April 2010 Grocery Challenge

Winchelsea

Changingme ,

I will need milk today to tide us over, as normally my next delivery is Tuesday (but not this wk as going away).

I have a voucher from S**nsb*rys for a litre of Just Milk FREE!! Haven't tried (or seen) JUST MILK before, but will pop in to see if it's available. I like that nice 4-letter word! (FREE I mean!) But the trouble is, I'll probably pick up something else while I'm there!

Spiggle

Hi All,

Just a quick update. Got a gorgeous piece of brisket (£7.11) from the butcher yesterday which we won't start on until tomorrow as we spoilt ourselves a little and got some lovely sliced ham (£2.05) from the deli in town to have with a salad today. Also got some veg from the greengrocer (£3.44). I did spoil my beautiful GD with an ice cream and have included the cost of that too.

So, our total is now standing at £210.53 and we only have until Friday to go so I'm very hopeful of achieving budget. Will still need milk and bit of fruit mid week but certainly not £50 worth!

I won't start celebrating until the week is over though.

Good luck to all who still have to finish the month, congrats to those who have finished and are under and well done to those who may have gone over but are at least aware of where the money is going.

The way I look at it everything we do is helping to take control and we must allow for living as well as saving. If you've gone over, are you setting yourself too hard a target? Remember, a goal that is unachievable is not a goal but a stick to beat yourself with!

Have a great Sunday and keep up the excellent work.
Spigs

Long_tall_sally

Just had our roast beef dinner that wasn't planned on our own, i.e. not with OH's kids even though OH's ex did ask if we could feed them today & then changed her mind after we had bought the potatoes & veg!

Declaring at £4.66 over my target for April as month ends tomorrow for me and Mrs M, could I be put down for £450 again for May please. Gosh, the months seem to be flying past! Xmas only seems like a couple of weeks ago!

Many thanks to Mrs M & everyone else who maintains this thread.

franby64

Afternoon

I'm getting towards the end of the month and I'm running out of money so it must be time to start mucking around with my budgets

Yesterday and today I have spent £39.62 :eek: - and now have £12.03 to last 5 days. I would have had even less but I bought some lamb, pork and gammon in T*sco's 3 for £10 offer and have put £6.66 on to the May budget as I won't use the pork or gammon this week.

I'm going to have to have a T*sco delivery on Wednesday and put it in the May budget. As lots of things are cheaper in a delivery than round the corner it makes sense to do this (plus I'll be skint for April by then ). However, anything from the delivery which gets used up completely before May will come out of April IYSWIM. I think this will give me a real April total.

Have a good week!

chewy62

HELP! Tried to join the challenge last month but lost my way through the month, need to really pull the horns in as have so many visas to pay off, and really don't want to go back to work just yet after having third son last February.
But have worked out that we only have £95 a week for groceries, (tax credit) and think I am going to really struggle here!
Any tips, have tried making my own bread, (used it as a doorstop!) and don't have a lot of patience in the kitchen.
There are my,hubby,DS age 7(eats like a horse!)DS age 5(eats like a bird!)and 14 month DS who will eat most things.
Any advice would be gratefully received as you all seem to be so sorted, thanks!:)

natsing

Hi All

April is done for me, as payday was Friday so I'm declaring at £144- just four pounds over!
Would like to budget £150 for May please as I have five weekends to buy over!

freakyogre

£5.10 spent yesterday - got some cartons of juice to take on a bike ride we went on today. Also got some plasters. Then went to Morrisons and got my salad bits for next week; lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and carrots. Got some shower gel (which was naughty as have 2 bottles on the go, but it smells delicious and I always put off buying it :P) Also got a reduced pack of crackers and some little things of milk to keep at work (like you get in a hotel) - we seem to run out of milk just when I really want a cup of tea, so I have a backup now!

Oh also got some lovely bright tea towels, but won't count them.

Keiss_21

Today was supposed to be an NSD, but DS2 found out this morning he had run out of lu****de, despite telling me last week he had plenty!! :mad: He needs to have some sort of energy drink, as he take it when he gets a hypo (he's Type 1 diabetic).

DH popped into Mr T and managed to get a six-pack of their own energy drink...much cheaper than the branded stuff. I asked him to get milk and carrots too, so no shopping needed tomorrow now. He spent a total of £5.17, leaving us £6.49 for the rest of the month...it's going to be tight!!

Me being stuck at home could well be a good thing this week!

Billie-jo

Have had a LARGE piece of pork in the slow cooker over night and this morning the smell from the kitchen was ……..........AWFUL:eek:
All I can think of is that the pork was off.:mad:
What a waste and what’s worse there was another piece also in the freezer from the same pig. :eek: So both joints are now in the bin and had to go and get a fresh joint from the shop PDQ resulting in a larger spend than intended. Would have had something else but mum was coming and she does like her Sunday roasts.

The putrid pig has also meant that my meal plan for next 3 days has gone to pot as we were having it tomorrow in a pie, Tuesday with cheese and leeks and if any left on Wednesday with roast pots and salad.

Oh dear, dear, dear this is going to be so tight now. We were also running out of milk and toilet rolls - actually got down to last two rolls, both items of which hadn’t given a thought to and also today brought 3 ice-creams at £2 each so all in all spent another £28.42 leaving me the princely sum of £15.75 to last until Thursday morning.:(
Hopefully tomorrow should be a NSD and have my fingers crossed that this first time isn’t too far off the mark.

slowandsteady_2

Hi everyone!

OK, so here's what is what this month, to the best of my knowledge-

receipts added up-£238.34
receipts mistakenly thrown away-guestimating at another £30 and thats probably underestimating a little

so declaring for April at £270. This is an estimate but a close one as i dont throw away receipts and dh only shops for a couple of things so i estimate thats about right.

BUT as i mentioned in a post a few days ago, my budget has been very tight since September last year and i have carried on tightening it but have got a bit excessive and overly cautious so i have not tried too hard towards the end of this month so that total is OK. I now know what i spend without compromising too much and i dont think its as bad as i was expecting.

Saying that, we are having a change in our house soon. I have been unwell for a while now and am off sick still, as i have been for 5 weeks, should be back now but i am simply not well enough and wont be for a while-not to work at the level of responsibility i am at now anyway. So we have had a chat and i am leaving my job and becoming a SAHM and dh is going back to work and not being a SAHD. I will do a few hours a week-via a nursing agency-to keep up my nursing registration and to add to the finances. I also have a job offer elsewhere (little responsibility, but less money but thats ok) that i should be starting soon should all the relevant checks be ok. I am going to ring tommorow and see whats happening. I would be happy to take that job, which is FT but at the moment thats the plan. dh is an LGV driver and will go to the relevant agencies tommorow and see what the situation is workwise.

So, anyway, GC wise, i am going to budget for £250 for May please Mrs M. A big jump from my normal budget but a more realistic budget that will be much more feasible for our family. This is an amount i can both manage to shop with easily and one i can afford when our current work/sickness/new job/role change issues are sorted out. I would like to get it down a bit to around the £200 mark eventually but will see how we go.

Sorry for the essay, i get carried away!

Thanks to everyone who runs the thread!