DFW Grocery Challengers -

calleyw

Oops did some shopping in Aldi and came out £10.67 lighter :eek: Only bought 13 items.

But I did buy coffee and tuna fish. Ummm very nice together I am sure. And had to get my fix of ravioli I personally think it is much better than Heniz and only 29p a tin. I only eat it about once a week.

So should fingers crossed not need to get to much more this month. Yeah right who am I trying to kid. Guess who has still not done a meal plan this week I am just so tired all the time and it does not help my husband is on nights this week. So that totally puts my entire day out. That as well as going to work. And been on my feet packing most of the week or stuffing envelopes I can hardly contain myself :j ( I never whine but I shattered at the moment)

I am like :mad: as I have been up since 4am and I am still going. Running on what I have no idea as I think that I am empty now :rotfl:

Still hoping for about £70 spend. But as I have already spend £51 going to have be a bit careful.

Think we are going to be having lots of things with potatoes in as I have garden full at the moment.

Yours


Calley

Hoopylass

Im managing well with not going to the shops! Just hope I can keep this up all month!

overbudget

sexymouse wrote:

Have said that I'd like to do this grocery challenge this month (I think on the August grocery challenge thread), nut no-one has answered how I budget this month. I'm going on holiday on 27th August - 4 September, and it's half board. :cool: The hotel for the week was £157 each (there is just me and OH), so my point is, do I include this in August or September, and how much of this do I include etc? Sorry to be awkward, just wondering how other people have done it? I paid for the holiday in full last month.

I checked my food reciepts, and last month I managed to spend a very frugal £99.13 for the two of us. :jI'd like to try and aim for £90 this month.

Not sure what the "right" answer is but we had a few days away this month and I haven't counted it at all in my grocery budget - it came out of another budget so all meals etc were covered from that (actually from our £2 coin "treat" collection which is now empty! :rolleyes: ). Am also now living off the leftovers from our reception last weekend which we self catered at home - again another budget (hopelessly overcatered in fact - but at least the freezer is now full of food - albeit unhealthy party food!). So my grocery budget is looking healthy so far this month! Not sure the same will be able to be said of us by the time we've lived on pizza, sausage rolls and quiche for a couple of weeks! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Not sure if this is "cheating" but would be very complicated to work out how much to put against my household expenses so I haven't!

EagerLearner

Hi all,

I have designed the following spreadsheet to help with Saving Pots and also 'frills spending' - you may find it useful for the Grocery Challenge:


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=238575

The spreadsheet is different to Martin's and is deigned to work alongside it.

One user has already modified it to reflect his debt rather than savings, which helps keep track or the total owed. Feel free to change it to whatever suits your financial situation.

This has been approved by MSE Andrea for distribution and I hope it helps everyone save a bit more money :T

elantan

well i have totally kicked my challenge to the kerb and failed miserably i will start again this month and will do my utmost to succeed this time.... how's everyone else doing?....sorry ive let the side down

lynzpower

Ive completely lost touch and did about 3 days into it :rotfl:

Shall we start again elantan. Today is my payday.

From the freezer we have 2 turkey steaks, and in the fridge a pepper, carrots mushrooms & onions to use up. I know I have noodles in, so today is going to be stirfry with noodles.

And maybe some sort of cake

Iriahm

lol! i was thinking the same but have just gone through and totted up all the spends.....budget was £120 and we spent £130. Went over budget because I spent £40 on meat at costco! got a freezer stacked high with individual portions of mince and chicken breasts that will last us several months(hopefully!!).

today is my pay day so budget is reset to £120! will keep better notes this month....

I xXx

EagerLearner

Oh, our month isn't going well... somehow I need to get back on track... Toilet roll and washing tablets (for clothes) always cost such a lot. I want to buy in bulk but in the normal supermarkets we can't and we have no car.

I always get the best loo roll deals (not loyal to any particular brand) - generally 12 for the price of 9 sort of thing. Re washing tablets I get the gel ones mainly when there is a deal on (buy 2 x boxes of 10 for £4.50 type thing) and we only use one per wash of clothes, 2 times a week or so. But still!

Any ideas?

HomeJames_3

Still got 2 weeks to go and were down to £30 left of our £200 budget but feeling positive at the moment(the freezer and cupboards are still half full). Ive been looking into bulk buying meat at the butchers but not sure if its that cost effective we usually buy from the supermarket but would be willing to pay a little extra for better quality. We used to go to costco for mince,chicken etc but didnt renew the membership and its 50 miles away so cant justify the spend. The local butcher does a beef pack for £70 it contains:
4x500g casserole steak 4x500g steak mince
4x200g rump steak 4x1kg silverside
2 family steak pies

The family one is £85 it contains:
4x500g steak mince 4x500g braising steak
4x500g home cured bacon 4x250g special pork sausages
6x200g rib eye steaks 6x200g chicken fillets 1x1.5kg silverside
1x1.5kg boneless pork gigot
Is this a good deal or too expensive theres only the two of us so it would probably last several months what do you think?

Snaggles

Oooh please can I join in from today as it's my payday too! There's 3 of us (me, hubby, & 5 year old son) plus a goldfish (she doesn't eat that much!). Going to start with £150 if that's okay as it's my first one, and then gradually reduce the amount if I manage to stay within budget this month.