March grocery challenge

Moll

Ok ,My March Month starts today ,as this is when i get paid,
I have quite a few "Bits" left, like cheese. eggs. pickles etc, so just went for the things i needed,,,,,,,,,,,,,,did have a few extras. that i dont ususally buy ,
I shopped today at Aldi ( I shop all over the place ) but was disgusted to find how thier prices have increased,,and am seriously considering , NOT shopping there anymore, and sticking with Tesco / Asda etc. for instance ;last time i bought a tin of corned beef ( Only a couple of weeks ago) it was 39p ,,,today it was 45p..and i picked up a bag of sugar,,and put it back again , as it has gone up to 74p a bag , I KNOW i can get it cheaper elsewhere. The increases were not just a couple of pence,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Anyway ,here goes for what i got today

Tuna x 10 ( We eat a lot of tuna ) @ 38p = £3.80
9 pack of toilet rolls x 2 ( Dont ask .i think the whole street uses our loo roll ) @ £1.75 = £3.50
Box panty liners x 2 @ 59p = £1.18
Baked Beans x 4 @ 15p = 60p
Chopped Tomatoes 25p ( still have a few tins in the cupboard)
Pack of 6 long life yoghurts 69p
Sunflower Spread 35p
Tomatoe Soup x 2 @ 29p = 58p
Tin New Potatoes 25p
Tin Corned Beef 45p
Pack of 6 bottles of water £1.09
Box Washing Powder £2.79
Processed Peas 14p
Chopped Tomatoes 25p
Bottle Apple / Blackcurrant Squash 45p
Bottle Orange Squash 39p
Tin Sliced Peaches 27p
I Litre bottle value diet coke 25p

Fresh Produce
Cucumber 69p
I Kg Carrots 49p
6 Fresh Tomatoes 79p
Pack Seedless Green Grapes 69p
Pack Golden Delicious Apples 89p

Extras that i dont buy every week

Easter Egg x 2 @99p - 1.98
Bag dried cat food £1.29
Chocolate Digestive Biscuits 46p
Bag of Chocolate Eclair Toffees 39p


Tomorrow i have to buy a sack of potatoes from the local farmer, @ £4.80

Total £29.75

The Potatoes will last me all month , the Easter Eggs are a one off, as i always buy some for 2 family members. the biscuits & toffees,i havent bought any for ages,so thought id treat them ,,,,,,,,,,the wash powder will last more than a month....its unfortunate that id run out. so had to get some , my Son has sensitive skin ,so i buy this particuler brand , as i know hes ok with it
The 6 bottles of water,,my Son ONLY drinks water ( if hes not on beer and takes these bottles to work , but when empty , he knows i fill again with water from our filter jug, The old bottles needed replacing though , as they were looking a bit well worn , The tin of peaches i use as a "Pudding", with Tesco value ice cream , I scoop it into tall glasses( Looks better than a dish) and layer ice cream with fruit , either peaches, pears, strawberries, whatever is cheapest)

Ill still have to buy more stuff during the week . but for now , i still have £20.25p of the £50 ive budgeted for the week . so im ok "So Far "
Dinners today was home made big yorkshire pud with sausages & gravy etc for the 3 adults , and me ( I dont like yorkshire puds ) i had a jacket potatoe with salad , and topped with tuna/ mayo , and some coleslaw,
Packed lunches today for the men were , Tuna/ Mayo sandwiches for one , and Cheese & Beetroot sandwiches for the other.

Love
Moll x x

moggins

If I'm going to start making cakes I had better get the spirit level out and straighten out my cooker first

Curry_Queen

Moll wrote:

Does anyone know if there is anything on any site , like a print out to fill in for daily expenditure? If not ill have to try and write things down , and see exactly where the money goes, but i know id find it easier with something to print off and fill in . ( Im not great at doing my own on a computer, )

Are you any good at using a spreadsheet, like Excel? It doesn't have to be anything complicated, just a few basic columns and rows listing the product type (i.e. grocery, household, pet etc) and how much it cost. You can either use the formula button to do the calculations or just use a calculator to work it out and put them in yourself. Excel has a good tutorial to help you through if you're not familiar with it.

I had a bit of time on my hands earlier this week so, working from the delivery sheets from Tesco/Iceland/Boots shopping for February, I put together a spreadsheet to work out my spending/savings and was surprised at the results!

Using the voucher codes I've found on this site over the month I've saved on average a third of my usual bills, although I did spend a little more than usual taking advantage of the offers but I'm well-stocked up for quite a while now

These were my Feb results: (hope they don't come out all jumbled!)

