October 06 Grocery Challenge

benjacksmum

Uh-Oh - Major overspend encountered! Up to last weekend it was at £40 over and I know exactly what has gone wrong - I took OH shopping with me - HUGE mistake!

I thought I had got this menu planning thing licked with weekly deliveries from Asda. I could get my spend down to around £40 per week, then so far have been lucky enough to find £10 off e-vouchers (getting a bit thin on the ground now though) and then usually they deliver something either shortdated or subsituted and so after a quick call to CS I get my money back for the items concerned.

However, my dear 12 year old car which had been so faithful finally packed in at the beginning of this month and all our money saving efforts were then lost with the purchase of the new(er) car. Not only was it a fairly big lump for us to pay out but we went to see about 5 or 6 cars during the first week (most of them rotboxes!) so menu plans weren't followed or made and instead of online shopping, I took OH shopping to Aldi with me. May I just say how fantastic Aldi is! But the problem was OH thought so too and was putting lots of 'extras' in the trolley pushing us above our budget. I didn't want to say no as the poor thing must have driven me over 400 miles to various places looking for cars and I thought he deserved a treat.

Oh well, back on track for November. I will last the rest of this week out on a storecupboard challenge and start again next Monday.

Hope everyone else did better than me.

You know, I might occasionally slip off track like this due to outside influences but its nice to know that you can just pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start again. Kind of comforting in a way.

See you all in the November challenge :hello:

carlih1

carlih1 wrote:

How many weeks left of oct, i swear there has been three already!!!! i have certainly been shopping three times this month, what i though was weekly!!!

I'm getting confused now.

Anyway, i menu planned went to asda today (dd's choice) got my list of things 51 items, i didn't realise i had that many to get and it came to £57.91 ouch i think that brings my total up to 180.79.

What am i going to do less than twenty pounds till the end of the month, oh girls help me!

Carli x

Nope i was wrong i spent £63.75 today bringing my total up to £186.63 i have £13.37 till end of month (

Well i think i have done it. Some overspending going on whilst in the supermarket so can definately cut down next month. And im in the middle of a very successful storecupboard challenge. Just need milk tomorrow and ill be there yay!!!!!!

Carli x

Jellybaby

to admit how much I've spent food shopping this month:o At the start of the month as a newbie I posted I was going to keep receipts and halfway through due to an unexpected medical problem, OH was off work for a week resulting in no pay so therefore had no choice but to watch the pennies! Even so, to date I've managed to spend £458.29 between Tesco, Asda, Aldi and Lidl! I'm in the process of defrosting the freezer so probably another biggie shop next week to stock up. BUT I'm planning on writing a shopping list and having a go at menu planning - even if it's only three or four nights a week for a month or two until I get the hang of it. I do some batch cooking just now but think I need to get into this more. Any tips or advice appreciated;)

mel_anthe

Okay I had been doing quite well, I thought, but ended up making an unplanned trip to the supermarket to get a 'few bits and pieces' - as per usual ended up spending a lot more than I'd intended! I'm £12 or so over for the month - will have to try harder next month!

JillD_2

Payday is the 24th for me so my month goes from the 24th so October is officially over for me!
I went through all the food expenses for October, and came in well under budget - I am sooo chuffed!
Budget was £250, spent £219.57 :T :T

Breakdown was:
Week 1: £33.66
Week 2: £110.07
Week 3: £45.19
Week 4: £30.65
Total : £219.57

See you all in November ......

cheerfulness4

Just done receipt check-up and I've got the princely sum of £9.21 to last me until next weekend. :eek: Okay so in order to overt panic I've rushed a menu plan out based on a storecupboard challenge and all may not be lost. If I cast a beady eye over them when they're pouring their milk over their cereal and hang menacingly outside the loo when they...well you know.. so they don't reel off loads of loo roll, I just could make it. Of course I do have those freebie Simple baby wipes. :rolleyes: Yukk, no don't wanna think of doing that.

catznine

Week 5 and now that the veg box has been delivered £11.50, I now have £9.18 left until 1st November. This has to cover milk (have builder in doing work) eggs (got to be free range/organic if possible) so not much change from that for emergencies.

I have found it easier to keep to budget by taking cash only and a pocket calculator as it is so easy to go over budget while using the plastic.

Off to make some soup with the veg while it is still fresh and some hm bread as I have plenty of flour and yeast in.

Cheerfulness - laughing at the thought of you hanging around menacingly outside the loo :rotfl: In the ol days they used old newspaper :eek:

Mrs(no)money

Hope this isnt a daft question! Is the grocery challenge amount you decide on for groceries only, or does it include things like loo rolls, cleaning products, shampoo etc. Or does everyone do it differently? I'm trying to decide what would be a realistic amount for a family of 5 and a dog? The kids are big teenagers and quite big eaters!

catznine

I am fairly new to this but I think we each make our own decision on what the amount will cover, the hard part is then sticking to it. I have definately got to up the amount to allow for bits for Christmas and some bulk buying. Next months challenge will be £200 for the month. This will then cover cleaning materials, loo rolls, cat food etc.,

hth

Catz x

cheerfulness4

Yes everyone does it their own way but mine includes everything we eat, use to clean ourselves and our house, pet food and loo rolls etc. I even include stationery if I've bought it from the supermarket. Some include phone credit, pocket monies, travel expenses etc.

It's really revealing when you begin and actually loads of fun, if not a bit scary to start off with. My second month and I'm getting the hang of it now...well sort of.