March 2017 Grocery Challenge

Cappella · 23 February 2017 at 12:01PM

I didn't really join in in February as I was dealing with family and health issues. Please put me down for £350 for March please. I'm challenging myself to get below it!

elsiepac · 23 February 2017 at 12:37PM

Hi all

Thanks as always to zippy, Coxy and lynnejk for running the thread and keeping us all in line!

I'd like to opt in with £120 for March please.

This is from 24 February to 23 March - it's a 4 week month for me.

Those that know me from the GC know this is a tight budget for me, but I'm determined to achieve it with some slight modifications to how I allocate the money!

This month's plan is to buy all my store cupboard stuff at the start, then have my weekly amount to spend on the fresh ingredients needed for that weeks recipes. I usually have pretty good cupboards but seem to always end up towards the end of the month not replenishing certain items so they build up in cost as I need lots at once! The idea being that then if I run low on something it comes out of weekly spends.

I have a list for stocking my cupboard items back up, which comes to £39.90. It includes nutritional yeast, tinned toms, tomato puree, coffee (£5 just on that as I'm getting two because they are £2.50 instead of £4.59 at the moment!), soap, black bags, vegan mayo and salad cream, stock cubes, sesame oil, rice, almond milk, veggie suet, fennel seeds (only spice I'm out of!), sundried tomato paste, dried butter beans and dried cannellini beans and a few other things. I am going to try and get certain items in Ald1 to reduce the cost.

In my head the breakdown is as follows:

£40 - Dry goods/stocking cupboards back up
£20 - Week 1
£20 - Week 2
£20 - Week 3
£20 - Week 4

Feeling pretty determined - £20 a week feels like a decent amount for fresh stuff and top ups. This will require a lot of discipline on my part though, so I need to be strong!

Good luck for the month everyone!

*Margaret* · 23 February 2017 at 12:52PM

Please could you put me down for £45 for March. I am starting on the 6th (I have to do Monday to Monday or I get horribly muddled)

chickien_2 · 23 February 2017 at 2:51PM

Hi,
I'm going to join in this month

Have been meaning to for a while - our food spending is a bit out of control.
I always aim for around £200 a month (for two adults, a toddler, 3 cats and a dog) but go way over it (and I don't even know by how much:eek:) by popping in to the shops in-between our weekly shop :cool:
Am going to meal plan for the whole month and keep all my receipts as suggested.
Looking forward to seeing if i can do any better this way.

thriftwizard · 23 February 2017 at 5:54PM

May I duck out for this month, please? I haven't yet updated my signature for Feb although I'm not too far off target, but I'd just like a bit of downtime... I'll be back in April!

meg72 · 23 February 2017 at 6:00PM

elsiepac wrote: »

Hi all

Thanks as always to zippy, Coxy and lynnejk for running the thread and keeping us all in line!

I'd like to opt in with £120 for March please.

This is from 24 February to 23 March - it's a 4 week month for me.

Those that know me from the GC know this is a tight budget for me, but I'm determined to achieve it with some slight modifications to how I allocate the money!

This month's plan is to buy all my store cupboard stuff at the start, then have my weekly amount to spend on the fresh ingredients needed for that weeks recipes. I usually have pretty good cupboards but seem to always end up towards the end of the month not replenishing certain items so they build up in cost as I need lots at once! The idea being that then if I run low on something it comes out of weekly spends.

I have a list for stocking my cupboard items back up, which comes to £39.90. It includes nutritional yeast, tinned toms, tomato puree, coffee (£5 just on that as I'm getting two because they are £2.50 instead of £4.59 at the moment!), soap, black bags, vegan mayo and salad cream, stock cubes, sesame oil, rice, almond milk, veggie suet, fennel seeds (only spice I'm out of!), sundried tomato paste, dried butter beans and dried cannellini beans and a few other things. I am going to try and get certain items in Ald1 to reduce the cost.

In my head the breakdown is as follows:

£40 - Dry goods/stocking cupboards back up
£20 - Week 1
£20 - Week 2
£20 - Week 3
£20 - Week 4

Feeling pretty determined - £20 a week feels like a decent amount for fresh stuff and top ups. This will require a lot of discipline on my part though, so I need to be strong!

Good luck for the month everyone!

That's a good offer on the coffee what brand is it please and where is the offer on

Daisymae2575 · 23 February 2017 at 7:12PM

May I join you as I am newbie to this budgeting. I have finally starting to take control and grocery spending is my first goal.
My first budget is £235.07 from 23rd February to 27th March - using £50 per week as a guide. This is going to be a challenge as I do not have a cooker, living with a microwave, single ring camper stove and a kettle, added to this no car means shopping has to be done at local stores such as Sains***, M&S and CO** as not on bus route or safe route for cycling.

Let the game commence.

