September 2011 Grocery Challenge

dumpling

Hi Helen I haven't been doing this challenge for a while but I would like to get on the bandwagon. We've been eating out of the cupboards and freezers for the past couple of months so I need to totally restock. With this in mind I would like to set my budget for this month at £485. Thanks very much.:)
Edited to add I've had my first fortnightly delivery from Sainsbugs of £150.07. The children are laughing at my toilet roll mountain!

helen_jelly

Totals done to post 102

Welcome to all the new people - please ask lots of questions, there are lots of really helpful people on here who will come along and answer any queries

Hi to all the returners

Have a nice afternoon/evening

Helen

ixia

Went to Ald! today s spent £14.91 will need to go my main shop too just some bits out of there that are cheaper.

leaving me £385.09.

annasoper

Just got back shopping. Saved £4.75 off my original target of £40!!!! Well, I usually spend £55-£60! Changed shopping to Al di from As da and my, what a difference it has made! Ok, maybe I still have a few things from last weeks shop in the freezer, but still, I've noticed that the prices of fresh stuff like fruits and veg are way way way cheaper than As da. Has anyone else noticed that? I'm a little dubious, are they in any way of a lesser quality?
xx

CompBunny

:wave:This is my first GC - i posted at the end of the August thread to say that I thought it would be best to just keep track of what I spend this month, to set a realistic target for October

So my first spend was yesterday - £4 on two pizzas from Asda's pizza takeaway counter. My partner and I had spent the day moving my Grandfather into a care home and were so physically and emotionally drained and thought it would be a nice, easy treat-dinner. However, we filled up the rust bucket with diesel which was £47 and I think I will include this as grocery spending. So £51 so far...lets hope we can stretch that fuel! Will also need to re-stock cupboards with kidney beans, soya mince, tinned tomatoes and freeze some chopped onions when we get back.

We are going to visit my partner's family in northern ireland for a few days tomorrow, so that will hopefully be a good few days of low (or no, perhaps) grocery expenditure!

CompBunny

annasoper wrote: »

Just got back shopping. Saved £4.75 off my original target of £40!!!! Well, I usually spend £55-£60! Changed shopping to Al di from As da and my, what a difference it has made! Ok, maybe I still have a few things from last weeks shop in the freezer, but still, I've noticed that the prices of fresh stuff like fruits and veg are way way way cheaper than As da. Has anyone else noticed that? I'm a little dubious, are they in any way of a lesser quality?
xx

I find the fresh fruit and veg to be a little hit and miss - awesome prices on some things, but occasionally the produce can look a little "sorry". I would advise checking each item in pre-bagged goods and you will be fine

Congratulations on your saving

PurpleJay

Hi all, can I join in please - need to get on track!

I used to do the challenge but haven't taken part for a while. I did some 'big' shops recently as I has vouchers for Tesco, Sainsburys and Ocado all coming up at the same time! Still have some vouchers for £12 off £60 for Sainsburys so will be shopping there next week.

I spent £3.20 today (2 loaves of bread and 2 magazines for mum) and £1.65 (Pepsi max for me and cream cake for mum) yesterday.

Just to explain, our usual household is me and hubby, our son who is 4 and my elderly mum but she is currently in hospital and it looks doubtful she can come home anytime soon. I will be buying treats for her out of the budget though, magazines and am still doing her washing/cleaning so it doesn't make a huge difference to the grocery budget. Might have to up it a bit, if she does come home. We also have 2 cats.

My budget for September is £200. As I say we are well stocked up on some things - in particular, soap powder, softener and cat food. Should also be ok for loo rolls and cleaning supplies this month too.

sparklysaver

Well I had a NSD today; instead of going for a wander round the shops I spent the morning made jam out of the 4 punnets of slightly bashed strawberries I spent £1 on in the market yesterday. Don't feel slightly bad about buying something not on my shopping list because a) I got 4 jars of jam out of it (for a pound!! ) and b) I used up one of the 7 bags of granulated sugar that were in a plastic box under my stairs. 7 bags! What on earth was I thinking?!?

Have defrosted some fish for tea and written a proper list of all the meals that are lurking in the freezer from previous batch cooking adventures instead of just roughly counting the ones I can see; I have 7 chicken curry, 2 sausage casserole, 5 lamb tagine, 3 pork goulash, 6 meatballs in tomato sauce and 12 portions of various soup. :shocked: This is officially ridiculous!

So, if I go over my target for the month, please, someone come round and shoot me.

Ooh, also, hello to all the other newbies here, seem to be loads of us! :wave: Good luck everyone!

bullet_2

Well, £52.34 spent already, but that includes some school clothes and £10 spent on the largest pack of washing powder the supermarket had. Actually, that was almost all of the money, apart from some value yogurts, some value bananas, some nectarines and some baking margarine I didn't get any food. So I need to go to the market tomorrow and stock up on next week's fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. Then need to buy more nappies and a large bag of potatoes.

Betty_Crumble

I did really well last month with my £100 so going to go again


£100 for September for me please.