April Grocery Challenge 2006

chewy62

Abi113, I am like you but have decided to spend £100 a week to cover food, nappies, petrol, weel everything really, including clothes, so hope this works out as I am starting today!!! It sounds like alot but it's not really and anything I save is going in my wee box.This is actually less than I usually spend!
Have also decided with OH to give up wine as we spend about £15 a week on it, so am going to put that £15 away each week to see how much accumulates.
Good luck with May challenge everyone!

Lemon_Tree

Nearly another month over, i have so far underspent by 2.85 but have a couple of things left to get so may just break even.
Why is it if you go without a list you end up spending loads and yet you don't get everything that you need? At least it's a lesson learned that i must go shopping with a list, and make the menu plan which worked as well.
I'm thinking that i may drop it next month as it wasn't too taxing. I did use up some of my stocks and gave my sister and her family a care package as their need was greater than mine and she's done that for me before now.
Lem

poppycracker

I hate months that end at the weekend we get paid by cheque and the canny old B***** dates the cheque for the last day of the month! Therefore, our month officially starts on the 3rd or 4th... I did really badly this month for my budget, but I did manage to find out where a lot of the budget goes and now I can tighten up there so it wasn't a total loss.

Gonna get going with a budget and maybe even a meal plan for next month.... I'm optimistic!

johanne

21st April: Spent £2.79 in Tesco
24th April: Spent £1.69 in Somerfield
(well actually spent 2.49 myself but bought my mum a few things and she give me too much money back and told me to keep the change "for going" VERY proud of this shop too as got some GREAT reduced bargains... including fresh Plaice fillets for 84p... instead of £3.66!! :j )
25th April: Spent £7.23 in sainsburys

Total spent this week.. £11.71

Added to £21.32 so far this month.... New total April spend: £33.03

So leaves me £11.97 of my strict budget to get fruit n veg and couple of other bits before end of the week!! Using up stuff in my storecupboard has really helped keep my costs way down... even managed to get some junk like pepsi and premium products like granary loaves and free range eggs without going over my budget for a change!

yummum_3

just had 2 minutes to quickly write my post.... this months challenge went well.... I am very pleased with myself. I didn't have a budget I just wanted to see how cheap I could shop for my first month. I have just added up all my reciepts (even the ones for milk at the corner shop!). I have spent £179.34. This includes baby supplies such as nappies and wipes and baby formula etc. So I am really pleased. Hopefully next month will be even better because I bought reusable nappies off ebay and will save a fortune!!! Now I will set my budget at £40 a week for may.

melt71

I'm coming to the end of this month now and my total was £71 so I was within budget (£75). This is for me and my daughter for 3 meals a day and for my bf 2 or sometimes 3 days a week. I've been meal planning ok and still have quite a few things in the cupboards/freezer so I'm optomistic next month will be under £80 even though it includes half term.

savinup

Oh well £23 over target this month, will have to try to stick to my budget, may try doing my grocery shop on internet this month and see how it goes. Will definately try harder.

moiracm

Just finished my first grocery challenge and came in £6.06 under budget which is really good as I had estimated I spent about £400-£500 a month on groceries (incuding nappies, toiletries and cleaning product). However after subscribing to this thread I went back three months over my bank statements, credit cards etc and found out it was nearer £600 a month :eek:

So good start and will aim for £350 again this month to ensure that I can keep within this and then I will start shaving off a bit more again

Shez

moiracm - I know how you feel, I too have just started the challenge for april to see exactly what i spend!

Well, my total spend for April ended up £336-340 (roughly £65-70 per week) this doesnt include petrol, just groceries, cleaning, nappies - but I am feeding 4 adults and 2 children - which I didnt think was too bad!
The groceries werent too bad, its the other non-grocery that i have bought this month i'm worried about!

Anyway doing this has made me keep a track of what i am spending - now i have a guide I can try and improve on it for the May Challenge.

Good luck everyone.

Sea78

I did it!! Thanks everyone on here for all the hints and tips- I don't post much, but do read a lot.

Managed to come in way under budget. makes me shudder to think how much I spent before lightbulb moment (over £400 at least).

This month target is £200, really hope to make it as now I am not going to let OH waste money and instead use his extra money either towards clothes (believe me, we need them!!) or debt.

OOOhhhh. am really pleased

Sea xx