January 2010 Grocery Challenge

pammyj74

had a good whoopsie day today got a whole cooked chicked for 99p
altogether got £9.94 of goods for £1.59 :j

total spent today to start me off on my GC this month is £8.34

RuthG

I have never done this before, but would like to be part of this challenge, if that's ok. My one big spend this year (already done) is food for my son returning to university. If I can be allowed to ignore that as part of the monthly shop (after all, Im not about to use any of it myself!) then I would like to set a target of about £200 for the whole of January. Reading other posts I was amazed that someone can get by for only £80 for two people this month - something I can only aspire to, but who knows? Perhaps in a few years I will be able to do that too!

Jaydee36

New to this so I will set my monthly budget at £150 for me, teenage daughter, cat and dog. Haven't bought anything yet as snowed in and living on left overs.

XSpender

Went to Mr M yesterday for the weekly shop and paid in cash as planned.

Stuck to my list except for stocking up on 4 x 4 cans of Bra@nston beans and the mince and onion pies and chocolate DH slipped in the trolley. :rolleyes: Why he needed chocolate when there is loads leftover from Christmas I don't know? He is starting a diet tomorrow so maybe that was it

Spent a grand total of £22.72 and signature updated. I don't think we have ever spent so little 5 days into our GC month.

We need to keep spending as low as possible this month as have just bought the travel system for baby due May and it has to be paid for by end of Jan:eek: not April as expected.

My plan is to use cash, meal plan, use up stores and most of all only go to the shop once a week.

fabforty

Hello everyone.

After a relatively successful start to the GC thread in December, I would like to join in again this month.

My target once again is £150 for the month, to include grocery shopping and toiletries. Fortunately, I tend to buy store cupboard items in bulk, as well as basic toiletries such as toothpaste and soap - and usually have enough to last me a few months just in case... (my emergency rations). My new plan is not to buy anything that I already have, until I have used it all up. I managed to have a NS week in December plus 7 individual NSD, and my goal is to do manage the same again (at least) in each of the coming months.

I haven't bought anything yet this month - it's only three days in - and as I don't return to work until a week on Tuesday (12/01), I should be able to survive on what I have in the freezer and cupboard until next week, which would mean kicking the new year off with another no spend week.

Good luck to the rest of you - I look forward to reading your posts and updates.

herewegoagain2010

I've just added up all the receipts from my shopping yesterday. It came to a whopping £94.90, which is a huge chunk of my budget. I did managed to stock up on tins which were on offer and will do hubby for a warm lunch at work. I've got loads of pack-up basics for my eldest daughter at school and my hubbies homemade tuna pasta is sat ready in the fridge for tomorrow. The menu is great, as I know what to defrost and when. All I think I'll need for the rest of the month is the basics fruit,veg,milk and bread. I'm feeling really confident and organised for a change. We had a lovely roast ham today with all the trimmings and I'm amazed how lovely and fresh frozen veg tastes :-)

Threebabes

Hi

Anyone got any tips where I can start to control my food shopping bill please?

I dont so much want to do a challenage just learn some easy tips to start with on how to not spend as much but still provide my family with healthy meals for tea and packed lunches for a dinnertime. We are 2 adults and 3 kids who are 14, nearly 10 and 6. All good appetites and will mostly eat most things, though my 6 yr old can be fussy.

Some of these threads are so long :eek: and frighten the life out of me LOL.

Big thank you.

:=)

SunnyGirl

Have you tried down sizing on your brands at all? So if you usually buy say Tesco Finest range try the Tesco ordinary range and the Value/Basics ranges for things like dried pasta, tinned tomatoes, bin bags, cling film, tin foil etc where you won't notice the difference so much. It works amazingly well.

Also have a go at meal planning & writing a shopping list. That way you know what you're buying, what meals to make with it, and it should help cut down on impulse buys - which we all do lol!

Have a read of the first few posts of the Grocery Challenge thread especially the recipes starting on Post 3. There's some amazing recipes - all homemade & ranging fron very cheap, filling & healthy to sweet treats and dinner party style dishes. HTH.

Linda32

Hello all, I said £240 for the month so thats £60.00 for the week. My week started on 31st December (so Thursday this week to Wedenesday next week) - helps me keep a track.

Have changed my calculations to monthly £240.00 to finish on 28th January, that will be 4 weeks at £60.00 per week

Already spent:-

£51.39 - Tesco
£10.29 - Co-op
£2.23 - Tesco

£63.91 spent

NJW69

Not done this before so don't know what I spend so going to estimate £350 for January. Did first food shopping today since before Christmas and spent £66 but this should last a week.