August 2008 Grocery Challenge

kimmie32_2

I have 2 adults to buy for and a fussy OH..
So i want my sept (got paid today) to be £160 for the month...For food.....
So fingers crossed!!!!!

MrsHayes

Hi everyone sorry I havent been around. Having a nightmare with my computer as it has decided that it doesn\'t like this site and wont open it without using a proxy server which is making everything run slowly and won\\t let me post properly with paragraphs or thank anybody! So thank you all for the welcome and appologies! It was working last week so hopefully it decided to play ball again soon!..............Ive gone over this week after starting so well! Spent £5 in homebargains and got some bargains, then spent £29 in Lidl (but £9 of it was on some energy saving led bulbs for our lamps and some car cleaner for DH as we are selling our car and its a state! so not counting that) Then went to Mr A to get the final bits that I couldnt get in Lidl and spent £17! Was gobsmacked as we hardly had anything..............Total for this week was £42 + £10 DH takes for dinners at work (I have given up trying to make him sandwiches as he doesnt eat them so he has a tenner a week and has to sort himself out!) which I didnt think was too bad.......................However when we tried the sausages I got from Lidl last night they had a really odd taste to them and as 3 of my meals this week are based on sausages I ended up giving them to the dogs! So I went to Booths today to get some more which turned into me getting some mash as we were almost out and some chips and beer for DH for the weekend *hangs head in shame* ........................Spent £13 however £10 of that is our weekend money so £3 over. Bringing the grand total to £55 so £5 over for the first week which I guess isnt too awful. [COLOR=\"red\"]Please put me down for £50 a week in September and hopefully I will come in under budget this time! [/COLOR]xx

galadriel

webitha wrote: »

hiya ive been reading this for a few days now and am interested in taking part, what i need to know what would be a ggod figure to start from for 2 adults 3 kids, who will eat anything and everything, except DS wont touch weetabix lol.
Ive tried to keep receipts for a month but they either get lost, drawn on, or i forget, i est that i spend £250-£300 a month

hi webitha

maybe you could set your challenge at £300 for September and see how it goes, then take it down £25 each month. The first few months are a bit of a trial and error really. I originally estimated at £200 for two adults but found I was spending a lot less. Now an unexpected drop in income means I have got to economise and from August my target is £150 - have managed it htis month.

webitha

thanks galadriel, i will
and thanks to everyone on this board as my thanks button is not working at the mo

rubydoiwannabee

Hi everyone,
This was my first grocery challenge and I have failed!! Total spend £338, when target was £300. My only defence is that we have had two lots of guests in seperate weeks and that the children seem to have eaten non stop!! ha ha:D

I did an online asda shop today and it was £58, but I have my main evening meals planned now until Sept 6th and plenty of bread, milk etc. for the freezer and lunch time sandwich ingredients.

To be honest £38 over a six week period is only £6.33 per week and when I consider that we purchased beers, wine and branded crisps and dips etc the weeks we had guest, that isn't too bad.

Roll on September challenge.

yellowmonkey

Webitha

Bit of trial and error really. As galadriel says why not have a rough estimate and go from there. To be honest I have been doing this for months and have only recently been close this month. I decided to cut out the beer and things and keep a seperate budget for that.

Whenever I come back from shopping I update my total from my reciept and do it that way then I can forget about the reciept and bin it.

Good luck it is addictive once you start

ym

yellowmonkey

rubydoiwannabee wrote: »

Hi everyone,
This was my first grocery challenge and I have failed!! Total spend £338, when target was £300. My only defence is that we have had two lots of guests in seperate weeks and that the children seem to have eaten non stop!! ha ha:D

I did an online asda shop today and it was £58, but I have my main evening meals planned now until Sept 6th and plenty of bread, milk etc. for the freezer and lunch time sandwich ingredients.

To be honest £38 over a six week period is only £6.33 per week and when I consider that we purchased beers, wine and branded crisps and dips etc the weeks we had guest, that isn't too bad.

Roll on September challenge.

At least you now have a total to work from. As I said on my last post I did start off including beer but knocked it on the head and keep a seperate budget for that. I have been over my budget for my first 8 months or so :D.

Good luck for September

ym

EagerLearner

September:

Our amount will be £120 for myself and MrEL.

Desperately trying to get a cheap freezer locally so we can save more as we currently only have 1 shelf. Then a batch cooking extravaganza!

webitha

thank you YM for that advice i got myself a little notepad ready
so for sept im going for £300

findingmyfeet

hi there everyone,

well just been out and spent some more. After a trip aornd town spent £18.50 in m& s food and another £31.17 in netto. Hopefully that should see me through to the weekend , maybe need the odd thing i have forgotten. Still budget looking good, finding it hard to believe im really well under, i am just waiting for something to go wrong or something mega i have forgotten about !!!!!

Oven fish and chips for tea tonight, fancied something easy and thats all im capable of tonight opening the oven door and shoving a tray in ! lazy or what. Never mind.

bye bye