since Saturday :)

    DH has offered to pay for any money he spends on food at work from his personal spends. His lunches will be provided from the grocery budget if he takes food from home but he will pay for 'fat Friday' and when it is his turn to pay for the breakfasts for his team. This will save a lot out of our budget as over £30 has gone on this so far this month.

    We narrowly avoided a takeaway last night. I had bought frozen pizza at the weekend this kind of tired and short of time night when it is too easy to order a takeaway and it worked :D

    Chocolate banana bread, GF bread and wheat bread found in freezer and DH had the last bit of 2 boxes of muesli from the back of the cupboard for his breakfast.

    Tonight's tea is sausages from the freezer, new potatoes, black kale and carrots with gravy as it is wet and miserable here today.
    Save £10,500 - £2673.77 - 25.5%
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  • pamsdish
    pamsdish Posts: 2,585
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    Top ups of tonic water needed, picked up a couple of other bits, total of £13-93 spent, will need my dark chocolate by weekend so no shopping till then.
    Do I need it or just want it.
  • YorksLass
    YorksLass Posts: 1,691
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    edited 11 July 2017 at 2:55PM
    Time to go shopping. I must try to avoid the "restaurant" mentality that means I buy with three options available for any meal. I AM NOT RUNNING A RESTAURANT - "we are having this" is perfectly acceptable as a response to, "What's for dinner?"

    Quite right too! I used to fall into this trap many moons ago ... but not any more. :D Although it's easier with just the two of us now.
    XSpender wrote: »
    DH has offered to pay for any money he spends on food at work from his personal spends. His lunches will be provided from the grocery budget if he takes food from home but he will pay for 'fat Friday' and when it is his turn to pay for the breakfasts for his team. This will save a lot out of our budget as over £30 has gone on this so far this month.

    We narrowly avoided a takeaway last night. I had bought frozen pizza at the weekend this kind of tired and short of time night when it is too easy to order a takeaway and it worked :D

    Well done to DH for his offer and also on resisting the takeaway. Win-win all round.

    I knew I shouldn't have let DH off the leash at the weekend. :( He went into town to get a new battery for his watch and on the way back wandered through the market. I hate shopping but he doesn't mind hence the "wander" that resulted in him bringing back: 6 bread cakes, 6 slices of lunch tongue, 8 slices of cooked turkey and a large punnet of strawberries. So another £8.30 gone from the GC budget and me altering the meal plan. I've still got 2 of the bread cakes to use up tomorrow (bacon & egg sarnies spring to mind) and enough strawberries for another two servings (just for me, DH doesn't even like them). Another £1.05 spent yesterday on milk. Total spent so far this week is £9.35, with £65.78 left in budget. With 2 weeks to go that's not too bad.

    Keep up the good work everyone and if you're struggling, still keep going - you will get there!
    Be kind to others and to yourself too.
  • Morning all,

    So, we 'accidentally' went on holiday this last weekend :cool:
    It was a well needed break, and we got to spend some lovely time in the sunshine relaxing with family :j and making memories.
    This unfortunatley set us back an extra £81.82 in food costs :o(eating out once, and preparing our own food for other meals). I have decided to not include this in my monthly budget, as the budget is for everyday living costs, not holidays.

    This weeks food order came in at £67.91.
    It includes lots of healthy items (chicken breasts, brown rice, green vegetables), with the odd treat (smoothies and fruit lollies for hot days).

    I have however been very much reminded this week of how much convenience 'costs' us.
    My order included packets of microwave rice. Which are obviously much more expensive than the sum of it's parts!!:eek:
    My dilemma - a baby just over a month old, and I'm trying to 'do it all'.

    I have just over £70 of my budget to last us the last half of July.
    Very achievable, however I need to make sure that my last 2 shops are a little bit more mindful, and focussed on both eating up what is in the cupboard (there was some food wastage this last week:mad:), and include less convenience/pre-packaged food.

    Definitely some food for thought ;)

    Hope that everyone is well, and has a successful week (and fab weekend).

    BBx
    September GC £250 / £58.13
  • Suffolk_lass
    Suffolk_lass Posts: 9,306
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    YorksLass wrote: »
    Quite right too! I used to fall into this trap many moons ago ... but not any more. :D Although it's easier with just the two of us now.

    I used to say that too. I have found that rather like a vampire, without a stake through the heart, it keeps coming back. After 6-7 years on here I never assume I have ended my spendy ways for good ;)
    Save £12k in 2024 - #2 target is £5000
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    My Debt Free Diary Get a grip Woman
  • DaniS
    DaniS Posts: 19 Forumite
    £80.81 spent online shopping. This did include a few store bits that I don't buy each week so not too bad.

    £130.78/£300

    Freezer is still coming down, really hoping to defrost it this weekend when my parents come to help me 'spring clean' before DS2 arrives on 21st.
  • purpleybat
    purpleybat Posts: 477
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    small impulse shop for me today, only popped in to get a lettuce and came out with 2 boxes of ice cream lollies, some pies, tomatoes, said lettuce and a bottle of wine (that doesn't come in in grocery budget), grand total of £9.81.
    I've ended up shopping on the Saturdays the last few weeks and it really is horrid, this week i'm thinking i'll just pick up sarnie and veggie bits as needed so as to avoid the supermarket on sat afternoon.
  • Doom_and_Gloom
    Doom_and_Gloom Posts: 4,695
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    Spent £6.19 today.
    Found a pack of peppers that didn't have green in them, not as keen on the greens so I usually look for packs with only one but a pack with none is perfect.

    £101.56/£155.
    £53.44 left.
    I am a vegan woman. My OH is a lovely omni guy :D
  • pamsdish
    pamsdish Posts: 2,585
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    Spent £6.19 today.
    Found a pack of peppers that didn't have green in them, not as keen on the greens so I usually look for packs with only one but a pack with none is perfect..
    I don`t like the green either.:D
    Do I need it or just want it.
  • Skintmama
    Skintmama Posts: 471 Forumite
    DoomandGloom - I like to use up the green peppers in something that is quite sweet tasting, like a chilli. They lose some of that metallic bitterness then.

    Budgetbabe - well done for taking a holiday and for being able to budget at such a time. It didn't cross my mind when I was post natal, although having caesarians and living in the middle of nowhere did restrict my spending anyway.

    Purpleybat - Saturday supermarket shopping is to be avoided if at all possible!

    DaniS - Good luck for the impending arrival - and the freezer project.

    I lost my receipts last week and have not liked not knowing how much of my budget was left. Found them now thankfully.

    Last week I spent £35.32 in Lidl, Morrisons and the farm shop. In my head it was more than this due to going to 3 different places.

    Today the Lidl shop was £26.99. I forgot a couple of things which I may need for later in the week. My signature has been updated; £70 to last the month :eek:

    Great to read how you are all doing - thank you for posting :)
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