February 2009 Grocery Challenge

OrkneyStar

Just spent £5.55 in the local Coop, strawberry jam- 99p, local milk- £1.29, 3 for 2 Heinz beans- £1.38 (three cans of Coop ones would have been 3p more!), Hovis BOB- £1.42 (:eek:) and TV paper- 47p. Still got some money left if we need any small things but won't be doing any more proper shops until Mon or Tue next week. Have updated my excel spreadsheet and things are looking fine so far .
[STRIKE]STILL[/STRIKE] No longer waiting for my Tesco vouchers to come , (mine are always later than everyone else's it seems), still thats £7 off next weeks shop. Aiming not to spend £7 more though, simply to spend as normal and pay £7 less!
Welcome back annelouise .
Hope all of you are well.

nmlc

Morning all

Have just read the last few posts, I'm over too..... but I knew that my budget would be tight, so I've just added up the grocery spend from 20 Nov 08 to 5 Jan 09 .... I spent a massive £736.99 PLUS I've just found a credit card statement which shows a £102'ish Mr A spend in early Dec - I remember this as I had £50 of Christmas saving money on a card so actually spent £152 at that one visit all this added up is in the region of £866 - I know it was Christmas and we did re-stock the drinks cabinet but we're not big big drinkers ... honestly! Several of the bottles of spirits I bought are still in the cabinet - I tend to re-stock at Christmas and then don't buy anymore spirits until the following year - I just then buy beer and wine as needed. I hope this make everyone not feel quite so bad about their overspends - until doing GC I wouldn't have had any idea or been bothered to check back what I had spent. Just being more aware and making sure you're getting the best quality and value is saving us all so much money. At first guess I think I'm going to be about £30 over budget - which as it's my first attempt I'm pretty pleased with - once I have proper figures next week I'll declare.

Hope everyone is well and hugs to those that need them, keep safe.

egon

Hello,

Just done our last shop for this month. DH is away next week, so we don't need much. I know I am just over budget, but I am happy with it. There are some things, which were stock up for the next few month.

I've just done my Tesco online order for march. I get really fed up with them lately though. Half of the stuff I wanted, I cannot order online. Even though I know, I can get it in store (and yes, it is the same store who deliveres to us!)

elizabunny

Afternoon everyone on this lovely sunny day (well it is here anyway)
NSD yesterday. So still hanging on by the skin of my teeth to the last bit of my grocery budget. We're having HM Oxtail Soup tonight and HM Quiche with whatever veggies I can rustle up. I feel a batch of 'Twinks' Hobnobs beckoning -think I just about have enough in the stock cupboard for those.

Have a good day!

Lucylocket01

Well I'm done now for February. 4 weeks.

I set my target budget at £155. I have gone a bit over.

Spend for 4 weeks is £171.35

We are a family of 2 adults and 1 child and 1 dog. £42ish a week. I quite pleased with that.

I have been trying lots of Smart Price stuff, only thing upto now that I would say a complete carp is toilet rolls. All the other things are quite okay really.

cw18

Lucylocket01 wrote: »

I have been trying lots of Smart Price stuff, only thing upto now that I would say a complete carp is toilet rolls.

Totally agree on the toilet rolls - we ended up using at least twice as much, so no saving.

The other bits we avoid are tomato ketchup (too runny), brown sauce (one of the very few things I won't budge off the 'big name' for), tea bags (too weak) and coffee and crisps (no-one likes them), plus no-one is impressed by the soups - but we use the next level up own brand for these quite happily.

I also don't use the cleaning creams/liquids/powders (other than thin bleach), but that's mostly because I try and stick to 'green' versions of these items.

jintyb

Final tally for Feb : £155.50 budget was £150 so £5.55 over:eek: . Im setting my March budget at £160 as I feel I was being a bit ambitious last month!
Just did my first shop for March as pay day today! Mr A had loads of whoops today so filled my freezer with 3 packs of skinless, bonelss chick thighs, 500g packs for £1.30, 2 packs of stewing steak 350g packs for £1.26 ea, 2 steak and tattie pies( serve 4) 70p ea, a chilli pasta bake for £2( for the nights Im working) Also got 4 packs of yummy cranberry cookies for 30 p ea and a big , slightly bashed, box of quality street for £1.63( this is for movie night on Sat!)
Im thrilled!!!!!

meanmarie

Spent €88.05 in Lidl this morning....including €5.98 on fruit bushes and €1.69 on rose bush....must sow the ones I already have too! Brings my spend so far in February to €215.05, think I should be ok to 28th.

Marie

mummyyof5

Spent another £13.00 in MRTs today..6pt milk,veg oil,stuff for home made pizzas,whoopsied peppers(still £1.05 though) they never have much money off on whoopsies:mad:.chicken breasts £4.00 but will only need half so will freeze the rest and veg for stir-fry.

Total now£278.73.

Not much longer to go but need veg and meat for the weekend and the kids have totally emptied my stock cupboards of tins etc being off school so really need a trip to MRMs on Monday.

Think it will be very close to £500.00 for the month and this was a short month:eek::eek:

Julimk

Did the first shop for March this morning. Came in at a total of £51.23, which is about £30 less than last month, so pleased with that. This was the ‘big’ shop for the non-perishables for the month, plus stocking up the basic stuff & fresh f&v ready for my batch cooking at the weekend.

The most expensive thing on my list was the whole happy chicken for a roast when DD comes home from her Dad’s.

I wasn’t expecting there to be many whoopsies, as it was early morning, and indeed there were very few items in the RTC cabinet, and mostly only a few pence off. But in the chicken cabinet I found a chicken that was £8.62 YS to £5.65. I had a MOC for 35p off meat, but it wouldn’t scan at the check-out, so the nice lady took it anyway & deducted £1.50! So my chicken ended up less than half price at £4.15. :T