April Grocery Challenge 2006

Lewby

Know what you mean Russjacks. I too have expensive eating habits ... but they are changing and I'm making everthing from scratch.

I found that the reason why our bill was so big was that we were having too much to eat at each meal. I'd make a chicken curry, rice, add naan bread and popadums .. them my son would ask if he could have chips with his so I'd do some for everyone. No More!! Maybe we'll also lose weight!

Tonight I used 2 chicken breast, marinated and roast them. Then thiny sliced them and made a savoury rice, with onion, tinned 'value' sweetcorn, red kidney beans and a veg oxo cube. It was lovely and all of the family tucked in. A meal for 5 with rice and 2 chicken breasts.

My grocery challenge went well last month (had £2 left). I draw £300 cash at the start of the month, give OH £50 'allowance' which he does spend on food and bits for the kids. I give the kids £11 each allowance for all their own needs and the rest - £228 is my 'shopping' money. This doesn't include petrol. I am trying to manage on £50 per week main shop with the £28 for bits like fresh veg and milk mid week.

Next month I'm going to try to manage on a bit less and put any left towards my Christmas savings.

Good luck all!

Lewby xx :T

CAFCGirl

Should be starting this month on a good footing. New flatmate moved in yesterday and so bought with her a lot of food, tinned goods and dried bits,so should always be plenty to concoct meals with.

Am going to aim for £25 this month.It's going to be really tight, but thats £50 to feed two 20+ yr olds.Taking HM lunches to work each day.Have stocked up on plenty of BOGOF cans from tesco's so thats drinks taken care of, have 3 loaves of bread,2 in freezer, one out for this week.Have got some sandwich spread and jam to put in it.Buying cold meats was a bit of an extravagence for me, so opted for cheaper still.

Just worried about weekends really.Boyfriend is coming down to see me this weekend and although he knows I'm trying to save some money, I don't think he realises how MUCH I'm trying to save!

Want to make some cutbacks on this like groceries so that I can increase the DD for paying off my credit card.Am currently paying back £50 a month, but £20 of that is working out as interest and payment protection.So I'm only paying off £30 of the balance.Increasing that to £100 a month will mean I'll pay it off in double quick time!

JollyNolly

CAFCGirl wrote:

Am going to aim for £25 this month.It's going to be really tight,

You're not kidding! If you can do that you should be on that TV prog "extreme survival" or whatever, where Ray thingy shows how you can live on lizards in the desert. BTW, do you really need the payment protection? It's a real rip-off!

johanne

went to sainsburys today for my first proper shop in at least a fornight (been busy working and just picking up "bits" here and there.... total - £9.95! And that included a few extras like bacon and fruit n fibre cereal to give variety in the mornings and few subs like having to get a pot of organic natural yougurt for my lunches cos they didnt have any normal stuff So about 50p extra there alone! BUT managed to get 6 "woodland free range eggs" reduced to 45p!! The basics (caged) where more expensive 56p i think! so yay!

Still under budget by £1.05 at the moment for the month though! £16.95 so far with 4 weeks to go.. !!!

Chell

I haven't set a bugdget but am writing down everything I buy to see what I actually spend. Our shopping is for two adults, DS who is 2.5yrs and DD who is 14mths. Nappies are included for both kids (Ds only wears them at night).
I don't buy much frozen food at all and find it hard t cut back on certain items. I probably spend far more on the kids than I do on DP/myself. If I'm buying beans etc then I get the lowest salt variety rather than the cheapest. I do HM dinners as I want to make sure they are low in salt etc. I don't think HM is always the cheapest option.

Sea78

Right, quite new on here so I thought I'd have a go at the challenge too. Family of 4 (although one is just a baby but eats soo much and am making all his food and justifying ridiculous spending because of this!!). I am horrified to realise I spend £400+ :eek: in the supermarket a month, but often (all the time) buy 'extras' so hope to cut this back to at least £280, hopefully £250 this month.

I'm going to do what someone else on here suggested and take a notebook to my cupboards and see what I can make from there before buying anymore food.

Wish me luck....

angelatgraceland

I dont count petrol in my grocery challenge but what I have found useful in lowering my petrol bill is to keep a "journey log". Its a bit timeconsuming at first, until you get into the habit. When you see your journeys listed, I find it easy enough to spot where I have made unecessary journeys,places I could have combined a trip or two. These short trips add up to a lot of fuel-especialy in town driving. Save 20 miles and you save about £2-better in your pocket, than in exhaust fumes.

bulchy

russjacks, I've cut my shopping bills drastically, and there isnt a ready meal or pizza in sight. It's been a case of cutting down on the amount of meat we eat at each meal, sometimes no meat at all, and bulking out the meals with more veg. No extras, like choccie biccies, I buy things like yogurts at a shop called Heron, not sure if its a nationwide company or local, but they sell the decent yogurts and frozen foods a lot cheaper than the supermarkets, you do need to check the sell-by dates on them,and if they dont have a short code on them I stock up when possible, but for example, I can get 6 muller rice for 99p, these make a good desert and also go in packed lunches. Every meal is started from scratch, which IMHO makes it a lot cheaper than a ready meal.
Sue

yummum_3

I'm up for the challenge this month!!! :j This my first post on the challenge but to be honest I've been reading this site for quite a while and shopping on a budget.

My last month went really well, and on Friday I did the shop for £33!! (2 adults + 10mth old). I am a changed person.... my shop used to be £65-£80 per week. My husband bought the 'money diet book' and introduced me to this site and now I'm hooked. We shopped in Lidl and it was great for staples. (we didn't like the garlic bread) The rest we did in Adsa. I even asked about a price match. The woman at the till was a little surprised... but admitted they would price match (no one must taken them up on the offer!). This week I've already done my shop on the Adsa website. I had to spend £50 to get £10 off, so I got some extras and a box of nappies which cost me £10 to up the total. The savings I make are going to be SAVED! Then hopefully I'll get to do some well needed decorating in our house.

I just want to add that I've mentioned this challenge to a few friends and family and they look at me strange! :eek: Does this happen to anyone else? I told someone about my £33 shop and they said "oh is that just for the weekend?" Maybe they haven't had their lightbulb moment yet!!!

Linda32

yummum wrote:

I just want to add that I've mentioned this challenge to a few friends and family and they look at me strange! :eek: Does this happen to anyone else? I told someone about my £33 shop and they said "oh is that just for the weekend?" Maybe they haven't had their lightbulb moment yet!!!

We've been doing this for a month now, but havn't yet told anyone of the changes we've made.

Love the £33.00 for a weekend comment.