February 2009 Grocery Challenge

TurnaroundSue

TurnaroundSue wrote: »

Have finished this month's shopping challenge and although came in over budget by £72.25 this is still way better than my usual spend. Normal around £500 mark so at £322.75 am quite pleased with that.

Next month though I am going to try and use Mr T as little as possible. I have found a local butcher who delivers for free so long as order is over £30. Have also found a local greengrocer who delivers for free, min order £15, so me and friend are going halfs; will buy all my frozen stuff from Farmfoods, so hoping that next month will be closer to budget.

ps forgot to say that bought cat food in Pets World and saved myself nearly £3 on what it would have cost at Tesco

Sorry didn't realise that I had to put my totals in big red letters so Mrs M can see them easier:o

My total for February was £322.75 an overspend of £72.75 and so will stick to the same budget of £250 for March please:D

Many thanks Mrs M for running this wonderful thread:T

GreenandThrifty

Just trying to work out what I need to buy this week, then I can begin the March challenge. £18.20 left and I only need potatoes (gonna try and buy a sack locally, no idea how much they are these days though??????) and some top up supplies (sultanas, fruit, veg)
What does everyone do if they come in under budget - do you just buy more groceries, stockpile, save it or something different?? I think I might pop mine in a pot to save up for meals out with friends etc in the future.

Toonie

I sent my BF out yesterday asking him to get eggs, milk and a loaf of bread. He came back with those, plus a pack of jam tarts. We're both unwell at the moment, which means we're relying on the local shop (very expensive) so I think we'll be over budget by around £10.

The bananas in my Sainsbury delivery were all bruised and battered, so decided to rescue what I could (whilst also complaining) and had just enough to make some banana teabread. Will make a nice lunch with a fruit salad for afters.

Cottage pie for dinner and the leftovers will also do us for lunch tomorrow before going over to see my parents-they're cooking roast lamb tomorrow.

kezlou

Well was very naughty last night.:o Instead of saving money like i should, i went off to the corner shop and ended up spending £9.45 on wine, crisps and milk. I mean why oh why do i do these things. Ah well, think i might just buy some wine from the supermarket and keep it in the house as our local is soooo expensive.

:grouphug:to everyone who's having a bad time of it. Congrats to smiler for her great news.

Big bags of spuds are about £8.

Just updating signature.

Changingme

Have spent £242 this month £2 over thats with milk money in week so am pleased . Could you please put me down for £240 for March. Ideally would like to get down to £200 so I can put some buy for christmas and birthdays.:j

Atalanta

I think I'm going to do ok this month though still got a few days left...Managed to get some bargain bananas at Somerfield the other day - packs of organic bananas were reduced to 35p but were not even ripe yet. I put 3 packs in my basket - when I got to the till the assistant told me that officially she shouldn't let me buy them as the display until date was the day before!! She was supposed to throw them in the bin! Luckily she agreed with me that this was ridiculous and let me buy them, though afterwards I thought I should have asked if I could have them for free since they were going to be thrown in the bin otherwise!

Coolmum66

Hi

Thanks Orkney Star for replying to the quetion from Reb about shopping on different days.

I use my tax credits (paid weekly) for my shopping money - so as long as I buy my usual shop (or just what I NEED) - by going a day later each week - you then end up with a weeks money "spare". When I manage this - it gets paid straight off the credit card!

I guess depending on how you budget / shop this may not make any sense or work for you - just another little idea to try??

Anyway - off to MrT tomorrow - so will pop totals up and see how we go.

Take care

Coolmum. x

mummyyof5

Just on to add another £11.00 on to my GC,did take advantage of £1.50 cereal at MRTs only 2 boxes as I couldnt carry any more:mad:

Also got 5 half-price easter eggs a real bargain.

Can anyone tell me if its ok to freeze Parmasan cheese ?

My OH has bought a huge piece while he has been in Italy(yum yum) but we dont use it all the time,dont want it going off before we use it.

Total spend now £289.37 but must go to MRMs tomorrow My stock cupboard is empty:eek::eek:

S_Wales_Saver

Hi

I do hope everyone is well. It seems that more people are over this month than under. My feeling is that this is more to do with rising costs than people overspending. Even when I go to buy the odd top up it seems to cost £20 :eek: .

With a small shop at Mr S and our night out at Strada, I now have £11.03 to last until the end of Feb. This is doable, tho we will need milk, bread and poss pots. I tried the new 1% milk from MrS. TBH I'm not keen as I am too used to skimmed (0.1%/0.2%) However, at the moment it's 53p cheaper for 2 litres. With the amount of milk we use that is a saving (esp at this time of the month LOL)

At Easter, OH, DGS and yours truly are going (back:j ) to Disneyland Paris for 5 days. We have paid for half board, so will need to buy v little food and TBH I am happy to consider that a 'holiday' cost, but do I cut my budget by 5 days worth, or use the money for more stockpiling? What do others think?

Toonie

I've been discussing the grocery budget with my BF and what we've realised is that we stocked up on a lot this month, which will last us into March and possibly further (tinned goods, flour, frozen veggies). This stocking up has seen us go (nearly) overbudget, so what we've said agreed is that our February budget is going to be £200 rather than £170 and our March budget will be £30 less. MrsM I would be obliged if you could change my total on the big list.