February 2009 Grocery Challenge

queen_of_string

Please let us know how you get on with that pie scotssaver as I have it on my meal plan for next week, apparently its their most requested recipe ever.

tried their chicken pot pie yeterday and it was yum, there are some nacho pinwheels on the american site too, am dying to try them ( any excuse to use my new convetion oven )

edit, the one i found is on the betty crocker site but yours looks similar.

ifonlyitwaseasier

Welcome back Annelouise, hope you're enjoying it out there!!

Flat_Eric

Morning :wave:

I have finally sat down and crunched the numbers (well for the receipts I can find anyway!)

Its clear Im doing something wrong! Either Im setting my budget too low or my budget is fine and Im just overspending. As it is just me, my partner and a cat, I somehow think Im overspending. Budget for February was £159.56. My current actual spend for February so far (bearing in mind we have just over a week left to go!) is £285.09 so an overspend at the moment of £125.53.

I know Im doing better! Go back a few months to my November budget of £201 when I actually spent £629.86 :eek:(overspend £428.86:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:) and my october budget of £350 when I actually spent £509.22 (overspend £159.22) so things are improving.

Must do better though:rotfl: so a spot of housekeeping beckons today to update food lists etc and decide on the budget for March and whether that budget is to include those coffee shop visits, drinks at the pub quiz etc.
Have a good day everyone

WelshWoofer

Morning all!
Just a quick update on spends, oh, and welcome back annelouise!

The lovely Mr S delivery lady came last night an hour early (good so I could watch some telly afterwards) and managed to bring everything I'd ordered.

I used a voucher I found in the pile of mail in the kitchen for £10 off and the total came to £33 to pay inc delivery.
Got plenty of meat, fish, tins and dried stuff so will only need to get a bit of fruit on the weekend and some milk.

We have visitors this weekend (Friday evening to Sunday morning) but OH is going to pop out for a few bits for them (2 year old coming too:eek: ) and as they're his old friends he's paying for it.

I'm over budget but will be OK for the beginning of March now with the stock up so I'm not too worried about it.

Half day at work today so I can go home and give the house a good clean before they arrive tomorrow - a woman's work is never done! Never mind have a hair appointment at 5.30 so will get a bit of pampering and "me time" before the onslaught!

Off to do a bit of work before I go home!

mrs-moneypenny

yesterday turned into an NSD as i was too engrossed in my knitting to bother about baking in the end and i found a maltloaf anyway so didnt need to worry too much.:T

Im trying to keep things as tight as i can at the mo as im really not sure about the stability of DH job and our mortgage finishes in the next couple of months and i just know we are looking at a shortfall so any spare we have is getting tucked away for that. While it will be fantastic to be mortgage free it is soured by the fact that all our savings will disappear in the process as we were given the wrong advice

angelatgraceland

Flat_Eric wrote: »

Morning :wave:

I have finally sat down and crunched the numbers (well for the receipts I can find anyway!)

Its clear Im doing something wrong! Either Im setting my budget too low or my budget is fine and Im just overspending. As it is just me, my partner and a cat, I somehow think Im overspending. Budget for February was £159.56. My current actual spend for February so far (bearing in mind we have just over a week left to go!) is £285.09 so an overspend at the moment of £125.53.

I know Im doing better! Go back a few months to my November budget of £201 when I actually spent £629.86 :eek:(overspend £428.86:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:) and my october budget of £350 when I actually spent £509.22 (overspend £159.22) so things are improving.

Must do better though:rotfl: so a spot of housekeeping beckons today to update food lists etc and decide on the budget for March and whether that budget is to include those coffee shop visits, drinks at the pub quiz etc.
Have a good day everyone

Well the simplest way to keep on track it to keep a purse with just your weeks grocery money in it. And-when its gone-its gone! When you see it dwindling down in real money you will no doubt put the brakes on. That is what Im doing this year and believe me-it works.
I think the fact that you are having to "find" receipts is telling a story in iteself. That may sound critical but its aim is to be helpful. I keep all my receipts but whether or not I mislay them-my purse will tell the truth!

laineyc_2

Well, 1 day left for me. Once my big Asda shop comes tomorrow I will be declaring. I need to buy some chicken breasts today. I think I am going to be about £30/£40 over. Not as a bad as I thought.

I think I am going to keep my grocery money in a separate purse and see if that helps.

IsoChick

We will, I'm sure, be over our budget for this week's spend.

Well, technically, we're not over our weekly budget, but over our monthly budget - if that makes sense? I had a mad weekend 2 weeks ago, where we had visitors and ended up buying in extra... darn visitors!

But, I'll only be £10 overspent I think, so not too bad. This has been my first grocery challenge, and my first attempt at weekly meal planning, and I think I've been quite successful!

newlywed

I'm over too. Always struggle to find the receipts as I forget to update it daily - only ever remember the first week

Overspent by £60 and still need more milk, bread, nana's to last another week Still only have £10 to my name (and £7 tesco vouchers) so can't spend any more after that.

But ... at least this time I have added it all up and know where I stand.

Next month I'm absolutely determined we will spend less than this month :rolleyes:

Might try the cash in separate purse trick - but last time I tried this OH needed to borrow some change :rolleyes: I also got worried that at the check out I wouldn't have enough so always had my card too

On the other hand, I might try online... no surprise checkouts then

searching_me

*slinks on* ive come to admit my shame...
ive blown my budget sky high and i dont know how high... anytips how a pregnant lady can stop herself from buying what i see its really hard and i always just buy what i see coz i want it (or bubs) how do you stop buying on cravings its costing me a bomb... OH doesnt get involved as last time he said "do you really need that?" i nearly took his head off in the middle of holland and barret :rotfl: x