January 2012 Grocery Challenge

valerie57

What a long month. Well done to all those who are under budget or there or thereabouts. Well done to those who have stopped smoking. It has been a month of incredible achievement and support on this thread. I have £5 left and my month ends on the 31st. I have everything we need for mid week meals other than a few veg. We have visitors for Saturday night/Sunday morning. I am going to overspend but will keep this as low as possible. Pudding on Saturday night will be toffee apple tart as I have all the ingredients for that and it is yummy. I will make some cheese muffins for breakfast on Sunday with stuff I have in. That just leaves the main course to sort. I am thinking of pulled pork done in the slow cooker as MrT had it half price but haven't finally decided. Off to update signature now. For February I am going for £350 please. I know that this is a lot but it includes toiletries, alcohol, cleaning materials, coal and anything else that doesn't fit in to our budget. Good luck all.

elizabunny

Hi everyone!

Had such a busy day today, but managed to make some homemade bread.

Was really tempted to get some sort of takeaway for dinner, as had no time to cook much because we went to the cinema (free tickets:j) But, I was really good and we had some home made soup, home made bread and egg and chips. Probably not the healthiest dinner, but it hit the mark.

So it was a NSD today for me, that's 2 out of the last 3 so far.

Looks like everyone is doing so well with their budgets!

JARUS

Hi Everyone

Can I join in with your thread. I joined the Don't Throw Food Away threads and that has really inspired me. I felt it was logical to join this thread as well.

I think I will aim to start at £10 per day and set a budget for February of £290. I will then try and work out how much I usually spend.

Thank you. Look forward to joining and being inspired by you all

Jarus Xx

JARUS

Valerie 57 " Pudding on Saturday night will be toffee apple tart"

Hi This sounds delicious have you got the recipe please.

Thanks

Jarus Xx

Linz4383

Natterjack88 wrote: »

I need help please! I need some ideas to stretch chicken! Its just for me OH and 6 month old DS- Im trying to give ds 'real food' rather than jarred stuff. It also needs to be healthy and cater for my fussy OH- as you can see I have my work cut out!

have you looked at the recipes at the beginning of the thread?! some things i mite try (im a lil fussy too ) would b to have a cooked dinner with it, if its a whole chicken you could do chicken stock for a soup, sweet and sour chicken, chicken curry, something simple like chicken and chips you could use it is a bolognaise sauce instead of using mince, this could b bulked out with lentils, grated veg ect to make it go further HTH

tigerfeet2006

Think this is a good time to bump Spiggles fan-bloomin'-tastic post for any newbies. Recommended reading, nope! make that compulsory reading.

Spiggle wrote: »

Afternoon All,

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!

See you all later,
Spigs

Herbyme

So far, so good, believe it or not this is a real reduction on the usual spend and being aware of what we're spending gives a big sense of progress. The only snag is that my cupboards and freezer are now looking pretty empty, so I might find Feb harder as I won't be using up stuff that's already in stock. I am on the look out for a second hand freezer to up the amount of YS stuff I can buy (though I don't find that much of it round here) as what whoopsies I have found seem to have made a big difference. One silly thing is bread - we used to buy it sliced then freeze whatever was left when it got to the sell by date. Somehow we often forgot to do the freezing and it got thrown out, or what there was in the freezer was all odds and bits, not that appealing. Now I mostly buy YS bread, freeze it at once and we all use it out of the freezer, cos we've realised we almost never eat fresh bread, duh! It's almost always toasted/toastie/cheese on toast, so frozen is great. Little thing but it does help.

All of this is a long winded way of saying I'm going to set a budget of £560 for Feb, with some nervousness - thank goodness for this thread, it's making all the difference!

Well done all, whether over or under, on big efforts to avoid lining the sm's pockets any more than we have to, and to all those kicking the cigs and shedding the pounds. Onwards and upwards!

elsiepac

Hi everyone

I've always held off joining this thread before because I couldn't quite get meal planning right. However, I've now got the mother of all meal planning spreadsheets and am feeling quite confident!

Background - I currently live at my parents house but I buy all my own food, toiletries etc. So I'm just buying/cooking for one. I'm 28 and quite fat so am trying to keep it healthy and the bit I am struggling most with is getting enough fruit/veg to bulk out meals, as it's expensive. However, I've just finished February and March's intial meal plans and it's looking okay.

My old budget was between £140-£160 each month. This was before I was meal planning, and then also when I started meal planning as I got used to trying to do it economically. Bear in mind I do not take toiletries or cleaning products from this budget, it is just for food. I used to seriously struggle to exist on this budget as well mind you.

Anyway, this month I originally had a budget of £150. I've managed to rejig my meal plan as I've gone through the month, trying to get myself thinking more frugally, and I've actually spent about £127 - may have another £8 to spend (my months start on payday, the last day of the month). So will come in this month at no more than £135. Which is of course a big improvement.

February is my most ambitious yet, but I have my meal plan and am confident I can stick to it. I know I still have a long way to go, but I think I'm making progress.

So please put me down for the February challenge at £98 if you'd be so kind.

I'll look forward to it :j

LC

Catwoman103

One more shopping day left in January but I'll easily be in budget but gradually working through the larder and freezers. Therefore I will set February at £120.

majjak

Morning all

Will have to pop to Mr S today for some wraps for kids lunches. Also need some milk and tomato ketchup. Will update spends later on. Still looking good to come in under budget !

I had my first weigh-in last night (I'm trying to do WW and eat cheaply, no mean feat I can tell you !) but I managed to stick to it, not spend too much more money and I lost 6lb !!!!! :j:j:j:j:j:D