October 2009 Grocery Challenge

notjustlaura

wilf55 - Congratulations on realising you need to cut down and making a start. I'm rotten at record-keeping too but have found it helps to keep receipts.

Well, my shopping did end up getting done today, even though I feel awful. But I figured this is unlikely to disappear by tomorrow so I'd be best getting the shopping in today before I get any worse!

I'm still eating out of the freezer (will be empty by next week) and the cupboards (enough for another week, maybe?) so I only had a small list. My sister persuaded my to try Sainsbury and I was so surprised when the cashier had put everything through that I had to check and see if she'd missed anything! So a big thumbs up to Sainsbury from me!

Unfortunately I forgot to buy cheese-spread which William-cat needs to take his medication. So I popped out to the Co-op who didn't have any and then went into McColl's who had Dairylea *reduced* to 99p. As I usually pay about a quarter of that price for ASDA's SmartPrice stuff I wasn't impressed. I did think about driving to ASDA but, really, I'm sick. So I'm consoling myself with the thought that he only gets a teaspoon of it each day so it lasts a long time.

I'll need to buy NRT tomorrow as Sainsbury didn't have the brand I need (funny skin objects to all but one kind of patch) but I *think* that'll be it for the week, which is good. And, for the record, I know I could get NRT on the NHS but choose not to.

Looking forward to reading how everyone's doing

carolt2

SCOTSAVER, was it this thread you were thinking of?
Originally posted by ROSIEBEN on page 22 of september GC

School days recipes thread

rosieben

carolt2 wrote: »

SCOTSAVER, was it this thread you were thinking of?
Originally posted by ROSIEBEN on page 22 of september GC

School days recipes thread

Thanks carolt :T

I've just added a link to the front page recipe list for the 'Cheese pie', and the 'School days recipes' thread is listed in the Complete Cooking Collection under 'Miscellaneous' as it doesn't fit anywhere else!

Botany

Ok, I'm officially done with the September thread and moving onto here.

I'm a little bit shocked -by 3 things:

1) that I was constant enough to follow through the September challenge, keep all the receipts, put all expenses on excel and post in the thread every time I shopped;
2) that I managed to spend £300 and still eat what I like;
3) that I feel positive at the thought of reducing the budget further (just not this month cos it's a funny one);
4)..... the biggest surprise of all.... that I ended the challenge exactly on £300 -to the penny-. I checked all the receipts and the sums were done via excel so I'm not approximating... I actually spent £300 and zero pence. :j What are the odds???

I have made a summary of "the lessons learned" on the way to money-saving below.

Before joining GC, I was already...
-buying woopsies;
-cooking from scratch;

What I've changed / added this month (compared to my pre-challenge days) was:
-keeping receipts;
-keeping a note of everything I spend both on paper and on excel (bit of an overkill especially as I was saving the receipts anyway but it worked for me to drive the message home);
-posting here!!! (this thread is The Great Motivator);
-actually using stuff from the freezer instead of 'abandoning' food there to an icy destiny;

What I have NOT (yet) changed, and will do gradually, is:
-batch cooking;
-meal planning;
-shopping with a list (or rather "sticking to" a shopping list -this is still a rare occurrence);

Now, the fact that I don't yet do the batch cooking/meal planning and sticking to a shopping list, gives me high hopes that I there is substantial room for reducing my budget further without changing my eating habits (the 'without changing my eating habits' bit is crucial because I like to have a healthy and varied diet and I'm not willing to compromise this for budgetary reasons because I think ultimately if I get ill it would be a false economy).

Anyway... I'll have to tackle these three new things one at a time: I don't want to impose too much change upon myself in case I fail and I give up completely. Steady does it. This month (well, 3-week month but there you go...) will be my meal-planning attempt Numero 1 (I will meal-plan for one week and see how it goes) , and I will give the shopping list a go in the same week as the meal-planning just as an experiment, no great pressure. It's all a big trial and error process this money-saving venture, but I'll get there.... tiny tiny baby steps but we will all get there

:T :T :T

helen_jelly

Evening everyone

Just been to MrS and spent £19.22 - got 12 whoopsied rolls 50/50 type for 38p, raspberries for £1.50 [down from £3.98], crisps reduced to 79p, ham reduced to 44p [was 3.25], sliced beef reduced to 28p [was 2.61] and chicken slices reduced to 51p [was 3.02] so total cost would of been £31.21 so saved £11.99.
Going to keep a running total of whoopsie spend and savings [idea blatantly stolen from CW18 - hope thats ok and thank you]

Have a nice evening everyone

Helen x

brokemedic

Hello all,

How exciting!! A new challenge to be working towards. Anyway, I am starting on the first of October and as part of my preparation, I am going to try and empty my freezer and cupboard of food before I buy anymore again except for basics such as bread/milk. I might buy some spices to brighten up my food though.

I have already been good this week and made sandwiches/coffee for uni so hopefully I will be able to carry on through October. Tmrw afternoon, I am going to go through the recipes and see which I can use myself. Might even try and do some baking as well as I love desserts.. we'll see. I am also going to start shopping at the local Aldi's for fruit and veg as I get the impression that they are a bit cheaper than Asda as well as continue perusing this board for more tips/motivation etc...

Good luck everybody

Moniker

Hi everyone, have just declared over on the September challenge and my new month starts of 1st to the 28th. Please put me down for £295 for October. I will do better this month!

cheers

Moniker

brokemedic

Botany wrote: »

Before joining GC, I was already...
-buying woopsies;
-cooking from scratch

What are woopsies?????

cw18

helen_jelly wrote: »

Going to keep a running total of whoopsie spend and savings [idea blatantly stolen from CW18 - hope thats ok and thank you]

You're more than welcome to 'steal' my accounting methods

I'm finding this a huuuuuge incentive to keep up with Whoopsie hunts, and it also gives me a better picture of what level I should be setting my annual grocery budget at for next year on the assumption I can't get any!

I actually plan to set my budget somewhere between the two figures (actual spend and real value), whilst keeping an eye on it for regular budget reductions if I can keep up a steady stream of Whoopsies again

mooomin

brokemedic wrote: »

What are woopsies?????

Reduced things in the supermarket. Bargains!!