November 2008 Grocery Challenge

Aril

Apologies...I didn't declare for October as lost track completely. Will rejoin in December but belated good wishes for those in the Nov GC
Aril

soappie

Well done Toffee!

Skint_Catt

I never do my shop on a regular day/night so it happens when I can do it/feel like it/desperatly have to. I always find if I make a list on https://www.mysupermarket.co.uk and print it out and carry it with me I never get to the supermarket.

Ok, so I pop in to get one item or so if I'm out of something for that nights dinner, but it makes me realise that I don't actually need two thirds of the items on my list and can live without them! Most of its 'keeping stock/just in case'!!! As long as I only go in for the one item I needed then I can actaully go weeks without doing a 'big' shop and this saves a fortune - shows how much I've actally got in the cupboards/freezer!

Does that make sense??

C xx

SatansPlaym8

well done :beer:

missbargain

I don't know how families manage to do it, well done.

Me and my husband spend 100 pounds a week (400 a month) on our food and what goes with it - the toilet paper, washing powder, soap and similar.
And, we eat extremely healthy, never anything pre prepared, no crisps, fizzy drinks, ready made pizzas, junk food. My husband is a health freak and loves cooking, so he cooks everything from scratch, so this is supposed to be cheaper than buying ready made food, which we don't like anyway.

I admit, we do buy organic meat, and we love fresh fish, but we eat that about 3 times a week (once meat dish, twice fish). The rest is vegetable dishes, soups, risottos, stews, pasta dishes, etc, so it's not like we eat fish every day.

But how is that that we never, ever leave the supermarket with the bill less than 75 pounds? And this does not include meat, as we get our meat box delivered from the farm (Riverford Organics, highly recommended). On top of this, we might buy a couple of asian ingredients in our local thai shop, plus the newspapers, milk twice a week, and similar.
So if we did buy meat in the supermarket, too, the bill would be even higher. Even though we have 4 supermarkets in the area: Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda, and the variety of farmers markets, but the bill is always within 7-8 pounds of each other (Asda being the cheapest).

I am starting to believe that the same supermarket chains in the countryside or in smaller towns cost less than in London. Or perhaps there are other, even cheaper, supermarkets (Morrisons? Lidl? Some other?). Because I gulp when I read that some people can do the 40 pounds weekly shop and feed 2 kids as well and a cat, turtle and two hamsters! How is that?

I actually don't mind paying extra for fruit, veg and meat, especially if it goes to the farmer himself, as I believe that the farm produce is terribly cheap in this country because supermarkets are treating farmers like s..t and take the big cuts, leaving peanuts to the farmers. That's why we often buy at the farmer's markets and get our meat delivered from the farm.

But is it possible that the price of packaged goods is much cheaper in other parts in the country than in London?

I don't know how to find this out, unless someone from this forum regularly shops both in London and somewhere much further away. Because, even though there is only the two of us, we cannot leave the supermarket (weekly) below 75 pounds, and that's without meat and cat food, which I buy elsewhere (and no, we don't eat caviar and lobster )

catnap53

JayJay14 wrote: »

Have a bath of bread rising

Now that's what I call batch cooking;)

Spent too much in Aldi after all. DH got chocolate biscuits, sweets, wine. I got some Christmas stuff, pudding, (not worth the effort to make my own) marzipan, (thanks to another thread where someone posted it is only 69p) sweets for the shoe boxes, as well as the bananas and sugar I went for.

Zzzz

[Deleted User]

Have done my major shop for the month and so far am on track. Hopefully I can keep it up, but am going away for a few days, and its just so much harder when you are out of your routine and usual environment.

belfastgirl23

Oh dear well a bit of a spendy weekend for me - needed f&v, also pesto and took DH into M&S when really I know better - guacamole and breadsticks that we didn't need. Total spend £23.84, £88.16 for the month so far. But we need some basics as well - loo roll, teabags and the like. And I need to stock up on spices. So I would guess we'll spend another £10-£15 during the week.

Hope you're all doing okay!

bestpud

First day and I spent £3.35 at my local shop because I promised DD we would make some cakes and forgot to buy icing sugar and bits to decorate them when I did the weekly shop! :doh: I bought a loaf of white bread too though, but that wasn't necessary either!

At least this challenge has made me think about what I am doing as normally this daft spending wouldn't have registered with me. :rolleyes:

Penelope_Penguin

toffee65 wrote: »

8 days in and I now look in my cupboards and freezer and realise I am well in budget and not only that have packed freezers and far too much food.

Well done! I'll add this to the Grocery Challenge, where Old Stylers get tips and support to keep their grocery budget within the limits that they can afford

Penny. x