August 2010 Grocery Challenge

Flat_Eric

A quick trip into te&co on my way to work this morning because I had a £5 off £15 spend :j. Picked up a box of washing powder (ariel 42 wash) for £6 and a few other odds and ends. Tried not to buy stuff just to make the money up and qualify for voucher and think the only non essential purchase was the Radio Times. Don't really need and feel I should give up (£1.10 a week = £57.20 that could be saved) but do enjoy the coverage it gives for the tv!

2 items priced wrong so frustrating trek back (glad I noticed before I got to work) and after a bit of a faff, got my money back but double the difference

picked up the new sw mag at class tonight so an enjoyable read beckons and will no doubt find some inspiration to help me plan a menu. Debating whether to have a shop delivered at the weekend or just buy instore (have another voucher i could use) Know i must plan my menu first and buy accordingly however. i feel a weekend of batch cooking beckons though !

hugs to all who need them. :grouphug:

cw18

Several spends for me today......

Staff shop gave me 2 jars of Instant Hot Chocolate (bbe June 2010) for 20p each...... need to check full price tomorrow, so I can update s/sheet and Whoopsie value in signature

Leaving work for lunch saw a spend of £1.50 for 3x4pt milk (1% that's still on offer)

Leaving work at end of shift (4pm) saw a spend of 90p (including 5p change for sealed pot) for a loaf of bread (Toastie that's on 50p offer and much loved by DS) and a cucumber portion

Then round to A!di for DS's ice-cream. Also picked up 2 packs tomatoes, a bunch of spring onions, a pack of cooked beetroot and an avocado (all on Super 6), plus a 400g pack of ham (picked up 3xsmall packs of Mr T Value Ham on Friday, and DS has already finished 2 of them!). Spend here of £4.80 (including 7p change to sealed pot)

Then B'n'M for a look around. Picked up 7x S&V Hula H00ps (10p each, and I've not been able to find them for aaaaages), a tin of Soya Beans to try (have a psychological block against baked beans, so not sure if these will pass that or not ), and a tinned 'bean meal' (sounds 'interesting', and at 19p I'm willing to give it a try ) - total spend £1.30 including 2p change

At 7:15pm I arrived back at Mr M (work) for final reductions.

Picked up the (50p) lettuce I needed and had forgotten earlier (the only full price item in this shop), plus :-

2 packs almond croissants (2 in each pack)
1 pack raspberry doughnuts (5 in pack)
3 bags of 5 pick 'n' mix rolls (2 of croissants, 1 of 'best batched' rolls - which I call soup rolls)
1 bag of 6 croissants
2 chunks Red Leceister Swirl with Garlic & Herbs (cheese)
1 seeded baguette (have got myself addicted to these!)
1 long french stick
2 packs of Mvller Stars Yogurts (4 per pack)
4 150g Organic Natural Yoghurt (150ml each)
2 sliced wholemeal loaves (800g each)
1 pack granary rolls (6 large)

Total for the Whoopsies was £3.60, and goods have a real value of £19.08 - so well pleased with this 'little' haul :T
Just need to find a shoe-horn or (more likely) crow bar to squeeze a fair bit of it into my freezers tomorrow morning



So, all in all, that's another £13 of my GC budget blown today :eek:

I've just £2.60 left for the rest of the month, and can't see me getting away without buying more milk (roll on DS moving out) and bread (again down to DS, who won't happily eat anything but white)

Hippeechiq

Yet more spends today of £5.10 bringing total to 219.90 out of £275
and a delivery of £50(ish) from A$da tomorrow, but will update my sig then, but I will be needing, bread, milk and bananas on top of that before next Wednesday, so it's looking highly unlikely that I'm gonna meet my target - ho-hum

I must try harder to have more no spend days next month fgs! - 6 is quite pathetic

The only supermarket I live within walking distance to is a 24 hour Tesco, and they never, ever have anything whoopsied by more than a few pence. So there is never any chance of me getting whoopsied bargains like a lot of folk on here - I have to pay full price for everything

cw18

Hippeechiq wrote: »

I must try harder to have more no spend days next month fgs! - 6 is quite pathetic

6 is still 6 better than none though :T

And, with 7 days left of the month, it sounds like you have the potential for another 5...... just 1 day wiped out for your delivery, and 1 day for everything else you need before month end

notjustlaura

Morning all!

Congrats to those who are coming in on or under budget as August draws to a close. My month begins on the 15th so I've still a ways to go.

Today will have a tiny spend of £1 on a raffle ticket at WW this morning but I'll be waiting in for the gas man this afternoon. Am going to use the time to start the set reading for my OU course.

Have a good day everyone!

mum2b

ARGH not a good month, already around £35 over budget and will need to pop to shops for more over the weekend :mad: my freezer only has one drawer with bits in and they are being used up over the next few nights. And then my big shop next month really will be a big shop and that will make next month more ARGH!! Bloody guests.........

NickJW

Another £6.39 spent today in Mr S near work for lunch things and reduced items. I'm officially over budget now, but it is my first month so it's made me think whether the budget I set myself was too ambitious. I'll try and keep spends down to a minimum but I will need to spend some more money over the weekend unfortunately.

laisbojar83

Hi everyone,

What a miserable day today eh?
Its indoors for us and kids are driving me insane while I am trying to organize our budget for next month, 1 week until payday.. and counting hahahaha
Today is a NSD, lolol we have nothing left to spend anyway. My mum offered to lend some money but I refused. We must stick with what we have, no more borrowing!!
Cooking a yummy Beef Goulash to be served with rice, enough for lunch and dinner
Hope you all have a great day.
xxxx
L.

~moneysavingnovice~

August's challenge has not gone to plan. We moved house this month and have had 5lots of guests so far, plus OH's bday. When OH's whole family was here on Sat he bought 3 bottles of dissarono at £18 a pop plus beer, wine and cognac. I nearly had a heart attack (alcohol is in our grocery budget!)

So, adding it up was depressing me and will start the challenge again in Sept with new vigour and new discipline!

On the plus side, got a £50 voucher in the post from Mr T for getting my life insurance from there so last weekly shop of the month this weekend should be fairly frugal.

Hope everyone else is doing better!

Hippeechiq

cw18 wrote: »

6 is still 6 better than none though :T

And, with 7 days left of the month, it sounds like you have the potential for another 5...... just 1 day wiped out for your delivery, and 1 day for everything else you need before month end

Thanks very much for the support cw18 but I've blown the budget today unfortunately.

Home delivery from A$da and then spends in £idl, Te$co & Icel@nd - walked to the last 3, a 1¾ mile round trip in the pouring rain, but needs must when things are cheaper elsewhere. My word, it's been a miserable day, hasn't it? Solid rain all day.

Anyhoo, spends totalled £59.41 bringing my spends so far to £279.31, so I'm already £4.31 over my £275 target, and I've just realised I need onions and mushrooms for Fridays tea

Had 16 pints of milk delivered from A$da today - we used to get through 4 pints per day, but now DD is on Slimfast it's more like 6. So there is no way 16 pints is gonna last us until next Tuesday.

I've tried so hard too Oh well. It's difficult when my daughters appetites and fancies vary so much due to the medication she's on, but I need to be able to stick to £275 otherwise it's borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, and I can't be having that.

Got to be stricter with myself next month. so myself and I need to have harsh words with each other :rotfl:

I'll continue to keep a tally up till the end of the month, and just try even harder in September.

Well done to all those who are still within budget :T and to those of you who aren't but have tried :T