December 2010 Grocery Challenge

youngmummy

hi all i was just wondering if £150 for a months food shopping for 3 of us is possible. x

XSpender

Went to Mr S last night to get DH some wine/beer and decided while there to get something for tea rather than the take away we both fancied. Spent £10.49 on alcohol and £8.14 on pizza, stag chilli, doritos, dip and basic popcorn. Worked out much cheaper than buying a takeaway.

Also bought SATC 2 as an early christmas present to myself but this comes out of a different budget.:D

Lots of milk there but not a single sliced loaf or branded roll to be had. Good job I have 3 in the freezer, 2 bread mixes and flour and yeast to go in the breadmaker and 8 litres of milk.

I don't think all the media coverage about the weather up here has done anything but make people panic buy and be frightened about going anywhere and we haven't had any significant snow fall for the last 3 days!

I have cancelled next weeks veg box as both of the sizes I order had several items we would not use like brussel sprouts - eugghh_pale_ and I have also cancelled the celery I had pre ordered for Christmas as I have a tub of it in the freezer, saving £1.95. This is already in my total so will deduct it.

toddles*

youngmummy wrote: »

hi all i was just wondering if £150 for a months food shopping for 3 of us is possible. x

Definatley possible, I know people on here live on a lot less and by choice. Start by making a list of whats already in your cupboards, it surprises everyone. Then plan your meals around that.
Vegetarian meals, cheaper cuts of meat and lots of soup, homemade snacks. Very do-able.

If your having trouble coming up with meal ideas or struggling with the budget. The kind people on here will be able to help you. Just ask!

ebayqueen_2

youngmummy wrote: »

hi all i was just wondering if £150 for a months food shopping for 3 of us is possible. x

Hi there

I think it is possible if you do as others have suggested
1. Do a log of all you have ... larder and freezer
2. Meal plan with all this in mind.
3. Buy only what you NEED...not what you would really love!!!
4. Check out recipes on this site...also BBC food is a great resource too!
5. Cook from scratch if possible. Its amazing what you can cook when you find the confidence to do so.
6. Stay away from the shops:D
7. When you do have to go...make a list and stick to it ridgidly.
8. Also treat yourself to a bar of Chocolate or your favourite treat now and again...!!!!!!!!!!
9. Bake some biscuits...lots of recipes on here!

Hope this helps

Take care of yourself and you little ones

jintyb

Finally made it out to MrA, so I'm well and truly stocked up. Not able to do a "shop around" the other SM's due to bad roads, I'm just grateful to have got what I need for the next while.
Still on budget so that's fine:D Got £90 left in budget with 2 more shops to go - definitely doable!

Spiggle

youngmummy wrote: »

hi all i was just wondering if £150 for a months food shopping for 3 of us is possible. x

Hi and welcome youngmummy,

We all have different budgets that suit our households. The most important thing to remember is that you set yours according to your needs and finances. It can take time to get to where you want to be too so don't knock yourself out if you go over in the first few months. We are here to support each other and it is not a competition.

I thought it might help to outline where we've come from and the top tips I've learned. I hope it might help.

When we started in March we had spent in excess of £600 in the previous month. :eek: This had to stop, (there's only me and him and our two beautiful black cats) something which thankfully my OH completely agreed with so I have been lucky that he has been on board from the start. He gave me his debit card voluntarily and I still keep hold of it until he needs to get something for the home. At the same time we set up a system of pocket money (pm) at £15 each per week which doesn't count towards the GC and which we can each spend as we wish with no comebacks or complaints (there's a song lyric in there somewhere!). OH (until recently) predominantly uses his pm on his beer and I ferret mine away mostly. :rotfl:

The next step was to set up my own spreadsheet which is absolutely simple onto which I put all spends so that I have a continuous running total for the month and for the year. We initially set our budget at £280 per month and brought it down to £240 where it has resided for most of the year but has been increased now to allow for Christmas extras.

The important 'tools' we found greatly helped and continue to do so now are:

Stocktake cupboards, fridge, freezer - make lists and ensure that the older products get used up first. You'll be amazed at what you find squirrelled away and it will help with your shopping list as you'll realise that you don't actually need so much.

Before you go shopping check staples - running out of milk, bread, butter, etc often leads to going into a shop for one thing and coming out £20 lighter. Always check these and if they'll run out tomorrow buy them the same time as getting other things.

Always make a shopping list and stick to it - the sm try every which way to get us to spend so having a list and strong resolve is the only way to beat them.

Keep every receipt - and then note it down on your spreadsheet/spend diary so that you always know where you are.

When tempted ask yourself do you NEED it or just WANT it - now this advice goes with two things. Firstly, the things you see in store when shopping that APPEAR to be bargains - if you hadn't planned spending the money then its not a bargain. Secondly, the sm send us loads of vouchers for £X off a spend of £XX - if you had no NEED to spend £XX then have you SAVED anything???

Use my supermarket to compare prices (limited to four of the biggies) - We didn't start using this until recently and I think it was because I predominantly shopped at MrT but became increasingly peeved by the prices they now charge. The site may be used to actually do an online shop at whichever of the four offers the best value or, if you have the time and sm availability, to make up lists for visiting each of the stores so that you can purchase all you need at different stores thus getting the best possible value. (I'd add, do a 'shop' virtually on this site and take the list you create on it with you, whichever one you shop at, it will help keep target prices in your head and allow you to spot bargains. MrM is not included but you can do a virtual list on their website so you know what you're going to be spending.)

