September 2009 Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

jackie_w as the other posters have said don't knock yourself out ,what's gone is gone I had a great first week and came in £18,37 under budget then blew it a bit this week, and now have only £42 odd to last for two more weeks but I have a freezer stuffed full of food and hopefully lots of NDS to come.My petrol bill has been a bit higher over the past couple of weeks as I have beem helping my DGD get to work as she is brasic until the end of the month, but she starts college this monday and will be using the local bus so I won't have to lash out on fuel quite so much .I allowed myself £30.00 per week for food and petrol and have already spent £ 30.00 on petrol so its put my budget a bit askew.I think next month I will but all of my fuel in one go at the begining of the month i.e. top my tank right up, and walk or use my bus pass a bit more.
I think we are all doing very well and its sometimes baby steps thats needed to get what we want ,a bit like dieting ,one day at a time .

searching_me

my september is over and i came in at about even ........ im now on to october start from today and ive already spend £20 ...

so ...mrs m can you put me down for £200 for october x

kezlou

jackie_w wrote: »

Hello there,


Ive really took my eye off the ball and its only the 12th of September, I feel a total failure:o.

I havent kept all my receipts, and have been really lazy, not making my own bread etc, and so far, have ended up spending £136.87, (and its probably been more but, I cant check what ive paid for in cash) so that gives me £63.13 to last me.

Im determined to stick with this. If I could just get into a routine of making more things from scratch then I know I could stick with the budget, and ive only had one NSD in september :mad:. Well only myself to blame.

Sorry for the rant, and sorry if Im not meant to post this on here.

Jackie

When i first started on this challenge i set myself £400, it was really hard to keep of everything inc spending for birthday parties, picnics etc. Since then i have managed to drop down to £175.This month its £170 and spent over£100 already. so don't beat yourself up.Its not about slipping up and feeling like a failure. I think of it as a fun challenge and if stick to do great, if not well i had fun going over! (hmmm wine, in my case).
It is VERY difficult i think to cook from scratch sometimes impossible, what with work/life and time just flies like there's no tomorrow. I only really started cooking when i moved to where i am about six years ago and was forced into by financial circumstances. Luckily i have a number of Asian food stores which stock 95% of the food we eat.The food i cooked at first was awful and revolting and now its getting better.Slowly i might add
If lived where i used to it would be virtually impossible because of the supermarkets being so expensive.
the best i ever bought was a slow cooker just bung everything in turn it on at 7:30am come back home to food ready by 6pm ideal. Saved me a heck of a lot of money.

Its like Jackie O said, its all about baby steps and taking it one at a time. This is the place to rant and let off steam as we have all have / are going through the same thing as you. :beer:

mummy2mygirls

i have had another nsd today doing well with getting all i need on my shoppin g day and not needing to pop for top ups etc..

going to have to go to the shops this week as i have lost my bank card!! grrr so cant pay online ( i have got the money out so will have to stick to budget which is a good thing...)

Money_saving_Diva_2

Hi all! :wave:

Jackie_w - Don't be too hard on yourself - I have failed my GC four months in a row but am determined to do better this month. The only failure is in not trying again; so recoup - forget about the past as you cannot change it and start again! I know you can do it!

I have been watching that '4 ingredients' show for a few weeks now and I do enjoy it. It's a nice change.

Had to buy some milk and cat food today so have adjusted my total accordingly. Haven't checked my OH recipts yet so not sure what he spent but will add that in as and when.

Hope you all have a peaceful and loving Sunday.

Diva.x

HowlinWolf

Jackie-W I have also taken my eye off the ball, not helped by dp paying for something out of the food money and not checking with me first. It's going to be very tight for the rest of the month. May have to re-think the menu plan a little bit to try and delay the need to go shopping for longer. On the plus side we have bought ds's birthday present and it was half price.

cw18

Totally in agreement with everyone else - don't beat yourself up if you 'fail' your challenge

Instead, just think how much worse things would probably be if you weren't even trying this - and give yourself a pat on the back for any little improvement that you have made :T







Went out yesterday for bread and milk (should have spent £1.45) and managed to spend £9.06 :eek:

I'm now having a struggle to find freezer space for the contents of 5 boxes of Frvbes (6 boxes came home from C00p Whoopsie, reduced from £2.29 each to just 40p each), which DS will eat to some extent but my GDs will love having after school..... should keep them quiet for a few weeks :rolleyes2

I've also picked myself up some fish to try - I know I hated smoked mackerel as a child, and have steadfastly insisted ever since that I hate it...... but at 85p for 2 pieces in Mr M Whoopsie I decided it was time to try it again (and if I still don't like it I'm sure the dogs will after I've been sure to remove any and all bones). Just don't have a clue what to do with it, so am going to have to pull out some cookery books and/or do some g00gling :eek:

Got a few other Whoospies from A!di, Mr M and the local grocer as well, so my total £9.06 bill was for shelf ticket prices of £24.99........



