January 2011 Grocery Challenge

martafdz

Yaaaay! I wandered around shops... mistake! mistake!... and spent £21ish! So now I have around £10 left for the next 4 days.

Anyway, I think I have shopped quite MSE.

Shopping 1, saving of £5.43 compared to Sainsb. I went to £land and stocked a bit of toothpaste, soap and chocolate (since in the sm choc is always more expensive).

Shopping 2, savings of £13.57 due to vouchers. I went to Boots and bought 2 x L'Oreal hair dye that were on offer at £10 both (same offer in Sainsb) and paid with a voucher for Boots I had from ages ago. I needed the dye so I'm glad it turned out free and from a good brand. Then I used my £5 off in No7 voucher in... a No7 face sponge at £3.57, so completely free too. They had muslin cloths where I went but they were £5.67 and I do not know if I would use them.

Shopping 3, savings of £15! :eek:. As I walked out of Boots I passed by the Waitrose section... and I stopped behind a lady who was reducing oil and spices... so I spent £6.58 in.. wait to hear it... 2 x 500ml sunflower oil, 4 x 500ml 100% Olive oil (not mixed), 1 x 500ml groundnut oil, 1 x 500ml Wok oil, and 7 big boxes of spices reduced from £1.60 to 30-35p!! The olive oil was less than half price, it was at 42p!!! And the organic spices were reduced also over a £1, so I am quite happy with those. The oil and the spices should last me until almost the end of the year, since I only use oilve oil in salads and now HM bread. :j

I am chuffed!


alicemskinner, some of us have the total amount we are aiming for and the amount we are at (like mine: £240.59/£250 ), which means I do not want to go over £250 and at the minute I am at £240ish. We are only two but I used to spend £400+ before, I went to the sm feeling hungry, never with a list, never adding up, never checking what was in the cupboard, always buying with the eyes and the stomach instead of with the wallet and the brain... etc. Lol. Now I am eating much better, more homemade and much cheaper. I wish I had done this much earlier!

I think this multiquote has some limits, I remember quoting other people but now it does not appear. Weird. Thanks for the advice on swede, i can't remember who said it. I will try to roast them tonight with the lamb I bought from MrM... it was labeled as pork and thus much much cheaper than those labeled as lamb... lol :rotfl:

See you later!

rosieben

alicemskinner wrote: »

Hi all

I find this thread really interesting but I think it might be helpful if we added a bit more info into the (I think) 3rd and 4th posts where it says what we're aiming for and what we've achieved.

At the moment there is no context....would it be possible to start putting how many mouths we are feeding in brackets

i.e. alicemskinner £110 achieved £90 (1)

This would make it easier to compare your budget to others, so other peoples budgets seem quite large to me but my assumption is that they are feeding families - also I'd be interested to see if people have got the same sort of budget as me but are feeding more than one (then I could ask them how they do it)

What does everyone think?

Alice

this has been suggested once before but its not practical; it would create an awful lot of work for MrsMc who volunteers to keep the lists for us and as russetred says it just wouldn't work as there are so many variables

OrkneyStar

rosieben wrote: »

this has been suggested once before but its not practical; it would create an awful lot of work for MrsMc who volunteers to keep the lists for us and as russetred says it just wouldn't work as there are so many variables

Yeah, much as extra info is interesting we have to remember all the people who keep this thread in order do it as volunteers! Variables might include:
1. number of people, 2. ages of people. 3. location, 4. what shops available, 5. dietary requirements, 6. can you drive, 7. how much storage do you have, 8. do you work, 9. do you have illnesses, etc etc etc!!!!!

Also it might make it more like a competition too, as you could home in on people in apparently similar situations to compare with :eek::eek::eek:. This is about a personal challenge to you and what you and your family are comfortable with. It doesn't matter what the neighbours spend, of course we share tips, but we don't tend to compare how much we spent on here tbh.

There is a Grocery Budget thread, which does have info like this on it. I imagine many of us here have posted on there so you might want to read through that if you are interested in getting an idea what others in a similar situation spend.

Finally anyone wanting to include any extra specific info can include that in their signature, e.g. I state on mine that my GC includes diesel as well as the usual groceries, toiletries, cleaning etc.

nickynoo08

Been to do a mini top up shop today. Spent £20.22. Think i'll probably end up going over my budget again as i stocked up on a few offers today, but i'll hopefully be able to reduce next months budget to make up for it;)

rachelww1

Hiya

I would like to declare January spends at £398.81:eek:. Only £1.19 under budget. But this does include a £20 shop at BB4L, and a £50 shop at great bircham foods for a meat box that will last us for the whole of feb, and probably some of march. I only ordered this yesterday, but as the money has come out of my bank, I am including it in January's budget.

Could I be put down for a £280 budget for Feb please. Feb budget starts tomorrow and finishes and finishes 24th Feb, so 4 weeks for me.

Sunnyday

Hi Peeps :wave:

i`ve already started my "February" due to paydates

MrsM would you please put me down for £120 food and £55 pets for February please, thankyou!

Mothership - My Mum has shopped at Don@ld Ru$$el for a long long time, every now and again she will pop something over for me to try and i agree it is very nice - tad too expensive for me but we do have a good local butcher which saves the food miles so a bit greener. I have 2 DR lamb shanks in the freezer just waiting to be popped in the slow cooker soon

I`ve just updated my siggy after popping to MrA last night, DH needed a pair of jeans for work and we sorted through them to find a pair in his size and had a nice surprise at the till - they went through at £3 :j:j The lady on the till was laughing about it and i thought that she would call someone over to correct it but she didn`t so a nice saving there.

