May 2010 Grocery Challenge

rosieben

unplanned spend of £11 today as our c00p had some good offers - ours is a tiddly branch and doesnt usually have many; also spent £10 at butchers but that was planned.

My freezer has more in it now than when I decided to empty it for defrost but at least I won't be hungry over the bank holiday.

Hope you all have a great weekend

ellemm

Back from hols last night, small spend today to stock up with fresh bread, milk etc. so Mrs McC please adjust my yearly total to £465.91 - thanks

Will try to keep within £120 for June, will need to spend a bit of time catching up with the thread!! haven't had Internet access for 2 weeks

greent

rosieben wrote: »

might also be worth checking out the Microwave Recipes thread - the link is in the recipes list on the front page of this thread; the top link listed is Curry Queen's excellent recipe for sponge and lots of variations including microwave suet pudding

Thanks for that - have done so - and have just made the microwave fudge from there, too (having found some OOD condensed milk in my cupboard) - first impressions from teh mixing bowl are go-oood!

earthmother

I'm declaring for May - but I'm not quite sure which figure to declare - the one that makes me feel good and is in line with other months, or the one that isn't so great but is true to the challenge I set myself this month. At the start of the month I counted up all my storecupboard stock and counted it as 'spends' - something which I haven't done in the past, but that I hoped would force me to squeeze the budget a bit more.

So, with that figure included, I'm £78.22 over at £358.22, but, if I don't count it after all (in line with previous months) then I'm £28.19 under at £258.91 - so it obviously worked as I've never been more than a couple of pounds within my budget before.

I also have a smaller storecupboard left than last month - about £70 rather than over £100 - so I must have got my menu plans more accurate and been less tempted by bulk deals and spur of the moment purchases.

I think I'll go with the lower figure (£258.91/£280), as that's true to past months and won't skew my overall figures for the year, but at the same time, I'm going to try again next month with adding the storecupboard and see if I can't get even better with the budget.


Can I be put down for £280 for June please.

Baby_steps_2

Hi,

Can I join the June challenge please, this is my first attempt so no idea how I'm going to do, but put me down for £200. I'm shopping for 2 adults (one that eats alot!!), 2 cats and this will cover cleaning products and most alcohol.

lilian1977

Well, I've no idea where I ended up as we kind of stopped counting after OH insisted on doing the £50 shop at Tesco to get the 5p off petrol voucher :rolleyes:

So, let's start again. £100 for June please!

spendaholic

lilian1977 wrote: »

Well, I've no idea where I ended up as we kind of stopped counting after OH insisted on doing the £50 shop at Tesco to get the 5p off petrol voucher

It's easy to get blinded by offers like that, and if Morrison's petrol wasn't already 6p cheaper than Tesco where I am, I'd be thinking the same. It's marketing psychology and something my ex husband would have always gone for too.

guccigoo

really pleased with myself today as bought a few whoopsies in mr s, im checking for whoopsies more often now i got 2 packs of 4 fresh quaterpounder burgers for 79p a pack and 16 fresh sausages for £1.70 :j they have gone straight in the freezer, had to squeeze them in though

MrsWoolfe

Hello All!

Not been able to post much recently, have been off this week with DH, birthday day trips and lots of wandering round places we haven't been before...lovely!

So managed to keep under budget and STILL have a lot in the freezer so next month should be good (fingers crossed!)...just did the shop for the bits needed for the big birthday bash tomorrow and am busy cooking and preparing as much as possible today to save rushing tomorrow- with a bit of planning have managed to keep the spend to £60 which is fab as this includes alcohol (DH has brewed a nice keg of ale for the occasion and I am making some cocktails to serve- but most people will also bring a bottle of something) the mountain of food to feed 30 people and some soft drinks...now the only worry is how to fit everything in the fridge/freezer!!!




hope everyone is doing well!


P.S The local butcher has been an awesome help packaging up plenty of meat and making things to order and making great suggestions of what I can do, spent £30 have enough meat for tomorrow- the BBQ on BH Mon and enough for the rest of the month! SCORE!
MrsWoolfe

BigMummaF

Herbaholic wrote: »

....I admire all the people on here who go from £400 to £200 in one fell swoop, but doing that terrifies me and I'm not sure I could cope personally with such a drastic reduction all in one go. I prefer the gentle gradual change, I reckon we won't notice so much if its done little by little and in reality we haven't. I shudder to think how much we used to spend on food and how much got wasted and wonder how much we'd still be spending today if we hadn't got ourselves sorted out :eek: I think it does us all good to look back and see how far we've come, when I started this post I felt carp because I'd come under budget by less than £4, I was hoping to come £25 or so under this month, but what I should have been doing is congratulating myself for spending on average £35 less a month than I used to, it's all a matter of perspective....I sometimes forget to say thank you so I'm doing it now, cheers :beer:
Herby x

Herby's my secretary & has eloquently recreated my inspirational meanderings

Lindy_-_Loo wrote: »

....first month doing this and Im amazed that we spend that much for the four of us. Gutted we went over

Yup..we're all like that when we began, especially when you thought you were being 'careful' pre-Challenge As many others say, it's the 'popping in for milk' I find hardest when that equates to at least a twenty quid spend. OK--it's all stuff that will get eaten or used in time but if you hadn't gone in for fruit for the kids lunch boxes, would you have made a special effort for BOGOF hairspray

lilian1977 wrote: »

Well, I've no idea where I ended up as we kind of stopped counting after OH insisted on doing the £50 shop at Tesco to get the 5p off petrol voucher :rolleyes:

So, let's start again. £100 for June please!

guilty as charge m'lud..I take me muvva shopping & just recently we've asked for a sub-total between her few bits & mine, just to reach that magic total What was really scary this week was I had an £8 off £40 in MrS, the bill came to over £70 & when we looked, Mum's dozen or so items were almost THIRTY POUNDS :eek: No washing powder, lumps of beef, bacon, nothing to say 'Oh it was x,y & z'. I haven't filled in my records yet so can't quite recall all the prices but I do know the 1kg cornflakes have gone up 24p since I got some last month :mad:..does make you wonder why we bother, but then I guess, if we didn't...where on earth would we be