first attempt at a shopping budget - £20/week

Fire_Fox

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

plan on spending about £10 tomorrow on way back from work... i already have a fair bit of stuff in the cupboards... so the way i see it , this challenge will get harder as my store cupboard supplies run down. i do like coke as its refreshing in the heat... but dont often buy things like bakewells. as for the yoghurts yeh i realise they are a rip off and usually buy own brand, but co -op had hardly anything in there and i wanted a desert that day! will post back tomorrow, weekly budgeting sure is a lot easier to keep on top of, than monthly.

It will be incredibly tough if out of a £10 spend £4.40 is branded junk (Coke, bakewells, corners). Mr. Fire Fox loves his Pepsi and desserts/ snack foods but it's this stuff that kills our budget. Until I started a diary I would have said the same as you, that much of the branded or junk was occasional.

There are plenty of cheaper refreshing drinks - Value apple juice mixed with Value sparkling water, grapefruit barley water, high juice orange squash (I can't stand the cheap stuff), homemade lemonade, almost anything with a ton of ice in. It would be cheaper to buy a second hand soda stream or taste-test supermarket brand colas.

before_hollywood

only problem with soda streams are the availability/price of cannisters

asda/tesco cola isnt too bad, value brand ones are bloomin awful, aldi do one branded 'freeway' or something which is much nicer

AndyInYorks

before_hollywood wrote: »

asda/tesco cola isnt too bad, value brand ones are bloomin awful, aldi do one branded 'freeway' or something which is much nicer

I can't get on with any own brand cola. So I just drink lemonade instead. Value lemonade's fine. Add a slash of orange squash if you fancy change.

coolTechno

try to cut down on "coke 1.25l x 2 on offer 2 for £1.70" its bad on health as well

Smashing

You've got to switch to own-brand when you drink as much diet coke as I do. I had to try a few, and it took a while to get used to the taste, but I now drink Lidl Freeway diet coke - 38p for 2 litres/
.
I had a sip of 'real' diet coke the other day and it wasn't overly pleasant and the price made me weep.

What's the point of buying 2 pints of milk and then and another 3 days later? Just buy a 4 pint bottle.

You really need to start planning your meals rather than going in and thinking 'I fancy....'

That just leads to spending 62p on a sodding yogurt.

want2bmortgage3

back again.. i know i made some mistakes with recent purchased (poor value for money) but today spent £9.77 a little more wisely, starting with the worse purchase (but was hungry at work):

co-op
double decker £0.52
sainsburys
vitality yoghurts x 6 @ £1.19 offer
linda mcartney sausages 300g £0.94 offer
4 baking potatoes £0.60
js baked beans £0.41
kidney beans £0.61
loose carrots £0.19
onion £0.10
basics sun lotion £2.43
angel delight butterscotch £0.32
hovis best both thick £1.00 offer
6 burger buns £0.35 reduced
cauldron veggie sausages £1.11

was hoping to buy some veggie mince but went for the extra sausages being on offer

food today:
banana, 2 biscuits, double decker, tin spaghetti on toast
dinner probs veggie burgers in buns and potato/chips and frozen veg/beans
pudding a yoghurt
drinks as usual:
tea, water, coke

shelf.life

Hi, this link might help you, it's everything the big 3 sell for less than 20p, hth

http://supermarketspecialoffers.com/DiscountOffers.aspx

want2bmortgage3

started buying on next weeks budget as stopped in tesco earlier:
country life butter £1.10
tesco vege frozen mince £2.00
aquafresh t/paste £1.00
loose bananas £0.44
milk s/s £0.86
lemonade £0.47
ski black cherry 4 yogs £1.00
total £6.87
remaining budget w/b 29/6 = £13.13

wammy77

AndyInYorks wrote: »

I can't get on with any own brand cola. So I just drink lemonade instead. Value lemonade's fine. Add a slash of orange squash if you fancy change.

I only like Morrisions own brand diet coke - can't stand the 'real thing' or any of the other supermarket brands!!!!

Like someone else said though, it's not the best thing to be drinking - value for money you'd be better off with squash mixed with good old tap water!

Fire_Fox

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

started buying on next weeks budget as stopped in tesco earlier:
country life butter £1.10
tesco vege frozen mince £2.00
aquafresh t/paste £1.00
loose bananas £0.44
milk s/s £0.86
lemonade £0.47
ski black cherry 4 yogs £1.00
total £6.87
remaining budget w/b 29/6 = £13.13

Good to see lemonade rather than Coke!! :T Why branded toothpaste, yoghurts and butter?