August 2010 Grocery Challenge

ChocClare

Well, things have clearly gone the way of the pear this month - have just done my last shop and that has taken me well and truly OVER for this month - to be fair I did have four extra teenagers staying for a week which I hadn't budgeted for and WHO ATE FOR ENGLAND; and, because we were on holiday, DH said let's do a Waitrose shop - always a killer. But delicious. I think I may have conveniently *forgotten* one receipt actually, and the total may be nearer £400 :eek: Oh well, onwards and upwards, September is another month etc. etc.

In more exciting news, I cashed in £25 of Tesco vouchers on the double-up deely and got £20 of cat food and £30 of fluffy new towels in exchange for five measly bits of paper, none of which had the Queen's head on 'em. Free, gratis and for nuffink *does celebratory dance* :j

Yes, yes, I know I've had to spend the money chez Tesco to get the vouchers in the first place but... I have a cat food store :T and TOWELS :T

New mantra is: I shall do better in September. August is holiday. And it rained. So we needed cheering up.

Ahem! I shall do better in September...

angelatgraceland

Well ChocClare if it rains in September(and it always does)you have towels to get dry with! And a contented puss to sit on your lap I suspect. What a great feeling though when you get freebies like that! Coop gave me a voucher for £8 off an £80 shop-err-thay MUST be joking! The way Ive trimeed it down recently they will be lucky to get a £40 shop-vouchers or no vouchers.

Hippeechiq

Spiggle wrote: »

Hi mongmoney

Having food in the freezer is not cheating at all. Most of us advise you do a 'stocktake' of cupboards, fridge and freezer at the start of your challenge. That way you know what you have in - you can also stick lists inside cupboards or on the freezer door if you want to.

Doing a stocktake starts you off on the right foot for any future shopping - when doing your shopping list (THE most important tool in your armoury!:D) you can check the lists for what you already have.

One area where a lot of us end up spending more than we intended is the 'just popping out for ...' where we forget milk or bread or one of the other staples. So when you do your shopping list always check your staples and if they will run out tomorrow then buy them in one go.

Another useful tool is to set yourself a target of non shopping days (NSD) per month. It's just an extra push.

Browsing in shops can be fatal to your challenge so as much as possible don't do it.

Others on here will give you lots of advice regarding menu planning which really helps a great deal. The recipe lists (always at the front of a new month's thread) give fantastic tasty tried and tested recipes. There are also a lot of other threads that give advice and recipes such as Weezl's thread.

For me, whether you shop online or on foot, ALWAYS make a list and STICK TO IT. You will be amazed at the difference this one small act will make to your shopping habits. If you get tempted by something not on the list (and we all do ) ask yourself 'Do I WANT it or do I NEED it?'

Good luck to you and all the newbies who are joining us - you have come to exactly the right place for support, advice, hugs and inspiration.

Always remember, whether you make your target or not you can just about guarantee that what you have spent will be lower than if you weren't looking.

Take care,
Spigs

Hello all newcomers - welcome to the challenge :wave:

Spigs advice pretty much covers it all

Also worth mentioning though is that it's always worth trying dropping a brand on a few items, e.g. if you buy Heinz Baked Beans, try supermarket own brand, and if you already do that, try their smart price/value/basics range. You'll have some success and some failures, but you will have tried, and for the brands you drop to and decide to stick with, you will have saved money.

If you home bake (which is a good way to save money) most smart price/value/basics range of items like oats, flour, butter, golden syrup, honey, dried fruit, cheap cooking chocolate etc., are perfectly acceptable, and can save a lot of money.

Having one veggie meal per week can also help, two even more so

I'm about to complete my 2nd month in the grocery challenge, and I'm so glad I joined. Everyone has been most supportive, helpful, friendly and a good laugh, and coming on here really does make you feel like you're not doing it alone, so do ask away if you have any queries

Another £2.20 on milk to add to my August spends bringing my total so far to £283.29 which is £8.29 over my £275 budget.

