January 2009 Grocery Challenge

NewlyFrugalMumof3

Hi there everyone

I set myself GC Jan of £220 and only have £7 left for next 2 weeks. I can manage to scrape together another £10 so totalling £17.

My freeezer is almost empty but I have enough food for breakfasts and dinners. Its lunches and essentials that we need.
For me, OH, and 3 DSs we get through at least 16 pints milk/week so that's big chunk of budget. Will bake bread, and buns, & puddings etc, but will also need essentials like tea, loo rolls and packed lunch fillers & fruit juice.

Nov GC went over budget just by few quid , but went over way too much in Dec :mad: so am desperate to actually hit budget this month. Usually shop at either Mr S or Mr T, whichever has the best offers via mysupermarket.com.

DS3 (21 months) uses cloth nappies so no cost there but he's a really picky eater - just a bit of a fruit and cereal monster.

I can cook well (OH can't) so would be really grateful for other GC experts to give me some tips.

Great thread, get very inspired reading through it. Well done everyone.

MoneyMission

Just updating signature and I'm quite chuffed with myself. I've got all the shopping done to take me up to next Wednesday and I've got £57.25 for the remaining four days of January. My first grocery challenge has taken some time but its been well worth it. Thanks for all the tips and inspiration.

mummy2mygirls

Hello everyone well my approved order is on its way and they have done the refunds so i need to update the sig... will be going a little over what should be the mths amount but as im on the yearly and i have lots of dog food and nappies etc this will level out (as why i wanted to be on the yr one...)
Now i just want my order to turn up so i can look at all my lovely goodies and bargains....... should have enouth yougart bars for dds lunch and also cakes to keep my chocolate fix going lol....
of to update sig

Steel_2

NewlyFrugalMumof3 wrote: »

For me, OH, and 3 DSs we get through at least 16 pints milk/week so that's big chunk of budget.

I always add 1.5pts of water to six pints of fresh milk to make it go a bit further. That's the ratio hubby and I have got used to now.

I've also been experimenting this month with using Mr T's dried milk and it's not bad. £1.09 makes up 5 pints and I mix it half and half with normal semi-skimmed. This month I might try increasing the ratio of dried to fresh or even just use dried on it's own.

NewlyFrugalMumof3

Thanks Steel. I will try the milk trick again. Last time I tried I diluted bit too much and all boys were moaning so wouldn't drink any of it!! I am not adverse to buying cheap loo roll and cheaper teabags so maybe that'll save some cash.
What do your family say about powdered milk?

Kiwisaver_2

Kiwisaver wrote: »

So technically one more shop for me on Thursday night, $31 to spend, list is written - will she make it?

I am gonna damn well try!

Need: 4 red peppers, bread for dinner, bread for toast, rolls for Saturday lunch, pitta bread, spring onions, filling for rolls, onions, cornflakes, eggs, milk, bottle of coke and some fruit for lunch. Phew!! Seems almost do-able.

The suspense was killing me, so I did a dummy on-line shop at Foodtown for the above items and without getting anything to fill rolls (I do have a huge tin of tuna in the cupboard and big hunk of cheese that could stretch if grated) and it came to a little over $47 :eek:

So the challenge is on: to shop around and see if I can get any of the items for less. I don't often shop where I did the online test, because it is more expensive than my usual Pak n Save (no frills or online shopping).

katholicos

I've just been working out how many no spend days i have had so far and i am gobsmacked to have found i have had 13 No Spend Day's. Before i started this challenge i don't think I ever had a no spend day in my life, so thank you very much to everyone in this forum for all your great threads and challenges, encouragement and ideas!

I am so pleased to be taking control of my incomes and outgoings, saving money gives me almost as much pleasure as spending money used to....and how i loved to spend! I'm sure in time it will give me an even bigger thrill to save than to spend though

perrywinkle

perrywinkle

patentgirl

well done everyone seems to be doing well this month including for once me managed to just come in on my £200 total, my new month starts on fri 23 until 24th Feb, for any one still struggling it did take me a couple of months to get into it and at one time easily spent well over £600pm slightly easier this month had full cupboards from xmas but bring on feb challenge!
the bees lol sounds like something out of my house!!

donnajt

January Challenge: £265

Week 1: 6th Jan £24.56
Week 2: 15th Jan £58.27 = £82.82
Week 3: 23rd Jan £