January 2010 Grocery Challenge

Toonie

I'm declaring at £172.93 for the month.

It's been a bit of an odd month, as we had to get a big shop done on a very limited budget at the beginning of the month, then my BF got a bonus at the end of the month, so we ended up with more and were able to stock up the store cupboard properly, then yesterday had to do a shop for a load of packed lunch stuff for BF who got an unexpected job this weekend, but with two ten hour days, so I sent him off with plenty of food and a flask of coffee. I worked out the food came to £5.07, but included enough for breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks.

Daktila (sesame bread) 0.6
Turkey slices x2 0.44
Ham slices x2 0.44
Scones x2 0.4
Banana 0.1
Humous 0.79
Cheese 0.5
Salad & Grapes 0.33
Sunbites 0.25
Kettle chips 0.22
Coffee 1
=5.07
I'll be doing the same tomorrow.

huston_kw

Finished for Jan spent 114.55 for groceries, toiletries & laundry so well under my 200 budget.

ETA - this is for me, oh, dd(5) & ds(4) includes pack lunches etc.

RuthG

I bought my veggies this morning from a local market - first time ever. As I will be away Monday and Tuesday, I just got mushrooms (for today) and carrots and sprouts (for tomorrow). They totalled a whole whopping £1!!! If I had bought them in the usual supermarket, they would have cost at least £3.

Working that out got me thinking on the other savings too.
I would normally drive the 12+ miles into town (where the big supermarkets are) and back; then there is the temptation to buy more than just the veggies I needed, so would have spent even more; then there is the effect on the environment of driving into town for a few simple veggies etc etc.

So what I did was I walked to the local market and back(4 1/2 miles total distance); just went to one stall - the rest were selling woolly hats or puzzle books (shrugs?/puzzled); bought only what I wanted and then came home again.

So costwise:
Supermarket:
25miles round trip @40p per mile = £10
Time - 2hrs (1/2 hr drive each way and 1 hr in shop)
Veg cost - £3

Local Market:
4 1/2 mile round trip = £0 (walked)
Time - 2hrs
Veg cost: £1

TOTAL SAVING: £12 minimum (depending what else I might have succumbed to and bought)

Other benefits:
4 1/2 miles exercise
not tempted to spend more or buy more than I needed
no impact on the environment
no difference in time spent, but reraped all these additional benefits too!

Ruth

jollymummy

Hi
I've not appeared on he list yet, could you pop my name on please, with £360per month
thanks
jollymummy

kimmee

I failed miserably for January - £385 and I budgeted £300

This was for all food shopping, cleaning stuff and 1 takeaway (won't have that again!). This was for me, DS1, DS2, Mum a few nights a week and one very hungry and fussy cat. DS1 is now back at uni so that should save me some money. I have now got into menu planning, have got an inventory of stuff in freezer so I refer to that when planning next few weeks menu's.

I do feel a real failure - up until end of last year I spent whatever I wanted and didn't need to save money but now I'm newly poor I relished the challenge but old habits die hard. I've learned a lot from these threads, thank you all for the wonderful hints, tips and advice.

I'm going for £300 again for Feb and I'm determined to succeed this time.

All the best to everyone

Kimmee

carrieon

My new month started today. So gave spent £74.50. Hopefully this should last me 2 weeks. I overspent by just over £7 for last month but considering i only spent a total of £87 for the month i dont feel to badly about it. (i only allowed myself £80 for the month due to full freezers etc from christmas.) This month i'm allowing myself £160 in total. This is to last me until Feb 26th. Havn't had computer working till a couple of days ago. I now have 20 pages to catch up on. Urgh! Hope everyone is well.

SunnyGirl

Went to M&S and got my chicken for tomorrow finally It was £7.31 but I then got suckered into buying 3 Low Fat Sweet & Sour Chicken & Rice for DD at £5 and a pizza for DS3 at £2.99 so an over spend of £7.99 so I'm declaring January at £326.95 Ah well onwards and upwards :rotfl:

I also bought lean mince beef at £5 for 2 packs which seemed very reasonable to me. They will be eaten in February so I will put them on that challenge.

Thanks for all the advice & tips that are so generously shared throughout the month :A

carolt2

Afternoon all :wave:, Just popped in to update signature and catch up on thread.

OH spent a total of £16.39 yesterday on his way to work.

Mrs Mc would like to declare at £146.55/£1800 for year so far.

earthmother

I'm declaring for January at £269.17 from a budget of £280 - that's the first time I've come in under budget since I started properly back in May! :j

I thought I was going to go over again at one point this week, and couldn't work out why - then I realised I'd counted some nappies into the budget, and they have their own money, so out they came .

Still think it's a fluke though :rotfl:



With that in mind, I'm keeping my budget for February at the same level - £280 (£70 a week) - but I've already done some shopping towards that this week because of offers, so in real terms I'm going to be working to a budget nearer £50 a week.

Can't see a problem with that right now - the pantry, fridges and freezers are all full - so once I've done the stocktake on Monday I'll get my menu plans done. If I can pull it off 2 months in a row, then hopefully come March I'll be reducing the budget

RuthG

Not likely to spend anything else today so declaring total for January of £62.58 out of £200.

New target, still going to be £200 for February, as I may need to replenish some stocks.

Ruth