Always have a list - this is just as important when shopping online as shopping on foot.

Use Approved Foods online (with a list!) - if you don't mind out of date things (ood) or you can search for only in date items. The only drawback is storing the goods as far as I can tell. Oh, and watch the delivery as it's done on a scaled charge for weight so keep an eye on it. You can of course do an AF order with friends, family, colleagues or like minded neighbours. Other GCers use Big Br**d F**d 4 Less too.

Invest in a breadmaker - we have saved so much by making our own bread. The prices in the shops are extortionate for bread these days. There's loads of advice on this thread and others in the forum on this.

Use the recipe lists - always posted at the front of a new thread. There are fantastic, tasty, healthy and economical recipes to use there and there are a number of other threads on the forum such as Weezl's that will help you to eat well on a budget.

Shop locally - the local greengrocer (or preferably market but I don't have one ) is usually cheaper as an option for f&v than the sm. Often the prices may look the same but when you look at the quantity for the same price the greengrocer will be cheaper. The same goes for the local butcher. Often you will have far more variety of meat available, advice on how to cook a particular meat can be offered and there is (for me at least) no comparison in terms of quality. We buy our huge FR eggs at £1.25 per half dozen there and I'm yet to find an equivalent FR egg in a sm at that price. Obvioulsy if you have your own chicks/know someone who has chicks you can get them even cheaper again.

Grow your own - it's quite simple to grow some f&v at home even if it's only in pots on the patio. There are also supportive threads on the forum for this.

Cook your own - making meals at home from ingredients is far more economical, often tastes better than shop bought and is probably far better healthwise.

Meal Plan - this is something that others can advise on as we don't do it. I have a tremendous capacity for eating the same food over many days but presented in slightly different form. For example, we could buy £7 worth of brisket from the butchers and eat it as pot roast for a couple of days, sliced for sarnies, sliced with a salad, chucked into a casserole or shredded up and fried as crispy beef.

Don't waste food - either only make what you need or use any leftovers for other meals/creations.

Withdraw the cash you want to spend - and keep it in a separate purse. This can be particularly effective as you have the money in front of you reducing rather than spending with plastic which is so easy to lose track of. Very useful when you first start out.

Don't go to the shops to browse - this can only lead to pain and hardship!!!

Keep posting and reading the thread - there really is no better supportive, wise and inspirational place to be! I think I saw that somebody mentioned forgetting to read/post. I get around this by using the Advanced button to post, below the window where your text is displayed you will see Additional Options. In the Thread Subscription box use the dropdown to select either instant email notification (this is what I use) or daily email notification before you submit your latest post. Then you will get an email into your inbox from which you can click to the thread to see what others are saying.

Always remember the sm is not your friend - it wants to profit from you and take as much of your money as it can coerce out of you!

Ok, quick update from me. OH got half doz eggs and a pack of Pararcetamol yesterday so £2.03 spent there. I haven't updated the sig as we're off to town in a while to get meat. And I'm all excited because our veg shop which shut due to recievership has reopened apparently after a management buy out. :T So I'll update the sig later once I know what the damage is.

It's pouring with rain here and not at all nice. I'll have to go into town today too as we still haven't claimed the repayment from nPower and that extra £30 odd will come in handy. I may even suggest a steak or two!

Right off to the shower and I'll see you all later.

Take care and keep warm and safe,
Spigs

franby64

Morning.

Just updating though I have only spent about £10 since Tues which is a surprise!
Thankyou Spiggle for setting it all out - helps to refocus now and then!

I am currently working on the not wasting stuff bit - I got some Jerusalem artichokes in my veg box this week and after putting it off for a while, I am making some soup. Unfortunately I keep reading about the flatulent side effects of JA so I'm a bit nervous!!

I'm ashamed to say that I have just chucked some ancient salsify from the week before. I had no idea what it was going to taste like so I just didn't know what to do with it! I feel really guilty but I think I just didn't like the look of it.

Anyway, quite pleased with the start to Dec - I'm trying not to go Christmas crazy yet. The kids want to put up the tree this weekend but I'm dragging my feet because I think it's too soon - I'm holding out for next weekend but the pressure might get too much!

Have a good weekend!

Long_tall_sally

XSpender wrote: »

and I have also cancelled the celery I had pre ordered for Christmas as I have a tub of it in the freezer, saving £1.95. This is already in my total so will deduct it.

I didn't know you could freeze celery. Do you need to do anything to it before you freeze it? I like to put some in my Spag bol but as i don't really have many salads in the winter, some of it ends up getting wasted.

Spiggle - brilliant advice as usual.

Lolalemon -I too would like a scotch broth recipe as I wasn't very keen on the last lot of soup that I made.

NSD here today. We had more snow last night but it is actually raining slightly now so I hoping that will get rid of some of the snow.

hex2

Spiggle wrote: »

And I'm all excited because our veg shop which shut due to recievership has reopened apparently after a management buy out. :T Spigs

Great post Spiggle - and good news on the Veg shop.


I have been housebound and using stuff up, looked at veg box and decided against having it. Another trip to the co-op instead which takes us up to c£15. Planning on Aldi/lidl next week and then a Mr S order due 23d Dec - may get the A&C Christmas veg box.

boultdj

A $13.04 spend in Mr.M's the other day.
Franby64 I know it's to late now,but if you get any more salsify, peel under water turn's black on contact with air once peeled and boil, my Dad grow's it so sometime's I can get some off him:D it's a sweetish type of flavour, to me it's like a cross between carrot & parsnip.hth.