January 2011 Grocery Challenge

kezlou

Hello everyone !!!

Welcome to all newcomers and oldies alike:):).

Cheers rosieben, pink numbers and mrs m for starting and maintaining the thread once again. your all stars!:T:T:T

Mrs m wow that's amazing 100 pounds fantastic!

I finally calculated my december spends and came under budget, very very pleased with that. Could have done better but cosidering the year we've had i'm happy with that.

So please could i be put down for an annual budget of £2000 again Mrs M? I know i could realistically reduce it, but i feel it should stay the same. Especially with the vat increase and the rise in the price of food.

So i've worked it out £2000 is £166.67 a month or £38.46 a week. This is to feed 2 adults, ds 10, ds6 and 2 cats. It will cover cat food, cat litter, toiletries, pack lunches, meals out etc. Only thing is won't cover is medicine and fuel, which varies week by week.

Good luck everyone!!!

angelatgraceland

flowergirls wrote: »

Our shopping is normaly between £90 - £120 per week and would like to decrease this is possible

Well knowing your present spends is a good starting point then. As it is rather high(well its like mine used to be once) Id start sensibly.
Why not set it to £100 for January and see how you do? Make sure you stay within that amount. Set aside a couple of days each week where you do not spend. Use things like oats or lentils along with mince to make it go a lot further. Buy full cream milk rather than ss and water it down a bit(an extra pint free). There are lots of little things to ease you in gently.
If you find £100 easy the next month aim for £90 and see how it goes. Keeping a spending diary is the msot important thing as you will see patterns forming. Stock up well on bread milk and toiletrolls and suchlike as what usually happens is we pop out for apint of milk and spend £30! Dont let yourself run out of the basics. Make sure you do not waste anything. Leftover bread should be made into breadcrumbs and frozen for use in recipes-any extra portions of meals-freeze them for another day-a hungry evening or whatever. Have a day here and there where you "use up some bits" and use these meals then maybe. Its virtually a day of free feeding if it would otherwise have been wasted or if anyone tends to overindulge in order not to waste(a lot of us are guilty of that) Measure out portions of rice and veg etc beofre you cook them so you dont cook an extra portion for the bin.

sillyinthepast

Please can I join?

I am going to go for £350 for the month. But I am putting £50 by for offers. I am hoping to be able to buy washing powder, squash etc only when it's on offer.

I think £350 should be ok I don't really know what I am spending to be honest I just know it's too much!!!!

Georgiegirl2012

Firstly, I'd like to add my thanks to the 3 ladies who run these threads so well, from memory the names being Mrs M (numbers person) Rosie ben (recipes person) and flying pink fairy wing person (the one who set up the thread - feel free to correct me if I got any of that wrong.

I'd also like to thank Spiggle(s)? for the very informative post on what worked for them when they started monitoring their grocery spend.

I did online shopping last week which was delivered Monday, and the money was debited from my a/c today (well yesterday now) and today (last working day of the month) is payday. I am starting today about £12.50 overdrawn, and I know that I have about another £50 to go out, so it will be touch and go if I end January in credit.

I have given myself an annual grocery budget of £2500, which mentally I am splitting into 12 x £200 with a safety net of £100. However, given that VAT is going up next week, I am strongly considering getting some basics ordered tomorrow or Saturday. One of the grabbit threads has an offer for £6 off a first order at a pet place, so if it's still available might take advantage of that to buy cat food.

I'm rather hoping my eldest will go and buy milk tomorrow, considering he drinks at least half of it - I used to get through about 4-6 pints a week, now he's home its nearer 16.

I have also printed out blank menu plans (similar to what you get when you join a slimming club) with an extra column for cost of each meal. I printed 52, so I will have enough for the whole year.

I will be organised. I will I will I will:eek:

angelatgraceland

Well Im still feeling ill and now have sinusitus which I find hard to deal with as I cant lie down at night without choking! Now on antibiotics for this. Ive got to recover now as DH and DD are beggining to become unwell and DD(25) is back from France NYD and I just hope she doesnt get it as she has a new full time job. Anyway Ive tried to make some effort tonight! Checked my Asda order and found cheese pasties one day out of date, salmon trimmings(2 packs) one day left and bavarian ham 3 days left. Emailed asda and am getting a refund. Otherwise Ive got to say I was really pleased with my order.
Ive just cooked a chicken(nice fr one) yes I know its late but I feel a bit better right now so I do things when I feel less unwell! In the morning I will disect it-removing the breasts for a cooked dinner for 4(half a breast each) and the rest for a curry on New Years Day. Hardly and water and fat from it-amazingly small amount! Ive set this aside for stock/gravy. Carcass can be used for soup if I can keep DH away from it! One of the ingredients Im using now which I never did before is dried peas. Do give them a go-far nicer than the tinned processed ones! Cooked some eggs this morning-FR ones and I poached them. No eggpoacher so I used metal pastry cutters to tip the eggs int-in some boiling water. Perfect! Do remember re the VAT increases that they dont effect natural unprocessed foods so try to buy these more often. Obviously the price on fuel with the vat will up the prices of these indirectly. The more junk foods you can eliminate-the more vat you will dodge!

youngmummy

spent about £20 today. on milk, and some other essentials. im going to start doing homemade crisps instead of buying them, next year im going to grow as much stuff as possible and im also trying to convince DP into letting us get some chickens as well as maiking as many snacks and biscuits and desserts myself. and eat healthier !!! off too do my list of things to achive for next year.... might even starts ttc for number 2.... x

youngmummy

kezlou wrote: »

So please could i be put down for an annual budget of £2000 again Mrs M? I know i could realistically reduce it, but i feel it should stay the same. Especially with the vat increase and the rise in the price of food.