My new month starts Wednesday, but short of a cow wandering into the back garden (not much likelihood in all honesty as I live in a town :rotfl: ) I will need yet more milk before then. I can't believe how much milk we get through. Although DD and I are huge tea drinkers, so we're partly to blame

Hope you're now fully recovered NickJW I believe that's called a "learning curve" and most of us have been on that particular curve, lol

A resounding :T :T :T for those coming in on budget - that's gonna be me next month

highland_fling_2

franby64 wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your freezer Highland Fling


thanks franby, starting to fill it up again:j

ChocClare

Just had my Tesco delivery and they didn't have some stuff in stock, which has reduced my August outrage by £12! OK, so I'm still over, but actually I can live without the things they didn't deliver, so there's a lesson for us all there

We have a small freezer in the kitchen and I couldn't get into it the special offer pizzas which I'd bought for the gannets to munch through during their last week of school holiday so I cleared it out and rearranged it. Result: THREE meals for this week which had been buried at the bottom - a chicken for roasting complete with sausages and yorkshires; a meal-sized portion of ragu which I didn't realise I had and which can become spag bol or lasagne or cottage pie or chilli; and some of my fabby signature Chinese chicken which I obviously cooked too much of and froze enough for two some time ago, which me and DH can have on Wednesday when DS goes out and DD has veggie option (she is a vegetarian, I'm not just denying her food :rotfl:). So general result there, I feel! I'm sure there's a moral there too, about checking your freezer first?????!!

NickJW

Thanks angelaatgraceland, notjustlaura and Hippechiq! The damage to my eye (ie the pain), only lasted about an hour, but it most definately was a learning curve! :rotfl::rotfl:

Another £7.33 spent today so I've updated my signature for the final time this month. In my defence the offers were too good to leave, and I'll be using a lot of the food I've bought next month

I would like to declare £97.19 for August Over budget, but I'm still very pleased because I've never properly followed how much I spend before. :j

Thanks again for all the support and see you over in Septembers thread! :T

gdyr1945

Just tried Chicken in Diet Coke (from recipe list at start) I added some chilli and lemon juice and it was surprising good. We had it with rice and vegetables. Don't normally buy coke but had some friends round 4 months ago (yes it has been sitting there all this time) and that is all they drink and it was cheapest to buy 6 cans. Also found recipe for chewy soft flour tortillas which we are going to have tomorrow with some cooked mince from freezer and salad that needs eating up before it goes off. There are so many helpful ideas on this site that I am feeling increasingly optomistic about achieveing savings I would never have believed before joining.

jackieglasgow

Declaring £182.39 for the month, which is over but my OH was at home so I was feeding four again, and I do have quite a bit left over foodwise. Off to the September Challenge now.

Hippeechiq

gdyr1945 wrote: »

Just tried Chicken in Diet Coke (from recipe list at start) I added some chilli and lemon juice and it was surprising good. We had it with rice and vegetables. Don't normally buy coke but had some friends round 4 months ago (yes it has been sitting there all this time) and that is all they drink and it was cheapest to buy 6 cans. Also found recipe for chewy soft flour tortillas which we are going to have tomorrow with some cooked mince from freezer and salad that needs eating up before it goes off. There are so many helpful ideas on this site that I am feeling increasingly optomistic about achieveing savings I would never have believed before joining.

Ooooh - I've been toying with the idea of giving that one a go. I may just do that now, so thanks for the feedback gdyr1945

ETA an NSD for me today, making total this month 8 - that's shockingly bad, need to do better next month

Gintotmelinda

Hello all !

Declaring £387.53- whoops found another receipt !! Our month Chez Gintotmelinda starts on 27th when OH gets paid. Not bad considering I have stocked up on loo paper and toiletries and wasted very little. I am still learning so thanks for all the ideas and support everyone.

Take care

Gintot

Off to the September thread....