MoneyQueen’s MFW Journey and Daily Diary

setmefree2

MoneyQueen wrote: »

We have set a grocery budget of £1000 for 2009. I will be be providing an update on that every month.

Now that's a challenge :eek:

Floxxie

Wow MQ that's a budget! Think I spend that in a month :rotfl:

Have got your PM - thanks - have sent you a response.

Floxxie

StuartGMC

MoneyQueen wrote: »

We have set a grocery budget of £1000 for 2009. I will be be providing an update on that every month.

Do you mean the green grocery budget or everything?
Ours is averaging £81.02 per week on food and drink alone....

MoneyQueen

Hi All,

Stuart... it is for all the food.

Both of us don't drink anymore.We have enough toiletries and cleaning stuff to last a year
Also we both are veggie so no meat to buy...;)

I know the grocery budget seems unrealistic. I had initially suggested £1200, but DH thinks £1000 would be appropriate as we spend atleast 2-3 weeks in India every year and we sometimes bring stuff from there (spices etc...) if we have space in our bags...

Also this will give us a chance to concentrate on clearing all the stuff in the pantry.

We do have a contingency of £120 though (This was initially categorised as "Work Expenses"), but during January I found it easier to combine the two as work expenses really consisted of Milk, Tea, Coffee, Biccies, Cereal for work, which in any case I buy along with other food shopping
so £109.54 that I spent in January actually included "Work Expenses". and considering we also managed to include a laundry horse for £9.79 and a laptop mouse for DH for £3.29 in the total so effectively we have a contingency of £133.08.
Also wouldn't it take away all the fun if it is not difficult.:rotfl:

Well TBH, if we think we can't do it healthily, we won't do it... Health bigger priority than money ....

Right - so the plan of action is

1. Using as many vouchers as possible. I haven't used any till now.. but will be checking the SuperMarket forum this weekend to print them
2. Not more than One Takeaway/eating out every month - The idea is to go to a place where we can relax and have good food rather than a spending money in a very posh one
3. Search the pantry for all the stuff that has been lying there for ages - which includes 5 kilos of bread flour
4. Use my Slowcooker for Soups, Stews, casseroles etc - have used my SC only once in January so this area needs looked into
5. Eat healthy food - use less oil
6. Weekly Batch Cooking and Meal Planning - already do this.. Also this means we need to run the DW only 3 times a week instead of daily and the kitchen is always clean (so saving on cleaning stuff and energy)
7. Cook everything from scratch - already cook most of the things from scratch
8. Bulk buy if it is a good deal
9.Don't only eat fruit for 7 a day - 2 portions fruit or smoothie, 1 portion Fruit Juice, 1 Portion Lentils,3 Portion Veg This should also reduce our sugar intake per day
10. Buy Woopsies in Supermarket

I will be listing any savings that we did using vouchers here so as to keep a record of total Grocery Spent.

I know this is a MFW Board, but all these are small changes we are making along the way so I hope nobody minds if I include an update on my grocery spend also here.

Thanks for reading this and any feedback good/bad is always welcome
MQ

setmefree2

with all that

SmlSave

Your grocery challagne seems well thought out and I'm sure you'll achieve your goal.

5 kilos of bread flour

If you need any help eating all the bread you'll be baking - just give me a call

I like your idea about only eating out once a month and it being somewhere comfortable. I think I may suggest it to OH.

Don't only eat fruit for 7 a day - 2 portions fruit or smoothie, 1 portion Fruit Juice, 1 Portion Lentils,3 Portion Veg

Wow - I find it hard enough getting 5 a day.

Lable me very impressed

MoneyQueen

Hi All,

Floxxie, Thanks for the pm's.. :T

As promised, I have update post #36 with the monthly SOA for January and also the energy consumption figures for January

Elecricity 159 KWH -
Gas 1458 KWH
so we are averaging 5KHW of leccy and 50KWH of gas per day

We are going to monitor this every week now and see if we can bring it any down.Probably using more of SC and less of Hob will make a difference

Anyways, have 12 meals ready in the freezer for next week so hopefully won't need to buy lunch any day...

We went to HomeBargains today - never knew we had one in our city earlier and found it really cheap for stuff like biccies etc.
Spent £6.33 and have bought enough chewing gum for next 4-5 months, 9 bags of crisps, ear buds, shower sponge, 3 pack of biccies, 2 packs of rice cakes, 1 dipping sauce, 1 spray bottle, 1 pack of face tissues - so we have done well..:j

Don't need to buy anything else for snacking at work this month..

Also went to an Aldi for the first time and TBH I didn't really find it very cheap... so am sticking to Asda/ Tesco/ Farmfoods and then Homebargains once a month

DH wants tea now :rolleyes: so take care everyone and enjoy the weekend

setmefree2

Hi MQ,

Good luck with your energy use challenge.

I have an energy use thread going on the green board. We are all doing quite well. Many of the other MSEers have joined Imeasure but I just monitor our use through a spreadsheet.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=980757&page=51

Anyways, come and join us if you want - you're more than welcome;)

Regards

SMF2

MoneyQueen

Hi, I am not really spending any time on MSE as I have an exam on Monday.. But just wanted to mention that I have received first ever payment of £10.10 from a Bingo Site, which I have used to OP the mortgage.. Will provide full update for the last few days in detail later...

Take Care everyone

Floxxie

Hi MQ,

Was wondering where you had been. Good luck with the exam on Monday - is it in anything exciting?

Well done on your bingo win. After years of playing, I finally won £30 but have to email ID etc. across and just haven't found the time for that yet.

Looking forward to your update...

Floxxie