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April 2010 Grocery Challenge

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  • Weekly shop done. Will need to pop out at the weekend for a couple of things.

    £1.50 for a dozen local free range eggs
    £6 at I***and
    £21.27 at Mr M's.
    Just noticed that I saved at MASSIVE £8.72 at Mr M's on buying 24 Muller lights :eek:

    Off to update sig now.
    DFW Nerd 941 Proud to be dealing with my debt
    August GC £0/£300

  • Sat here again thinking about things and trying to decide how best to budget. I dont know whether a weekly or monthly budget would be best for me. The problem I have is that I get different things at different times of the month. My child benefit is every 4 weeks, my job seekers allowance is every fortnight, my child tax credits are weekly and my maintenance is monthly and most bills come out on the 1st of every month hummmm HELP please im soooo confused
    total debt at LBM £4800
    Debt as of Mar 2016 £1790 Hope to be debt free July 2016:eek:
    Sealed pot challenge number 552
  • remmie
    remmie Posts: 479 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Well......Went to Mr A's saturday, haven't worked out how much I spent yet but I know its not going to be good. On the list was mainly f & v, and salad stuff. Was horrified to find an iceberg lettuce and 6 tomatoes came to over £2, and the 2 heads of broccoli I picked up came to £1.39 :eek:

    This is really going to send me over budget this month, I will either have to increase my budget due to the rising prices, or go through the receipts to see where I can cut down or what I can cut out.

    Maybe I should take the dog food off, this would leave around £100 which should be doable for the two of us. The trouble is that OH doesn't eat pasta or rice, so thats quite a few cheapo meals out of the window.

    Im rambling now (I call it thinking aloud). Off to look at those receipts.
  • Cleosmum
    Cleosmum Posts: 2,673 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Week 2, shopped at Mr T, spent £34.58, sig updated. Lots of things still in freezer from last week, so will go easy and plan. Was hoping to just buy some fresh bits the rest of the month but lots needed replacing like washing powder, and I bought 56 pkt crisps as they are on offer and should do the kids for the rest of the months lunchboxes. I havent bought biscuit bars for lunch boxes this time, have bought choc chip cookies and going to put 2 in and see how they go.

    Just need milk and bread the rest of the week, and a packet of cereal for DS but thats a better deal in Mr M so will grab that tomorrow ;)
  • Spiggle
    Spiggle Posts: 1,787 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Sat here again thinking about things and trying to decide how best to budget. I dont know whether a weekly or monthly budget would be best for me. The problem I have is that I get different things at different times of the month. My child benefit is every 4 weeks, my job seekers allowance is every fortnight, my child tax credits are weekly and my maintenance is monthly and most bills come out on the 1st of every month hummmm HELP please im soooo confused

    Hi dreamywings1,

    Only you really know you financial position and the value of your income laid out above so it's difficult to advise. I'll ask you a couple of questions if you like (forgive me if I'm being presumptuous) which may not fully answer your predicament but may help you separate out your options.

    Does your monthly maintenance cover the monthly bills that come out on the first of the month? If so, either disregard the maintenance money or, if there is any, keep aside any excess.

    Could you use your child tax credits for the weekly/daily things like milk, bread, etc?

    Then could you use your fortnightly JSA to buy the fillers and important foods, meat, f&v, etc?

    And then could you use your four weekly child benefit (added to any excess that you may have from the maintenance) to do a monthly shop of the big stuff such as loo rolls, washing gel/powder, etc?

    Subject to your finances you could mix and match answers to the above questions to suit you.

    Whatever you do, keep posting and keep your chin up.

    All the best,
    Spigs
    Mortgage Free October 2013 :T
  • freakyogre
    freakyogre Posts: 1,465 Forumite
    Went to Aldi yesterday and got some eggs, grapes, a pineapple and some bleach. Shouldn't have bought the eggs as don't really need them for any upcoming meals, so will be using some in a quiche and will take some smelly egg sandwiches for lunches :p

    A total of £3.55
    Grocery challenge - Nov: £52/£100
  • first of all, hello:) im new to post but read for over a year . my weekly shopping bill is around £120 there is me hubby. 17 year old and 4 younger kids 13,10,7 and my baby whos 4 are shopping runs out by thursday i go shopping every sat,, any ideas
  • esmf73
    esmf73 Posts: 1,793 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic
    First thing - can you go shopping any other day - maybe Thursday? Just because I thought there would be more price reduced stuff available then. Other thing - can you bulk out your meals? So add red lentils to mince to make it go twice as far. I notice you're in N Wales - and having been there a few times I know that you might not be able to get to many of the shops that others talk about.

    Would you be able to make a bigger shopping trip once a month say to stock up on large bags of rice and pasta?

    Another thought is to get the children involved in starting to grow their own veg - well the weather is starting to get nice now and it would be a good way to save money.

    Hope this helps or encourages others to help you - just off the top of my head, will think of more if I can.
    Me, OH, grown DS, (other DS left home) and Mum (coming up 80!). Considering foster parenting. Hints and tips on saving £ always well received. Xx

    March 1st week £80 includes a new dog bed though £63 was food etc for the week.
  • vodkawitch1
    vodkawitch1 Posts: 1,033 Forumite
    Spent £8.20 today which included 12 second class stamps for my competitions ( never win very much these days). bought sweet potatoes, red peppers and red oinions and a bit fruit. Came home and made lovely soup as I think its cold today, enough soup left for lunch tomorrow. Keep going everyone I was really over budget last month but doing better this month.
    Make £2 a day challenge - doing well so far.
  • thriftlady_2
    thriftlady_2 Posts: 9,128 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker I've been Money Tipped!
    Sounds a fairly reasonable amount for a family of 3 adults and 4 kids. I could easily spend that on my family of 2 adults and 3 kids.

    How much meat do you eat? I find that when I need to be frugal then cutting meat down is a good way to start. we tend to have meat on 2 or 3 days a week.
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