March grocery challenge

md123

This is the first day of the March challenge for me. Have ordered a Tesco delivery for tommorow using a £15 voucher from the online discount board. I bought a lot multi save items saving me a bit more as well.

Sarahsaver

I started mine on saturday with a purse with £20 in it. I have spent just over £3 in somerfield - bread, flour, custard powder and cheese, and today got 4lb of bananas and 4lb of pears for £2 from the market

Lillibet_2

I started last Wednesday with my first "in between" shop for fruit & veg, max £3 allowed. Got my required fruit for £2.41 so OK there, but also got something else for teh freezer which was on my "proper shopping" list for this week so spent an extra £4.40 but have removed the item & the original cost of £10 from this weeks list so have in fact saved myself £5.60 by spending £4.40 early! Confused? Trust me, it does make sense! (I think)

moggins

Payday for us today. I've had to do the big shop online at Tesco and because I've always shopped monthly before there was loads I had to replace.

So out of the £40 I allocated for this week I have spent £35.28 but I have to pay the housekeeping purse £10 back because there was a case of beer for hubby which he said he would pay me back for.

Julie14_2

I am going to try this challenge as I really need to reduce my grocery bill at the moment I spend about £90.00 a week for two adults a 5yr old a baby and two cats. My shopping account has been over drawn now for 10 months now and I am desperate to get in the black and out of the red.

I am going to try to reduce this to £60.00 or maybe even lower if I get the hang of it.

Any tips would be gratefully received.

Lillibet_2

Hi Julie

Loads of people with loads of advice comming up!

My most valulable tools for keeping
shopping bills down are :

Make a list of everything in your freezer/fridge/cupboards & plan what meals you can make from what you already have. Write your meal plan down! The meal plan is an on-going project, keep planning ahead.
Write a shopping list based on your meal plan above, and stick to that list. Build a little leeway into it for reduced bargins, BOGOF's etc. For example I allow myself £5 per shopping trip. This usually goes on reduced bargins that can go in the freezer & be used for (planned) meals in a couple of weeks time but how you handle this is upto you.
Stretch meals........add extra veg/beans/lentils/whatever to bulk it out & if you can get an extra portion of something pop it into the freezer, you'll soon find a night when you don't want to cook & be grateful for some home made ready meals! By having them on hand at a home made price you can cut yourself some slack, you'lll deserve it after all the effort you put into getting the budget balanced!

Good luck & keep us updated.

Moll

Ive only joined in the challenge this month , and have already picked up a lot of good tips .
My question ,,,,,,,,,,,Ive bought a sack of potatoes,,,,,,,and i use for jacket potatoes, mash etc,,but what does everyone find is thier best ways of using spuds in a meal . ? we dont eat many lentils . rice etc, so i use potatoes where i can , but its usually plain food , either jackets, mashed or in stew, ? What else can i do ? Also i know this is going to sound thick ,but i freeze stuff to put in the freezer ( In bags, etc) but if i get an extra cooked dinner type meal , that i can freeze,,,how do i do it , ? Do i have to put it on a foil plate or something ?, and cling film it ? not froze a home made dinner before ,( Have froze stew, and just put that in a bag or container,and also piped mashed potatoes on a baking sheet, and open froze, then bagged them , to stick on a meal . my lot will eat potoatoes any way .

Love
Moll x x who is almost through her first week on the challenge,and has saved a bit . still going strong.....................

Mschappie

Hi Moll

If ever I make extra meals ie. pasta bakes or lasagne/spag bol - I put the individual portions into margarine containers so that they can be defrosted for my boys if they are at home on their own.

I also freeze casseroles into individual portions in the same way.

I'm not very good at keeping to a budget though and spend far too much each month on food! I keep reading these threads and hope that one day | will get myself together and stick to spending within a budget!

Mschappie

halloweenqueen_2

Well good luck - off with my own shopping bags to Netto today - well every little helps. I got £30 in my purse for the week and I'm hoping to have change! I do only need fresh stuff and flour and bits and bobs! Gonna raid the freezer later!

Curry_Queen

My challenge starts today as I receive my first Tesco shop of the month this morning.

Lillibet you must have been reading my mind as I actually sat down and made a list of the stuff in my freezer and cupboards last night LOL! I'm struggling with this whole meal planning in advance thing though ... brain overload!

The way I usually do my shopping is to buy whatever I'm running low on in the cupboards (a habit I got from mum - she had 3 of everything, one to use, one for when that ran out and one for emergencies LOL!) and make sure I have a good selection of meat/fish/veggies etc then make meals depending on what I have in. I used to end up with a lot of waste doing this but thanks to some excellent tips here I've become quite good at using up odds and ends in dishes and freezing stuff instead of throwing it out

I know I can trim my shopping bills even further by planning ahead and just buy the stuff I need for meals that week but that's my stumbling block in the actual planning. It's not helped by the fact I currently have an extra mouth to feed, making 3 of us, and most of the stuff I have in already is in 2's or 4's :rolleyes: