February grocery challenge

tiff

Well done Fazer! Nice to see its working for you. I think I will take out the money next time too, see if it works better for me.

spidystrider

Well done fazer I too am sticking to cash as much as possible. I definately didn't notice how much money was slipping through my hands when I was using plastic. I have thought a couple of times about getting a cash back credit card but I don't think I'd be doing myself any favours!
I will be doing another shop tomorrow and luckily my MIL gave me her vouchers for £10 off £30 spend in Tesco, so I'll be using one of those tomorrow and will still have another 2 left for the next 2 weeks.

VickyA_2

Sorry fazer, we already get shop's own brand cereal. Don't notice the difference at all. (yes, I remember eating that stuff at school) Don't think that we could have got the stock items any cheaper as most of them were on special offer. It's just that I'm off to Italy for a month as part of my course and the boyfriend is incompetent at going shopping without my list, so it was a "stock up" for whilst I'm away. Hopefully, whilst I'm away all he'll have to get is milk, fruit and some bread every now and again. This weekend is going to be devoted to cooking up vats of chilli con carne and bolognese to freeze into little portions for him. AND he'll have a couple of cakes to defrost when he feels the need.

Cracking good budgeting there fazer. Will have to try that when I come back. At the moment I've got no time to think (hence why I'm here and not doing my maths assignment!).

spidystrider

On Friday I received a £2 off £15 spend in our new local Somerfield. This was a promotion on because it was a Safeway store up until last week. I wasn't going to bother as £2 isn't much, but I'm glad I had a look as they had loads of BOGOF and special offers. So I bought:

2 x Kelloggs Muddles for £1.65
4 x Robinsons Special R for £2.30
Huge bag of Mixed Peppers reduced from £1.79 to 44p
4 x Walkers 10 packs for £4, so 10p a bag
2 x Goodfellas Pizzas for £2.19
6 x Nouvelle 4 packs for £5.07
2 x large bags Baking Potatoes for £1.99
5 X Kingsmill/Hovis loaves reduced to 10p each

This all added up to £18.14 - £2 coupon, so £16.14 for a lot of good stuff

loafer_2

I have a lot of time for Summerfield’s offers, and most are genuine good value (not psudo offers where the price hops about a lot):

The bag-in-the-box wine in December was £8 cheaper than Tesco and the dishwasher tablets at 4.5p each with the BOFOF - Couldn't be beaten in my book.

Their offers change on Wednesday IIRC.

Justin_Credit

Hi all,

Oh how this MSE site has started to change my life. I am now close to becoming debt free and a saver rather than a spender. Although still very new to this moneysaving, it is now emerging as a major hobby of mine.

I have been reading the many great ideas on this thread and others, so I have decided to cut down on my food expenditure where I can. Yesterday I went and did some shopping, but before I did, I made a list and had a rough idea of a meal plan.

Then, I went to Lidl, I,ve never shopped there before. I guess I was a bit of a food snob, but now, having been there I have a totally different view and I'll be going again. I pretty well stuck to my list and got most of what I wanted there. Then it was off to Tesco to get the things I couldn't get at Lidl, again, sticking closely to my pre-prepared list and using own brand goods where possible.

My total spend for both shops was £15.85, which is for just 1 person as I live alone. I felt really chuffed as I usually spend way over that on any visit to the supermarket. I know I will have to buy some other items during the week (mainly milk) but that will only be minor expenditure.

When I returned home I had decided to keep records of my expenditure month by month so have opened an exel file for this. It will be interesting to compare figures month by month.

I know I need to tweak things a little. I need to make a written meal plan for the week and need to be really disciplined and stick to my list when I go shopping but so far, so good.

With some of the savings I make I am hoping to buy a slow cooker at the end of the month to try out some of the great recipes on the "Slow Cooker Recipes" thread.

Meanwhile I'll keep watching this thread for more ideas on moneysaving.

Justin

tiff

Brilliant Justin, I find this board has changed my life too. I was thinking about it today after my first day at work (not first day ever!) with what I am saving on shopping and other things and my new earnings we are going to be in a good position for the first time in a long time. We are also reducing our debts for the first time rather than increasing them.

Good luck with the shopping, just ask away if you need tips there are better people than me on here who can help

Brown_suga

hello everyone,

I would just like to add that i totally agree with Justin. After coming across this site accidentally, it has proceeded to become somewhat of an obsession for me!

I 've taken on board many of the tips, freebies, ideas, bargains etc.

And have been reading this thread for a while. I actually could spend £50 twice a week for 2 adults and 1 child. My other halfs sister also stays with us a couple of days a week while shes at uni. I felt thsi was just far too much and half the time it was junk anyway. I thought i was a bargain hunter but i am becoming much more shrewd

After becoming much more confident using vouchers (i did use them before but not as actively as i am now), i have been colecting them from all over. I also had the guts to complain about faulty products.

Coke sent me £15 vouchers (3x£5) for faulty ring pulls which i used in tesco no problem.
Buxton sent me £6 for awful tasting water
I also took some advice from another thread and sent some compliments to companies which we actually like, sharwoods have sent me £5 for this.

Since the 1st i have been very careful with what i buy. I bought neccesities twice last week (bread, milk, loo roll etc) as and when needed and using my vouchers spent a little over £5 each time.

On sunday i really needed to do my big shop, as i had nothing left in the cupboards (was also trying store cupboard challenge). I actually found myself not wantng to go yet as i had ran out of vouchers to use!! I registered for the hipp ones and had a feeling they would come on monday which they did, never mind

I made a menu plan and stuck to it rigidly, i found that by doing that you can occasionally splash out on the products you really want, after all its its about cutting costs not cutting back (i say this to convince myself that its alrite to buy dreft dark for washing black clothes @ £2.89 it was my most extravagant purchase!) I spent £33, and manged to get the young lad on the till to take the 2 sainsburys product vouchers which i couldn't get to use before, so i got £1 off, can't complain i suppose.

I also spent £10 at the butchers buying chicken and lamb. This should be enought to last us for a fortnight, and i'll buy milk etc inbetween.

Cooking from scratch saves money, your wasitline, and tastes better. I going to extend my february challenge to a permanent one!!

jazzyjustlaw

Tiff am really really new so what is a pm and its purpose and what is a gmail and its purpose sorry if you think i am daft but ok im daft.

Justine

tiff

No, its not daft Justine.

A pm is a private message. If you click on my name you will see an option to send a private message on the next page. The purpose of it is so you can have private conversations with people rather than posting on the forum.

Gmail is a new email account from Google. At the moment you have to be invited to get an account by someone who already has an account. There is more info here http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html

Hope this helps