DaisyMae x

elsiepac · 24 February 2017 at 12:37AM

JackieO wrote: »

March 1st put me down for my usual £60.00. (Can't seem to change the colour of the font on this MacAir laptop for some reason) I am hoping to have some left over cash from February's budget which will get swept into my holiday account for treats on holiday

Replace { with [ in the below:

{COLOR="Red"}type budget here{/COLOR}

pajama wrote: »

Please put me down for £360 March.

Budget went to pot for February due to being given devastating health news and many hospital visits. Lived off a lot of takeaways and crap for the last 3 weeks. Need to keep the grocery budget tight seeing as I will never be working again.

So sorry to hear this, my thoughts are with you.

meg72 wrote: »

That's a good offer on the coffee what brand is it please and where is the offer on

It's Millicano and it's in Tesco - here's the link to the product page: http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=268172402. It's my favourite instant coffee so I'm pleased about this! I only really drink coffee at home on weekends so it lasts me a while! Website says the offer is on until 7 March.

Suffolk_lass · 24 February 2017 at 6:35AM

elsiepac wrote: »

Hi all

Thanks as always to zippy, Coxy and lynnejk for running the thread and keeping us all in line!

I'd like to opt in with £120 for March please.

This is from 24 February to 23 March - it's a 4 week month for me.

Those that know me from the GC know this is a tight budget for me, but I'm determined to achieve it with some slight modifications to how I allocate the money!

This month's plan is to buy all my store cupboard stuff at the start, then have my weekly amount to spend on the fresh ingredients needed for that weeks recipes. I usually have pretty good cupboards but seem to always end up towards the end of the month not replenishing certain items so they build up in cost as I need lots at once! The idea being that then if I run low on something it comes out of weekly spends.

I have a list for stocking my cupboard items back up, which comes to £39.90. It includes nutritional yeast, tinned toms, tomato puree, coffee (£5 just on that as I'm getting two because they are £2.50 instead of £4.59 at the moment!), soap, black bags, vegan mayo and salad cream, stock cubes, sesame oil, rice, almond milk, veggie suet, fennel seeds (only spice I'm out of!), sundried tomato paste, dried butter beans and dried cannellini beans and a few other things. I am going to try and get certain items in Ald1 to reduce the cost.

In my head the breakdown is as follows:

£40 - Dry goods/stocking cupboards back up
£20 - Week 1
£20 - Week 2
£20 - Week 3
£20 - Week 4

Feeling pretty determined - £20 a week feels like a decent amount for fresh stuff and top ups. This will require a lot of discipline on my part though, so I need to be strong!

Good luck for the month everyone!

Hi elsiepac,

I know you have often struggled to stay within your budget and I wondered if you have considered one change? - only buying the store cupboard items when they are either

a) on offer, and on your list to replenish, or
b) you need something you have run out of for a meal on your plan.

My breakthrough with budgeting was based on this and using up my stores and I have come in well under since making these changes. I know you love systems and order too so you must meal-plan and list the things that are running down - you just don't need to buy them automatically. Then your list comprises the must-have's and the opportunity list. I tend to check the offers before setting off too (on mysupermarket.com) so I know what I am looking out for and it means no sacrifice of my posh brands!

My list is part of my virtual cupboard so I don't abandon my things that I love using, I just store them there instead.

SL

elsiepac · 24 February 2017 at 3:52PM

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Hi elsiepac,

I know you have often struggled to stay within your budget and I wondered if you have considered one change? - only buying the store cupboard items when they are either

a) on offer, and on your list to replenish, or
b) you need something you have run out of for a meal on your plan.

My breakthrough with budgeting was based on this and using up my stores and I have come in well under since making these changes. I know you love systems and order too so you must meal-plan and list the things that are running down - you just don't need to buy them automatically. Then your list comprises the must-have's and the opportunity list. I tend to check the offers before setting off too (on mysupermarket.com) so I know what I am looking out for and it means no sacrifice of my posh brands!

My list is part of my virtual cupboard so I don't abandon my things that I love using, I just store them there instead.

SL

Thanks for this - totally get where you're coming from! When I say about stock cupboard, I mean the dry goods that I use all the time and therefore always want some in my cupboard, then when I see a recipe, I always know I have the herbs or spices required, or a stock cube etc. When I get low, I note it on my fridge pad for the next shop. My problem is that where I do my "extra" shops, obviously this has a knock on effect for how much money I have available later in the month, so end up not replenishing these items, which leads to being run out and having to buy everything at once again when I get paid - perfect example this month!

The root of my problem is really just self control, and not buying two of everything. The shops will always be there!

This weeks plan includes:

Hutterite soup (using up my swede, bit of cabbage, and some rooty potatoes; have everything in)
Squash and shallot casserole with veg dumplings
Greens and Beans Saute (uses up my greens from last week; have everything in)
Pineapple rum beans and coconut lime sweet potato mash
Smokey butternut squash sauce and greens with pasta

Off to do my first shop of the month tonight - Should be about £55 - £39.90 planned for store cupboard stuff for month, and about £16.50 for meal plan for the week plus yoghurts etc

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March 2017 Grocery Challenge

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