July 2009 Grocery Challenge

Frugaldom

Grocery challenge is becoming more and more challanging these days! I've spent about £50 this month so far but budget says I have only £14.81 per week to spend between now and 31st December to succeed. Thankfully, stuff is growing in the garden but things are getting tougher by the week with all the price rises. I think I need to take time out to re-read Weezl's 50p per day challenge.

turbo5019

I had MrT delivery last night used code from sun mirror £10 off £50 for new customers only thing was I wasn't new and it took the code. (I haven't done internet shopping for 6months). They missed and item off which was part of 2 for £5 when I rung up they gave me £3.56 back so that will help as I know I am over budget:mad: . by £13:eek:
I must try and stay away from shops
I must try and stay away from shops
Why is it when you don't want to spend you seem to spend more
Off to update sig

elf06

Just a 69p spend for me today on 6 large eggs. Wont be able to spend for the next few days as I have just found out that my DS has swine flu (wish it was a joke but its not). He has been ill since Sat morning but have just had a call from his nursery because the manager is confirmed with it. After a call to the docs this morning it seriously looks like my son has it too and we are now waiting for a course of tablets which means we are both house bound until we symptom free

Not a great start to the day

SunnyGirl

Hi,

Not been on for a couple of days as my darling children are hogging the computer :mad: Updating sig after todays shop which came to £76.85 so I'm pleased again. Only 2 weeks to go for me although it'll be 2 weeks when all 4 kids are off. I've planned a few lunches to stop the boredom of soup & a sandwich setting in

Congrats to MrsGibbs :T

Lemon_Verbena Well done you're certainly getting the hang of it all now :j

rosieben

elf hope your little one is feeling better soon. I remember when my ds had whooping cough, then my dd had it, we were shut in for weeks :eek: I was climbing the walls by the end of it. Do you have someone who can run errands and deliver shopping to the doorstep for you?

I was planning a shop this morning, milk and f+v but after battling for 3 hours with various pension forms I really don't have the energy so today is another NSD after all (most of my days are NSD's as I shop max twice a week). I shall be using dried milk, frozen veg and tinned fruit until friday

DrFluffy

Yesterday = NSD

cw18

((hugs)) to elf06 and DS



Been out doing a costing-up exercise today, which had quite a few shoppers and shop staff giving me odd looks :rolleyes2


Our local Mr M opened their doors on Monday, and I went for a quick look round that day. The place was positively heaving, but I got the impression it was going to be more expensive to shop there than at Mr T (which means taking the car).

So last night I took my list of grocery purchases from June, costed everything up on the Mr T and Mr A website, and printed out the spreadsheet. This morning I trotted down to Mr M complete with spreadsheet, and costed up everything there.

To give the most accurate reflection possible I'd knocked out everything I'd bought on Whoopsie that I wouldn't have otherwise bought (fancy bread rolls instead of cheap white ones), and things I bought for making Marrow Chutney (hardly a monthly purchase).

I've then taken out everything I would continue to buy as A!di and L!dl (milk, bread and a casserole mix), and the end result is

using Mr T (which involves a 3 mile round trip in the car) = £61.90
so £61.90 + 0.36 (petrol) - 0.61p (value of c/card points if spent on groceries) = £61.65

using Mr A (which involves a 7.75 mile round trip in the car) = £59.26 - plus £1.00 in Mr T or Mr M for one item that Mr A doesn't have
so £59.26 + 0.93 (petrol) + £1.00 in Mr M for missing item = £61.19

using Mr M = £66.17 -- and that's after having to hit Mr T or Mr A for three items Mr M doesn't have (which is a further £2.82 in Mr T)
so £66.17 + £2.82 in Mr T for missing items + 0.36 (for petrol to Mr T) = £69.35


As such my final conclusion is that I don't save enough by shopping at Mr A rather than Mr T to make up for the additional time it takes to get there/back (several sets of traffic lights where I'm on the minor road, so it's a considerable amount of time) - and there's no way I can switch to using Mr M as my main supermarket :eek: I also noticed there are several items I buy on a regular basis (which weren't on my June list) that Mr M don't stock at all (such as my free-flow frozen mince - in fact they've very little frozen meat other than sausages, burgers, kievs, and joints!!!), so buying the "closest" alternatives of those would make even more of an impact on the difference in costs :eek: :eek: :eek:


That said, I shall be dropping in on a regular basis to check out their special offers, and hope to eventually figure out their Whoopsie procedures to make as much use of that as possible And they do have a better selection of goods than the S/flds that used to be on the site, so the Mr M is preferable for if I run out of something unexpectedly

taka

Mrsgibbs - :T:T:T:T
elf06 - ((((hugs)))) I hope your son gets better quickly. Do you have enough in to do you for the next few days?

Another £2.05 spent yesterday :eek: - £19.27 left for the rest of the month! :eek::eek:

Little_Muvva

scotsaver wrote: »

Hi tess - Itotally agree with you on this one, my girls are 13 and 11 and I am becoming more and more aware of what they eat, mostly due to watching the Jamie Oliver and HFW programmes - we only eat Free Range Chickens & eggs and try to eat all of our meat from the Butchers - if I have to buy from the Supermarket it has to be British, especially Bacon. I cook everything I can from scratch so I know what goes into the meals we eat - they've not had a day off School from Illness for years so I hope this is due to the good diet we eat.:cool:

Helen - congrats on the Wedding, hope all went well.

Off into the Kitchen now to make some bits for this week's Lunchboxes, only this week to go now and then 7 weeks of School Hols (think of the food that will be consumed :eek:). Also going to check my Freezer/Cupboard Inventory so that I can decide what to set GC Budget at for next month as the School Hols will have well and truly kicked in by then and I know they will be eating like a plague of locusts.:eek:

Have a good day everyone.;)

I'm impressed - how do you keep your shopping bill so low if you're eating organic? I'm a newbie and love to cook so am interested in saving without compromising on good food

elantan

right well that didnt work out too good ...i went to the shop and bought one loaf of bread £1.75 one onion 24p mixed peppers £1.23 mushrooms 39p for four (that aint cheap) one tofu pack £1.58 and six corn on the cobs £2 got them cause they were on buy two get one free ...so have spent £7.19 in food today ...this isnt going according to plan peeps ...ok i will have enough to do me two days for dinner with the scrambled tofu ...maybe i should try and get a lunch as well and the corn on the cob is for lunch two at a time ...and one dinner but that's just me hubby has to get fed as well ...

mmmm this isnt going to be easy is it