March Grocery Challenge

moiracm

Hi newbie here so any advice welcome.

I am going to start the challenge this month as DH has been complaining about the amount I spend on Groceries since he has been off sick from work and can see what I am doing lol - normally about £100 a week for 2 adults, one 21 month old and a cat.

I am going away for 12 days to my parents with DH staying here so it will be a bit of an odd month. But in saying that my freezer and store cupboard are well stocked and I will leave DH home cooked meals to have whilst I am away.

My shopping includes any alcohol I buy (normally one case of beera fortnight for DH) and the odd bottle of wine for me (one a month maybe less) also includes nappies and wipes.

Unfortunately Sainsbury's is my nearest store which is fairly expensive compared to Tesco and others. Morrisons is about 6 miles, Tesco is about 15 miles away and there are no Asdas.

Therefore I am going to set myself a challenge of £85 a week (£340 over the whole month). I will collect my receipts for the month so I know what to set for May.

HopeElizzy

My month finishes on Thurs 30th when our last payday is. I thought things were looking ok-ish as I did my last tesco shop of the month today but my OH still has to get fruit/veg, meat and nappies tomorrow so we'll have to wait and see. I'm still feeling quite proud of myself as last month I spent approx £400. I'm wondering where it all disappeared to

:beer: Good Luck everyone - all this money-saving can become slightly addictive!

Chell

astonsmummy wrote:

Thnx chloe99, i never really thought about buying a big pack, its only a few extra pounds so will do that.
he is 21 months so tends to get very messy, so i do need the wipes, but i do only buy one pack a week.
Gosh i have learnt so many useful things fromthis site. its great!
thnx everyone!! :T

I have some washable wipes that I use at home but use Boots own when I'm out (£1.99 BOGOF). The washable ones are just pieces of fleece, I hbought mine on eBay but you could just buy some fleece and do your own. The fleece dries almost instantly, they are great for in the house.

I've jsut looked on ebay, see seller annchrben, they are under £3 inc postage for ten.

omega_2

Glad that March's challenge is over. £2.25 over on a budget of £185: looking forward to doing better next month!!!!!

Essex-girl_2

Doing well this month so will reduce it next month though have been slowly going thro the contents of a large chest freezer so when restock it it will be quite a large bill.

I have now realised that there is a v small local market close to me twice per week only about 4 stalls but one of them is a large fruit and veg stall so will find out when its on and go there for my fruit and veg. One of the things that amazed me when I moved is that there is no fruit and veg shops locally - something I do really miss.

Nothg out of my menu plan for dinner tonight though - am going round a friends for an Indian Takeway - lovely.

angelatgraceland

moiracm wrote:

Hi newbie here so any advice welcome.

I am going to start the challenge this month as DH has been complaining about the amount I spend on Groceries since he has been off sick from work and can see what I am doing lol - normally about £100 a week for 2 adults, one 21 month old and a cat.

I am going away for 12 days to my parents with DH staying here so it will be a bit of an odd month. But in saying that my freezer and store cupboard are well stocked and I will leave DH home cooked meals to have whilst I am away.

My shopping includes any alcohol I buy (normally one case of beera fortnight for DH) and the odd bottle of wine for me (one a month maybe less) also includes nappies and wipes.

Unfortunately Sainsbury's is my nearest store which is fairly expensive compared to Tesco and others. Morrisons is about 6 miles, Tesco is about 15 miles away and there are no Asdas.

Therefore I am going to set myself a challenge of £85 a week (£340 over the whole month). I will collect my receipts for the month so I know what to set for May.

Well £100 pw realy is a lot! Realisticaly you could eventually aim for about £60 I'm sure that sounds rather wild at the moment, but once you have been on here a while, you will see that you can live very well indeed on this(only food not household stuff). We are a family of 4 adults and a 12 yr old and a cat and a GS dog. We manage foodwise on about £75 at a guess. I often get it down to £60 without any problem at all. I may even spend less than I'm quoting. Ive just set up a spreadsheet with my last 2 weeks shopping on it and the total was £168 on food. Now that was overspending im my eyes! I am so well stocked up that I have 3 bags of food I cant get in the cupboards and a freezer where I have to sit on the lid!
I shop in tesco a lot as I find the quality of their value products far superior to Asda. I often shop online, using a discount code which more than covers the cast of the delivery. If this isnt available, bear in mind your savings on fuel and your time/convenience of ordering online and having it all delivered.
If you wonder how I do it-Im more than happy to email you or anyone else my spreadsheet of my last 2 weeks spending to give you some ideas.

magentadreamer

I'm all done and dusted food shopping wise for March -get paid on monday ( Yay!) I've spent £125.27 My challenge for March was £140. Going to stick with that as I need to start getting a few bits for my holiday in May - sun tan lotion etc etc but noticed that Tesco's do a factor 30 for only £2.64 - have used their high factors in the past with no problems. I did sneak a treat in this month -some of the johnsons holiday skin - on bogof. I'm sure I'll be able to keep to the £140 budget easily -as my freezer is full so I can miss a farm foods trip out this month, as I've loads of quorn stuff in.

ladywood

Darn - went a little over March's budget but we've still got several meals in hand before I have to go shopping again (our month starts today!) so maybe I was just spending some of April's money early! :rolleyes:

squeaky

That's the way I'd look at it too

moggins

Last shop of the month done for me too. it came in at £17.26. All told this month has come in at less than £150