Totals: Gross Cost Actual Cost Savings % Saved

Groceries £213.88 £140.57 £73.31 34.28%
Household £31.48 £26.97 £4.51 14.33%
Toiletries £36.74 £8.37 £28.37 77.22% (thanks Boots!)
Alcohol £65.85 £40.00 £25.85 39.26%
Tobacco £40.00 £40.00 £0.00
Del charges £31.96 £31.96 £0.00

£419.91 £287.87 £132.04 31.44%


I won't need to buy any household stuff, toiletries or alcohol this month (or even the month after!) as I have shower gels, wine and toilet rolls coming out of my ears LOL! and I can shave my grocery bill even further by using up things in the cupboard and freezer. My only problem is that I usually get a weekly delivery from Tesco which means hitting the £50 min target to use a voucher to cover the delivery costs, unless I switch to a fortnightly delivery but then I'll struggle with things like bread/milk/fruit/veggies etc during the second week. I'll have to think about this.

I'll be starting this month's challenge on 1st March, as that's the day my benefits are due, and just hope I'm well and strong enough to carry it through (recent stresses have exacerbated my depression ) so might need some encouragement and motivation to keep going!

Twice this week already I've reverted to buying take-aways as I haven't had the energy to cook anything so that's got to stop or my budget will be blown out the water. I like the comment in a post above about taking advantage of good days to do a big batch of cooking and freeze it so might give that a try. There's plenty of cheap and tasty recipes posted all over the forum to try out


The results table didn't come out as planned so I've made the columns different colours to make them easier to read. Hope this works!

elona

Curry Queen

Have you tried a slow cooker? There is a 6and a half litre one at tesco.com for £25.25 with free delivery and I have just ordered one for myself.

You can make enough for a couple of meals and then put in fridge or freeze it. Once you have loaded up the cooker then you just leave it - all day or overnight if you want. It saves electricity and does really tender meat.

Sorry that you are feeling bad - hope it improves for you :):)

fazer6

Or what about the https://www.organizedhome.com idea of cooking once a month and freezing everything? If you're feeling OK one day just do a full days cooking which will last you the month. Then you've effectively got ready meals every day. If you're buying mince get a bigger pack and cook lasagne, spag bol and meatballs all the same day.

Curry_Queen

Thanks elona

I've just checked out the slow cooker and it looks great so I'm definitely considering it. Found it a tad cheaper at Amazon - £24.51 with free delivery - unless anyone knows of any Tesco Electricals vouchers I could use to knock a bit off their price

Curry_Queen

fazer6 wrote:

Or what about the https://www.organizedhome.com idea of cooking once a month and freezing everything? If you're feeling OK one day just do a full days cooking which will last you the month. Then you've effectively got ready meals every day. If you're buying mince get a bigger pack and cook lasagne, spag bol and meatballs all the same day.

That's definitely something I'm going to try and if I get the slow cooker Elona suggested then it will be really easy to make up meals for the freezer. even my youngest is perfectly capable of defrosting/reheating things in the microwave

I just wish I'd found this site a year ago! When I was really ill last time I ended up buying supermarket ready meals to make life easier but they cost a fortune, are often tasteless and certainly not fulfilling enough for growing teenagers! Now that I've got back into the habit of actually cooking again and making meals from scratch, no way do I want to revert back to that :eek:

With all the great ideas and encouragement from everyone here I'm sure I'll get through this bad patch ok (where's the hug icon when you need one LOL!)

needmoney

CurryQueen, those are very impressive savings. You say they are all due to voucher codes from this site , are you talking about vouchers for online spending? If so I need to stop going to the store.

fazer6

Curry queen it's also superbly money saving because you have the oven and slow cooker on constantly for one day cooking everything so it doesn't have to heat up for each meal. Bung a couple of jacket spuds where there's room, hollow out jacket spuds done in the microwave, add some cheese and you have tasty mash, and also well lovely potatoe skins. Get the kids to help chopping veg too as it'll get them involved with cooking.

Curry_Queen

needmoney wrote:

CurryQueen, those are very impressive savings. You say they are all due to voucher codes from this site , are you talking about vouchers for online spending? If so I need to stop going to the store.

Yep, they're all codes and vouchers I found on this site for online shopping at Tesco, Iceland and Boots

Also included are the savings made from store offers, such as BOGOF, 2 for 3, buy 2 for £x etc. Even taking into account the delivery charges for shopping online (which were higher than normal this month due to several deliveries from Boots ) the savings made are still pretty impressive.

I know the alcohol bill looks fairly high too (I'm not an alkie, honest!) but that was the total cost for 15 bottles of wine which should last a few months