January 2007 Grocery Challenge

thriftykatie

Well I've just added up my receipts and updated my signature and gone a bit over my budget (still got until Friday to go but should be able to manage with what I've got until then). However, I'm still really pleased with myself because the challenge has really made me think about what I'm spending: there have been many 'should I shouldn't I' 'do I really need it?' type battles with myself in the supermarket. Surprised if the store detectives haven't been watching me wondering why I was spending quite so much time deciding whether to buy very reduced brandy snaps (no I didn't!)

I still bought some bogofs etc even though I don't strictly need them at the moment. Trouble with me is I can't resist a bargain! However, I have resisted the reduced meat etc unless greatly reduced - the stuff at Mr T's at the moment seems to be reduced just by a pound or so so didn't bother, reminding myself of how full my freezer is. Think the next challenge will be to try and run that down!

Hope you are all sticking within/close to budget.

Just realised - a 'bit' over is actually 25% oops!

Penny-Pincher!!

Spent £17 this week:D ...I am running low on some items but I have a ton of vouchers which will be used at Waitrose this week. Also need OH to do a Freezer Inventory as I really dont have a clue how mcuh we actually have and dont want to shop till I know. Aiming to go shopping middle of the week but may have to buy a little veg to tied us over, or may just either frozen or tin

PP
xx

Penny-Pincher!!

Ive also just noticed that my January challenge finishes the 28th Jan-so only 1 week to go and should easily get by on £25. Also will fill the car up with Diesel so that should be a total spend of about £195 for the month including diesel:D

PP
xx

MonstersMummy

Well that's week 4s shopping done and a grand total of £16.75!! :j
I was 69p over budget last week but every other week has come in so far under budget I think I can cope with it!!
I've also now got enough clubcard points due in the next mailing to cover a whole weeks shopping so thats a result for Febs challenge!!
Might see in Feb if I can do a months shopping at a time and save on fuel costs with it. Will take some major meal planning tho.

To think I was spending over £50 a week til this challenge came along!!

fairy3

Week 4 just done for me too. This was the first online shop with Mr T and I knew that I would spend more as lots of things were running out. My challenge runs from 1st -31st as that is when I get paid but as that is in the middle of the week I am hoping that I can stretch things out until the weekend.

I am aiming to spend only £16.42 during that time which would mean a massive £100 towards the bathroom fund, here is hoping.

Right off to menu plan this little lot.

Good luck

J
X

EagerLearner

Hi everyone - just a reminder that the Grocery Challenge can be even easier if you use my spreadsheet below - just enter the shopping amount into the groceries column every time you go shopping - it will calculate your spend for the month to date for you.

Hope it helps x

lil_me

I've been yesterday, did spend a lot but a larg amount of it was baking ingredients, inc stuff for breadmaker and herbs/spices that I will not need to buy often but need to start making my own curries etc, about 6kg of rice, few other things, herbs, bread stuff and rice will last me ages.

benjacksmum

Just checked and balanced my bank account and have only spent £11.86 this week :j :j :j ! Very pleased and well under budget. Although we did have an enormous amount of food in for Christmas to use up (sadly par for course for us) I still can't quite believe I have managed to feed 2 Adults, 2 boys and a dog on this. Looking back to my finances for 2006, I had already spent £167.32 at the end of the first three weeks :eek:. This is compared to the £43.46 so far this year!

So pleased I found this challenge and and made a promise to myself to start sticking to it, that was in about August last year and it has made an enormous difference to the way we think about food and how much it costs us.

So I have £36.54 left for this last week but I can't see me using it all. I have done well at running the freezers down so far this year, but I absolutely have to concentrate on the stocks in the kitchen cupboards. We are gonna be going through absolute hell for a bout two week in Feb/March when our new kitchen will hopefully be fitted. If I don't run the stocks down in our cupboard OH will get up one evening and will be straight in there packing stuff away and throwing out anything that's even near it's use by date, or that might be cheap enough to replace (for instance the numerous tins of chopped tomatoes that seem to breed in your cupboard), anything he thinks nobody will use, or that tin of whatever that you don't even remember buying that's been lurking for ages (it's a tin of bean salad in our cupboard - don't know where it came from ) , any reason like that and OH will chuck it!!!:eek: So I have to use it up over the next few weeks.

Wish me luck!

LJM

well i blew it this month just done a tescos shop decided to restock freezer totally and stocks so ended up spending nearly £90 in there.but for my sins i got alot and this was my first month of doing it,plus i had alot of family round over xmas and new year so there was extra spent there.so febuary i will try extra extra hard (but saying that i did estimate my budget between £200-£250 and £8 of this total is savings stamps

millionaire_in_training

This is my first real try at this and I am rather disgusted at what I spend. I tweaked my budget last week as I was going to be over. I am still way over. Right thats it I have to get a grip and kick myself up the backside. I was away at a friends for the weekend and spent nearly £50!!!!!!!! Didn't even go anywhere. Bought junk food and fast food for the kids whereas I could easily have taken things with me gggrrrrrr at me. Oh well at least I know where I am going wrong. I am wondering if others who have been doing this for a while had this problem at the start or is it just me? I am going to continue to cut down until the ned of the month and then set myself a budget a bit lower than I have spent. Should be slightly easier next month as is a short month. Ok onwards and upwards.xx