October 2011 Grocery Challenge

sproggi

A NSD for me again, just need one more to reach my target of 20

Sproggi

sls1365

Hello

I'm an old forum member, but not posted for nearly 2 years - I got a new job and got taken over by it and my 2 daughters....

Anyway, as a single mum of 2, I have to sort out my finances! As it stands, I don't have a credit card (any more - been there, done that!) or an overdraft. I have a car loan, but apart from that - nada.

However, I just can't seem to save any money and I'm sure that I should be able to. My biggest downfall is (having just examined my past 3 months bank statements) FOOD! I overspend on takeaways, because I haven't got my act together and shopped properly, so we just order something in. Also, in an attempt not to take myself to a sm, I have resorted to shopping only in my local T**** express, which, I now realise, is costing me a blinking fortune!!

I have spent the last few hours reading various thrifty posts and I thought - I'd like to be a part of this.. Not only do you have great ideas and suggestions, you're all really supportive of each other and I could really do with a bit of that at the moment.

I have spent £228.37 so far in October on actual food purchases and £don't-want-to-tell-you on takeaways. This is even more shameful when I admit that my eldest daughter goes to boarding school (she's on a scholarship - I don't pay the fees) so I am actually only feeding me and my small girl. Shocking waste of money, isn't it?

So, as a clueless newbie to this, what is a reasonable amount for me to be spending on food in a month? I'd really like to join in for November.

sls1365

Twiceblessed

£0.85 on milk
£5.94 on Halloween supplies (aka junk) at Home Bargains

Likely to come in well under budget for my first month. However havent decided whether should factor in older DDs school meals. Also both DDs spend a lot of time at a childminder as i work full time. Therefore not sure i should classify my budget as single person with weekend dinner guests :doh:

Added to the fact i have hardly any "proper" food in the house as ive refrained from buying anything until i get a new hob (getting fitted tomorrow :T)

Really unsure what on earth i should be setting my November budget at?

meg72

CompBunny wrote: »

Adding £12 to my total...still on track to come in under budget Really pleased with myself, but have the tendency to skip lunch and breakfast and just have a carrot and an apple or something on some days so as not to use up food (OH gets a proper packed lunch of course, its just I sit at home all day expending little energy so it seems silly to use up food). But this probably isn't ideal so will try and think of practical cheap things.

I'm interested in experimenting with dried chick peas and lentils...do you really have to soak them?!

PS ZoeGirl what sort of couscous do you use? I never knew you could just shove boiling water on it and leave it to cook itself!!! Would the Tesco Wholefoods cheapy one work OK?

No not ideal at all,even if you are home all day you need to eat properly.

Have you considered lentil soup, lots of different recipes for it. I do it when have roasted a chicken and made stock from the bones costs only pennys, and you dont need to soak them, sorry really dont know much about chickpeas.Bought a load of tinned on offer but just throw them in stew.

rej-c

Another NSD for us today, which I think makes it four on the trot - unheard of!

We're making a bit of a dent in the freezer, which is great, because I want to get some frozen veg in at the start of the next challenge and need the space [been wasting far too much fresh f&v recently].

sls1365 - Everyone's 'reasonable' is different; you need to work out what works for you and your daughter. A lot of us start out by logging a very very honest spending diary for one month [we all think we know and remember what we've been spending, but when we actually log every receipt, the reality can be alarmingly different :eek: - we've all been there].

Once you know properly where you're spending level has been - say, £250 for the month - pick a 'do-able' amount you want to take it down by to come up with your target budget. This amount will be different for everyone, but if you're starting from £250, you might try to cut down by £25 (10%) for the first month, making your target £225.

If you achieve that, try paring down your target further, month-by-month, from there. If you don't, try the same target again next month and see how you go. We all learn as we go, and hopefully you'll find you get better at it with practice.

As far as the takeaways go, maybe it'll be worth setting a separate budget/setting aside a separate 'purse' for that? It helps focus the mind a bit, seeing there's only a tenner available when you wanted to place an order for £20 delivery, for example

Good luck, and remember - no question is a bad question, we all love to help if we can. :T

PennyGrabber

sls1365 wrote: »

Not only do you have great ideas and suggestions, you're all really supportive of each other and I could really do with a bit of that at the moment.

I have spent £228.37 so far in October on actual food purchases and £don't-want-to-tell-you on takeaways. This is even more shameful when I admit that my eldest daughter goes to boarding school (she's on a scholarship - I don't pay the fees) so I am actually only feeding me and my small girl. Shocking waste of money, isn't it?

