March grocery challenge

DingDong_3

moggins wrote:

He had bags of 5 grapefruit yesterday for 29p. Shame I couldn't think of a use for them.

This quote is from a while back, but my friend at work has a juicer and buys cheap oranges and other fruit from tesco at 5am (she works nights). She then bungs them all in the juicer and it produces a lovely fruit juice drink. It can be watered down a bit too. She let me have a drink yesterday and it was delicious.

moggins

Thanks Dingdong, there's a juicer attachement with my processor so I might give that a go.

I sort of blew the budget yesterday but I still only started the week with £40 and I have £10 left in my purse of oddsies during the week so that's not bad.

The in-laws came round to help us decorate our bedroom, I didn't know whether or not they were staying for tea so I hadn't prepared anything, so in the end I had to run down to the Co-op for something to cook.

Ended up spending nearly £15 on a chicken, a bag of baby new potatoes, 2 bags of salad (worked out with the cost of buying loose stuff it was cheaper!) and 2 bottles of wine. It was a fabulous meal though, roasted the chicken with garlic and coriander, tossed the baby potatoes in olive oil and sea salt and roasted them in the oven. Yum.

Rather expensive day with the £93 I spent on soft furnishings in Dunelm Mill, still I have totally refurbished my bedroom for under £150 including wallpaper and paint so it's still worked out well.

halloweenqueen_2

£15 for labour costs to decorate a bedroom, I wouldn't feel too bad! Could you send them round to mine!

mum26

and mine please, lol!

could someone explain the three purse method for me please? sounds like something that may work for us xxx

Janeryan

I do this to avoid getting my money all mixed up-basically this is how it works

Purse 1 In here goes my budget for food and the little incidentals I pick up at the supermarket eg the weekly paper

Purse 2 Money for petrol goes in here

Purse 3 This is MY spending money for things like the following:

Expenses at work like collections for special occasions, the odd coffee etc,stamps and birthday cards,basically anything that is not covered by purses 1 & 2

I do sometimes rob Peter to pay Paul but on the whole it works quite well and stops you wipping out the plastic card at any & every oppotunity-also don't have to remember any PIN numbers!!

moggins

I'm going to have to start the three purse method, I keep forgetting 'incidentals' like money for Scouts and things like that. I ended up having a very good day, went back to Dunelm Mill for a suede effect ottoman that I fell in love with yesterday, it was the last one they had left and when they lifted it onto the counter I noticed that it had a very small hole in the side. I asked if they had any others and they didn't so they knocked it down from £39.99 to £20

The best bit is the hole is on the side that faces the wall.

alleycat_3

My problem is that my partner refuses to believe that I can feed 2 of us on less than £200 per month. I'm sure that I can, but we always do the shopping together on Saturday mornings and keeps vetoing my ideas for saving money. I am after a slow cooker at the moment (got some tips from another thread!), and I do almost all the cooking. We both work full time, but my commute is 30min each way and his is 2.5hrs each way, so we even it out by me doing all the cooking. Any tips for sneaky money saving?
Ali

Lillibet_2

How about planning the weeks meals together in advance of going shopping then buying in accordance with the meal plan? This should cut back on the cost without really trying if you remember to inculde all incidentals like drinks, snacks etc that you will need for the week. Or ask your partner to introduce himself here, we can demonstrate it's possible with our costs etc!

HTH
Lillibet (2 adults, 1 bump, 1 dog & 1 cat on £76.73 so far this month & only 1 week to go!)

Mrs_Thrift

Well, I said ages ago I'd join in the March challenge but this is my first update......

I have a budget for every month, but tend to go a wee bit over. I was waaaayy over in February though, so really need to beat the budget for the next few months to make up.

For March (w/c 07.03.05 to end of w/c 28.03.05) the budget is 185 for food at home, takeaways, eating out, food at work, household items and toiletries for the two of us. I know a lot of folk manage on a lot less than that, but it's a good start for us. So far, I've spent 125 of 185, and think I will only need to spend another 25-30 this month, so will be under budget if all goes according to plan, woohoo!

Thanks to everyone involved for the encouragement from these challenges - I might not always post, but I do read the threads and feel inspired.

crazyhazy

I wasn't quite organised to start in march but started my april challenge on pay day 18th march, so far have spent quite a bit but think I should have enough food in now to last till I go away next weekend. So, far I've spent 37.30 and my challenge is 120 for the month. This should be easily achieveable and then I'll lower it a bit next month and any I don't spend will go in towards my pms challenge!