Sat and did some number crunching on my spreadsheet yesterday - and have decided to make my GC tougher for me !!!!!

It was looking as if I were going to end September with a 'year to date' spend of less than my target was to the end of August - and with a whole months money to 'play' with it was looking like less of a challenge

I've also been going through all the various categories of food I've bought to the end of August (eg. milk - year to date spend £97.47, cheese £28.62, veg £122.14, fruit £40.65, meat £159.91), and discovered to my horror that I've managed to spend £169.65 on 'snacks' (cakes, sweets, biscuits etc). Even though a huge percentage of these were bought as Whoospies it's still scarey - in fact, almost more so when I worked out the real value of them is £435.65 against a meat 'real value' of just £230.90 :eek: :eek:

Given my largest monthly budget to date has been £163.80, this means I could have already been more than a month in hand with my money if I'd not bought any of them!!

But I realised we all need a treat now and again, so I then split that category into allowed and disallowed (with the latter being totally frivolous ones I'd never have looked at had the yellow stickers not caught my eye), and the disallowed comes to a £107.07 spend with a value of £351.15


Sooooooo....... I've decided to make the GC harder for me in an attempt to kerb the snack spending (which will hopefully also assist in my desperate need to lose some weight for health issues).

My budget was set at £1.80/day for an adult (50p for breakfast, drinks and snacks, 60p for lunch and 70p for cooked evening meal), 50p for each main meal I provided for my younger GD when she only did a half day at school, and 30p/day per GD for after-school eats and drinks. This gave me an annual budget of £1584.00 and a signature of

Food Budget / Spent / Whoopsie spend / Whoopsie 'real' value
to 31/08/09 £1077.00 / £955.39 / £281.93 / £1073.82
September : £120.60 / £31.11 / £19.42 / £67.03 as of 12th Sep

I blew my monthly budget in Jan, March and May - but my rolling annual total was only blown in January.



I've now (retrospectively) reset my budget to £1.65/day for an adult (45p for breakfast, drinks and snacks, 55p for lunch and 65p for cooked evening meal), 45p for each main meal I provided for my younger GD when she only did a half day at school, and 25p/day per GD for after-school eats and drinks. This gives me a new annual budget of £1443.00 and a signature of

Food Budget / Spent / Whoopsie spend / Whoopsie 'real' value
to 31/08/09 £982.35 / £955.39 / £281.93 / £1073.82
September : £109.50 / £31.11 / £19.42 / £67.03 as of 12th Sep

I now show (on my spreadsheet) as having blown my monthly budget in just the same three months, but as being over my rolling annual total every month from January to July (though I was only £1.07 over at the end of July )


So here's to managing the rest of the year on my lovely new (lower!) figures :beer:
Must just remember when out shopping that I no longer have as much 'spare' to play with :rolleyes2

As of close of yesterday we were 40% of the way through September, and my spends for the month are just 25.8% of my new (lower) monthly budget - so as long as I don't get distracted by 'disallowed snacks' I should be fine

tessie_bear

:T cw 18...very impressive and organised....we are going along quite well...havent got much money at the mo...due to holidays and clarks school shoes but hey we have got a lot of food in....i got a ham shank from a real butcher last week...cooked in sc and we ate most of meat for tea...made pea and ham soup with the stock...yummy not bad for £1.99 spend on the hock

i too love waitrose food...i find some of the assistants over bearing but all the food we have had from there has been lovely if quite pricy...they do offers though

take care
tess

Mrs_Tradition

Oh my cw18 - you are my total idol now! How clever, organised and clear is your post. You seem a very capable number cruncher (understatement of the year!). I just wish I had yur ability when working out my cc interest on my own SS. I know what I am doing etc but sometimes when you're trying to work out so much at once it's a nightmare. I will be looking out for your posts with high hopes :T:T:T
As for myself I am at £10 left until 25th sigh. I was doing so well too but I may still get there as I literally have loads in and will only need yogs, .49p for 6 for DD and milk 1.53 for 4 pints until then.
This is my first month so not going to be too hard on myself as I didn't know quite what to expect.
Can i ask if anyone posts on the menu planner board?
Happy Sunday!
xx

helen_jelly

CW 18 - WOW you are organised - well done - I'm impressed and have decided to try and imitate you as of January, I love how you break all your spends down and know where exactly you are going over budget and what to cut back on. I don't include wine or beer in my total but will do so from next year, and I'll write everything down by category - should be interesting

Helen x