November 2011 - Grocery Challenge

hamish222

Spend of £23.31 on Sunday but this included 2 weeks worth of cat food and mixer and baking supplies for 48 cupcakes I made today for nephews halloween party tomorrow and some spares for sister and dh.
Today was a NSD and had pizzas from freezer that were free with the goodfellow pizza coupons.

Picklepud

I am very happy.... on the second week of trying to stick to £100 went slightly over last week. Wrote my shopping list and wanted to stick to £50 and then top up later in week as i was leaving DD informed me she had catering tomorrow!!! so i thought oh well that is blown then ....I had quite a bit in (chocolate tart) but had to buy butter/chocolate/golden syrup but i spent £30.19 whoop and got everything on my list apart from £5 meal that they dont seem to be doing this week:(. I really couldnt believe it really looked hard at what I was getting and only got what was on list apart from from 1p whoopsies... yes 1p i couldnt believe it 2 sausage rolls for DS2 for lunch tomorrow, pasta sauce that you can cook from frozen so that is in freezer 5p brocoli and cabbage. So was a good shop and I am very pleased.. I should now make this week as meals all planned for the week.

off to update sig

good night all

ShrinkingSavingKaren

Had a mr.t and mr.a delivery over weekend,done a fair bit of stocking up on 3 for 1 in T3sco so cant complain as toothpaste and shampoo were running low and plenty of cheese now in freezer till xmas ,also DH had the 4 for £25 on lager so bargains really, anyway £36 and £61 to add lagers dont come out of this grocery budget...so £97/£300 spent :eek:

artha

Spiggle wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

Welcome and good luck to our newbies! And good luck to everyone of course!

I'm not sure if the following will help any of you but here goes anyway ...

I hope my fellow regulars won't mind me posting this again but it may be of some help to all the enthusiastic and excited people joining us. I believe it has helped others in the past. So here goes:

We all have different budgets that suit our households. The most important thing to remember is that you set yours according to your needs and finances. It can take time to get to where you want to be too so don't knock yourself out if you go over in the first few months. We are here to support each other and it is not a competition.

I thought it might help to outline where we've come from and the top tips I've learned.

When we started in March 2010 we had spent in excess of £600 in the previous month. :eek: This had to stop, (there's only me and him and our two beautiful black cats) something which thankfully my OH completely agreed with so I have been lucky that he has been on board from the start. He gave me his debit card voluntarily and I still keep hold of it until he needs to get something for the home. At the same time we set up a system of pocket money (pm) at £15 each per week which doesn't count towards the GC and which we can each spend as we wish with no comebacks or complaints. OH predominantly uses his pm on his beer and I ferret mine away mostly. :rotfl:

The next step was to set up my own spreadsheet which is absolutely simple onto which I put all spends so that I have a continuous running total for the month and for the year. We initially set our budget at £280 per month and brought it down to £240 where it resides for most of the year it is occasionally increased to allow for extras e.g. Christmas to £260.

The important 'tools' we found greatly helped and continue to do so now are:

Stocktake cupboards, fridge, freezer - make lists and ensure that the older products get used up first. You'll be amazed at what you find squirrelled away and it will help with your shopping list as you'll realise that you don't actually need so much.

Before you go shopping check staples - running out of milk, bread, butter, etc often leads to going into a shop for one thing and coming out £20 lighter. Always check these and if they'll run out tomorrow buy them the same time as getting other things.

Always make a shopping list and stick to it - the supermarkets (sm) try every which way to get us to spend so having a list and strong resolve is the only way to beat them.

Keep every receipt - and then note it down on your spreadsheet/spend diary so that you always know where you are.

When tempted, ask yourself do you NEED it or just WANT it - now this advice goes with two things. Firstly, the things you see in store when shopping that APPEAR to be bargains - if you hadn't planned spending the money then its not a bargain. Secondly, the sm send us loads of vouchers for £X off a spend of £XX - if you had no NEED to spend £XX then have you SAVED anything???

