May 2010 Grocery Challenge

winterfrost

Can I join in this month? Last month was a disaster, don't know how much I spent... so I have put my budget up by £10 a week to £160 per month. The one month in which I did manage to stay under £120 I put so much pressure on myself and had to think about it all the time, and I don't want to have to be like that all the time!

butdoineedit?

Right am going to go for £70 again.
Last month was appalling, a big shop sent me well over budget (didn't even dare add it up!! :mad:)

Now i've got the hang of the NSD's i'm hoping i can keep on track, so £70 it will be!!!!

huxley

Ok just checked totals so far £993.04 this year:o got a few bits to add on as I am adding things I buy for allotment so hoping the exspense now will be clawed back when I dont have to purchase veggies later:D making a note in the diary of a local LETS and allotment association seed and plant swap to help keep the costs down:T

Sunny_Donny

hi All

Put me down for £150 this month please after a horrendous April when I was £100 over!!!! will try to claw back from rest of the year
Everywhere is full.
No shopping day today, but tomorrow off to Netto for their 4 tins of tuna for £2.00 - tenner to spend there which will keep hubby in sandwiches for a while

Did shop yesterday £14.58 in Lidl (includes 2 portable bbq's for Sun holiday in Spetember)
£5.00 in Iceland - burgers x 2 packs, mixed peppers and garlic baguettes - their burgers 4 for £1 in purple box are lovely
Mr T's £29.53 - includes new heads for electric toothbrush and 3 for 2 vitamins
Wilco's Water £20.86 - water filter cartridges, black dye for faded jeans, fish food etc
Sainsbugs - £2.97 - honey and 4 of the 30p value veg.

Jeans now beautifully black and everything put away.

Milk defrosting from freezer, out for lunch so nothing til tea time!!

Wortle

Hi, I'd quite like to join this BUT what do you folks do about store cupboard use?

dreamywings1

Morning,
my month started yesterday and Ive managed a NSD hopefully it will be the 1st of many. Shouldnt have to spend anything today either as im going to work shortly and by the time ive finished the shops will be shut.
Hope everyone has a good month
HUGZ
Dreamyxxx

Keiss_21

Hya all, just totted up all of yesterday's receipts...oh boy...managed to spend nearly half the month's budget in one day, a total of £172.17!!! :eek::eek:

This includes a big Mr T online shop (£147.77), as well as some bits in town.

We now have enough food in the fridge, freezer and cupboards to do us most of the month...will update my food-in-the-house list today, and draw up a final (for now!) menu plan for the next few weeks.

Wortle - not sure what you mean about store-cupboard use...in what way? I try to use up as much as I can before re-stocking, unless anything that I use regularly comes up on offer...then I get a few more. I tend to count what I spend, when I spend it. Some folk spread the cost of some larger bulk-buys over the coming months in advance. I am not sure if I could cope with this, and as we have a small, very old cottage, there isn't much room to store excessive amounts, though I do try!

I had to restock all my flours this month (hence the larger than usual Mr T bill!). I make all our bread, and do lots of baking, so I go through loads. I also cook in large batches, then freeze them and they get used throughout the month. I could never keep track of whether I count when I buy stuff, or when we eat/use it! My reasoning is that everything balances out over the year, some months there will be bigger spends than others. I just have to make sure I don't keep on buying for the sake of it, so try to use up what is in the house already asa we go along! . Some folk do indeed have Annual GC's rather than monthly (or both!). It just depends how you want to organise things...there are no hard and fast rules here...everyone is just trying to save money.

I have found I can usually get away with one large on-line shop a month, and another biggish one in person later in the month (DH usually, I have a bad back). Then we get some other bits and pieces from other stores (Lidl - noodles, dog food, cola, Aldi - F&V on offer, meat, yoghurts etc) ) as well as weekly trips to the local green-grocer, who has the cheapest free-range eggs around, as well as fantastic veg. At least this seemed to have worked last month...hoping I can do it this month too...it is the meal planning that helps me the most in keeping down costs. I try to stay away from the shops as much as possible, clumping my spends into as few as possible, enabling me to pick up lots of NSDs (No Spend Days - catch this mont'hs thread here) during the month.

I know I could/should be spending even less every month, but it is significantly less than we used to be spending, which is the aim after all! We are also eating better and more healthily.

Sorry for the long witter-on...hope this helps.

HAve a great Bank-holiday everyone.

earthmother

Can I go down as £280 this month please

It's a 4 week month this time around, starting tomorrow, and I'm hoping to spend as little as possible as it's only 11 weeks to our first holiday in 4 years, and the more I can save now, the more pennies we'll have for then.

I have a week of bread and main meals in the freezer and milk & fruit to Tuesday/Wednesday, so this first week at least should be a low spend.

I was a bit over last month, but for good reasons, none of which should occur again, so we'll see how it goes.

rosieben

Loads of newbies joining us :j

Welcome to CaraLaw, lilian1977, Aquamarina, determined new ms, mummyslittleboy, longtermlurker, pipersky, debsleypig, crusty toenail, flips, Wortle and welcome back starflower

apologies if I've missed anyone

Worlte, its up to you how you handle your existing stores but when I started the GC I didn't include mine in my budget figures, treated it as a bit of a bonus really

spiggles - great advice! :rotfl:

Spiggle

Wortle wrote: »

Hi, I'd quite like to join this BUT what do you folks do about store cupboard use?

Hi and welcome Wortle,

Not sure what you mean by your question so I'll guess and give a couple of answers but people far more experienced will be along soon to answer I'm sure.

Most do an inventory of store cupboard and fridge/freezer stocks at the start and then on a regular basis that suits best. For instance you may do an inventory every month to aid in developing your shopping list.

What is on the inventory is often used to develop a meal plan (this is something we're not particularly good at by the way ) either for the week or the month.

I tend not to buy replacement items for the store cupboard until the goods are used up or about to be. A list of items on the insuide of the cupboard door or fridge to mark off things as they're used up can also help.

If you do have duplicates/replacements then rotation is essential so that older products get used up first.

Many on here use the store cupboard goodies to do batch cooking which is then kept in the freezer.

Just for reference (and I hope this is what you mean by store cupboard) ours holds a variety of flours for breadmaking, yeast, malt, treacle, rice, pasta, salt, pepper, herbs and spices, sugar, syrup, and the list goes on.

Not sure if that's what you were after but the important thing is to join and make the challenge what you want it to be within your means and needs.

Hope that helps,
Spigs