September 06 Grocery Challenge

Shopping_Bag

Hello, I'm new and hope that I've got this posting right.

When I was reading about shaving money off of monthly budgets I thought you might like to know about a book I've used. Its called The Complete Tightwad Gazette by someone with the surname Dacyczyn. Its American so it isnt always relevant and can include extreme saving methods but contains some really good ideas. Just reading it made me feel like saving money was fun and it just made sense to stop giving money away to other people unnecessarily. Amazon do it for £9.43.


QUOTE=Pink-winged]Hello everyone

Another new month is about to start, for most of us, while some of you are already well into things.

As always this challenge is to reduce your own grocery budget to levels that you will be pleased with, not forgetting that we always recommend that you stay inside your own comfort levels and take things gently one step at a time.

If you are new to the challenge I have quoted the advice from Galtizz below which will help you get started.

Please post into this thread for help and advice and support at any time. Good luck to everyone taking part!




Pink

[/QUOTE]

sluggy1967

I'm going to try to cut down on food bills as well, I need to get back into the habit of using Lidl - used them a lot when my son was a baby because their nappies are REALLY good, I actually preferred them to pampers! Can anyone recommend a good alternative to Whisker's pouches? I have 2 fussy cats!

sammy_kaye18

Just lookd at my tescos vouchers today to see how much i have and what i can take to tescos today - figure im going to stick to my £45 for every 2 weeks (this includes the £5 taxi fare home though) becasue we dont have a car, bus would be a nightmare and we dont use credit cards because bf has debt of £15,000.

Anyway ive just looked through all my tokens and have found out that ones i have from last month are still in date and i can get myself 225 extra points today - plus i have about 5 bags for life that im going to take with em too today so ill get a few green points.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

hubby's going to the bank this morning taking £100. out. for the week..... £50. for the shopping purse.... and the other £50. is for electric tokens petrol ..coal... when we light the fire etc....water rates.. as this is paid by book..... so i havent even got the money in my sticky palms yet... and i'm panicking... about how we're going to manage..:eek: ...deep breath... and have a cuppa i think..........

Karb

I have to feed 2 adults, 5 kids a fussy cat who will only eat Whiskas or Felix and only in pouches, and an evn fussier dog who will only eat fresh meat.

August was my first attempt at this, and I'm really pleased to have stayed within my £400 budget, albeit with only about £4 to spare.

Was a real struggle, but essential I stayed within budget, as I had eldest son, eldest daughter, and wife's birthdays, plus car insurance and road tax all in August.

The challenge for September is £400 for groceries and petrol. August was for groceries only - I spent another £40 on petrol.

I think this is going to be a tough target, but on the plus side, there's one less day in September, kids are back at school, and i'm hoping my house move goes through this month, or at least we are given a moving date, so I can just run down what's in the cupboards and freezer.

Good luck everybody.

schoolfundraiser

When my breadmaker started not mixing properly at the beginning of the summer and it was hot I started buying bread but find that having to keep popping into the supermarket every few days for bread means I spend extra on impulse buys.

Normally I do a big online shop every 3 to 4 weeks when the flour delivered will keep me in bread for that period and I only have to go to the greengrocer and perhaps visit Somerfield for their reduced meat early on Sat ams. But the need to get bread took me all through the shop so I spent more.

So back to the breadmaker I think. Or I have found a recipe for microwave rolls so I may use it to knead and raise the dough then bake it in rolls in the microwave. My main problem is arthritic wrists so kneading bread dough for 2 or 3 lots of 5 mins can be a bit of a strain!

Now its not hot I can cook properly again which should reduce the food bill as I can buy the cheaper meat cuts for long slow cooking and do my own soups from stock.

I could of course buy a load of bread at once and put it in the freezer but I prefer to use my freezer space for high value items such as meat bought in bulk. My chest freezer is only a medium sized one and by the time it has a months's worth of raw and cooked food in it there isn't that much space left.

Debbie_Hobdell

icklejulez wrote:

Can anyone advise me where to start as this is one of our biggest prob's. Groceries cost us around £400quid pm. Is there a thread I am missing with meal ideas recipes etc for cost cutting as even when I try to cut down we dont save much.

I hoping for £160 food and toiletries etc for 2 adults 1 toddler
and
£80 for baby nappies, wipes, jars babyfood and all the other paraphanalia for 9 month old.

S0 £60 pw for all this. Is this realistic???

I'm not the best person to advise, but here's some tips I'd reccomend based on recent personal experience. Apologies if anyone feels I'm stating the obvious! At present ALL my grocery shopping etc is having to go on Credit Card, so anywhere I can make savings is an absolute necessity, and if I can help someone else save through my mistakes then it's a bonus.

1) I've managed to save about £20 over the last 2 weeks by getting what I
can at Aldi/LIDL/Netto then going to Tesco etc to finish off. It's a bit hit &
miss - some products I don't like very much whilst others are just as good if
not better. It's also a pain having to go to 2 places sometimes, but worth it
if I can save around £50 per month!

2) Check out the "end date" on special offers, and don't get speical offer
stuff (BOGOF/ save £2 etc) unless you really need it. If an offer is finishing
that week or the next, it probably makes sense to stock up, but if the
promotion lasts longer than that and you don't need something straight
away, wait until you do need it or the offer is nearing its end.

3) Know what you already have at home! Ended up with 3 lots of Aunt
Bessies chips recently as they were only £1 each. Bought 2 packs
forgetting that I already had some at home. This is a common occurrence
with baked beans & tinned tomatoes as well!

4) See what meals you can make with stuff you already have in the
freezer/cupboards. I could probably use half the stuff and still have some
reserve supplies.

5) See if simple measures can make things go further - eg I use liquid soap,
and recently have tried diluting it a little. Doesn't make it any less
effective as long as you don't put in a lot of water!

Debbie

Debbie_Hobdell

In response to swizzles post (#67)!

I haven't used any delivery service for a long time, partly for cost factor, partly because we used to have so many problems with incomplete orders.

If a significant amount is missing and you make a fuss, you should at least get your delivery refunded, if not a little more as a goodwill gesture. It does seem to depend on your attitude (firm but not too bolshy) and the person you are dealing with at the other end.

Although writing is not everyone's idea of complaining, I have found it gets better results if the phone conversations do not result in what you consider to be a satisfactory response.

mmsparkle

Well I've read the thread. Great idea!
I have no idea what we spend normally; (boyf and I) but will look at bills for this month. Going to try to keep it down to £70 for the both of us, which we should manage as we're away for one week. maybe that's a little optimistic though...
Starting tomorrow... wish me luck!

Catrine

I'm in for this month too. Need to get weekly spend down to less than £30 (for 2 people). I agree with making friends with your local butcher/greengrocer is a great way to get a bargain.

My local butcher saves me the leftover duck (after removing duck breasts) which is excellent for making soup- tastes super expensive, but is just great and cheap!

Going to try and get my wine from LIDL instead of Tesco's.

Fingers crossed and good luck everyone!