August 2009 Grocery Challenge

WelshWoofer

Hello again!
Just updating the weekend spends - £46.01 at Mr T's. A bit more than I'd idealy like (about £6.01 more:rotfl:) but I did buy shampoo and conditioner on offer that won't be used until next week and a few extra bits for the freezer, whoopsies and the like.

We'll only need a bit of milk later in the week - we have everything else we need to see us through until Saturday at least so I'll add an extra £1 onto my total and declare under budget by about £5!!!:T

I finish work for good on Friday to retrain as a teacher and so September's budget will have to be stuck to religiously as we are now a household of more limted means!

Mrs M please put me down for £160 for Sept? Thank you!
I'm trying for £40 a week for all food, toiletries and cleaning stuff - the dog has plenty of food and treats so will be removed from the budget for Sept. (He'll still be fed!)

Fire_Fox

I have two raw turkey drumsticks - Whoopsies! - marinading in leftover wine to be slow cooked later (forgot to marinade overnight, doh). I am thinking of making stock with the bones but how would you break such a large bone to get the marrow out??

I did try to run a search on 'turkey stock' but i can only search all the forums not just the OS board.

mothershipton

husband did an emergency run to morrisons yesterday to get stuff to make tea for inlaws. By the time he got home £112 later, it was too late to cook and we ended up buying a chippy tea. Why do i let him go to the shops. Spend is now at £286 and i am going to make what he bought last till we go on holiday on Sunday. Then i can count food as holiday spend!

lauhen

I need your help, i set myself a budget on what i want to spend on groceries each month, i always manage to stick to it or improve for my main shop, but i can never do this for my weekly shop, ie on the weekly shop i get bread, milk, fruit and veg, yoghurts, that sort of thing. I aim to spend about £20-£25 a week, but always seem to spend about £40.
I dont think it helps that my husband and two children come with me, does anyone have any suggestions please.

emmab2001

HELLO EVERONE!!

I would love to join this group for it's september thread!! if you'll have me!! just had a total lightbulb moment when we realised we had spent this month (pay day to pay day) £518:eek: on supermarket shopping we do have 2 children aged 6 months and 2 years who are both still in nappies but come on £500!!!! thats so stupid!

so from last night when i found this group till now have have worked out the whole familys meals and baby things including baby milk and baby jars nappies and wipes for the whole of next month our month will start on monday 31st september for 4 weeks taking us up to next pay day!

i have worked it out useing my supermarket web site down to the penny lol!!
our monthy big food stock up with baby stuff baby milk baby jars nappies wipes all cleaning and washing plus toiletries ect will cost £125.95

our weekly shop for dairy/salad/ham/bread will total £13.83

so our monthly total should be £181.27:T

so i would like to set our september goal at £250:D

even though we have worked out our budget to £181.27 we have allowed extra for the babies as we are unsure of nappies/wipes and baby milk useage!!!lol

i'm also going to re-read many of the posts about home baking especially bread!! i have to admit i'm not a great cook but i'm going to try!! any saving helps!! and tips would be greatly accepted!! i have already swapped our freah mushrooms and peppers for frozen as we waste so much!! also thanks to Ninno820i'm gonna use that tip to freeze onion! never knew you could (told you i' a bad cook!!lol) but that should save us too!

so hoping to save over £300!!! from this month!!lol i know we might not be able to do it and this fist month is really a tester to see what our expenditure shuold be but we really have to give it a go it's all planned now so wish us luck!!! and good luck to you all too!!:T

Miss-spent_2

Thanks for the links and help above.
Got off to a good start today, spent just over £40 (over £45 worth as I have an Asda staff discount card thanks to DS1.)
Bought all the vitals for at least the next 3 weeks (with what I already have)
4 pints milk x2 at 2 for £3.00
2 boxes T. Bags at 2 for £2.00
UHT skimmed milk 49p x4
2 x Kingsmeal white bread £1 a loaf
Pizza £1
Flora £1
I spent a lot on meat as DS1 will not eat anything but 'plain' food so I bought 6 chicken breasts and 10 burgers for £10 plus a whoops beef joint and lamb escalops. I have frozen the meat into separate portions so I can cook them just for him.
Also got 2 gammon steaks for £3.00
As we go away tomorrow none of this will be started until Saturday. Tonight is using up the stuff in the fridge so will be omelletes with salad.