Use my supermarket to compare prices (limited to four of the biggies) - The site may be used to actually do an online shop at whichever of the big four offers the best value or, if you have the time and sm availability, to make up lists for visiting each of the stores so that you can purchase all you need at different stores thus getting the best possible value. (I'd add, do a 'shop' virtually on this site and take the list you create on it with you, whichever one you shop at, it will help keep target prices in your head and allow you to spot bargains. MrM is not included but you can do a virtual list on their website so you know what you're going to be spending.)

Always have a list - this is just as important when shopping online as shopping on foot.

Use Approved Foods online (with a list!) - if you don't mind out of date things (ood) or you can search for only in date items. The only drawback is storing the goods as far as I can tell. Oh, and watch the delivery as it's done on a scaled charge for weight so keep an eye on it. You can of course do an AF order with friends, family, colleagues or like minded neighbours. Other GCers use Big Br*nds 4 Less too.

Invest in a breadmaker - we have saved so much by making our own bread. The prices in the shops are extortionate for bread these days. There's loads of advice on this thread and others in the forum on this.

Use the recipe lists - always posted at the front of a new thread. There are fantastic, tasty, healthy and economical recipes to use on them and there are a number of other threads on the forum such as Weezl's that will help you to eat well on a budget.

Shop locally - the local greengrocer (or preferably market but I don't have one ) is usually cheaper as an option for fruit and veg (f&v) than the sm. Often the prices may look the same but when you look at the quantity for the same price the greengrocer will be cheaper. The same goes for the local butcher. Often you will have far more variety of meat available, advice on how to cook a particular meat can be offered and there is (for me at least) no comparison in terms of quality. We buy our huge FR eggs there and I'm yet to find an equivalent FR egg in a sm at the same or lower price. Obvioulsy if you have your own chicks/know someone who has chicks you can get them even cheaper again.

Grow your own - it's quite simple to grow some f&v at home even if it's only in pots on the patio. There are also supportive threads on the forum for this.

Cook your own - making meals at home from ingredients is far more economical, often tastes better than shop bought and is probably far better healthwise.

Meal Plan - this is something that others can advise on as we don't do it. I have a tremendous capacity for eating the same food over many days but presented in slightly different form. For example, we could buy £7 worth of brisket from the butchers and eat it as pot roast for a couple of days, sliced for sarnies, sliced with a salad, chucked into a casserole or shredded up and fried as crispy beef.

Don't waste food - either only make what you need or use any leftovers for other meals/creations or freeze it for another day.

Withdraw the cash you want to spend - and keep it in a separate purse. This can be particularly effective as you have the money in front of you reducing rather than spending with plastic which is so easy to lose track of. Very useful when you first start out.

Don't go to the shops to browse - this can only lead to pain and hardship!!!

Keep posting and reading the thread - there really is no better supportive, wise and inspirational place to be! I think I saw that somebody mentioned forgetting to read/post. I get around this by using the Advanced button to post, below the window where your text is displayed you will see Additional Options. In the Thread Subscription box use the dropdown to select either instant email notification (this is what I use) or daily email notification before you submit your latest post. Then you will get an email into your inbox from which you can click to the thread to see what others are saying.

Always remember the sm is not your friend - it wants to profit from you and take as much of your money as it can coerce out of you!

So, there you go as a starting point. Others on here will offer tremendous advice on meal planning. And don't forget, the only silly question is the one you didn't ask!

Ok, I'm off to put my feet up and veg in front of the box. Oh, sig is updated and my November starts tomorrow.

Take care,
Spigs

Hello. I suspect I may be trying to teach my granny to suck eggs but I just wondered whether anybody on here uses the Grabbit Threads, particularly the (slightly illogically titled) Gone But Not Forgotten sub thread Tesco Misprices 11+. Many on there are working on a tight budget and post items, including food, that are going through cheaply at Tesco on a daily basis. There is however the danger with this thread that just because something is cheap, people chase it, although it's not necessarily a bargain if you don't need it.