So, as a clueless newbie to this, what is a reasonable amount for me to be spending on food in a month? I'd really like to join in for November.

sls1365

Hello and welcome sls1365!

I am also a single mum of 2. Mine are 5 and 6, and don't have very big appetites. They stay with their dad two nights a week, so he feeds them then. My budget for a month is generally £150, although I always go over it and I always overbuy, so I have a mountain of stock in the house!

I know you can't really compare, as circumstances are always different, but that's my ball park figure, and I thought it may help you. Obviously, you may have different tastes to us, etc.

I tend to batch cook, as I don't always have time to cook something from scratch in the week, and that also saves money. Do you have a slow cooker? Coming up to winter, that is my must-have piece of kitchen equipment.

Another thing I've recently started doing, is to put a little less on everyone's plates, and give them the option of having seconds, as I was finding that they weren't emptying their plates, and I hate tipping food into the bin. This way, there is often enough left over for another meal, or another portion for someone, which can be added to in the freezer until you have enough for another meal!

I'm certainly not the best person to offer advice, as there are so many better at this game than me, but those are just a few ideas that may help a little along the way.

I wish you the best of luck, and you're right - we are a bunch of very supportive people, gc or otherwise. if you're having a bad day, and need to vent to some digital friends, we're here for you!!

PG x

sls1365

Gosh! Replies already! Thanks

I do have a slow cooker and my girls love sausage and bean casserole and "mum's beef stew", but I have to confess being a bit limited with my use of it. The other real nuisance thing that I do is put leftovers into the freezer, in little plastic boxes, unlabelled. Then of course, I have no idea what they are when I peer into the box!

My kids are 15 and 10, so one eats like a grown up and the other eats like a grown up if it's something she likes!

My other big spend foodwise is my lunches at work - I hate sandwiches that have been lying about all morning, because I have NEVER found a way of stopping them either drying out or going soggy. At 46 years old, I should really have sorted out something that I like to eat at lunchtime that I can bring from home, but I just haven't, so I invariably go out to buy a sandwich - upwards of £5 a day by the time I have bought other bits and pieces.

sls1365

sls1365

I have been mooching around the forum for a couple of hours now. At the beginning of my mooch, I found a FANTASTIC list of recipes - loads of clickable links to some really great things. And now I can't find it anywhere.

How on earth can I find it? There are a gazillion posts on here!

sls1365

ms_night_ryder

Hey sls, what you can do about the containers is use masking tape to write what is on there and then freeze, regarding lunches i used to be really terrible at this and still slip up, but i batch cook on weekends and portion up enough containers to last me until weds, i freeze the rest or eat over weekend, then on thursday i usually get one of my homemade ready meals from the freezeer and defrost during the day for lunch, by the time i'm on week 3 there is quite a bit of variety in what i can have from the freezer, it has saved me a fortune and when i dont have my lunch with me, i can deffo feel the pinch on my purse and feel quite annoyed, on fridays that is my treat day so i buy what i fancy for lunch, this should hopefully reduce your lunches to £5 or £10 dependingon how many treat days you have.

Good luck.

See you guys over on novembers thread.

MissOrganised1972

I am having an easy week as far as feeding the troops goes!

Saturday I went out for a curry for a friend's Birthday & so fed both DDs fish fingers. Told DH he had to fend for himself & so of course he had a ham sandwich! I am not going to feel bad because there is plenty of food in the house for him, including batch-cooked dinners he could have had from the freezer!

Sunday we were very naughty and had the the M&S £5 meal!

Last night we were out for my Grandad's Birthday.

Tonight the kids had McDonalds (half term treat). DH and I had gammon, red cabbage & sweet potato wedges all pre-cooked from the freezer & so it was just a case of heating it up.

Tomorrow - I am going to have to cook! The cheek of it. :rotfl: We're going to have Spanish Rice and so not a difficult one.

Thursday - We are off to the seaside for the night :j as it is DD1's 8th Birthday!

Friday - We're at a Halloween party and so should be fed!

So, I am declaring for October at £197.56. Not great with my budget of £135! DH got some extra work hence extra money and so I got a bit cocky and kept nipping to the shops! Ooops! I WILL do a lot better for November!

Is there a November challenge yet? Just asking, certainly not pushing. I am very grateful to those who run & manage this challenge.

Have not had a read for a couple of days and so am a little bit behind. Will go off to bed now with a nice cup of coffee and catch up on the thread.

Hope you all manage to get it in closer to your target than me