February 2006 Grocery Challenge

skylight

Well, its a short month this month, so I am sticking to £200 (2 adults, 4 kids and perhaps a dog - trying to sell her).

Managed £191 in January and am SO pleased!! Was hitting £350-300 back in Oct/Nov and was pleased with that then!

Janeryan

Count me in again with £250.00 to last 5 Fridays-today until the 24th Feb so £50.00 per shop(thats for 2 adults & bottomless pit of a 15yr old son and ancient cat who is very picky about his food!)

Overspent last month but not suprised as had to try and make it last nearly 6 weeks due to getting paid early for Christmas(and also buying lots of noshy things for Christmas!)

Good luck to everyone-will try and check in again next Friday

Janex

fbrander

I am new to all this and struggling a bit. have allowed £320 for this month and have already spent £82 yesterday. I would love to get it down to even £250. Any ideas?

funky-footprints

i started this week on my feb challenge, am hoping to manage on £350 tops for this month, am used to having £150 a week shopping bills (in a previous life i bought my grocery from marks and spencer) and have reduced that since september to £100 or less, I know some of you will think alarming, but Im shocked that some of you manage with £200 a month ! so I did a huge huge huge shop today ( and dont plan to do another now apart from fresh fruit & veg from the veggie shop once a week) Am very lucky I get most of our red meat from my parents, as dad is a farmer.

Am also learning how much better it is to make things from scratch and how much cheaper it is !! so here i start .........2 adults, 2 children & 1 dog ..... Feb challenge so far £102.57 !!! (It was an everything shop our cupboards were empty)

gilly41

Hi
I havent done the challenge before but would love to join in. Pay day is the 25th of each month and so I started on Wednesday- spent £134 at Tesco and hoping that will last the month for the bulk of the shopping. I will go each week to Netto and Farmfoods to get the basics. I have set myself a budget of £200 for 2 Adults and a dog!
All my cupboards were empty so the above was for everything.
The challenge includes toiletries, all cleaning products and dog food- basically everything!!
Here goes!!!

jaybee

charlotte664 wrote:

perhaps a dog - trying to sell her

Ohhhhh! Poor doggie!!!! (I'm sooo soft with animals)

skystar

Just reading through the posts so far and a few peeps have asked for tips etc. So hope no one minds me writing this. Just a few ideas I use and hope to help someone.

Checking back over the last few months I reckon I average about £120 per month for all food, toiletries and cleaning products. This also takes into account packed lunches. This is for 2 adults and a nine year old (with a big appetite). I reckon I could cut it further but I do have quite a fussy hubby and more often than not two meals are made per night coz he doesn't like pasta, rice, cous cous etc and lives on chips which I am not fond of and don't particulary want to eat every night. (For example when I lived alone I would normally live on £10 per week).

I only go shopping once a week and make sure I get everything I need in that one shop. On a Thursday I sit down and work out all meals for the following week then write a shopping list with all food needed for the meals. I usually also keep receipts for a couple of weeks just to see what "regulars" I get that I may have forgotten from list.
By doing this and making sure I only buy what I need I can honestly say there is no waste and nothing gets thrown out. Just remembered something else, when doing the list I make a note next to each item how much it costs so I have a "rough" idea of the total then I can decide if the list may need readjusting so as not to overspend.

I am an old fashioned "meat with every meal" kinda girl and most of my meals are based round that. Usually rotate every Sunday with either chicken or beef roast dinners and then use leftovers on the Monday but with pasta and veg or rice.

Other meals have either chicken breasts, stewing steak, mince or sausages with either pasta, potatoes, rice or cous cous and with veg.

I also keep a spreadsheet so I can keep track of my spending throughout the month and make sure I update this when I get home from shops so I know whats left for the rest of the month.

Hope this helps someone.

skylight

skystar wrote:

I also keep a spreadsheet so I can keep track of my spending throughout the month and make sure I update this when I get home from shops so I know whats left for the rest of the month.

I do this too! Best way to keep track of all spends and virtual PIN money too!

I also have mine to include clubcard points/deals values and %'s - so I can see what % of my spend I am getting back in deals tokens! (Which is slightly sad........)

As for the dog - she has to go. Only 15mths puppy, but we no longer have the time for her and its not fair on her. She deserves better than my family.

Charlotte
xx

Chipps

Hello, I'm going to join in this month. Target is £200 (from 20/1 - 19/2) for food, cleaning stuff etc. So far just over £71 spent.
Last month went waaaaaay over budget, & DH didn't earn much bonus either, so would like to keep to budget or even ... below it!

suzy_g

im quite new to this ,but the last couple of weeks i have managed to keep my weekly food spend to just under 50pound,s for me my husband and son, i want to keep my monthly food bill to 200,i use to spend about 75-80pounds a week before i started planing my meals and using the slow cooker,we are eating so much better, before i suppose i would just buy things for the freezer (no brainers)and take aways but with a little plaining im beginning to enjoy cooking again, thanks to this site :j