July 2010 Grocery Challenge

Keiss_21

Like the idea highland fling...been toying with something similar, but not got around to it yet...perhaps this/next week!!!

Still in a state of chaos here after getting back from hols on Saturday. Got all the washing done in the last two days, now the ironing mound is back to a mountain range again....:eek: Perhaps I will get started on it tonight...if I'm not too tired that is!!

Going to finish my food stock-take today...must talk to DS1 to see if all his Uni stuff can be included in the food-for-all category now..then I can tidy it away..or use it. At least then I can get my kitchen back!!

Then it's the meal planning...sort of got it started...but want to do the next two weeks until the end of the month. Am going to get both sons to cook at least one meal a week for us all...they can do more if they want!!

Must get going now...enjoy the rest of today.

Long_tall_sally

Well I am still hanging on by the skin of my teeth! My new month starts on Monday but I only have a few pounds left. I need milk & bread but even with these, I could still make it. The problem is Sunday. OH loves his Sunday roast, plus we have his kids and mine and I have no joint of meat in the freezer for it. I do still have other food but its not quite the same is it? Mind you, we are having roast gammon & trimmings today because I am feeding all of us today & tomorrow and it was one easy thing from the freezer that we will all eat plus it is huge so there will be loads of left overs. Maybe I could use the left overs for a pie for Sunday? Decisions, decisions?

On another note, we had a busy day out in London yesterday - The Aquarium, London Eye and Madame Tussauds using our Merlin passes. I don't normally include money for icecreams on days out so not cheating by not including it but also feel a bit guilty as we spent more than we would normally as the kids seemed to be hungry all day and ate their packups, shared a McDonalds, had icecreams and also had strawberries and marshmallows in chocolate!

Sunnyday

Hi peeps,

just been tallying up and found that i`d massively overspent

Then i realised that i`d not taken the dog and catfood off the receipts so all is not lost I can`t go back through them and take it not now as i don`t have a lot of them anymore, as soon as they`re ticked off the bank statements i burn them so instead i`ve added the petfood budget to the grocery budget and deducted everything from the total. It dosen`t give a totally accurate figure but it can`t be far off as i`m stocking up the petfood supplies in advance of a possibly bad winter, i don`t want to be running out of food for the monsters so if i stock up now and we get snowed in we will be fine.

Sounds daft to be thinking of that in July but last winter the deliveries couldn`t get out to the shops so the shelves were bare so it makes sense.

I`m also making sure that i have plenty of salt, cat litter and bread flour and dried yeast in. If we don`t need it then it will get used up in the spring and the shopping bills will be lower

All in all i have £14.13 left over so that will go onto next months as an extra for stocking up. my August GC begins this weekend and it will be a five week month for us this time around so i need to work out the budget in advance. Mrs M i am declaring at £180 for this month please.

Think that next month the petfood budget will go into a jar and i shall pay cash for it. I`ve tried various ways of doing it and when i try to keep it seperate i get into a mess :rotfl: it dosen`t take much

Happy shopping peeps.

SD

gailey_2

Sunny day you made me chuckle with stockpile and snow comment.

However im desperatly search cheap 3wheeler for foraging walks and winter
wanted to buy candles in ikea other day and bulbs to prepare for winter hubby said im nuts its july and stopped me.

My mil is where I would go if a war she has usually 10packs kitchen roll/toiliet roll at one time, biys mostly tinned/dried food I draw line at uht milk.

Well every month I do this challange I fail by various amounts but it does least try to keep me to a budget and think keeps thinks lower than if I dident.
Thing is more realistic budget for us is 250 a month but due to circumstances could do with it reduced to 200.

i see families spend 150 and wonder how tey do it as I use cloth nappies, make own baby food and breastfeed still.

boots got original source for 1pound

lidls milk 1.09 or 2 4pints for 2quid cheapest i found so brought 4 as we get through roughly 4pints a day, also kingsmill 2 for 1.50 usually 2 for 2quid most other places.
spent 141 which pushes me over budget at 241, hubbys gets paid on 15th every month.

Hubby likes food equation 1pound each item so 141 items but we got 146items so even better.

The stuff i brought requires me making own bread rolls and bread.
baking own cakes and biscuits
making own desserts
batch cooking lasganes, curries,pies concarnes and casseroles and freezing.
Have to do this week to use up all veg as potatoes seem to sprout too quickly.
gooing to try making mango chutney for hubby
rubber chicken making last 3meals

Got annoyed with hubby he brough frozen pizza as wanted something snacky and couldent wait plus branston pickle as hes sick of my lovley xmas chutney.

right off to forage
got tonnes of cooking to do later and rest of this week.
making choc brownie later be nice.
sainsburys basic choc 29p ideal mashed up with rolling pin insteda of choc chips and cheaper.

sainsbury still cheaper on some things than lidls.

sainsbury basic bog roll 12pack-1.36
sainsvury basic pocorn 98p ideal for smuggling into cinima as hubby taking daughter to 95each summer kids screening.
sainsbury basic stock 10p a pack
brought 15 basic stuffing to try making stuffing and lentil burgers as useful standby.

determined that over next 3months will become smarter and outwit the supermarket and rising food prices, will reduce gradually maybe even reach allusive 150mark.

~moneysavingnovice~

My thriftiness with the groceries has made me pay much more attention to my attitude towards money in general.

And because of that... this month I've managed to pay £400 off my Barclaycard rather than the usual £50. I will get it clear by Christmas

Hooray for Mr S basics and paying down debt! :money:

~moneysavingnovice~

~moneysavingnovice~ wrote: »

My thriftiness with the groceries has made me pay much more attention to my attitude towards money in general.

And because of that... this month I've managed to pay £400 off my Barclaycard rather than the usual £50. I will get it clear by Christmas

Hooray for Mr S basics and paying down debt! :money:

I've actually paid off £470 this month! Woohoo!

meanmarie

Bought 'fancy' loaf this morning for €1.99...also had latte( from another budget) which I won't have again as discovered it cost €2.75!!

Marie

honeybun16

ok guys, budget is about to be blown completely out of the water, my family have managed to drink 24 cartons of orange juice in just over 3 weeks, so have no choice but to go to Cost*o, so figured i would buy what we are going to need for next months budget while i'm there so at least it will be only one trip, that should leave me with only nappies to get for next month but we will see. i'll let you know the size of the overspend when i get back:(:(:(:(:(

Kitchenbunny

Afternoon everyone - and boy is it a hot one! NSD on groceries today, but had to buy myself a bottle of water on the way home (£1!!) from the buffet trolley on the train as I was seriously flagging. That's not going to be included in the GC for this month though - that's more of a necessity.

Main shop tomorrow night, although at the mo I'm wondering what I can do for tea as there's not an awful lot in the house and I'm really not feeling like cooking. I think it'll be an omelette.

Have a nice evening everyone.

(A hot and flagging) KB xx

[Deleted User]

Hi All

I did the grocery challenge a few times last year and it really made a difference to our budget and eating habits (fewer takeaways!!). However, since returning to full time work last August I have rarely had time to post on the forum, although I have been lurking and as usual find it all very inspirational.

I would like to sign up for the August Challenge Mrs M and will try for £230 (that's £200 for food with £30 additional for cleaning products/loo roll etc). I am looking forward to getting started again. I may be a bit early to sign up but I need to get myself in check as I really need to start saving to get an emergency fund, pay off a loan and save towards setting up my own business - in that order!

Allie XX