February 2010 Grocery Challenge

herewegoagain2010

Can I join in for March please? I'd aiming for £250 for 2 adults, 2 children and a dog and will vow not to buy any cleaning products. I think I may need wash powder this month, but will stretch the last in the box as long as I can. My month is running from 25th Feb to 25th March. I'm aiming to clear at least one draw out the freezer and use up at least 10 tins out the cupboard. I need to finish my meal planner for the month and make a shopping list for the week. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE! x

PennyGrabber

My new month started yesterday. I spent some of the weekend doing my meal plans for the month from what is in the cupboards and the freezers, and then made two lists - one for the things to get now, and one for the things i will probably need later in the month.

Because i enjoy supermarket shopping, i went out on the first day of my March, and bought the things on the first list, while keeping an eye out for the things on my second list to see if they were on offer at all. I spent £52.45, which is over half of my month's budget, BUT, i have everything except for fruit and veg, milk and bread. I do have frozen bread, and enough stuff to make bread for the month, so i won't buy that unless it's whoopsied.

Oh, and I'll need eggs. And ham for sandwiches. Does anyone else have that problem?!! The oh and... problem!!!

NSD for me today. Will update sig later as i'm at work at the mo and should be doing other stuff...!

PG x

coffeeholic_2

Food shop today was today, pleased to report only £28.64 at Lidl.

So I am under budget for this month which I am super chuffed about, ok so it was a shorter month which I am sure contributed a little to my fuller purse

Declaring for Feb at £160.83.

I will try for a budget of £170 for March, and hopefully get my spends a little lower still.

PennyGrabber

Oh, meant to say, declaring Feb at £144.33 out of £150:T

Also, target for March is £100

Thanks for all the hard work people (don't want to miss anyone out!) do in compiling our lists etc. It's very much appreciated. x

Long_tall_sally

Penny Grabber - that sounds like a good idea doing 2 shopping lists of needs now & possible needs later!

Well I have completely lost the plot, unfortunately! I am sitting here thinking "enough is enough, get a grip, stop making excuses etc, etc!" I didn't really need to go shopping today, as things could have waited until at least Friday, pay day or possibly even Monday, the first of the month but again I had conditional spend vouchers to use. So £27 odd spent at Mr T's, £76 Mr S's, £10 Home Bargains, £7 Farm Foods & £12 Co Op! So nearly £150 over target!!!

I would like to set my target again at £450 for March please Mrs M and hopefully that will be third time lucky. I am also thinking about trying to completely claw back the over spends in Feb and a bit in Jan by trying to spend no more than 3 lots of £450, i.e. £1350 by the end of March but need to work out my total spend so far & what that leaves me. Be back shortly!

BlimusOreilly

Whoops! It's teh first time I have gone over budget in the GC - I am usually able to reduce each month. Maybe that means I've found a natural and do-able budget. Over by £16.06 and I'm not going to declare yet as I may need some milk before the end of the week.

£13.85 spent at Mr Ts and £16.16 on an Approved Food order, which I was pretty happy with except for the missing cases of Falafel mix (£1.98 for 12) which was the main reason for ordering in the first place! Not too chuffed that they substitued 24 packets of salted peanutes - they aren't going to help with the diet now are they?

elizabunny

Hello everyone,

I'm a bit over where I want to be for February (Annual GC) but decided to stock up on the 24 Roll Pack of T Rolls from Li*l this week for £7.99. I now have 42 T Rolls -is this a record? I doubt it:D Also stocked up on tuna (7 Cans in stock now) and also Dishwasher Tablets which were on offer. I think I have enough to last me until October now:j I hate buying them because they're usually horribly expensive ....but I love my dishwasher. I really will have to reign myself in, if I have a hope of coming in close to my annual budget.

Keep up the good work everyone!

Long_tall_sally

Sorry, me again! Just done my sums and that would mean spending no more than £285 this month. In theory, this really should be possible because the cupboards & freezer are full (as you would expect after such a large over spend this month!) but who knows with me? So MrsM , I will stick to £450 for March please but will also try myself for the "balancing of books" figure of £285.

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.

So, sorry, it's such a long post but it is helping me to try & focus & think about what I actually have to do to reduce my spending!

losingpatience

I'm going to declare my spends for February at £227.13 as I'm refusing to go to a supermarket until pay day ( which is Friday )! Not a good start to the challenge, first month and went over

I'm going to aim for £200 again in March, hopefully I'll make it this time!

mama67

babyboysmommy wrote: »

I wrote about less waste on my blog today A wonderful sign that I must be doing something right :T

I'm enjoying the challenge as well. Have been cross stitching for the first time in years as I'm making a 65th birthday present. I have everything I need apart from a frame but I'll get one at the Range when the time comes. A cheap present but one that will be wrapped in love.

I haven't put my landfill wheelie bin out for emptying since 4 january and it is still less than 1/3 full.

I usually put a carrier bag worth (200g) into it weekly