February 2009 Grocery Challenge

ifonlyitwaseasier

Stardrops is in MrS for 73p for the large bottle.

well have blown it this month, am well over (see sig!) i haven't bought lots of useless food but next month i'm going to 'storecupboard' it and empty out one of the freezers hopefully, we have plenty in so i'll see how we do!

good luck all!

ioiwe

MrsBartolozzi

Hi MrsM, can you add me in for March please?

My budget will be £250 - for 3 adults and one preteen. This includes food, cleaning supplies and toiletries, oh and DS2's school lunches (but he will be having more packed lunches soon, I hope). I will also have an extra allowance of £30 I think for whoopsies and offers that will not be used in the current month.

Thanks,
MrsB.

PennyGrabber

May be really dumb! What are stardrops? Everyone seems to have been talking about them for the past 4 pages, and I feel I'm missing out!!
PG x

cw18

Stardrops are a multi-use cleaning solution -- there's a whole thread dedicated to this product here

ifonlyitwaseasier

stardrops are a fab cleaner, very bubbly, great for cleaning pretty much anything!

see link here

hth

ifonlyitwaseasier

SNAP CW!!!! oops caps!

Miss-spent_2

Stardrops were 40p in Asda last Friday

PennyGrabber

Nice! Thanks all for the info on stardrops. Read the first 5 or 6 pages on the thread.
Nicely timed too, as it's payday tomorrow, so I'm just in the process of finalising my tesco delivery. Will definitely be adding a bottle or 2 of stardrops, unless it's ridiculously more expensive than 40p!
And, I've noticed I'm not a newbie any more! Hooray for me!!
Only bought 2 things today. I didn't really want to spend any money this close to my month's end, but I NEEDED milk and nappies! However, very proud of myself, as i walked in (with my children!), walked to the milk, walked to the nappies, walked to the checkout. None of this mooching around which always ends up costing me heaps! Felt justifiably good about myself!
PG x

elizabunny

Baileys Babe and rosieben -this sounds like a good idea to me. I'll stick with the monthly budget to help keep me on track:D but I'll try to keep within my annual total. At least then if I do go over one month because I've been bulk buying I won't feel too guilty if the annual total doesn't get blown. I'll adjust sig. in a mo.

DH enjoyed his Lamb roast today, I've got enough left over to turn into some Pasties tomorrow, so that will be another dinner and I also made two huge Cheese, Mushroom and Tomato Pizzas, one for tomorrow and one for next weekend when DS2 and OH come for the weekend (I've popped that in the freezer). I think they're coming for 3 days so I need to plan ahead. I'm considering Brisket for next Sunday as I can put that in the slo-cooker and let it get on with it and I might make a big Lasagne for one of the other days.

I think I've just about planned this weeks meals and shouldn't need to buy anything more this month apart from sugar (but I might try and get by). This week should go something like this:-
Monday -HM Cheese, Mushroom and Tomato Pizza
Tuesday -HM Lamb & Rosemary Pasties with HM Wedges and Peas
Wednesday -Curried Pork with Vegetables and Brown Rice
Thursday -Toad in The Hole (Yum using HM sausages), Broc. & Mash
Friday - Tuna Fishcakes with Mustard & Dill and something else:D

I'll also cook up some HM soup to fill in the gaps. DH usually takes sandwiches for his lunch and HM flapjack or similar and fruit.

Don't forget the Pancakes on Tuesday:j
PS. I've still got 6 Packets of Tapioca left from a bulk purchase last year at 7p a packet:eek: . Any ideas anyone -we've had Tapioca Pudding enough now.

Apologies for my usual babble, have a good evening everyone!

crazyaboutsaving

cw18 wrote: »

It really depends on your lifestyle and how much time you have for bargain shopping - plus whether do you mean purely for food?

I'm budgetting £1.80 per person per day, and there's just me and DS (almost 18) here full time. So that works out at around £110 a calendar month.

But I'm also feeding my grand-daughters during term-time (to the tune of 1 main meal for the younger one, and 8 snack meals between them), for which my budget is roughly the equivalent of an extra adult for 2 days a week (taking me up to a calendar month average of just over £120),

This is just for food, but anything DS spends from his EMA at college (a couple of lunches a week) or on pop/sweets/biscuits isn't included -- so by rights that should push my budget up by maybe a tenner a term-time week.... so more like a calendar monthly average of £155

This doesn't include any cleaning/laundry/hygiene products -- it's just purely for food and drinks. And there's no alcohol in there as I don't buy any (and very rarely drink any either). Neither do we 'eat out' - in fact the couple of college lunches are the only things not produced in my kitchen and eaten in the house (I'm not currently working).

But I have heaps of time to wander down to the local shops to check for Whoopsies - and that really can make a difference. Last month I spent a total of £169.30 (which included quite a lot of stocking up due to an unexpected trip to Costc0), but of that money £24.35 was spent on Whoopsies with a shelf value of £70.83.

So if you ignore the fact that I would never have paid full price for some of these things (some were treats, and others I'd have bought cheaper alternatives), then my grocery 'bill' for last month should have been £215.78 (plus extras DS bought himself).

If I'd included my cleaning/laundry/hygiene products, then last month would have increased by a further £15.75 - but again this included a stock-take purchase (enough bin liners for at least this year, and probably well into/all of next as well, plus several months of toilet rolls)

My spend this month is looking a lot lower, but this is due to having bought very little meat or in the way of store cupboard ingredients - purely down to having made a decision to have a 'use up' month. And it looks this this should continue into next month as well, but at some point in March/April there will be another steep hike as I refill the freezers - so it will (I hope) all balance out in the end

Hello cw18,
Thanks for the very helpful reply (and to all of you who added comments as well) Your advice is great. I do often include cleaning supplies etc. in with the food, and looking at the grocery breakdown this does add a fair bit to the overall bill. There are a few things I won't stint on, like washing up liquid (ecover) and laundry powder (tescos natural) due to my OH having super duper sensitive skin, so these would increase the bill. I do also buy in bulk when items are on sale. The occasional purchase of beer/wine would also add to the overall bill. I feel better because I realise that overall we're probably doing fairly well. There are areas that I could cut down and I think for March I will ask myself if we REALLY need something before throwing it in the trolley.

Edit: Ah yes, one more thing.....we don't have a freezer....and I think this REALLY affects our budget