January 2007 Grocery Challenge

MrsTinks

I'm setting a budget for food at £15 per week for January... the reason is I have TONNES of food from christmas still to use and I want to use this and not just buy buy buy - so by being mean with my food budget I should be able to stay good and only buy milk, eggs and a few top up bits and pieces... Famous last words

thriftykatie

Thanks squeaky for the links. My daughter is 16 and used to have packed lunches but this year asked if she could eat in the sixth form canteen which I agreed to - it only costs me around £4 a week (her dad pays £4 too to cover the average weekly cost of £8). There is a good choice of healthy food and she usually has a pasta dish, jacket potato or similar and a yoghurt or piece of fruit.

I am happy to pay out for this, particularly as two days a week she goes straight from school to her part time job in Waitrose. She doesn't get home until just before 10 so having a 'proper' lunch keeps her going and she just has a snack when she gets in (which saves me money too!). At least once a week she goes out with friends and doesn't have supper so more saving again for me!

I am sure I will be using some of the ideas in the links - I try to make my lunch interesting and cheap.

kiwi88_2

moggins wrote:

Any idea what I can do with half a bag of fresh sprouts?

Edited to add I also spent £5.99 on a 10Kg bag of Basmati rice.

Mmmmmm me thinks if you have some bacon and cheese, maybe some cream you could do a sort of rissotto

domestic_goddess

I'm in..... I gave up in December but I am determined that 2007 will be my year to sort out my debts and learn to be more OS.

I have a budget of £180 to last until the 01st February. Still have a bit leftover from christmas so hopefully this is achievable.

There is me, my oh and two kids (2 and 4).

Fingers crossed for me

xx

catznine

:j Count me in as well! Must do better this year! We have full freezers (mainly leftovers) and a full larder with various tins to use up, mainly chick peas and tomatoes.

I am going to allow £100 this month for 2 adults, 1 cat and visiting family.

We have a veg and fruit box delivered every week that costs £11.50 and includes 6 eggs. Don't really want to give this up as I am trying to get us healthy! This leaves £13.50 to spend a week. I am also restricting myself to bargains only like bogofs (like to make life difficult!:D )

Good luck everyone!

Catz x

lindsaygalaxy

Hi Everyone

Im fairly new to this website but thought id have a go at the grocery challenge.

Im a recent single mum with a 2 year old daughter. Ive got a fair amount of debt thats currently in a debt mangment plan so im trying to sort everything out and live on a budget! So any advise especially from anyone in the same situation is very welcome.

My 4 week January grocery challenge budget is £200. I intend to do a big shop today then just top ups for the rest of the month. Can anyone tell me how they do it, is it better this way or to buy weekly?

catznine

Hi Lindsay!

Not sure if weekly or monthly is better, monthly would allow you to take advantage of bigger packs (but check that these are actually cheaper by weight) and weekly could mean more temptation to spend.

Best advice I can give, if you need to be really strict, is to menu plan, at least at first till you get used to working out what you actually need and if ingredients can be used for more than one meal etc.

I also made a huge saving once I cottoned on to the fact that I could freeze some of my bread, milk etc when I first opened it, to use later on instead of letting it go off.

Best of luck

Catz x

Loveshopping

Hi

This is my first post on MSE, after my husband has told me about this site for a long time.

I'm very interested in joining the grocery challenge as we spend way too much (i've realised) anything from £200-£500 yes thats for 2 adults and 2 cats.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated, the site is great im addicted already after 24 hrs.

Can anyone tell me about "stardrops" seen this written a few times.

Thanks

lil_me

Thanks for the links on packed lunches, have a terribly fussy son with Autism to cater for and an equally picky partner but sure I will find something on there. Already kept the boxes off sons raisins (which he takes daily) and I am going to refil those boxes to fool him He won't eat bread so has ham and cucumber so buying the cheapest of those. Just trying to figure something cheaper than the fruit flakes and fruit strings he takes now.

catznine

Hi Loveshopping!

Welcome to MSE!

You will find stardrops in Asda for about 58p. Sainsburys also stock it I believe. It is great for most cleaning jobs, really good on my cooker. I have also used it to remove red wine stains on cream dining chairs, and tomato stains on white tops. I water mine down and then apply and rinse off. It is an incredibly good cleaner for a very reasonable price.

Catz x