July 2015 Grocery Challenge

Signing up with an official budget of £253.10

Trying (again) for an unofficial budget of £200, and actual shop spend (after reductions, multibuys and whoopsies) of £105

Budget is for food only - toiletries and cleaning have their own budgets. No alcohol as I'm tee-total and DS1 buys his own.

This month includes a week away self-catering with OH, and I don't yet know how the grocery spends are going to split - could make things a little more tricky

Plus DS1 starts a new job next Monday, which is 5 days a week instead of 7 shifts a fortnight - and he's hinted he'd like a ready meal to take in every shift which means more spending there 'cos he won't eat home-made ones :eek: The only plus side to this is that it means I can use up a whole load of long term stock items as it'll leave me catering for just me for most of the month

My month runs 1st to 31st inclusive

yellowbirdy44 wrote: »

Newbie here.

I have been lurking for a while and AMAZED and INSPIRED at how little some of you manage to get by with.

There's only 2 of us and 2 cats. I have a budget of £340 a month for 'shopping' ie all food, drink and toiletries etc. And I ALWAYS go over it - totally ashamed of this!

We are a 50% vegetarian household (so by default that tends to be 100% as I'm not cooking two separate dinners!), and 50% tee total so really we could manage so much better.

I'm shopping at Lidl's now rather than a home delivery from Mr T and also Wilko's and Savers for toiletries.

Going by the guidelines, I'm going to start slowly so lets say £290 for July and see where I end up. Fingers x'd.

Welcome aboard yellowbirdy. I am new on this board as well but lurked for a bit and like yourself, I am amazed at how the forumites manage on less. I was dubious as to whether I could do it myself but having gone down from £650 to £400 last month, I now know it could be done. Good luck. My family and I are also tee-total and partly vegetarians (I wish we could fully convert, the right time will come, hopefully).

Have your tried Home Bargains and B&M? They also have amazing bargains. Sometimes they do bargains and offers for almost nothing - sometimes as low as 10p. You just need to look at the not so obvious places. A few months ago, I saw some disposable paper cups (with nice designs) for 10p for a pack of 12. Wow, that's less than 1pm each cup. Needless to say, I bought all their remaining stocks. Some may argue that it is not very MSE....

Looking forward to exchanging ideas with you on this board. Have a nice day.

I've been lurking for a while and will definitely try and see this month through just as an experiment.

Can you put me down for £100 from the 1st through till the end of the month. My budget at the start of the year was £150 for the two of us, but it's been under that on average, so I'll try and save some more money by getting it to £100.

Good luck everyone!

Hi guys ..
I really need to pull my finger out and get back into GC .. I was solo good last year and this year got my extension to still pay for (nearly there but last few thousands a killer !) so can I rejoin please

I will be £250/month

I've got a bit in the freezer I am hoping to use up too. I think Im going to just take the money out when paid then hide my bank card

lisa

Hi

I am new to this and would like to have a go at July's as drastically need to stop spending as much as I do and i do tend to waste so am hoping to get ideas for menus where I can use leftovers following day.

On average I spent 600 a month ( approx 150 a week) on food and buy weekly.
I am going to go through what we already have in both freezers and cupboards so I'm not repeat buying on things I don't need ( I often end up with more than I need) then can top up with a list as I go.

I am going to try for £500 for July please

Dee x