June 2010 Grocery Challenge

4kids4cats

Hi everyone. Just popped in to update sig. Have spent another £30ish on several small shops, but that's better than before when each small shop would have been £30!
Hipeechiq - thank you for the loo roll tip. It's funny, just before I read your post, I was writing my shopping list and wondering how on earth we get through so many loo rolls - from now on, they will be squashed!
I have £96.22 to last until the 30th which sounds ok, but should include 2 main shops - they will have to be very small main shops. I am away with work for a couple of days next week, so that should boost the NSDs.
Will come back and update my sig AGAIN after I've done my main-ish shop today.
Hope everyone has the same lovely sunny weather we have here.

rentawitch

stayed in a hotel in Warsaw Wednesday night. Needless to say the toiletries and pens came home with me

Spiggle

Moniker wrote: »

Had some bad news this afternoon - DD1 who is studying abroad has not been feeling too special these last couple of days with leg pains which a local dr diagnosed as varicose veins - a bit strange as she is only 26 and not exactly immobile. This morning the pain was much worse and she also had pain in her arm and chest and was feeling vey drowsy. She took herself off to the local A&E where they put her on a drip and are keeping her in overnight for tests. It's horrible when they are so far away (she's in Austria) and I am worried about her. We are supposed to be flying out to meet her next weekend and bring home some of her stuff, so at least I haven't got long to wait before giving her a hug! Kids eh! they are just as much of a worry now as when they were babies! Moniker

Moniker my thoughts are with you and your daughter. Mine is 29 and I know exactly what you mean about as much as a worry now! Hugs to you and hoping the time flies for you to go and see her. :grouphug:

Jane now that's real intiative! :idea: Good luck you deserve the orders.

miffythesmartbunny Welcome! :hello: you seem to have a good handle on your spending and so it's a case of reviewing where you spend and whether you need to spend. Have you done an inventory of your store cupboards and freezer? It can be quite revealing to find what is lurking at the back of cupboards or in the bottom of a freezer drawer. You may find that you automatically stock up on something of which you have plenty of stocks already. In a similar vein to mummyslittleboy do you buy your fruit and veg at the supermarket as a matter of course? Either a local market (I don't have one sadly) or your local greengrocer can often be cheaper. We don't buy meat (fresh or cooked) from supermarkets either. We use either the local butcher (fresh or cooked) or sometimes the local deli (cooked). Mind you plenty of people on here do use the supermarket (sm) for meat and freeze it so it's there for another day, chickens seem to be extremely popular when they are on offer in the sm.

Whether you shop online or physically, the most important advice is to make and take a list and stick to it! And I found last month that the 'offers' the sm send through/issue at the till such as £5 off a £50 spend often entice you into spending when you really don't need to. So when you have one expiring don't automatically go shopping to use it but rather think (as I didn't!:() do I really need to spend this NOW? The sm don't give a damn about our financial situation but want to ensure they part us from our cash as often and quickly as possible. The only other bit of advice I'd offer is to not be tempted to go shopping when you don't need to - it's often the need to top up on milk etc. that leads to going into a shop and leaving after spending £20+.

My head is still a bit rough today so i'm not going in to the office. Unfortunately I will have to go shopping at some point during the day and that means going to my nearest MrT which I absolutely hate (it's too big) and it'll be packed because it's Friday. AAaarrrgghhh! :eek:

Anyway I'll try and report back later with the damage from my sm trip and OH purchases at the butcher and grocer.

Take care all and keep up the good work,
Spigs

cw18

Been out for some bits I needed this morning (first spend since 14th), and spent £5.48. Still need to get eggs on my way home from work tonight, so that'll be another £1.74.

guccigoo

hi everyone another £10.22 spent today on things i forgot yesterday whilst at mr t. im already well over budget so ive failed miserably this month :mad: next month my aim is at least 10 nsd's and i will get to my budget of £220 someday (we all live in hope)

earthmother

Not posted for a little bit, but I'm almost three-quarters of the way through my month now, so I'm updating.

I have £24.17 left - which whilst not a quarter of my budget, is enough to finish the month off hopefully. I only need bread, milk and fruit, but DS1 has just started in the cookery club for the rest of term, and so my budget will really depend on what recipe he brings home today for next week - luckily I had this weeks recipe in the baking cupboard, but with it being near the end of the month, it finished off my SR flour and used my 'spare' butter, and the rest of the cupboard is looking a bit thin.

With the weather being so nice, we've not cooked quite as often as originally planned, so I have at least a week of meals in the freezer ready for next month - it's only a 3 week month (on holiday the last week and have a seperate food budget), so I'm feeling good about it already.

FelineFantastic

Afternoon All!

Have updated spends from today and I am £1 something over budget- oh well! I did start £50 lower than last month so.... hoping to not need much more til the end of the month- have milk delivered and make own bread so fingers crossed!

Moniker- (((hugs))) and very positive thoughts to you and your daughter- let us know how she is

Spiggs- Hope you feel better soon too- trip to big Mr T's may not be much of a tonic then!

recovering spendaholic- wow well done! Hope it is the start of big business for you- or a business as big as you want:T

Miffy- the market if you have one is fab for fruit and veg ( I got three bags full of stuff for £15 today) and also ours is good for cheese, cereals and pulses. Have a look see- also eggs on the market or at the butchers.

For me getting a milkman was the best money saver ever- it has stopped me spending a fortune 'popping in for milk' to the local sm's and coming out with bags full of stuff!:cool:

Have a great day everyone!

yummymummy05

another nsd today but I'm not sure if I have enough milk to last the weekend. I'm working all week for the next 2 weeks so I might do my weekly shop at the weekend rather than monday then I can go without the kids!!

I've just found an extra £10 in my birthday money in my purse?? - not sure where it's come from?!:j

just updateing my sig with my nsd's!!

Hippeechiq

FelineFantastic wrote: »

Have updated spends from today and I am £1 something over budget- oh well! I did start £50 lower than last month so.... hoping to not need much more til the end of the month- have milk delivered and make own bread so fingers crossed!

£50 is quite a drop to try and achieve, so I'd said you're doing pretty well

I want to start making my own bread (haven't made any since I was 16, which is a couple of years back now ) - I got the flour and the yeast last week to make but I haven't felt quite brave enough to have a bash yet

FelineFantastic wrote: »

For me getting a milkman was the best money saver ever- it has stopped me spending a fortune 'popping in for milk' to the local sm's and coming out with bags full of stuff!:cool:
Have a great day everyone!

Well done you! I think that's most peoples downfall - 'popping out for milk' - definitely used to be mine.

We get through 4 pints a day, so, apart from the days where I feel of a mind lug 8 pints home, I have to buy it most days. Icel@nd is the cheapest place for milk for me - £1.10 for 4 pints, so that's how much I take out with me - or as near to that as I possibly can - which simply removes the possibility of buying anything else, even if I wanted to

My spend today has been £1.79 for 180 Typhoo Tea Bags on offer in the Co-op - which was even better than the 80 for £1 offer at £idl this week (which I bought 3 boxes of) Normally buy A$da 240 tea bags, but they're now £3.50 a box and we drink a phenomenal amount of tea, so anything less than that is a bonus - and I draw the line at SP/Value/Basics Tea Bags......although it has to be said that I haven't actually tried them.

That brings my total so far to £217.28 - only 5 NSDs so far

Pablosmummy

Well I did my final shop for the month last night and just about managed to stay in budget! although I forgot to buy crisps for OH's lunch box, should still be in budget though.


I also got a massive peice of pork reduced to £1.27 so thats in the freezer. I havent had pork for years so I'm looking forward to that!