January 2010 Grocery Challenge

dreamingofmoney

Hiya All,
Well am off work with the piggy flu,so am making the most of it, got DH to write down everything in the outside and inside freezer last night, OMG. I could feed this entire forum, so am hoping to come way under budget this month (touch wood). As i am poorly i can't get to shops, so apart from online shop (£65.50) that came yesterday i haven't been in a physical shop yet this month and can't see me doing so until at least thursday. There are some benefits to feeling poorly.

So including today i have got 3NSD's out of 4, that is a personal record, so well done me :T.

Good luck to all, your support is brill

Dreamer

mrs-moneypenny

im in again after falling off the wagon in the 2nd half of last year:o

im determined to follow the good advice on here and draw out a set amount of money for each week and when its gone its gone no more whipping the bank card out and spending more than i should (well thats the plan anyway

ill go for £400 for January but the cupboards and freezer and full to bursting so im hoping that that will give me a cushion to put by so i can fall back on the money i save this month when bogofs and bargains crop up in later months when the cupboards are less well stocked

had a low spend saturday when my only purchase was a £1.50 crochet hook:rotfl:
no spend sunday but today was a biggie with £4.88 in sainsburys topping up on fresh veggies and milk and i did blow £9 in the newagents on magazines and a birthday card.

on the plus side we had a couple of fee meals over the festive period as all the veggies that didnt get eaten (ie left in the serving bowls) got made into a soup DH particularly liked the thick veggie soup on jan 2nd and couldnt believe it was down to the fact i'd chopped up a couple of left over stuffing balls and added with the veggies.
Basic soup is
1 tbsp flour mixed in a saucepan with a spoonful of marg (or butter) add 1 pint milk and 1 pint stock then and veggies of your chioce (mine was chopped up sprouts, carrots, broccoli the christmas soup has some chopped chestnuts in which gave it a lovley flavour and the new year one had stuffing in. bring to the boil while stirring then simmer for 10/15 mins stirring occasionally. turn off heat and if you have any stir in a couple of spoonfuls of double cream and juice of 1/2 a lemon.

i used the left over quorn fillets by slicing them up and using as hm pizza topping on saturday

nellis10

Hi Folks, If its not too late I would like to join!

I'd like to aim for £60/week Grocery Spend only (not including petrol/clothes) so that's £240 for the month for me.

Did a Tesco shop yesterday for what seemed like Lunch Box essentials and still managed to have nothing in the fridge!!! :rolleyes:

Anyway, hoping with your help and advice and reading these useful posts to get it down to £30/week for 2 Adults and a picky 5yr old!

Any savings will go into my "Slush Fund" for paying off my 2 smallish loans early and clearing my credit card a bit earlier than April this year. :cool:

herewegoagain2010

It's another NSD for me too. My menu planning has been messed up, but for the greater good. I made hubby tuna pasta for lunch today, but he saw the leftover shephard's pie and thought that was a better option. The girls are now having pasta for lunch and I'll have a sandwich by myself. Saves the bread for tomorrow. We were having bangers and mash tonight with left over shephards pie, but I decided to make a ham,cheese and egg flan to use up leftover ham from yesterdays roast and some eggs.

I've also made a huge choccy sponge with yummy choccy butter icing and a tray of choccy golden syrup cornflake leftovers cake. I'm delighted as the cornflake cake used up 2 blocks of choccy, an antique tin of golden syrup (BBE 2206-eeeek!) 1/2 bag of dried fruit, some cocoa and a smidge of marge. It's very yummy and will be fab for a treat for DD1 and hubby lunch boxes. The children are back to school on Wedneday so am off for a long snowy walk with them and the dog.

I've not thrown any food away and it's the 4th Jan already. The bananas look a little ripe so will try and get the children to have them as a snack after lunch. If not it's banana custard for pudding, which would use up some buttermilk left over from Christmas quite nicely. My hubby thinks we've gone into war rations, but I'm sick of throwing things away and wasting good food.

rosieben

SAVEALOT wrote: »

Please can someone tell me how they plan a budget for groceries, and how to stick to it when there are offers on, really need some help please!

Do you have any idea, even a very rough one, of what you've been spending per week or month? or is here a maximum amount you can spend on groceries?

