January 2006 Grocery Challenge

SueRob_2

He does contribute towards the housekeeping, £60 per week, but I don't think I'm going to make much profit out of him!
He's a scaffolder so does very physical work, also he was bought up to eat huge portions & was told 'you need sugar for energy' hence the fizzy drinks.
His mother & brother are both very overweight & I am trying to persuade him to at least limit the amount of junk he eats. But it is difficult to go against 20 years of overfeeding, so I don't feel I can insist he goes 'cold turkey' & give up all the cake, crisps, biscuits & puddings he is used to.
One of the hardest things is all the extra work involved in all the baking needed to keep him filled up, I work long hours, whereas his mother doesn't work, so has more time.

calleyw

SueRob wrote:

He does contribute towards the housekeeping, £60 per week, but I don't think I'm going to make much profit out of him!
He's a scaffolder so does very physical work, also he was bought up to eat huge portions & was told 'you need sugar for energy' hence the fizzy drinks.
His mother & brother are both very overweight & I am trying to persuade him to at least limit the amount of junk he eats. But it is difficult to go against 20 years of overfeeding, so I don't feel I can insist he goes 'cold turkey' & give up all the cake, crisps, biscuits & puddings he is used to.
One of the hardest things is all the extra work involved in all the baking needed to keep him filled up, I work long hours, whereas his mother doesn't work, so has more time.

No I don't think you are going to make any profit out of him if that is what he just eats for one meal. Why not get him replace the fizzy with squash. And the sugar for energy is true. But the amount he eats he should get more than enough energy from that. He should not need a quick boost like that. He needs a steady stream of energy. So needs things like wholemeal bread/pasta/rice etc.

I can see you will have your work cut out with him. And it is going to be really hard.

This is a very rude question you say his mother and brother are over weight but what about him. Is he overweight. As i would say if all his meal are that sort of size even doing physical work like that he might well put some weight on.

In the artic to maintain body weight they need a min of 5000 calories a day. And average man needs 2000-2500 a day to maintain. Obviously he is going to need a little bit more than that. Say between 3500 and 5000 calories a day.

I don't envy you the task. And wish you all the best. And cold turkey is maybe not the way to with his junk food.

Yours

Calley

SueRob_2

I am going to try & convert him to squash & though he is not overweight at the moment he was as a child. Unfortunately he refuses to eat wholemeal anything, the nearest I can get him to eat is the 'Best of Both' bread, he has been raised on white bread/flour/rice etc!

omega_2

I'm not doing at all well at this challenge this month :rolleyes: And this is in spite of managing to shop 5 days later than planned :eek: Already spent £156 of the £185, so that's £29 to last the rest of the month.

thriftlady_2

Well, so far I've spent £195.28 this month.My target is £200.I know it looks bad,but £63.53 of that was on a freezer order from the butcher which consisted of 4 chickens + 15 lbs of other meat.This will probably last for months as we tend to only eat meat at the weekends.

I will make a note of how long it lasts then work out what it cost per month.
I seem to be spending between £30 and £40 a week on other stuff so I reckon I'm under budget

rchddap1

Spent £35 on saturday at Tesco. Also gained 289 clubcard points to put towards my 'summer events timetable'. Slightly higher cost that I expected, but we did splurge a little and bought some fresh cod.

Very strong change that I'll come in under my £100 a month target...especially as I really have only 1 shopping trip left this month. There should be enough in the cupboards to last us for 2 weeks now very easily.

With any luck I will be able to do another Tesco online shop early next month and will try to use a points code to boost my clubcard points even further. I WILL get Tesco to pay for 2 outings for us and the girls in summer. I already have enough for a theme park trip which will save us £100...working on a safari park at the moment.

EMPTY_PURSE_5

Hi,
Think I will try this starting at end of January (next pay day).

Spending approx 450.00 per month and only 3 of us and a dog in the house !!!

Scared myself when added it all up. Impulse shopper - then half gets thrown away as past sell by date - vow to be more organised.

OH works shifts so doesnt eat all main meals in house and DD always out and about.

Do you think I could save more if I did grocery shopping online, then wouldnt be tempted to buy EVERYTHING that I see ??

Has this worked for anyone ??

Thoughts appreciated.

Millie xxxx

rchddap1

I always make a list of what I need, and I will also usually add a few notes of what I don't need....just in case I see an offer I'm tempted by. The first step is usually to make a meal plan. Mine is in my head. We have a list of meals that we have and I will always have the stuff in the house to be able to make those meals. WHen I go shopping I usually shop to the list of items that I need for those meals.

If you are throwing things out then you may also need to go through your cupboards to find out what you already have....including the dark recesses of the forgotten cupboards and draws.

When I freeze anything I split it into 'portion sizes' so its easier later on and I don't have a single fillet of chicken floating around. I've also developed this tendency to try to freeze anything and everything, which has developed since being on the boards.

SueRob_2

I spent £98 at Asda, but have bought enough for at least 2 weeks, and am still working out new budget now there are 3 of us instead of 2.

jcr16

i defo say shopping online is better. i do enjoy wondering around a supermarket. but when i need to stick to my budget then shopping online is the only way i can do this. otherwise i buy everything i like the look of whether i need it or not. and since november i have stuck to my £200 for the family. which is for 2 adults , 2 kids ( both in nappies one on fornula milk and 2 cats. plus this is also for tolietres and cleaning. this month is very low. which i pleased about as wanted to
USE up what was in cupboards so none went to waste.