July 2010 Grocery Challenge

Winchelsea

First reporting-in of the month! Thanks to all who help set up the system - it really does help to have it.

I have started the month by spending nearly half the available budget on the first day! I have not included deliveries of milk and organic veg this time, as I pay for them both on direct debit. So that's £40 that I'm not even counting. Take that away from my last month's target of £100 (for me and the cat) and I only have £60, which is what I've declared.

Yesterday I spent £21.37 on a delivery from App. Food, and £8.87 in Mr S., which leaves me £29.76 for the rest of the month. Sounds terrible, but I have a big stash of stuff to use up, and milk and veg will of course turn up, so I'll mainly need top-ups of fresh items, like fruit for instance. It does feel achievable at about £1 a day - and today was a No-Spend day anyway..

I was talking to DD4, who also uses App F., and we've decided that if we do it again we'll do a joint order to share the delivery cost.

By the way, when I was on the bus going in to Bath on (I think) Wednesday, I couldn't help noticing that a young woman with a baby who was sitting near me was checking some till receipts and going through a notebook. I couldn't help wondering whether she was one of us! Maybe not, but there certainly seem to be plenty of people watching the pennies at the moment - I do agree with others who say prices are steadily creeping up - and that's before the VAT hike.

Winchelsea

I meant to add - I've started looking in the fridge before I go to bed each night and writing a list of what needs using next day.

Also, I've stopped using plastic boxes to store half-used things in, and use jam jars or kilner jars instead. This way, I don't miss things. Recently I wasted half a tin of chopped tomatoes, and a whole serving of what had been a delicious vegetarian lasagne, because I hadn't seen them. I know they didn't cost the earth, but it's the principle.

Doom_and_Gloom

Months budget is £115 - month going 1st to the 31st of July. Budget is for 2 adults, 2 chinchillas and a rat.

Spent so far £13 so have £102 left.
Bought - 8 bananas, 10 apples, 3 organic leeks - reduced, 5 carrots, cheese (partners), butter (partners), cola (partners), chips, Plamil vegan mayo, dairy free ice-cream (both my partner and I eat this), vanilla soya milk (my partner also drinks this :rotfl:) and chinchilla dust. Not a lot for £13 really :undecided although there are a couple of treat items there I know. Things are definitely getting more expensive . Oh well I hope we can stick to budget, if we come in under this month I will be suprised.

highland_fling_2

Good morning everyone,

really trying to use up some random store cupboard items. Made chicken tempura the other night with a box of tempura flour I had bought ages ago. I just served it with sweet chilli dipping sauce and side salad and it was delicious. Last night made prawn crackers, box had been in cupboard for goodness knows how long, but they tasted fine. Served them with remains of dipping sauce.
Now plan to use up packet of yorkshire pudding batter. It was reduced to a few pence. Will make sausages and onion gravy and serve in large yorkshire pudding for dinner one night. Also have packet of dumpling mixture to use up, probably was also reduced to pence, so will have stew and dumplings one night. I know this is a winter dish but will wait until a miserable night and pretend it is winter. Slowly but surely I will eat my way through my food mountain.

Trying to avoid going into supermarket unless I really need to. Yesterday I needed breakfast cereal but I just waited in the car while my sister did her shopping. Asked her to buy it for me so that I was not tempted by any other offers I don't really need.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I am of to tidy the garden hut now, could hardly get in the door last week, everthing has just been thrown in there during the winter.

shelley_crow

I've spent £1.90 on milk so far this month. My food shopping is due tomorrow so that will be the kicker. 2 NSDs so far though, not bad going.

muffin_man_7

Spiggle thanks for the no spend tip i will try this for rest of july it will also be good for me my body dont like the heat so hope that will mean more no spends right 1st a no spend yesterday not so good had to go to mrA to get my prescription usual chemist closed and yep you got it while waiting went to get the few thing we did need and ended up spending £56.77 there are a few items to come of that total as i like to keep food and non food seperate the till girl just moved the divider and carried on why do i bother? will go ajust the total and come back in a bit

muffin_man_7

just added up and ajusted figures are £56.77 should of read as £51.41 Forgot totl after multi buys so thats £5.36 better fo a start take of non food and my new total is £31.62 so not so bad after all leves a total of £68.38 for next 28 days today should be a no spend as im not going out so my £2.44 a day can build up before i do any more although i do need to take a few things back from last week so will have to do it on a milk and bread day going to make cheats pizza and salad for lunch costs £1 to make dep on cheese but it all gets eaten and there is enough for 4of us migh do wedges too for kids or baked potatoe decisions decisions of to see what i can do for sunday?

HoneyBee83

Hello

Haven't been organised enough to do the challenge yet but im planning on joining you soon! Been a really tight budget these past few months and have had to buy weekly.
I had debt to clear (which i've done :j:j) and we were living out of my fit-to-burst freezer so glad i've always been a batch cooker.Its been bad i've had to stretch the pennies like i couldn't believe!!But it made me realise how little you can live on when you really have too.Now the freezer is verging on empty so im going to have to work a little magic!!
This month i know of some bills that'll be popping up to say hello but....i wont be going back to my old ways and just to be sure i will post on the next months.

First im going to investigate and make sure i fully understand how it works :rotfl: ,any tips for a first timer would be greatly received!!

cw18

HoneyBee83 wrote: »

First im going to investigate and make sure i fully understand how it works :rotfl: ,any tips for a first timer would be greatly received!!

First thing is to decide what you are/aren't going to include.

Some folks include toiletries, cleaning products, pet food, take-aways, eating out, and all baby items such as nappies, while others don't (no, no, no, don't have unless at OH's and that's a different budget, don't do and not relevant for me in that order ). Some people include some of those but not all. I'm pretty certain that in the past I've even seen petrol included

Then you need to set a realistic budget. The best recommendation I've seen is to keep receipts for a 'normal' month and go through them to see what you spent and what fine-tuning you think you could do (eg. less snacks bought and more baking done, less take-aways etc.)

But don't be too hard on yourself if you over-spend in the early months - it can be a case of juggling until you end up at a budget you're happy with (enough to cover what you need, but not so high you might as well not have a budget).

I've been doing the challenge since early last year, and still have months I over-spend. But I also have an over-all annual budget, so I then work on a couple of months on lower spends to balance out.

pepsi-kins

Hi All,
I haven't spent much this week, since my Tesco delivery last Sunday, but scarily i am up to 138.97 out of a £200 budget. A bit annoyed at myself, I went to the co-op to get the chicken breasts on offer, to make chicken and leek bake, but I also bought chicken drumsticks which were on offer, now I know I didn't need them, I haven't menu planned them in for the next month, so why did I buy them? Also its my sis in laws birthday this month, and twice now I have bought a box of chocs to give to her, and twice now me and OH have snaffled them! might just get her a plant, instead!

Have a good week everyone x