Fire_Fox

emmab2001 wrote: »

HELLO EVERONE!!

I would love to join this group for it's september thread!! if you'll have me!! just had a total lightbulb moment when we realised we had spent this month ( pay day to pay day) £518:eek: on supermarket shopping we do have 2 childrem agaed 6 months and 2 years who are both still in nappies but come on £500!!!! thats so stupid!

even though we have worked out our budget to £173.19 we have allowed extra for the babies as we are unsure of nappies/wipes and baby milk useage!!!lol

so hoping to save over £300!!! from this month!!lol i know we might not be able to do it and this fist month is really a tester to see what our expenditure shuold be but we really have to give it a go it's all planned now so wish us luck!!! and good luck to you all too!!:T

Wow big goal, welcome to the Grocery Challenge!! Could you maybe make your own babyfood by pureeing leftovers of adult meals instead of buying jars?

taka

lauhen wrote: »

I need your help, i set myself a budget on what i want to spend on groceries each month, i always manage to stick to it or improve for my main shop, but i can never do this for my weekly shop, ie on the weekly shop i get bread, milk, fruit and veg, yoghurts, that sort of thing. I aim to spend about £20-£25 a week, but always seem to spend about £40.
I dont think it helps that my husband and two children come with me, does anyone have any suggestions please.

Your best bet is probably to go with a list and don't buy things not on the list. Can your hubby occupy the kids while you shop? It may be easier if the kids/OH want XYZ and its not on the list and they are not there with you. :rolleyes:

Can you look up the appropriate supermarket website and price it up before you go and also check out the special offers ahead of time so you can change your list accordingly to things on offer if you want? Do you have a choice of supermarkets you can use and swap to whichever one is best/cheapest for what you need that week?

Do you meal plan in advance so you don't need to pop in for 1 or 2 things and come out having spent another £20? This is definitely where I go wrong... :rotfl:

Bread, milk, and some fruit/veg can be frozen (or bought frozen in the 1st place) so there is no wastage if you have freezer space. It means you could buy the larger, better value/kg bags of stuff or 2 for £X deals and eat it over a fortnight instead of weekly. I keep a lot of fruit in the fridge too. It means I can get enough nectarines/plums/pears/whatever for the week / 10 days and get a couple out to ripen every few days instead of everything ripening at the same time and going off!

If you all still want to shop together can you price up the main stuff and tell them you have say, £2 or £3 left for "treats" and get the kids involved in budgeting for that? (depends on the age your children are and how open your OH is to this! :rotfl:).

emmab2001 - Welcome! Wow thats some drop... Good luck!

After saying the above - my budget is blown again! :rotfl: I'm £4.47 over with approx £5 worth of stuff needed to see me till the end of the month. I've got a £3 off a £20 spend for Mr T that expires on the 30th so may stock up on stuff for use in Sept as well as for the next week or so. :wall: Gaaaaahhhhh! Just as well its an annual budget... It would be nice to be under it at somepoint this year (I overspent in Jan and have never quite caught up ) otherwise December is going to be a storecupboard only month! :eek:

ForeverHopeful_3

Hi :wave:

I have spent £164 on an online shop with Mr T :eek: But there is enough to do us ages because I worked with a meal plan

Just have to stop popping into the supermarket on the way home.:rotfl:

We don't NEED anything today, so safe from any additional spending so far!

Emmab2001~sounds much like us as a family. It's amazing how it all mounts up isn't it? We're trying to pay off a CC and save for new double glazing. So this budgeting lark should help.....I hope

scotsaver

Hi everyone - been MIA for a few days, just don't get the chance to log on when the kids are on Hols. Updated my total, doing really well but that's due to trying to eat from the Freezer that I'm trying to empty - can see light at the end of the Tunnel now.:o

My month finishes on Wednesday so shouldn't need to spend anymore before then but won't declare yet just in case. Should have left my GC at £250 for this month as I should be under but anything left I will put towards Xmas GC.;)

Hope you are all doing well.:D