June 2011 Grocery Challenge

rosie383

Well done Cranky on being slimmer of the month:T
Put me down for £240 again this month.

I am joining in again this month. Like others, I have been sticking to a budget, but not documenting everything, and have been struggling.
I am going to change my plan this month. I had been doing a monthly meal plan, and then doing a big shop at the beginning of the month, with further shopping each week. I have realised that this has been where I have been going wrong. I would take the money out of the bank at the beginning of the month, or, like many of you, doing it on the 29th or 30th out of desperation!
After I did my BIG shop, I would spend so much that, out of my £240 budget (for 4 of us) I would maybe have £60-80 left for the rest of the month. On around the 2-3rd of a month, that was a horrible feeling!
This month, I have done a weekly meal plan and subsequent shop including extra bits that I didn't have money for at the end of last month. Honestly, I bought near enough what I would have bought for a month, but have spent around £10 each in Asda and Tesco and a £30 shop in Sains and used my £6 off voucher. All I need to get now are some bits and pieces in the Asian grocers tomorrow, and fruit. So, compared to the last 2 months, when I had about £60-80 in my purse left at the end of the first week, I will have about £180 left. It feels so much better.
And another thing, at the beginning of the month, there would be lots of food and goodies in the house, so the family (and me:o) would eat what we fancied. Then for the next 3 weeks, I would be saying to the kids 'No, you can't have ....... I can't afford it'.
Lets hope this works. It feels good so far.

toddles*

NSD for me today, I love love love my new chest freezer. If I need some milk/bread just a quick trip to my garage so defrost some. It really does make it easier to have lots of NSDs.
As I had a habbit of nipping to the C*op for some milk and spending £8-10 on magazines, sweets and rubbish like that.

franby64

Morning

Mrs M could you put me down for £425 for June please.
Many thanks as ever to Mrs M, Pink-Winged and Rosieben for running the thread - will catch up later after I've declared for May (looking good but still time to mess it up!).

Good luck everybody for June.

choogirl

Hi

Could I join in please? I find it so easy to overspend so need some incentive to keep on the straight and narrow.

Can you put me down for £280 please?

Thanks, Choo xx

bargainhunterss

hi guys! I'm delurking to say that I'd like to have a trial month, you know where you just have a guess and save all receipts to see what your actual total is? good luck everyone, and I hope we all make our targets! xxx:)

ps. Could you put me down for £200? ta!

seehar

rosie383 wrote: »

And another thing, at the beginning of the month, there would be lots of food and goodies in the house, so the family (and me:o) would eat what we fancied. Then for the next 3 weeks, I would be saying to the kids 'No, you can't have ....... I can't afford it'.

i have to hide stuff to stop this happening! I dont have kids but my boyfriend is awful, if there are biscuits, crisps, cakes, he will just munch the lot! Have lots of different hiding places so if he finds one I can hide it in a new place and then ration it out over the month teehee. Tops of the kitchen cupboards are good, or leave them in the shopping bags (mine are hung on the back of the door), or the back of the saucepan cupboard. My mum used to hide stuff and once hid cake bars in the washing machine tho.....and washed them :rotfl:


CupofChai oooh i am trying to go to sonisphere, trying to get guestlist from some friends of mine who are playing *fingers crossed* havent been before but my friends have and I think it is just like a mini Download...so lots of greasy burgers
thinking of making my own cider for the summer.... to save on the booze costs :beer:


update on spends - nothing extra yet woohoo!, but will have to get some soya yog later as I forgot it on sat and had no breakfast this morn !

sistercas

back from having my hair cut , and i popped into the local shops while i was there.

spent £12.02 in w!lkinsons on tr3s3mme shampoo and conditioner £1.97 for 900mls instead of £4.97 :j( its £2.50 in sup3rdrug )
also picked up bin liners , multivitamins

£4.30 in c00p for MIL

resisted the pork sandwich shop :A and had crackers and cheese at home instead

sistercas

seehar wrote: »

i have to hide stuff to stop this happening! I dont have kids but my boyfriend is awful, if there are biscuits, crisps, cakes, he will just munch the lot! Have lots of different hiding places so if he finds one I can hide it in a new place and then ration it out over the month teehee. Tops of the kitchen cupboards are good, or leave them in the shopping bags (mine are hung on the back of the door), or the back of the saucepan cupboard. My mum used to hide stuff and once hid cake bars in the washing machine tho.....and washed them :rotfl:


QUOTE]

i hide stuff too otherwise it would be gone the day i bought it . i'm hiding it in the tumble drier at the mo ( its broken) no-one has found it yet

cornish.chick

I need someone to hide stuff from me :rotfl:

Spent £5.25 :eek: on 3 cans of enegry drinks today, that HAS to stop!! Need to wean myself off them somehow. Maybe switch to a couple of glasses of coke a day instead, then wean myself off that. Really not good for my teeth either (gotta have a blimin crown fitted end of the month )

greent

Afternoon all! Have just declared May on the old thread (just made it!) and would like a target for June of £430, please - £100 more than last month, but that was an exceptional month and it's still much lower than it used to be (about £700 a month when I started this - and with one less child back then, too!) Going to have to work quite hard to achieve it, I think - but we shall see!


Thanks to the fab people behind these threads, as always! Good luck everyone! x