January 2011 Grocery Challenge

LOUBOB

Evening, I am attempting to be back on track as joining the grocery challenge last year for several months really helped me along, plus all the support of this thread. Please add me for

£150

thanks

inspiremetosave

Hello,

Another newbie here - well tis the season

I am going for £200 for January please which is for 1st - 31st. Two adults and 3 cats. This will be for all food and drink (inc packed lunches), toiletries and household stuff...hopefully!

inspire:wave: xx

Spiggle

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

Sorry - I also wanted to say HIPPEECHIQ _ WHERE ARE YOU?!

Yep,

Me too LTS.

Where are you Hippeechiq? Everything OK? Hope all is fine and you're just chillin'. Hope 2011 brings everything you desire.

Take care,
Spigs

de1amo

İ havent seen stevej-- he muost have escaped from the merry go round and gone waltising off into the hinterland!!--i feel empathy for him and his commute into Londoninium its simular to the tooth extraction i had done last month!

Rebelle

Hey all

Another spend today for my Jan GC - have got myself a sig now to keep track! - just £1.29 for some frozen hash browns for OH, as he requested them specially for the New Year's Day fry up. Obviously could make a lot more from scratch with £1.29's worth of spuds and some onion, but quite frankly can't be bothered with that as don't like them myself! :rotfl:The bag should last a while anyway, so not too worried.

It's great to feel you're "all in it together" with so many others on the GC, but my £50 target seems really low, even for just two people and pets! Perhaps am being a bit unrealistic for a first timer? Am very well stocked though and have been looking at the Store Cupboard Challenge thread for inspiration! Hope to continue GC throughout 2011 to reduce spending on food, have already got it down to about £250 p/m over the past year (wouldn't like to guess how much I used to spend before that ) but sure can do even better than that now I've caught the OS bug!

Spiggle

Welcome Newbies, :hello:

There are so many of you joining us I can't name you all but I wish you all the very best for the forthcoming year and your challenges. :T

I hope my fellow regulars won't mind me posting this again but it may be of some help to all the enthusiastic and excited people joining us. I believe it has helped others in the past year. So here goes:

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.

When we started in March 2010 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 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 was increased to allow for Christmas extras to £260.

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 supermarkets (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 big 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*nds 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 on them 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 fruit and veg (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 or freeze it for another day.

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!

So, there you go as a starting point. Others on here will offer tremendous advice on meal planning. And don't forget, the only silly question is the one you didn't ask!

I hope that will help some of you starting this fantastic challenge with us. Good luck and have a very Happy Money Saving New Year. :dance:_party_:dance:

All the best,
Spigs

salski

Off shopping now for fresh fruit, veg and carbs - but no meat as we still got a freezer full! I even got OH to eat the remainder of the burgers whilst I had fish for my tea - was scrummy and he enjoyed his too
£70 for week 1 still intact - I shall update on my return

tootallulah

Can I join in please? Waitrose is my downfall...........I am aiming for £100 in January and a great reduction on the amount of food in the freezer.

tiredwithtwins

Id like to join in too please!
We are absolutely skint this december - we havent overspent, just spent up to our income, not sure if or when oh will be working (self employed plasterer) and my salary isnt due til end of jan (nhs nurse!).
So im aiming to only spend £40/week, using store cupboard and freezer stock to keep us going; we usually spend around £100/week but this has to stop ... i dont have use of my car now so no nipping in for stuff only to spend £30 which is what i ALWAYS seem to do!!!
('us' is me and oh + 3 kids - 13,9,9 - who eat like horses!)

good luck everyone :j

rosieben

yes, this would have been fine on the thread

The GC can cover anything you like, its your personal challenge so you set it up to suit you. I include all food, cleaning, laundry, toiletries; others have separate budgets for entertaining, alcohol or pets ... just do whatever suits your circumstances best

its difficult to say what your budget should be as it depends so much on what you eat/where you shop/how you shop; there's some good advice in the first 2 posts on the front page of the GC thread

look forward to seeing you on the challenge thread