September 2009 Grocery Challenge

brokemedic

If it's not too late can I get my name put down for October please? I was too late for September and I love the way these challenges keep me focussed.. except for a little blip last week.. Oooopps!!

I would like to budget £150 for October.. This is to include any spends I have at uni for food and drinks, though hopefully there won't be many..

Fingers crossed!!

brokemedic

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hi All

Just done the last little shop for September so could you please put my annual total spent so far as £1745.61 from an annual total of £2700 may thanks.

kippers

My total for September is £349.04....it was only suppose to be £300...I can't believe it!... I thought i'd be well under budget....i think it's time to start looking at all my spending again and keeping a tighter control of this.

candygirl

Just been to Tesco and got £18 from coin star and spent £25, so i'm counting it as a £7 spend today, so still way under target up to now:j:jHave a fab weekend everyone xx:D

tessasmum

Weekly shopping done for this week and signature updated - I am lurching towards the end of the month with some money in hand. I'm not declaring yet as there are still a few days to go - one of them my birthday - and so there might be another shopping trip - having a bbq on Sunday with family so I don't want to tempt fate too soon!

mooomin

Shameless copy and paste from my thread follows...

Evening all!

I had a good shop tonight at Morrisons, which is welcome news as the freezer is bare at the moment. I need to inventory tonight so that I can write a decent list for tomorrow.

Today I bought:

Warburtons bread [strike]£1.29[/strike] 9p :j
Bread rolls [strike]62p[/strike] 49p
Onions 45p
Cheese £1.81 (1/2 price)
Hula Hoops x 2 packs of 7 £1.20 (1/2 price)
Meatballs [strike]£3.50[/strike] £1.90 (2 packs of 12)
Beef gravy x 2 [strike]£2.78[/strike] 30p
Sweet & sour sauce x 2 £1.06 (1/2 price)
Chocolate digestives 60p (1/2 price)

So, the only full-price thing I bought today was onions, the rest was either whoopsied or on offer. Well done me!

Total spend = £7.90

Also bought milk today - £1.30

Keiss_21

Hya all, not doing so well on the GC challenge front. We got a new computer a couple of weeks ago and I hadn't got around to transferring my expenditure spreadsheet from the old machine to the new one until today. After I totalled up all the receipts, it didn't seem so bad...until I did the forgotten cheques...OMG!!! :eek:

So quite a bit over: £474.68/£400 :eek: and still a good few days to go until the end of the month!!!

There have been a lot of unusual buys (lots of FLP products to try and get me well) and also stuff for DS1 starting Uni in early October. This has included tin-openers, bowls, tins and foodstuffs etc. So I suppose our underlying bill must have been relatively low to come up with this nearly final total. I have also had DS1 home for 12 days in a row (GF away on holiday with friends) and he has been eating us out of house and home!!! Still, after Oct 4th he won't be back until mid December!!! Sad in some ways, but great for the GC bills!!! Just so long as he doesn't run out of money too fast!

We have enough food in for the rest of the month, with the possible exception fruit & veg, though the organic veg box comes on Wednesday (pre-paid at beginning of month).

I had planned on having roast chicken for Sunday tea, but I came across the half-price rolled shoulder of pork in the Co-op...looks very good! I can see a few cold pork sandwiches as well as lots of pork curry next week!!

Right off to have tea: Toad-in-the-hole made by DS1, all by himself this time, and according to Margueritte Patten as opposed to mum! He feels the need to "follow a written recipe" as opposed to the airy-fairy:"when it is done", "add enough milk" or any deviation from the recipe at all, even down to cutting the sausages in four to make them seem more (wouldn't do it as it isn't in the recipe!).

Smells lovely and the stress levels have dropped now while everything was cooking - I can dare to go in the kitchen now!!

Have a great weekend, hoping for two NSDs, not that I have told DH yet!!

cw18

Today was my 2nd NSD in a row - and 8th of the month. Did have a quick wander around Mr M shortly after 12:30, but

1. they hadn't done the second round of mark-down
2. I still have no freezer space
3. there was very little I'd have even considered after final markdown in the evening

so I never bothered going back.

Will have to go and get some milk (from A1di) tomorrow though.......





As to budgets....

I started the month allowing myself £123.10

Then I discovered I didn't need to supply a cooked meal for younger GD the 5 days she was only in school for the mornings, which reduced it to £120.60

Then I reduced my GC budget (on a daily, monthly and annual basis), which reduced it to £109.50

But following the :eek: vets bills this month, I've decided to really push myself and reduce it further!!!


So my budget for this month is now down to £101.40, but (as this reduction means I'd actually overspent on the 'to date' calculation of my new annual budget to the tune of £39.64 by the end of August), I really need to keep it t £61.76 :eek:
As things stand I've spent £55.03 - so have a whopping £6.73 left for the rest of the month (so just under £1.35 a day for the next 5 days) !!!


Also means my budget for October will be £102.90

chewy62

Hi everyone! have been reading all your posts and am inspired to save money on our food. Not sure how much to budget for though, family of 5, 2 adults, 6 YO, 4 YO and a 7 month old, dog and cat! Usually spend about £550 and need to bring this down as have given up work, any advice? Cheers in advance!

mooomin

chewy62 wrote: »

Hi everyone! have been reading all your posts and am inspired to save money on our food. Not sure how much to budget for though, family of 5, 2 adults, 6 YO, 4 YO and a 7 month old, dog and cat! Usually spend about £550 and need to bring this down as have given up work, any advice? Cheers in advance!

I'm not amazing at the Challenge by any means, but some things I have picked up from here are:

1. Batch cook meals and freeze them in portions. I normally do a big batch of chilli and one of bolognaise at the start of the month and eat them at least once a week.
2. Whoopsies are your friend! By this we mean the reduced items in the supermarket, don't be proud about picking these up. I have had ham joints for £1 and yesterday got Warburtons bread for 9p which has to be used by tomorrow (No worries there!)
3. Drop a brand - instead of going for premium products, try a brand down. I have found from this that I see little difference in tinned veg for example and am happy to save money there. I won't stop buying Heinz ketchup though. Find what works for you!

Good luck :beer: