March Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

moozie pm sent re the details you wanted

So far so good re the grocery pot. Not spent any axtra at all

I had to dip into my £50 odds and sods pot yesterday as I needed to get a 5 week cut and blow dry. They put their prices up!! It was a lovely job but cost £30. Almost as much as two weeks worth of organic meat. I think I`ll keep track better now that I have this pot apart from the challenge pot

Jackiegibbo maybe try this type of pot for the spending urge. I call it my odds and sods pot but it could well be a pocket money or treat pot. It helps keep my sticky fingers off the grocery money

chivers1977

Hi everyone, i have now opened two new current accounts. One for £70 petrol per month and one for £150 food a month. I will probably have to increase the food one by £15-20 as my LO has decided at 8 months that he doesn't want to breastfeed any more so I will have to fork out for formula at £5.57 a tin. I figure he will have three quarters of a tin a week...... At least having the separate account means no dipping into other money!

couteaux

Hi All

I was going to have a Tesco delivery next Tues, but have decided I can manage without and just top up my current supplies with fresh stuff when needed. (still from Feb challenge) I have plenty of fish & meat and dried/tinned goods to use up.

So, that is 62 saved from my 150 budget. I was only buying some things to use Tesco coupons, so not really money saving!

Hope everyone is doing ok!

[Deleted User]

snap couteaux. I actually started a tesco order today, so that I could get extra points. I went through my pantry inventory and ordered the items with 0 against them. I was struggling to get over £20 worth so I have deleted my list

Will -power rules, or rather inventory rules. Seeing what I need in black and white is making all the difference. Got to be strong now for another 29 days

I will not shop because I have the urge....... says me lots of times and hoping it gets embedded into my brain

moggins

First shop has come in at £56. This is all the heavy bulky items that I don't like carrying home including 2 weeks worth of cat food and loads of stuff for baking.

jackiegibbo

hello kittie thank you for your tip i think if i manage to get under my budget for march's challenge i will start a little odds and sods pot like u have

omega_2

Having been inspired by everyone’s menu plans (HUGE thanks to all), to help my Grocery Challenge along, thought it was time to “pep” up our menu planning, and cost out our repertoire of “everyday” main meals. So, yesterday, I followed Queenie’s instructions at:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=516718&postcount=12

and now, during the next round of eating will add ingredient costings.

(For what they are worth, the headings I’m provisionally using are:
- Sunday: “Real” Meat night (roast, casseroles, stews, baked ham etc)
- Baked Spud/Soup/BLT night
- Mince night (spag bol, chilli, cottage/shepherds pie/hm burgers, meatballs etc)
- Veggie night
+ three from:
- Chicken night, Pork night(no sniggering please!), Fish night, Pasta night.
Obviously, there will be overlaps, but I’m going to give these a go, and then “fill in the gaps”, eg I know we don’t have many budget fish recipes.)

jackiegibbo

forgot to mention how i was getting on with my budget, yesterday the tesco's man came for the very first time and that came to £107.57, and ive spent £37.07 so far on fuel

zar

omega wrote:

(For what they are worth, the headings I’m provisionally using are:
- Sunday: “Real” Meat night (roast, casseroles, stews, baked ham etc)
- Baked Spud/Soup/BLT night
- Mince night (spag bol, chilli, cottage/shepherds pie/hm burgers, meatballs etc)
- Veggie night
+ three from:
- Chicken night, Pork night(no sniggering please!), Fish night, Pasta night.
Obviously, there will be overlaps, but I’m going to give these a go, and then “fill in the gaps”, eg I know we don’t have many budget fish recipes.)

I started doing this a month ago too, after getting the idea from here on OS. I've found it makes meal planning easier than just staring at a blank sheet of paper! Our nights are:
Sun - Traditional British/Roast dinner
Mon - Leftovers or mince if there aren't any!
Tue - Italian/Mediterreranean/Moroccan
Wed - "Meat and 2 veg"
Thur - Oriental/stir fry/Tex Mex
Fri - Casserole/Bake
Sat - Indian/Curry

This fits in well with the type of food we're used to eating, and it narrows it down without saying we're having chicken this night, vegetarian that night so my DH can't complain its too regimented!

nicki_2

I'm going to try this month to stick to £120 for the calender month. I've already done 2 big shops so in theory all I need for the rest of the month is CM (going to look at getting a ham joint of some sort from the butchers), cheese, fruit & maybe veg (I have loads of frozen veg) and milk. I have bags and bags of flour, pasta and quite a few potatoes so I should be fine, we're only lacking on meat, but I have 2 bags of frozen chicken portions so we should be fine.

Spent so far :

27th February : £34.14 (top up shop that was needed as we'd run out of milk)
1st March : £29.59

LEFT : £56.41

I did round it up slightly by about 14p as I had a lack of change but I'm keeping track this time.