August 2008 Grocery Challenge

gillaman

IfOnlyItWasEasier - Have a wonderful day, hope the sun shines.

Denise - if you don't like the idea of putting "proper bleach" in the washing you could try Ecover's washing bleach. Obviously more expensive but it has whitened up my old towels - I use soap nuts by the way - but I don't think it's suitable for delicates.

NSD for me today will update sig later.

Edit: meant to say re pay days. I get state pension paid 4 weekly and use that for all my direct debits. Every now and then I check the total left to go out before the next pay day to make sure there's enough in. Anything over I'm starting to sweep onto my credit card, once that's paid I'll sweep it into a "save to spend" account. I also get another couple of pensions paid monthly. The largest I'm using for groceries with a top up from the smaller - but I'm hoping not to have to top up at all soon in which case that one will probably go towards treats.

gunsandbanjos

cookinmummy wrote: »

DD1 had a nasty allergic reaction, but was well enough for first day of pre-school today (kids in Scot go back earlier and yes I cried).

Hope she enjoyed herself, my LO started yesterday too. She is loving it!

cookinmummy

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

Hope she enjoyed herself, my LO started yesterday too. She is loving it!

Yes - she did - and the teacher said she was really good - I thought yeah right just wait until she is less shy and starts bossing you about like she does me!:rotfl:

helenm2008

Woo hoo! Only spent £27.95 on groceries this week instead of £40, thanks to Mr. T's club card vouchers.

Mind you, I still have Friday and Saturday to get through, so maybe I shouldn't get the banner out just yet

We're moving tomorrow, and planning to eat Maccy Dee's breakfast, pies from Gregg's for lunch and takeaway in the evening - not a healthy eating day!! But to come out of the moving budget rather than GC....

Have a great Bank Holiday everyone, I hope there is more sunshine than showers for a change!

Rowan9

Good luck with the move helenm!
Spent 83p on breadsticks and savers peanuts and tortilla chips - very cheap but not what I should be doing when I have very little left for the month|!!

OrkneyStar

Just popped on to update sig, as back still pretty sore (bottom not as excruciating but upper back is now sore due to the funny stoop I have been in because could not straighten up :mad:), it was a NSD for me. 6 so far, not great but not bad either considering the holiday 10 days have not been counted in the potential total. I could 'cheat' a little and include those 10 days as NSD's because we did not spend anything from GC at that time and so it would be 16/31 instead of 6/21 but I feel it makes more sense to exclude the holiday time from the GC budget and NSD's as it was from a separate pot iykwim (sorry to waffle ).

schueys_girl

Hi All! I'm brand new here and loving these forums. What has promted me to join is that in a month or so my boyfriend and I will be moving into our very own flat We are so excited but we have had the luxury of lving with my parents and therefore not having to do too much. We help around house etc but we dont get chance to do any food shopping or cooking etc as the kitchen is really moms and she is happy to do it...

...so my first question is what is a reasonable weekly food shop budget for two people? We are not overly picky and i want to be reasonably healthy. We do not smoke and are not huge drinkers so this does not need to be factored in.

Also I am going to need a huge amount of help on meal planning and cooking...i really dont know where to start with cooking and am a little scared as I want to be healthy and be able to cook things confidently without faffing and worrying

Also finally any tips at all for when you first move out of home on bugeting or anything would be brilliant. If you want more info on rent and things i need to budget for i am more than happy to post on here for the help.

Thank you all and I look forward to hearing from you and more posting

The only way i can offer anything back to you all at the minute is if any of you have any motorsport interests or queries as I am a huge motorsport fan and am a motorsport lecturer at a college Thank you all xx

princess_leia_3

HI scheuysgirl, if you read nikkis fab first post you will see loads of recipes that are cheap and some healthy and not so healthy ones
I feed Me, DH, DS (age4) ds (age2) and dd(5mths) on about £250 but that includes nappies etc Your first month is always gonna be a guess so I would start at £200.

Well Mr A has been and its £35 onto my total as they didn't have any bread mix, and they sub it for wholmeal but we will eat mainly white
So hubby is off out to Mr T to get some ice cream :mad: and some bread mix if they have any :rolleyes: Also I forgot Milk/mushrooms....
Which I why I will always now do my shopping with Mr T online so I can add these things til the last minute :rotfl:

mama67

denisefowler wrote: »

Just a quick one. Has anyone else got notification about Tesco clubcard christmas saver thing on their points? I have just signed up as you can now save them all for Christmas - you still get your statement and extra vouchers but don't get the clubcard vouchers until November, plus extra bonus points too! Better for me as I spend the small £5 - £10 I get each time so would be a way of saving for me...:D

If you didn't get a note in with your clubcard vouchers, you can sign up for it online. Hope that helps someone... Off to work now...Den x

DEnise, I did last year as well, it was good as you say having a big lump to spend at Christmas.

ALthough in the past when I've known we would be holidaying where there is a Tesco I have put the vouchers away so that they can be used foir holiday food.

pink_princess

HI schueys girl
If you post on the budgeting thread im sure some kind person more educated than myself will be able to help you establish a budget .As for your grocery s its really going to be a matter of telling people what your favourite meals are and then people (normally angel nikki or mrs mc) can advise you how to make them cheaper than normal ,i would really recommend you read this whole thread from the start as it is invaluable for saving money and motivation HTH
Well i have used my two tesco vouchers now so my total s shot up abit but it was well spent and i should only need juice and milk til next thursday(i hope).
I recieved my tesco clubcard points ,but unfortunatly the extra coupons they ve sent me are for on-line shopping and i like to go myself when i leave the gym .Any-one else been given useless vouchers lol
Good luck for tommorrow IOIWE i hope the sun shines on you s and your married life x
TTFN