Anyway I was just doing a bit of thread surfing to see what is posted on threads I don't usually visit and on this one I thought there may be some useful info elsewhere. HTH

franby64

Morning

Unbelievably I've managed to write a meal-plan for the whole month :eek:. Yes, it's repetative and boring but it's a start and I can cheer it up as I go along depending what bargains etc come my way.

So far I've only spent £24.09 but I've got a T*sco shop coming this afternoon which will be about £60 and sticks very closely to the first 2 weeks of my plan.

So, 7 hours into the challenge I'm fairly optimistic!!

Good luck to everybody for November!

rej-c

Can you put me down for £100 for the calendar month of November, please [for 2 greedy adults ].

I'm also aiming for 18 NSDs.

Good luck everyone, and, as ever, big thanks to those managing the thread.

[Deleted User]

Good Morning all a new month and a new food purse with £100 00 in it NSD today so. I'm pleased about that I have quite a bit of salad left at the moment so no need to shop I think 'fingers crossed 'until at least Saturday.Freezer stuff is slowly going down but I still seem to have a lot of odds and ends in there so menu this week will be 'freezer roulette' I love unexpected bits to eat .I know I have a small pork loin joint in there so I may get that out and defrost it It will do several meals I think.I also have more than enough fish so I might try to reduce the freezer fish mountain as well .Good luck to all who are starting today extreme frugality this month as there is a big holiday next month I am hoping to get my freezer defrosted before then to be able to snap up some bargains as it gets to Christmas eve.One year I bagged a 8lb Turkey which I froze until the following Easter and I had got it for £2.75,
Cheers chums
JackieO

lynneee

morning all! Here's to the start of another successful month!!
I need to increase my budget this month as I am building up for christmas ( I have 12 for christmas this year!!) so I would like my total to be £350 please.

prepareathome

As I have already messed up and so starting properly today I want to put it on record what will and will not be included. I will not include my dentist bills - 3 fillings this month, first today, so feel they are a definite extra outside this challenge, not sure about taxi fares, rarely go out and even rarer go on my own, but hubby will not be home in time to take me to dentist, so be cab there and back, its only at end of road, ok long road but to far for me to walk and no place there for me to keep my mobility scooter.

I will not include whatever I buy for Christmas ( ordered some bits this morning) nor DS2 birthday on the 14th - most likely be cash as they are finding it really hard at moment, plus something just for him, you know how it is parents forgetting themselves for the kids and they have two. Also will not include the shelving units I intend to buy for kitchen cupboards - if can get them can store so much more as half the cupboards are just filled with air, nor storage containers for said goods like flour, sugar, breakfast cereal.

I know really I should include them, but as they are one offs and I can manage it this month I will not. Once income goes down as its very likely to very soon then will have to include everything in. SO breaking myself in slowly this month.

I have just about everything for the month, so plan is as I use something write it down on shopping list and replace it, keep all receipts and then get true idea at end of month of what I have spent. So really doing shopping in my cupboards and replace.

So far this morning opened a new box of teabags and one of sugar, so they are down on list to be replaced.

So I am coming at this from a different angle for some, buying not what I need but what I have used, as been lucky enough to build up a good store cupboard and now I want to keep it even though money gone.

Now the test starts can I just pick up what is to be replaced without coming home with bags of plenty - doubt will go shopping today so apart from dentist should be a NSD as far as grocery shopping goes but we will see.

Good Luck everyone

ragz_2

I went way over last month, £480/450, however some of that was stocking up on festive food bits and also I bought a lot of DH's cider which usually comes out of his pocket money but it was cheaper in Aldi. I'm in for £450 again this month, will try to seperate out the festive stuff a bit better and keep better track overall as I did lose it a little last month. Back to using the expense manager app on my phone I think!

Thought I'd have to go out and get spread and cheese today but found both in the freezer (really need to keep that inventoried!) so that puts off a shop for a few days, also was given a veg box last night in return for a favour so I have fresh salad and veg now too.

This week I will inventory my food cupboards as the extra ones have a life of their own now and also the freezer, again!