February 2010 Grocery Challenge

SarahNeedle1872

Pay day tomorrow, and so the new month starts. Declaring at £346.99/£300 which is absolutely rubbish, and for which I have no excuse other than I seriously took my eye off the ball!! The next month will HAVE to be better!! But I dread to think how much I would have spent before if I hadn't been in this challenge:o
Sx

ragz_2

£3.50 spend on milk and bread - managed not to buy anything else! Still got a few quid left so I should jsut scrape by. Not sure what to do about March as it's a longer month. (I actually budget £400 a month for groceries in househld budget).

BigMummaF

PennyGrabber wrote: »

..... Does anyone else have that problem?!! The oh and... problem!!!....PG x

All the time PG The Offspring hate it when I ask them to pick up a pint of milk, cuz it always goes to at least another three items. I think a big part is being a mum with 50 million other things to think of at that particular split second they ask if you want something while they're out & I know in my case it's usually because I think in short-hand. Plus when was the last time you went into a shop & only bought the one thing you went in there for

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

....
I really feel that it is time for me to start "walking the walk" rather than just "talking the talk"! My life is too full of contradictions. I love reading this forum but how much do I actually put into practise? I do quite often make my own soup & do try to use up left overs but I don't bake enough or meal plan, partly because I am never sure how far a chicken for example will actually stretch, plus we have different amounts of people here some days a week. I enjoy looking at recipe books but don't cook enough & enjoy reading about nutrition yet although I do like most healthy food, I also like my wine & junk food and need to lose some weight. Out of all my friends I am the only one who pays gym membership & even though I quite enjoy going, I don't go anywhere near as often as I should & don't get my monthly money's worth. And lastly, I can't keep myself from food bargain hunting! We have recently had mice in our garage & had to throw out quite a bit of food like cereal & pasta that had been nibbled at! It's all very well stocking up on bargains for non perishibles but if I hadn't had so much stuff, I wouldn't have had to throw so much away.
....

*Raises hand sheepishly* Me too There was an almighty thunk the other evening & we couldn't fathom out where it had come from, couldn't smell any burning & the fuse box was fine so we put it down to the neighbours Opened my cupboard to put a tin of tom puree in there & everything looked...odd. The bottom shelf has collapsed :eek:

Can I have £217 for March please. My Baby has a b'day but thankfully asked for HM lasagne & I think I can jiggle a cake from that amount now we're not limited to popular cartoon characters

welshkaz

last day today for me and declaring £5.20 over which is fab to be honest im definetely saving well over £130 a month doing this challenge which is getting paid off my olympic challenge debt free challenge whoo hoo thanks girls for keeping me on track and the fab ideas.

poohbear59

2 NSDs in a row. Spicy bean stew for dinner tonight with 49p potatoes. I haven't touched my March budget yet but I know I will need a Mr Al shop very soon.

miss_cupcake_2

Well I'm afraid I can't really report a total for Feb because although I started out full of good intentions, the last two weeks have been a bit out of control :eek: OH's family visited us for 2 separate weekends this month (which I didn't know about when I set our £120 budget) so that blew the budget. I did try to shop/plan as MSE as possible but with double the amount of mouths to feed, inevitably there were more trips to the shops.

As far I know we have no visitors planned for March, and infact we have a 4 day long weekend planned away visiting my parents, so that should help us come in under budget this time :T Although my first attempt at the GC wasn't successful, I'm determined to try again

So, declaring over-budget by an unknown amount for Feb and a new budget of £120 for March please.

russetred

Posting an update on my annual total.I'm running below expected spend so far and thats despite splashing out on a takeaway and some seed potatoes and a plum tree.I'm really chuffed about that.The freezer is slowly emptying for the defrost but by my calculations I've still got another 14 days of dinners in there.Oh and I've still to make a vat of bolognaise sauce today so thats more to go in Aaargh!

kezlou

Hi all right i'm declaring £125.96 for February so £40ish under budget, could have done it £100 but a couple of takeaways i know i'm very naughty. We re doing the kitchen so its those days when were all so tired we just couldn't be bothered to cook. I'm added an extra £15 just i case i need anything between today and Sunday.

Made DS2 his birthday cake thanks to the chocolate fudge cake recipe on here, my god its sooo lush. I could eat it all myself.But i'm being good :A so far .

thanks again all will no doubt be on again soonish.

Jedilibrarian

Hi all
Declaring for Feb at £129.73 which is £29.73 over budget, going to go through my receipts to find out why this is.

I'm going to try again for £100 for March- I'll do it one of these months!! In any case taking part in the GC really makes me think about what I'm buying/cooking so it is worth it even if I'm not coming in on budge quite yet

JL

[Deleted User]

Double-chuffed to declare my February total as £148. My target was £200.

Thanks to everyone here, I have planned meals, made shopping lists and put approximate prices next to the items.
We have enjoyed our meals and eaten even healthier this month.

Sig updated today

Let's see if we can do this well next month - My goal for March will be £150