March 2009 Grocery Challenge

annie123

Evening all
Well having lost the plot previously with shopping, did much better today, I left 10 days between shopping to help spread it out this month) but am already a little bit over budget and will need another £10 for milk and veg before the end of the month.:rolleyes:

Whilst I did spent another £80 this week I did get 3kg of free range whoopsie turkey breast, 8 drumsticks, 1.5kg of extra lean mince and 2 roast turkey joints so wont need any meat for weeks:j (not enough room in my freezer so put some into my sons one ) and had to buy hubby's expensive razor blades:rolleyes: no chance of downshifting there! so not needed for a couple of months

I'm coming round to thinking that it might be easier to do a yearly amount as I should spend less in the summer and autumn because of home grown fruit and veg, still thinking on that one.

1 more week to go........this year is going sooooo quickly, cant believe already a 1/4 of the way through it!

xx

Miss_Liquorice

TheBees - congratulations on all your good news! Must be such a relief for your husband re: the new job.

Just a quick update from me, a NSD for today, yesterday I spent £3.25 in M&S (Milk, an onion, spinach, and two bags of nacho chips on bogof) an £1.50 on Mini Eggs cakes in Morrisons. I swear I bought 6 but the pack must have only had two or three in cause they're all gone now... *angelface*

£33-ish left till the end of the month. Should comfortably manage thanks to a trip home starting on Saturday and helping at brownie pack hoiday the next weekend, only need to feed myself on Tuesday next week, then the 30th/31st.

Hopefully Saturday won't be a NSD for me... looking at buying a car! Fingers crossed.

SAVVYMUMMY_2

Haven`t been on here lately and my budgets is soooo close to the mark. Not sure where the money`s gone to , but hayho, better luck next month.

I`m thinking of increasing my budget next month, as i`m sure that the price increases sure don`t help and anything leftover at the end of the month will go into my christmas pot. This is sealed until christmas time, then hopefully:rolleyes: christmas won`t be soooo expensive.

Boodle

We did our shop early again this week but this will last us through until the end of our March challenge, and it's a good job

At least I came under last month's total - just! Still round about 15 quid over tho. This time, I know exactly what happened. We both had a tiring day yesterday and I just didn't fancy the planned dinner, but instead of just rejigging we decided "what the hell" and and we would treat ourselves. We got a deep pan pepperoni pizza and stonebaked garlic bread for £1 each, then a chunk of Port Salut (1.96) and of Manchego (£1) as well as Pringles for DH (71p). So without those we would have still been overbudget but not quite so much! What a disappointment the pizzas were too so I won't be doing that again in a hurry (tho, I don't doubt I will still make the same mistake at some point in the future :rolleyes: )

I also needed to stock up on infant paracetamol as DD has a tooth coming through and I had ran out of Rennies as my heartburn is almost constant at the mo, but I decided not to include those. We already buy the toiletries and household cleaners on this budget and seemed a bit unfair to include the medicine as well.

I had decided I must up my budget for next month even before the overspend anyway, not least because of Easter and we are making it a 5 week month, but because of my growing appetite - I am having about twice the amount of pasta and rice I usually do (from 50-75g to 100-125g :eek: ) and two sandwiches/slices of bread when I would have usually had one. So bubs-to-be is already having an impact on this family's grocery budget and she ain't even here yet! I'll probably still keep the target fairly low tho to keep me focused

jintyb

TheBees wrote: »

Hi everyone - not been on here for ages as last week was extremely busy.

Congrats on DH job - that's great news! :beer: :beer:
My Dad had a knee replacement about two years ago and it made such a difference to him! Hope its the same for your Dad!

Have a good weekend

jintyb

I've noticed several posts about price increases, and I totally agree!
I think all the supermarkets are at it, esp on basic staples like tinned toms, kidney beans - storecupboard items. They seem to be rocketing up by 5 or 10 pence a time, not just the odd penny here and there. I buy bashed whoopsies if I can and until now there has not been anything wrong with them.

cw18

Re: price increases ......

Is everyone set for everything to creep up again from next month? Apparently there's an increase in fuel tax from 1st April which will push prices up by around 2p/litre, and I have no doubt that this will start to show up on food prices fairly quickly afterwards (Note: I don't blame the haulage companies for putting up their prices - I don't think we can expect them to 'swallow' increases like this)

I'm seriously considering pushing myself up to (or even over) budget this month, by stockpiling on 'high mileage items' like rice and pasta I'm lucky that I have a small "float" in the bank that will allow me to do this, and with interest rates as non-existant as they are I think I'd rather spend it now than effectively face price increases to fund the government coffers (especially as this is the 2nd increase since we were promised no rises for 12 months just 9 months ago :mad: )

Info I received about this increase is here if anyone's interested

CherryPie

This has been my best month by far, however I now have the huge sum of £1.44 to do for the next 7 days :eek: So yet again I'll be over budget. But I won't be to hard on myself as it will be the closest yet. I've never meal planned before but I think this is the month to start. I think a week at a time will do for starters, as I never really know what I'm working that far in advance. I'm not really sure where to start, but I'm sure there are links at the top, so I'll have a look at them. Any suggestions would be fab! :beer: Having to do Mother's Day tomorrow for my Mum cos I'm working on Sunday so I'm off to make her a weetabix cake, as she loved the first one I made:T Have a good day everyone & enjoy the sunshine (if you can see it)

sistercas

I have decided I am rubbish at this. I try really hard to stay in budget, I shop once a month in a discount food store where I can get meat, yoghurts ,biscuits and cheese and then in costco once a month for butter croissants washing powder etc and then I am supposed to do a small weekly shop in Mr T's to pick up the rest, but i end spending stupid amounts ( but dont think i am being frivolous) and I also do top ups at the local shop too! the last top up was £18!!!
we are a family of 2 adults 2 teenagers and a cat, I work part time and cook mainly from scratch, however I do succumb to the odd takeaway when I am knackered . I just cant seem to get in my target of £100 per week!
everybody else seems to do really well

mrspoor

sistercas wrote: »

I have decided I am rubbish at this

Don't stress, this is my first proper month of following the challenge, and I struggle with just me and OH to feed! I find it really encouraging to follow how everyone else is doing, and pick up hints and tips from the thread - it's good to know that other people face the same challenges. Stick with it, and don't be too hard on yourself.:D

We were invited to friends for dinner last night, so I thought great, free dinner! No, they'd decided to do an indoor bbq, and asked us to pick up some stuff on the way, so we spent way more than if it was just the 2 of us eating normal dinner :mad: It was nice to spend time with them, but it would have been better if we could have just brought stuff we already had - I'll suggest it next time.

Also just found out from work that the holiday I'm being paid for instead of taking (we're too busy at work for me to take it before our year end) means an extra payment of £420, but by the time I've deducted the extra tax, NI and student loan repayment, I only get £250!!!:mad:

I guess it's still 'extra' money, but it's already spent, as we've booked the cheapest week in Cyprus we could find for a friends wedding this year, so this money pays off a chunk of that.

Sorry for the long post, I'm stuck indoors waiting for a repair man at the mo, and the internet is all I have for company!:D