November 2008 Grocery Challenge

Flat_Eric

Hi all
Ive been through my freezer and listed everything. Im also defrosting my inside freezer so the chest freezer in the garage is FIT TO BURSTING :rotfl:and currently has a 80 litre bag of compost on the top of it to keep the lid closed!!

Once the freezer is sorted, Im going to list the stuff in my cupboards and finally do the fridge.

I should then be able to start using up everything ive got which will hopefully make next month even though its xmas a relatively cheap month.

There were no real surprises to be found in my freezer apart from I have about four bags of mixed veg and for some unexplicable reason, I have lots of bread, sliced bread, rolls, tiger bread etc. Shouldnt need to buy bread for a while :j I also found a yummy lamb and honey roasted vegetables meal (Extra special range from asda) so thats what im having for tea tomorrow.

I hope everyone is having a good Sunday.

Grocery spend still off the rails - will update signature later but im pleased ive listed everything now because already ive been able to remove stuff from my tesco home delivery list as i have the stuff already

wyrdsister

Hi all! Wow, been away from my PC for two days and I come back to loads of new posts! Hard to keep track Updating my sig again, did another "big" shop for us both in Mr A on friday and spent £25.29. Stocked up the storecupboard quite a lot and got a few nice whoopsies, Been doing a ton of cooking to keep the freezer nice and full, just made an amazing chicken curry but bulked it out with some lentils and leftover potatoes, the OH hasn't had lentils before and he thinks I'm a bit mad but I assured him it'll be lovely! Hopefully I'll just need to pop out to the shops for little things now. Have a good sunday all!

distressedpleasehelp

Hi there, I've lost my job and in debt. I posted on another site an SOA and the members recommended I post on here as I spend £1,000 in Tesco's. I'm not a silly woman and I really do resent every penny I spend in there!
There are two adults and two teenagers in the household and i don't feel we are extravagant. We eat healthy, my partner cooks everything from fresh and loves to cook.
The £1,000 covers almost everything we spend includingpet food, cleaning stuffs, toiletries, clothes etc but judging by the other members on here I'm being silly spending that amount and he said people on this forum can help me so I'd appreciate any tips and help out there.
I want to get my life back on track and get a way out of debt.
Thanks.

bigsmoke

hi everyone

had my first real trip to the shops yesterday and got carried away with a few temptations, but did manage to sort out my christmas wrapping and birthday present, so at least the extra retail therapy wasn't 'wasted' money!

down to my last twenty quid for the month so starting to worry a little, will have to be careful if i'm going to make it...

msgnomey

The best thing I ever did to save me money on my food shopping was to look in the cupboards/freezer/fridge and PLAN my meals each week, write a list and then stick to it

I also switched to shopping at Aldi which saved me even more money

Keep reading, there are loads of ideas on here to help you

Good luck:j

OrkneyStar

hi there,
Welcome .
Got to be honest, £1000 is a lot to spend, even if you were able to afford it! But, I am sure you have heard this said enough, so lets see how you can go forward.
As you have debts too (read your other post) then I suspect you have already started looking at your SOA and budgetting. I think you need to sit down with a piece of paper/SOA and write down what you think you spend, then go through the receipts and see what you really spend.
I presume your £1000 in Tesco includes clothes, toys, CD's, treats etc ?
I would be inclined, from now on, to set a budget, for food (I don't know a figure to start with but make it something you can afford without using the credit cards- say £200-250-300 ish maybe, aiming to reduce it over time), and separate ones for all the other necessities (bearing in mind the suggestions from the DFW board). You need to write down everything you spend too (down to the last penny).
More specifically for food I would try the following:
1. list what is already in the cupboards/freezer etc- get the kids to help, and see what meals you can come up with from those. This might help you.
2. Meal plan and STICK TO IT!- here is this weeks thread
3. Check out the Grocery Challenge thread- loads of help, and recipes too on here.
4. Don't be scared of whoopsies, or Lidl, Aldi etc.
5. Check out the discounts, and freebies threads.
In the long term getting on top of grocery spending will help in all areas- more money free for debts, or in the longer term once they are gone, for treats. Even if you get a higher income, once you are in control of how you spend you will not want to go back to effectively wasting money.
OK, hope this helps you some.
x

~Chameleon~

Do you have old receipts you can go through to identify where most of that £1000 is going each month(?) i.e. groceries/food, pet food, laundry, cleaning, clothes etc. It sounds an awful lot of money to be spending on 4 people (I guess the teenagers consume as much if not more than the adults ) so will certainly help if you can break it down and target the obvious overspends first. Keeping a spending diary will also help enormously.

Pitlanepiglet

Hello DPH :hello: Welcome to the OS board and well done on realising that things need to change.

Are you spending £1,000 per month? IMO the starting point will be to look at exactly WHAT you are buying so, if you have the receipts from the last few weeks then take a look at those or keep the receipts for the next few weeks and look at what you are buying.

It might be helpful if you could post a list of what you're buying and then the wonderful OS'ers will be able to help advise on where you might be able to save some pennies.

Good luck and have a dodgy looking hug :grouphug:

distressedpleasehelp

My gooness you guys, thanks so much!
It's so nice how much people are willing to help.
It's simple things but you do need them pointed out to you.
I'm going to try all you say.

distressedpleasehelp

Thanks I'm going to try keeping a list of just where the money goes.
I don't take the kids shopping with me so I don't have the temptation to over spend there.
I'll keep a list of what I buy and post it. So that will be my new spending, trying to be good, so I can get your ideas on that.
I havent kept old recipets as I chuck them straight away so as not to rmeind me what I spent!