February grocery challenge

tiff

Course you can Catz, let us know how you get on

Chipps

Hi, I am interested in joining in here, too.
This month is always bad as dh gets hardly any bonus money over the Christmas period. Problem is, I don't know how much money we spend on food usually ... soooo disorganised....
Our month started on 20th Jan (payday) & i have already done the Big Shop (Aldi, Lidl & Tesco) totalling £121.86, so only have fresh veg etc to buy weekly. Would like to stay as near to £150 for month as possible.
(ps this is for 2 1/2 adults & 1 child) If you want to know, the 1/2 adult is 19yo ds who isn't always home for dinners!

elona

Chipps

You do not need to set a particular amount - you could just decide to cook only from freezer for week or else see how long you could last without spending any money - or else manage on £10 for say 3 days.

Just do anything you feeel like and you will still be saving money.

Have a look at some of the older threads on moneysaving old style.

tiff

Welcome to the challenge Chipps, £150 a month sounds pretty good. I will have to start going to Aldi and Lidl but they arent that close to me.

Susan.O

I have been reading with great interest as to how you can do a weekly shop on such little money! So I decided to sign in for the first time today. I am looking for ways to reduce our grocery bill. We shop at Lidles once a week and get a trolley full for around 40 pounds. When we first started shopping there we were a little snobby in our attitude to the cheaper food but then thought if we try it and like it we will buy it again. If we dont like it, it stays on the shelf. To tell you the truth therse not much we dont like from Lidles. During the week we do find ourselves popping down to Sainsburys for a pint of milk and bits for packed lunches for the kids and spending too much on nothing.

Please keep the ideas flowing

Galtizz

Cupcake wrote:

Same here I thought I was doing well keeping to around £40 a week. It doesnt help that hubby like meat and 3 veg every night, and woe betide me if I served him sausages at any time other then breakfast. Looks like Im going to have to have a good read of these forums and see where I can make savings

A suggestion is to go to you local market. I go to the local 'cattle' market on a Saturday and there is a butcher there who does bulk bags of meat really cheap. He's one of these that gives it the banter so it's Saturdays entertainment too .

Last time I got 40 chicken breasts for £20 (50p each) they are nearly £4 for 3/4 value ones in the supermarket and the ones I get are much better quality.

He also does things like a nice bit of lamb plus some beef and something else (3 or 4 big joints) for £10.

Veg is also cheaper on the market than in the supermarket and you can buy a big bag of spuds, carrots, onions and not so perishable stuff ridiculously cheap.

I last went in summer and I filled the freezer, it has almost gone so I'm going again soon.

It doesn't fit in with the weekly budget but once you have had a blow out at the cattle market you'll only need perishables for a month or so, then you can save the rest of your budget for the next time you go to the market.

HTH

culpepper

I made a price book a little while back.
Divided it alphabetically and wrote down whatever I bought,where,weight and price.Then when I was in other shops,I'd write their price and weight down for the same thing. I had a column for pence per kilo as well.That made things a lot clearer.The next time I needed that thing, I could go where it was cheapest.
Its useful to do that when you are looking for bigger non food items too except in that case I write the price but dont buy the item till I've checked out the competition.

System

Tiff,

not wishing to critisise, but i mean it in the nicest possible way. Looking through your shopping list i have noticed that you buy Domestos. You know you could save yourself a fair few pennies by using the stores own brand. I always used Domestos myself until i decided to cut down on the branded stuff and only use Tescos own thick bleach now. Cant tell the difference between the two now, and my loo is none the dirtier for it. I notice too, that your shower gel is £1.98. I buy Tescos own Magnolia shower creme, which is 64p for 250 mls. You may or may not shop at Tesco, but i am sure you could find something a little cheaper if you wanted to cut down further. (I am really tight and am decanting Tescos own shower gel into my husbands Lynx bottle and for 6 months he hasnt noticed - but its not the magnolia one lol).

tiff

Not problem Judi, the reason I posted the list was to see if anyone could come up with alternatives. To be honest the bleach was on an end isle (promotion) and I just picked it up without thinking.

The problem I have with the shower gel is my husband. It was bought for him. The last time I bought it I bought Tesco's own and he complained that it wasnt Physio sport/Adidas/Lynx whatever. (I usually get whatever is on offer) He complained yesterday because I bought value sausages (I left the receipt on the kitchen table, duh!) I must admit I bought value squash today and decanted it into a Robinsons bottle. Thanks for the tip, will do that next week with the Tesco shower gel.

Couldnt believe the cost of orange squash, 0.16 for 1 litre value bottles, Robinsons 3 litre bottle £2.59. Slight difference and the value one was no added sugar too.

Thanks for the tips

System

Tiff,
concerning your husband try what i do. My husband like yours, moans if he doesnt have Linx shower gel. So for about 6 months now, i have been decanting value shower gel into his linx bottle. He hasnt quite twigged on yet that i am decanting it about half and half. The smell is nearly the same, so he doesnt suspect anything although on one or two occasions hes said it smells slightly different than it was 'in the old days'. What you need to do, is find a shower gel that is the colour of what he normally uses. Its a bit of a tug to get the top off but once you have done it once or twice its easier.

Also my husband moans about the amount of value products i buy, that is why i tend to stick to value cleaning products and soaps and the stuff i think i can get away with so i know what you mean.