July 2011 Grocery Challenge

69chick

Hi cutiepiebf I think maybe the best thing for you to do would be to keep all your receipts for a month of your usual shopping, add it all up and then challenge yourself to reduce the amount by whatever you wish the next month, say a percentage or a few quid.(think that is what it suggests on the first page). Then see how you find it and reduce more if you think you can etc. I include all food/household stuff like laundry and cleaning bits but I have a separate budget for alcohol and am a family of 2 adults and 3 children (9,5,5)

It also depends on what you can literally afford too. Good luck with it, it really is fab when you can see you are making headway and saving money and throwing away less.

Have updated sig and have a week left of my July GC, its all looking good at the moment, although my separate alcohol budget is not doing so well! In fact, since I have separated this out, I can now see that this is the area that when we are back paying a big mortgage that is going to have to change.!!!!

medsdemon

just popping on after an ultra busy weekend. I think I have spent £39, over 2 shops on sunday and then today at Sains. I wrote my meal plan today and have got everything in for the rest of the week ( fingers crossed) except for milk. Had a NSD yesterday and saterday and planning a few this week too!!.

Hope it's going well for everyone, might get a chance to catch up reading through the thread this afternoon:D.

69chick

small spend of £3 on 3pts milk at MrT and .55 on reduced bacon crispie things for ds tea as he is complaining about the planned pasta,apparantly had it at school for lunch but this always seems to be the case hmmmm..

Shouldn't need anything now till my big shop on Fri/Sat...

boultdj

Got another £26.61 to add.

hex2

Mr T order has arrived and I am a bit cross. I checked and confirmed my order last night, since which time lard has increased from 29p to 49p, value SR flour from 52p to 79p, 400g wholemeal from 54p to 66p, and the cereal went up 10p a packet overnight. I wouldn't have bought them if I had known. It is all very well being able to hand them back to the driver but when he is blocking the road you dont kep him waiting!

Humph

£92.08 to add to my spends.

69chick

I have noticed that the value ketchup I buy from MrT's (thought I would try it one day and the kids prefer it to all the others!!) is 21p in my local big store seems to be whenever I go in, but if I order it online it is 38p! I am pretty sure it comes from that same store too!

karen_is_trying

Had a lush day shopping today havent done it for a while some nice housy bargains and comfy slippers my fav thing in the world lol, £7 to add on for some mugshots for work, mushrooms,pots n bits in coop and home bargains...

millionaire_in_training

Hi. I've spent another £6.50 on fruit and frozen chips. This brings my total to £213.72 from a target of £250 :eek:. I wa definitely being too tough on myself with that one. Looking back at my spending diary since Jnauary I have never ben under £300 so why I thought I could do £250 whilst kids were home on holidays is a mystery to me :rotfl:. I am going to try and come in under £350 as between school lunches and shopping I would normally spend about £400 so to get to £350 will be fab and I will reduce it further next month if I manage to do it. Not giving up, I am just tweaking

Spiggle

cutiepieabf wrote: »

hey guys
i know that everyone's budget is different depending on their diet, what they do or dont include, pets, etc, but i dont feel like i am achieving much at the moment and it would be really useful to know roughly what other people are budgeting for a similar set up. or does anyone know what the average cost is for food per week/meal?

well, i am feeding 2 adults and 1 child, plus a rabbit and a cat. i do not include household items, etc, just food for us and animals. i do one big shop per month which averages at £120, and i then top up each week on fresh food. if anyone has a similar set up and is willing to tell me what their budget is i would be very grateful.

thank you,

Hi cutiepie, :wave:

We're just two adults and two cats. I include everything food, household and pet food. Alcohol is bought by each of us as and when we want it out of our £15 per week each pocket money. (OH spends his I stash mine!) I piggy bank save for tobacco and entertainment so those are not included. (I also piggy bank save every month in separate jars/accounts for birthdays, xmas, car maintenance, tax and insurances and clothes.) Our monthly budget is around £240. Hope that helps.

Ooh, just thought too, always check your cupboards before you do your monthly shop. I have a friend who was spending a similar amount and buying things just because those were what she bought every month. Turns out when she actually looked at what she needed rather than wanted or was in the habit of buying, she cut her costs down a lot. It may help. And of course it should go without saying always make a list and stick to it! :cool:

Georgeestwo what a pain about your freezer, poor you. That's a great suggestion from Highland Fling, I always see freezers and other kitchen/laundry items on freecycle. Even if it's just short term while you save for another, you can then freecycle it back too.

Ok, quick update then. We had our huge order from MrT on Saturday and the total once the send backs were taken off was £114.57! :eek: This did include an awful lot of shopping so I shouldn't really complain but I guess that the same shop this time last year was about £70-80ish. :mad:

Other than that we haven't done any other shopping since I was last on and I'll update the sig in a minute.

I did though have great fun picking and buying a number of accessories and furniture for our bathroom. We're planning on redecorating over our holidays in August. Only question we have now is whether to get someone in to re-tile or to live with the tiles we've got. Part of me wants to change them to white from the grey they are now, so that we never have to do them again (same principle as we applied to the kitchen in 2009). The other part of me just doesn't want the hassle of dust and workman that doing them would entail. There's also the cost to consider and there are a few other things I would like to do that the money could be put towards. I can always do the tiles in a few years once the mortgage is paid off. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions ... :think:

Still frantically busy in work at the moment trying to sort out things before I take my hols. Otherwise it's thankfully quiet and uneventful on the Spiggle homefront. :j:T:rotfl:

Right I'd better sort that sig out and then go hassle for my dinner!

Take care all,
Spigs

emmad5689

been to Ald* today and spent another £2.29, think we may go over this week, got a sains delivery coming next week and still need dog food plus all fresh stuff for rest of month, this is my first try at this so gives me an idea what we are spending.