January 2007 Grocery Challenge

MissMuppet

I'm going to join you all this year, I really need to cut down my grocery shopping!! Mine needs to cover all groceries, lunches at work and cat food, otherwise I will be having to minus all his stuff from my receipts which I can't be bothered to do...

Will also be doing it from pay day to pay day, should be a good start this month as I got paid on the 21st Dec and have been at my Mum's in France for 2 weeks, only back on Thursday... haven't spent a penny yet!

I'm going to aim for £150 this month and see how I get on.

millionaire_in_training

I set myself a budget of £60 per week with £30 of that for food. Week 1 and have had to change it already lol. Still trying to stick to £60 per week but with £40 for food. I'll see how it goes. xx

IWannabedebtfree

My target for 1st Jan -31st Jan is:£200 groceries and cleaning
£200 everything else:including clothes, and occasional items such as printer cartridges.
Problem is I've already spent £34 on clothes for kids(essentials) and £66 at Tesco today. Lots of the Tesco stuff was bulk (genuine deals on things I buy anyway) so hoping that they will reduce my bill another week. Looking at all the great savers on this board I'm trying to cheer myself up by thinking that even if I fail to keep to my target, at least I will be spending a heck of a lot less than usual just by being aware of what I spend- I hope!

Brassic

Well, I'm failing my target of a tenner for this week - already

Not including the extra spent on eggs for a quiche I had to take to the New Year party (cos hubby found money for that in the pocket of an old coat) I've got £1.50 left for bread and milk until Saturday Shouldn't have to buy any tomorrow though, and thinking about it, can make bread until then as I bought flour etc. Ok, so I have £1.50 left for milk (3 kids including an 18 month old use a lot milk), and dinner Thursday. Had menu planned for fishcakes, but can't afford them now. Hmmm. think I'll do tuna bake - so just need to buy an onion in that case....not too far off the tenner for this week maybe after all!

fairy3

Hi all,

hope all are doing okay. Brassic I admire your challenge and sympathise, I could make use of a dairy cow in the back garden and I hate the stuff! Md 123 hope the sig thing works, have attempted before and fell in the second week by things getting carried away................ realised this today when I told the DD and DS's we were having a challenge and they said "great when are we having Black saturns maltloaf?"

Have had my first spend of the month at Mr T's and it was really for the basics too, hoped I wouldn't need to til Saturday oh hum, and somehow 20 metres of wrapping paper, matching gift tags and cards got in there too but at £1.72 a bargain. They are in the pressie cupboard already.

Good luck.

J
x

angelatgraceland

I am setting my grocery budget at £7.50 per day as I tend to shop 3 or 4 times a week and it realy varies a lot on a daily/weekly basis. Aiming for £50 per week for food only. This os for 4 adults and one child who eats well. Not counting the pets or any household stuff/toiletries etc. I want to use up all of the rubbish I bought over the years now that I am a stardrops convert. Going to try to only buy any household stuff once a month so I keep track of it easier. Refilled my liquid soap bottle with the shower gel I never use so that will last longer. Did a good cook yesterday of 2 lasagnes and dd made pizzas and cake today so we are using up some of the leftovers. Got a bag in the freezer with all of the opened packets in, gonna use those up first. Determined to empty the freezer somewhat so I can restock it about March afresh.

SayangAlly

Hi everyone - this is such a cool thread!

I occasionally get on this kind of crusade with myself over grocery bills and general disorderliness, as I get fed up of staring aimlessly into cupboards full of spices, coffee, soy sauce and vinegar but little actual edible stuff and then boiling up some kind of risotto/pilaf concoction (admittedly sometimes quite tasty) which lacks something in the way of fruit/veg/interest...

trouble is when I plan menus I get really overenthusiastic and it ends up costing me just as much as usual, Basically I'm quite unimaginitive but nice recipes are obtained from friends on dual income type arrangements and so aren't always the most moneysaving......

I did this informally in November which was fab although it was more to do with planning a varied diet than the money saving, but now I see the potential two-birds-with-one-stone benefits. Unfortunately with housebuying and Xmas the good intentions went wayward. However, new, year, new house, new start and I haven't been to the supermarket yet

My two main sticking points are:

1) meat is expensive but I was a veggie for a while (like 3 years) and it just doesn't excite me at all any more, and all the beans made me quite unpopular in confined spaces

2) Aside from cooking larger portions and putting the leftovers in a takeaway box for lunch tomorrow, which can't always happen (e.g. impromptu teatime visit by hungry friends), I get really bored by paked lunch options.

Does anyone have any pointers or sources (or links to other messages where these have already been given...)

doorstep

I'd like to join in too please (a bit late I know!).

My month runs from 27 December to 26 January and my budget is £160 (me, OH and DD)

I really need to save as much as I can this month.....

miggy

angelatgraceland wrote:

Refilled my liquid soap bottle with the shower gel I never use so that will last longer.

I refilled the shower gel with bubble bath - glad I'm not the only one!

miggy

I am avoiding updating my signature, which can't be a good sign. I think it's because I'm not sure I've remembered all the spends - some done by Dh or the kids.
I will just have to do my best and go with that. I was explaining to DH yesterday that we spend massively more on food than some people and could save hundreds towards paying off the OD if I learn how to do it. He looked thoughtful.
I had a small triumph the other day. I had resisted red cabbage when they were on full price (59p I think) then they were reduced to 3p each so I bought two! A whole 6p!
Yesterday I slow cooked one using a Delia recipe (deliaonline - it's the one with apples in). We had all the ingredients already and it will freeze and be a treat for us with several Sunday lunches.
I think one of the reasons I spend so much on food is that we are really fussy, and all different - 2 vegetarians, 2 who won't eat anything where they can't see all the ingredients separately, two or possibly three with lactose tolerance problems, one who won't eat any vegetables whatsoever, two teenagers... and there are only five of us!