April Grocery Challenge 2006

charlie007

ok, i am going to start on the 1st, am having a bit of a trial period this week with home-made soup and propper meals, no more oven ready pizza's. if i look at my statement i should get an idea of my monthly spend!

Wendrie

Caterina wrote:

I really need to try but I don't really know how much I spend per month as I buy so much stuff in bulk, which lasts for months - for example I still have some 50 packs of pasta, which will prob. go in the next 3 months, but a 5kg pack of risotto rice which will last 6 months. Same with olive oil, grains, laundry liquid etc.

I suspect that if I decided not to buy organic/environmentally sensitive stuff my budget would go down quite a lot, but I would feel really uncomfortable buying commercial stuff that I know to be damaging for the environment (and for my family's health too).

Suggestions gratefully received

Thanks

Caterina

Caterina - we also buy in bulk and are concerned about organic/environmental/health issues. I just accept that on the bulk buying months we are going to have a larger food bill. I usually aim for around £400 but was aware that whilst life had got hectic over the last few months it had crept up to around the £600 mark (started buying more "treat" and "ready meal" foods as we were so busy)

Last month I aimed for £350 for two adults, 1 large teenage boy and a slightly smaller girl <G> I made it but then did a large freezer filling meat order for £130 which will last the next six months. This month I've already done (we got paid on Friday and shopped Saturday) a bulk buy at Tesco and Costco (£197.19) and I'm planning on doing a SUMA (wholefood co-op) shop next week which will be around the £150 mark - that's £350 already spent in the first two weeks not counting our weekly organic veg/fruit box and daily milk delivery! So I just count the bulk over how many months I think it will last - the meat was six months, Costco/Tesco probably four or five, SUMA don't know yet - got to do an inventory before I can work out what we need! But the 50 packs of pasta sound very familiar <G>

I keep all my budget information in Quicken and do a average over x month report on the grocery category so I get a fairly good idea. Makes it a bit more difficult on the challenge, but still worth doing

I'm very aware that we aren't going to get down to the levels that some people can but this is a family decision that we feel happy about. Our shopping bill will go down a bit in the summer as we eat from the garden and as I'm stopping the third job I'll have a bit more time for from scratch cooking. The kids are learning to cook as well which helps - healthy snacks from scratch are much better for you than then Krispy Kreme doughnuts we bought on Saturday as a treat... :rotfl:

HTH!

**purpleprincess**

Right, for the month of March I kept all my receipts to see how much I was spending, imagine my shock when I saw that I had spent £156.11 :eek: I thought I'd only spent about £80 :rotfl:

So, this month I am aiming for £20 per week. My month runs from 25th to 25th so I have done my first weekly shop already and it came in at £16.88 :j

Fingers crossed!! Would be so good if I could cut it down, more money off the debt then!!! :beer:

joannasmum

Right this month is tight so we have only got £150 to spend as I've paid all the house insurance upfront. So its £150 for 3 adults and 1 toddler.

Have fun everyone

squeaky

I've always found that the trick with tight budgets is to be really REALLY mean at the beginning so that you'll have a little spare towards the end and so can relax a bit and have some treats.

That way things get easier as you go along.

Much better than have to forever tighten the purse strings tighter and tighter.

joannasmum

So far I've spent half of it but that includes the milk bill and all the staples needed for the month, so I'll only have to top up with fruit, veg, bread and yogs.

Chell

Thanks to all who replied to my post earlier. I'm a SAHM and have a 14mth old DD and DS who is in July. DD obviously wears nappies and DS wears a nappy at night time still.
I have no idea what we spend on food but you have all inspired me. DP gets paid 15th, I get paid the end of the month for the few hours that I work then CTC and child benefit come on two different dates. I'll start from when I shop on Wednesday. I will keep a note of what I spend then I can budget properly next month.
We are all veggie and most meals are HM. I spend more on food for the kids than I do for DP and I.

calleyw

Food only for two adults £100 again.

Over spent by £14 this month. The lame reasons for that is

1) Got a chest freezer
2) Have found out the reduced time in sainsburys

But with what I have at the moment I have meals planned until the 12th of April.

May only need to get milk/juice until I get chance to do a big shop. Around the 12th of the month.


Yours


Calley

brokenwings

Am going to combine my grocery/cleaning budget with my petrol budget for April. Have a new additional, small under the counter freezer being delivered this weekend so need to budget a little extra to fill that - but will be on vacation for 12 days of the month to balance it out.

So:

My April target for groceries/cleaning stuff and petrol all combined ( two adults and a greedy dog ) : £ 225.

Lemon_Tree

Hello
Ok i am going to give this a go. I get paid tomorrow, and that includes some luncheon vouchers which i will include in the budget. So for one person, two cats and two g-pigs i am going to set myself £80 and work my way down from there.
It will definately curb my chocolate consumption if nothing else!
I am going to go and find out how to sort out my signature next
Lemon Tree