September 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

whitewing

Gemma,

I'm still tweaking my grocery budget so can't help there.

Have you included child benefit into your budget when baby comes along? Also will you be entitled to tax credits then too?

twirlie

Hi Gemma,

Is there a reason why you're assuming you will FF? I know its a touchy subject, but I breastfed my bub for the first 3 months, and it saved a fortune! (Plus it helped me get my figure back!) If you can cut out the £6 boxes of formula twice a week you'll be far better off!

If you're dead set on formula, then have you checked your entitlement to Healthy Start vouchers? They give you I think £6 a week and can be redeemed towards formula, so they're a bit of a help.

foreign_correspondent

you may have very good reasons for your choice, but breast feeding would cut your bills quite a lot!!

pinkparrott

Hi
we are trying to do somethign similar, there are 2 adults a 2 1/2 year old and a 12 week old baby + 2 teenage step children for 1 or 2 meals a week.

i think the main tip i have learnt is to meal plan and to stick to it as much as possible.

I'm sure you will be able to do it if you follow he tips on here.

I hope you dont mind me saying this but have you considered breast feeding. my 12 week old is still fully breastfed,and i'll be honest it was very very tough for the 1st 4-6 weeks tops, but it is definatley worth it and gets loads easier. apart from the obvious health benefits, if i'm honest the moneysaving benefit is a big motivator for me at the moment as i've worked out that a standard size tub of firmula which costs nealy £8 will only last my baby 5- 7 days!!! so thats £32-£40 a month out of an already tight budget.

not trying to judge you as i soon went on to formula with my 1st.

twirlie

Pink Parrot said it far better than me... please don't think I was being judgemental, because I wasn't!

OrkneyStar

gemma1984 wrote: »

I wanted to ask what you all thought of this budget, as we are finding it very difficult to live by but have no other means of stretching it any.

The £100 is to cover all food bills. We usually do a monthly shop for meat and cupboard items and then just use the left over money for interim stuff like bread, milk, sandwich filler etc etc. But we're finding that we are always ending up digging in to our savings or elsewhere to afford the interim stuff, and this is without the baby even being here yet!!!!!:eek:

Do you think maybe that in today's climate £100 for two adults and a fully formula fed baby is not really very realistic or do you think we are doing it all wrong?

We always buy own brand when we can, always take adantage of BOGOF's etc....

We spend around £35-40 per week for 2 adults and a toddler (we spent slightly more than this when he was a baby but a lot of it was junk tbh so £40 would be a realistic figure then too). He drinks cows milk now (and was breastfed until 13 months) so we don't/didn't have the cost of formula milk to factor in (is it not quite expensive ?). I won't ask if you have thought about breastfeeding, as its your choice, other than to say it does save money (even though you have to eat some more calories) - pinkparrot has summed it up very well while I was writing this post .
He is also in real nappies so again we only buy the odd pack of disposables (they are worth trying and not actually that much hassle- speaking from experience of being anaemic and having c-section and managing to use them ).
If you are getting BOGOF's, own brand then thats a start- what about whoopsies (reduced stuff), do you meal plan ?, do you make sure you don't waste anything ? TBH £100 is not much (you may have to find more- the other poster who mentioned child benefit and tax credits has a good point that you may be entitled to more- check entitledto.co.uk.).
Make sure you join parenting clubs at Boots, Tesco, Morrisons etc- they send you MOC's and you also get extra points on baby stuff.
There are some great threads on here (Grocery Challenge, Weezls 50p a day, £20 a week for family of 4 etc) but remember having a baby is also a challenge in itself so don't set yourself impossible targets.
Good luck with the bubs.
x

Pink.

Hi gemma,

As everyones needs are different it's difficult for anyone to put an exact figure on what you should be spending, but if you have a look at Martin's Budget Planner, that should help you to find out if/where you are overspending and give you ideas on how you could cut back. There is also his article on Supermarket Shopping which has lots of hints and tips on saving money on groceries.

Meal planning is a good way to save money. To get some ideas and help with this, have a look in

The Complete Menu Plans Collection

Also there are lots of ideas for cheap meals on these threads:

Cheapest recipes???

Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

Feed 6 for £1.62

Cheapest meal

Your Cheapest Evening Meal.

cheap, easy family meals


Each month on Old Style there is a Grocery Challenge (new one starting on Sunday) where you can see what everyone elses grocery spends are and you'll get lots of encouragement and support from others there trying to cut back on grocery shopping. I'll add your thread to that one shortly.

Good luck with cutting back.

Pink

Penelope_Penguin

Pink-winged wrote: »

This post is off topic so it will self-destruct in half an hour....

...but I had to agree with everyone else and say that angelnikki, you will be very much missed from this thread while you take a break. You have been so helpful and been such an inspiration to others, posting sound advice and motivational posts. Thank you so much for the help you have given to Penny and I too with the GC recipe index.

I hope to still see you around the OS board and look forward to when you join in with the GC thread again. Take care of yourself.

Pink

Can I second that Well done angelnikki - your sensible posts have been a great help to me and, I'm sure many more :A

Don't be a stranger, and take good care of yourself, Penny. xx

gemma1984

Thank you all ever so much for your quick replies!!!!

I've posted over on the benefits board to find out a bit more info on what we can and cannot claim but I'm still trying to get my head around it.

Twirlie mentioned Healthy Start vouchers- I shall have a google of them and see if it's something we can apply for....

Pink Winged - You've left me loooads of helpful links, thank you very very much I shall get reading right away.

I know that the formula feeding is hugely expensive when lets be honest we can do it for free, so I can see all your very valid points.......

Thanks again everyone!

candygirl

Spent £2.36 in somerfield on bread, teacakes n newspaper today, so just adding it to my total for this month.When does the sept GC challenge end?