So i've worked it out £2000 is £166.67 a month or £38.46 a week. This is to feed 2 adults, ds 10, ds6 and 2 cats. It will cover cat food, cat litter, toiletries, pack lunches, meals out etc. Only thing is won't cover is medicine and fuel, which varies week by week.

i need some tips hun .... theres 3 (a toddler and 2 adults)of us and im dreading trying to do a food shop on about £53 p/wk any tips my LO is 2. thanks xxxx

jintyb

de1amo wrote: »

İ do wish nickj would change his name to stevej----i must find a new drink that doesnt involve alcohol!!--welcome t january--i do marvel at anyone who can spend just 1625 a year! it seems with my missus that is a monthly spend! its those bits and pieces!--i just open my walet and let it flow! and face up to the cost here!

I noticed that you have managed to lower your grocery spend, so that's a positive thing isnt it?:T

It might be an idea for you to give your wife a break and take over the shopping for a month and see if you can do any better. It's a bit of an eyeopener regarding prices etc if you are the one having to plan, shop and cook and also stay within budget.

Georgiegirl2012

Well I've just spent about £70 of my annual budget. But I've ordered enough toilet paper, toothpaste, washing up liquid, washing powder, and various other things to last me most of the year, and cat food to last 2-3 months.

I'll go to work now and work it all out properly when I come home. It's a fun way to spend New Year's Eve

kippers

I have 2 new years resolutions:

1) to clear our debts of approx £900 before my DD2 goes to High school in Sept when we have to pay another £50 per month for the bus that takes her there (we already have to pay this for DD1...there are 2 private bus's to take most the children around here to a school 15 miles away as the schools round here are terrible and have very 'rough' children attending from two bad estates. Both these schools have had thousands of pounds given to them over the last few years and still have the lowest GCSE results in the county).

2) To keep to my £300 grocery challenge (which will help acheive number '1' above). I've got to do it this year by hook or by crook for my DD2's sake as we can't have her going to the awful schools round here.

I 've done my big shop and a couple of little shops already so I need to be very careful (i'll update my signature later). This month runs upto the 24th Jan for me.

On Tues we had friends round for tea. I made a h/m pizza and jacket pots, h/m bread and sausage rolls, dips etc. very cheap as the jacket pots were also woopsied and cost me 10p for 10 on xmas eve. For pud we had xmas cake, mince pies, choc log and little fairy cakes all left over.

On Weds I was very frugal as I took my 2 DD's to town to spend their xmas money and vouchers (we walked there and got a lift back with DH at 4pm when he finished work). I took sandwiches, and leftover h/m sausage rolls and cakes and we sat on a bench in the shopping centre eating them...money saved.

Yesterday we had h/m leek and potato soup served with freshly made rolls and last night i made a turkey and carrot pie (cooked turkey and carots in a white sauce covered in left over pastry which i had in the freezer)...doesn't sound very glam but it was lovely. I served it with pots and swede mashed together, brussells, broccoli, roasted butternut squash and roast parsnips.

Most the veg was woopsied on christmas eve (thank you Mr Tesco for that) except the butternut squash and leeks, which i grew at my allotment.

I had half a big bag of potatoes in my 'frost free' store box outside which did actually freeze with the low temperatures over the last few weeks, so i have had to throw them away as they have all turned soft and mushy now:eek:

Dad turned up with two sticks of brussells yesterday which is brilliant, so that will help on the veg front as they keep for quite a while on the sticks.

Tonight (for a new years treat)we have saved hard so we can have a chinese as a treat as we haven't had a takeaway for ages and ages.

Tomorrow we are going to my DH's parents for kababs (they are greek and they do the great big chunks of meat served with pilaf rice salad dips etc...lovely). We have to take a pudding so I am taking a homemade cheesecake as i have a biscuit base ready in the freezer (i should have used it for a cheesecake on boxing day but my recipe fail due to using tesco value softcheese...i won't be doing that again). I have bought philadelphia this time.

After this i need to start meal planning again. But first i need to delve into my two full freezers to find out exactly what i have and haven't got:eek:. I know i have loads of fruit and veg from my allotment in there that i need to use up before summer.

I also have plenty of cooking apples storing in my shed in at my allotment to use.

I am stocked up well with pantry items like bread flour, baking items, pasta etc so if i put my mind to it i know i can do this months challenge.

I must concentrate hard to do this challenge and ensure i don't waste anything (though i seldom do now since joning this website).

Good luck everyone with this months challenge and

Happy New Year to you all

(goodness this is a really long post for me)