September 2010 Grocery Challenge

JulieGeorgiana

Hi... I'm new to this forum...

I have always worked on a budget... but since losing my job I have more time to bake and cook and lower my spending further!

I have noticed that while paying off my loan and sticking to my budget quite well... I always go a few £'s over each week!

I have a budget of £40 a week, plus £50 every 5 weeks for meat (£2600 a year)... so can I set a different budget every month depending on how many shopping days and if it's butchers week?????

For September I have 4 weekly shops only = £160

cw18

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

I have a budget of £40 a week, plus £50 every 5 weeks for meat (£2600 a year)... so can I set a different budget every month depending on how many shopping days and if it's butchers week?????

I have a (fractionally) different budget each month, as mine's set according to days in the month. It was also based on 2 people, but this month I dropped to just me as of yesterday, and from next month it drops again as it's only me for the entire time.

brodie1_2

Hi all,
just updated sig after 30.15 spend in coop. I brought 8 bottles of their own Ultra washing liquid as it is on BOGOF. I find its so useful to buy lots of essentials that are on offer as it saves lots of visits to the supermarket. Also got cheese and a few other bits I needed. Didnt get any choc for baking as I forgot co op are not like
morrisons or tesco who sell thier own brands of choc for around 30p, will get some another day.

Brodie1

hoobydoobydoo

Popped into Mr A on the way home "for a loaf of bread" and spent £6.61 - not quite how the shopping is supposed to work on this challenge! I did get some yellow stickered items and a couple of multibuy savings though.

Had a moment of enlightenment yesterday when I was making a cottage pie - I don't need to use the whole bag of frozen mince at once! I have no idea why I didn't think of this before but this challenge is really making me think about what I buy and how I use it and it is not just going to be chicken that becomes rubber in this house!

Hooby

Sue14

Spent £6.76 in Lidl yesterday and another £8.64 in Aldi today. I don't need anything at the moment as my cupboards, freezer and fridge are full, so I'm going to avoid the shops for as long as possible, although I'll probably need milk at the weekend, but will get DP to get it as he works in a supermarket, and I won't therefore be tempted to buy anything else.

Jevvers

Thanks Rosieben and wsslaOO for the rubber chicken pointers - v helpful.

Nsd for me as far as GC goes although dh did spend £13 at sbury last night on two half price bottles of wine and some ice cream...

Btw did anyone else see Watchdog talking about supermarket tactics like buy two for £2 when the individual items are only 99p each or sbury bigger pack better value rice which works out more per kilo? Cheeky swines! I had spotted a few of this sort of thing last time I was in tseco - thanks to my mse training I think I managed not to fall for any but I do find shopping takes twice as long when you have to work out price per kg all the time!

JulieGeorgiana

Jevvers wrote: »

Btw did anyone else see Watchdog talking about supermarket tactics like buy two for £2 when the individual items are only 99p each or sbury bigger pack better value rice which works out more per kilo? Cheeky swines! I had spotted a few of this sort of thing last time I was in tseco - thanks to my mse training I think I managed not to fall for any but I do find shopping takes twice as long when you have to work out price per kg all the time!

I use moneysupermarket and it tells me if buying two smaller items is better then one larger item!

Also it has price per kg, so you can clearly see which is cheaper.

Oh and by doing your shopping list online, printing it, you can stick to your budget :laugh:

Ps. Also helps if you are doing a split shop!

Long_tall_sally

Nsd today.

Thanks for the info re tax credits. My two kids are 11 and 9 so still not too sure what the reason is other than its possibly something to do with my son's disability allowance and my carer's allowance that that I get which I have unfortunately earned a little more than I was allowed to for a few weeks over the last 3 years and as I have a feeling that I might get a bit extra on my child tax credit because of the disability allowance, then I suppose it would make sense for then to claw this back. It's so annoying cos I only do overtime at school really ocacsionally when they need extra help for school trips etc and I thought that I had a little leeway in what I could earn each month but it appears that this leeway was even smaller than I thought! So, although I appreciate that it's my own fault, I have basically got to pay back a few months carer's allowance cos I earned about £20 too much in a month. Hence why I am considering whether to just give up the Carer's allowance & work fulltime but a) I would only be about £100 a month better off and b) I know I would be really tired because I am often up several times a night with my son due to his diabetes and I just about cope on lack of sleep now.

Sorry, I have realised that I have been rattling on and also it is not very grocery challenge related. sorry!

EllieA_3

Hey hoo haven't spent anything since last friday but needed to get some fresh fruit and veg in today... boo .. not too bad though £11.52 on Apples,Pears,Banana's (grapes that i lost???!!) Some Chopped Toms, tortilla wraps, leeks and carrots ... oh and some tropical mixed fruit juice in an attempt to get rainbow of fruit and veg into my kids rather than just banana's i figure if i can convince them to have 1 glass each morning with brekky i've only got another 4 to go :P

Really baffled by the lost grapes though i can't find them anywhere, honestly at this point im hoping they are still in the shop and not down the back of something where they can go stinky in a few weeks.

Anyhoo all this takes my total too ..£68.17 not bad so far.

selloptape

Hey up everyone,

I've not spent too much so far - 19.37 in supermarkets and 6.20 on school dinners for my son so very happy with how my first attempt is going... And quite proud of myself for getting the really cheap (8p) showergel (feels and looks just like value washing up liquid???) altho that was a step too far for my son (who also refused to eat lentil stew - very cheap!! - for three days running, can't say I blame him really)...

Bit worried I might fall off the wagon next week - all those lentils have left me craving an immense steak