Whilst we were there i picked up some of the 50p veg, jacket potatoes, onions and broccolli and we also stocked up on bread flour as the strong white flour was only 50p :j This is a great offer as its 95p in MrM`s atm so i got 8 bags. The first three are in the freezer for a couple of days and then i`ll transfer them to my storage box then i shall do the rest, really happy with my shopping. I`ve not been to MrA since sometime in November but if they keep having offers like that then i`ll go back more often.

SD

supersally01

Well Jan is over, and I'd like to declare for £395, so just £5 under budget, although I had some change left in my purse, so not all bad!!
I'd like to be put down for £375 in Feb please. This will be for the 4 weeks (£93 per week approx), as a short month. Next month I am hoping to drop it further, but lets see how I get on in Feb first!!!
Kicked Feb off by going to M@S, spent £43 on tho £25 shops, with the £5 off voucher. Stocked up on the 3 for £10 meats, and got the dine in too, although choice this time was a bit naff! Gonna send OH again on Saturday to get another 2 x £25 (£20), as that will give me all the meat I need for the month. I am hoping this will save me in the long run, as all i will need is store cupboard stuff for the rest of the month.
The cleaning stuff is no longer 1/2 price, but the jars etc were still on offer - so be quick if you want them! The curry pastes are good value as I made a beef madras and a chicken korma last night, enough for tonight too, and loads to freeze for work meals.
Then went to MrM, and spent £24, nearly everything I got was 1/2 price, so did quite well. I realise that I will be right up to my first weeks budget, but hope to spend less on the next three weeks.
The renovations are getting on OK. Small bathroom now tilled, and the kitchen tilling to start on Monday. When I got the money out of the cash machine to pay the tiller, I thought that if it were not for GC, this money would not exsist - well it would - but in MrT's tills!!!:rotfl:

jack0212

Please could I join in for February. I have been reading this thread on and off for a while but have finally decided to bite the bullet and get my finances in order. I have set myself £160 budget for February. My freezer is pretty well stocked along with my store cupboards. There is only DD, OH and myself to feed so should be ok. After alot of consideration, I have finally ordered myself a bread maker too. I can't wait for it to arrive. It's like Xmas all over again but without the expense!!

Gracie_1827

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes yesterday, really appreciate them.
Went down to parents, it's their 61st wedding anniversary, so had lunch made for me and mam wanted to go to L1d1s and she got me a couple of packets of crispbreads, so a NSD for me and I got a gift card from her, so not a bad day.
Trying to lower my blood pressure so trying to eat more fruit....costly:( but if I cut down on coffee it might even itself out;)

Spiggle

alicemskinner wrote: »

... it might be helpful if we added a bit more info into the (I think) 3rd and 4th posts where it says what we're aiming for and what we've achieved. ... This would make it easier to compare your budget to others, so other peoples budgets seem quite large to me but my assumption is that they are feeding families - also I'd be interested to see if people have got the same sort of budget as me but are feeding more than one (then I could ask them how they do it) ...

Welcome alicemskinner, :wave:

As has been said by our fellow challengers, there are far too many variables. You will find that some people have in their signatures what they include and or how many they are feeding. The important thing to remember is that it is your challenge so comparing to anyone else would be pointless as there is no competition here only support.

IMHO, you should set yourself your budget based on what you think (or have calculated from records or need due to financial constraints - more variables I'm afraid) you will spend over the month. Then ask on here for advice for buying/planning/cooking/storing for one person. You'll be amazed how helpful everyone is. And nine times out of ten you'll get some responses such as "I'm shopping for just me too and I ...". Hope that helps.

martafdz wrote: »

... Shopping 3, savings of £15! :eek:. As I walked out of Boots I passed by the Waitrose section... and I stopped behind a lady who was reducing oil and spices... so I spent £6.58 in.. wait to hear it... 2 x 500ml sunflower oil, 4 x 500ml 100% Olive oil (not mixed), 1 x 500ml groundnut oil, 1 x 500ml Wok oil, and 7 big boxes of spices reduced from £1.60 to 30-35p!! The olive oil was less than half price, it was at 42p!!! And the organic spices were reduced also over a £1, so I am quite happy with those. The oil and the spices should last me until almost the end of the year, since I only use oilve oil in salads and now HM bread. :j
... I think this multiquote has some limits, I remember quoting other people but now it does not appear. ...

Wow Marta! :money: Superb savings there. :T The multiquote will only work if you've ticked between one and three (maximum) of the double balloons. You should see a little white tick on the balloons when selected. Then I just hit the Quote button to the left of the double balloon button when I'm ready to reply. It can be a little temperamental on times though! :rotfl: Hope that helps.

supersally01 wrote: »

... The renovations are getting on OK. Small bathroom now tilled, and the kitchen tilling to start on Monday. When I got the money out of the cash machine to pay the tiller, I thought that if it were not for GC, this money would not exsist - well it would - but in MrT's tills!!!:rotfl:

So good to see and have real hard benefits to life from the challenge supersally. :j Keep up the great work. :cool:

Well I've been working from home today. OH got knocked off his bicycle by a car on his way to work yesterday morning. :eek: We did the hospital, police, etc bit and thankfully there are no broken bones but he's pretty battered, bruised and stiff from it. Our biggest worry was any internal bleed because of the warfarin but nothing detected yesterday or today so I think we can stop worrying on that front now. Thankfully as well there was no car coming in the opposite direction or my dear OH could have come a cropper as he ended up on the other side of the white lines. Why on earth don't drivers stop when they come to a T junction? :mad:

So anyway, I've just finished working and thought I'd catch up with all my lovely fellow challengers. I haven't updated my siggy yet but will do shortly. No further purchases but a couple of NSD.

Right, might be back later but otherwise have a great evening and I'll see you tomorrow.

Take care all,
Spigs