One thing that might help is meal planning,start by writing down a list of seven meals that your family likes, and check your cupboards to see what you need to buy for that list (dont forget to include breakfasts, lunches and snacks), then shop to your list; you can price up the list on one of the online stores or a comparison site like mysupermarket.co.uk

Try not to shop when you're hungry, and try to shop alone so no unexpected items find their way into the basket!

Pay with cash, not plastic! Some people take just enough cash out for one week, and when that's gone its gone. I prefer to shop online which helps me to resist unnecessary spends.

I'm sure you'll get more suggestions soon.

poppy-glos

SAVEALOT wrote: »

Please can someone tell me how they plan a budget for groceries, and how to stick to it when there are offers on, really need some help please!

hi savealot,
i guess there are lots of ways,
firstly though, if you don't like something don't put it on the plan, we eat so often doing so should not make us miserable., or we won't stick to it.

I look at what i have in the freezer and cupboards (still trying to empty one cupboard which is started in november!), and try to develop meal plans that use what i have.

When we have a chicken (two of us) it does 4 meals, firstly a roast, next day rissotto with the stock from the bones, onion, peas and parmesan, next day curried with rice, last day often meat in gravy with veg. This is sometimes referred to on here as 'rubber chicken' meaning it stretches for days and days...

I also look at the offers, and am trying to control how much i buy. I started december with half a freezer free and now have two full - the whoopsie offers in mr t on xmas eve and new years eve meant i had to buy the veg/chickens/fruit/meat. The chickens were roasted and frozen in portion sided packs, the stock made and in the freezer ready for rissotto.

at the beginning of this challenge there are lists of recipes which are good value, in fact cooking 'family food' from scratch is usually cheaper than buying processed, so they will assist.

hope this is helpful

carrieon

Hi to everyone. I know its a bit late but please can i join in.
I only get my money once a fortnight as i am on JSA. I dont get my next lot until 15th of this month. I do have quite a good storecupboard though so am hoping i can raid this for meals etc.
I think i normally spend about £60 to £70 a week on groceries but i would like to try to get this down to £40. (yikes is this possible ?) 2 adults and 1 15yr old.

So i am going to say £80 for the remainder of this month and then £160 per month after that.

Is that ok? what do i do now? ok i no i'm thick.lol

Mumof2_2

Hi, I'm new and would like to join in please. We're a family of 2 adults, a 7 and a 3 year old - DD has school dinners, DH takes a packed lunch and we have a cooked meal in the evening.

I think setting a target of £400 per month is the best idea to start with and then tweak it down as I get an idea of how things go. This will be for food, cleaning products etc but no food or petrol. Everything is just so expensive - I got a big box of tea bags and that cost me £5.76 :eek:

Just got back from Sainsburys and spent £78.60. I ALWAYS take a list or I come back with nothing I can make a meal with and I also plan the menu for the week so I have at least some idea of what I need. I use own brand stuff a lot from Sainsburys but some things (hot chocolate, fishfingers, teabags, sauce, washing powder) I use the brand I like best.

Wish me luck!!!

rosieben

hello and welcome carrieon and Mumof2 :j
Pink-Winged has posted some useful links at the beginning of the thread and there's also a list of recipes which are worth a look; carrieon - most people keep a list of spends and post here, daily, weekly or as it suits them - its motivating to see it in writing!

SAVEALOT

rosieben wrote: »

Try not to shop when you're hungry, and try to shop alone so no unexpected items find their way into the basket!

Pay with cash, not plastic! Some people take just enough cash out for one week, and when that's gone its gone. I prefer to shop online which helps me to resist unnecessary spends.

Hi Rosieben, thanks for your suggestions, some i've tried b4 like not shopping when hungry, but defo I need to shop alone, as the kids tend to make the basket slightly heavier:rolleyes:.:D

Also, i would like to try and shop online, but the service charge usually puts me off, but I think I should at least try it. How much do you usually pay, and which supermarket is best 4 a onlie shop please. I do check grabbit board here, and also ukhotdeals for bargain, mysupermarket for comparisons of essential.

I guess wont know until I try it I suppose.:rolleyes: