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January 2012 Grocery Challenge

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  • Made the mistake of going into Mr T's to get some wrapping paper for DS's birthday presents (from another budget) and I just had to look at the whoopsied section :o, I've now got a well and truly stocked up freezer, steak & ale pie's reduced to 22p, finest chicken kiev type thingys 82p, finest carbonara sauce 21p a pot, finest ham 40p a pack, and some other bits and pieces :j it was all too much of a bargain to walk away from and I never get reductions like that, so I'm going to kind of cheat and use the money out of my feb budget, as none of its going to get eaten until feb anyway, the rest of my Jan meals are all planned :D and I'm sticking to them :)
  • Declaring at £500 for January against a £450 target.
    Grocery aim £450pm.Spent £519 August, £584 July, £544 June, £541 May, £549 April, £517 March, £517 Feb,£555 Jan, £573 Dec, £465Nov, £561Oct, £493Sept, £426Aug,£496 Jul, £528Jun, £506May,£498April, £558 March, £500Feb, £500 Jan, £490 Dec, £555 Nov,£566 Oct, £505Sept, £450Aug, £410 July, £437 June, £491 May, £471 April, £440 March, £552Feb, £462Jan
  • XSpender
    XSpender Posts: 3,811
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    NSD today.

    Tea was a gorgeous leek, cheese and butterbean pie out of the freezer that we got as part of the M&S meal deal 3 months ago, garlic roast pots and the 2nd bag of veg DH got in M&S. The pie was lovely and there is enough left for tomorrow nights tea padded out with veg and potatoes. :)

    We seem to have loads of food still after our shopping last week. We will need fruit, milk, dog food and lunch stuff at the weekend. I am going to buy the mirror tomorrow for the Ald1 voucher as this is where I do my shopping. I am sure my shopping list won't come to £30 before the voucher so I am going to stock up on dog food and other store cupboard items as the discount is too good to miss.:)
    Save £10,500 - £2673.77 - 25.5%
    Pay off £7000 - £1743 - 19.4%
    Make £2021 extra income - £99.75
  • Chopper5
    Chopper5 Posts: 33 Forumite
    Hi ostaragirl!! My budget is for me and my BF, I tried last year with a budget of £250 but included alcohol. I have dropped to £160 for food and cleaning products but this is the first month so we will see!
    I tend to bulk cook currys, bolognase and chilli and freeze some as individual meals when we are too tired to cook. This avoids the takeaway option apart from when we are treating ourselves!!
    I keep a basic list of items that are cheaper in ASDA or lidl and alternate my shop each week making sure to stock up on at least 2 weeks worth.
    Also leaving BF at home helps to avoid impulse buys and keeps my blood pressure at a normal level:mad:
  • ostaragirl wrote: »
    As a newbie to MSE I'm just starting out on here but so far have started the sealed pot challenge and have been saving my grocerie receipts since Jan 13th and I'm also noting down toiletry/cleaning stuff spends.
    I was just pondering this, there are just the 2 of us and we are foodies with healthy appetites and like to cook everything from scratch. Are there any others who are just buying for a couple and if so what is your average monthly spend? I'm trying to guage how cheaply a couple can live. TBH we are quite frugal anyway but I'm trying to make changes as I tend to shop little and often and this is the first time I've ever kept a track of what I'm spending, I was beginning to wonder if by shopping like I do I was overspending, and had no idea of what was going out on shopping and if I should just to a one shop a week?. Any insight appreciated.

    Hi Ostaragirl - I shop for just me and OH, both healthy appetites and again big foodies who cook from scratch. We started the challenge at end of December at £250 and spent it, this month I am aiming for £240, this is high compared to some families of four / five etc however I would estimate that £30 of that is alcohol for OH and £50 is cleaning / toiletries / cat food. I have also had a massive realisation in that I cook an evening meal to serve 4 and me and OH then take one portion each for lunch the next day, if I can get OH to be satisfied with soup and a breadroll for lunch then the 2nd portions could be frozen rather and kept for another meal but at the moment I am just taking it week at a time!

    Good luck to you both and keep us updated with how your getting on.
    Jan GC £242.38/£250
    Feb GC £147.57 /£240
    2012 Clothes Challenge £97.50/£500
    Repay £5K in 2012 £254.17/£5000
    2012 NSD 14/200 (Jan 14)
  • elizabunny
    elizabunny Posts: 1,030 Forumite
    eliza...if the soup was inedible u could fish the container out of the bin and write a letter or email complaining about it...i always have a moan if food isnt what it should be ...im sure u will at least get your money back


    Thanks tess I had not thought of that.:T
    Don't laugh but I have literally just had a bowl of cereal and it's getting on for 10pm! That's how bad dinner was. Never mind tomorrow's another day.
    Sealed Pot Challenge 7 Member 022 :staradmin:staradmin:staradmin
    5:2 Diet started 28/1/2013 only 13lbs lost due to Xmas 2013 blip.
  • meanmarie
    meanmarie Posts: 5,328
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    Spend for January now stands at €124.50....will need dog food and want to buy some butter in Lidl, they are offering 900g for €3.50 from to-morrow which is a saving of almost a euro per 450g!

    Marie
    Weight 08 February 86kg
  • I still have this weeks shopping to do out of Jans budget so will declare for the month on either Thur or Fri depending on when I get to go shopping, but will be comming in under budget. Not bad for the first month of this challenge.

    Adjusted my meal plan this week as there were enough leftovers from the last three meals for us to have them as meals tonight so there is already one meal planned for next week.

    Will look at reducing my weekly budget for Feb once I have worked out what amount of reduction will be realistic.

    Have found that this challenge is working really well for me in conjunction with the Don't throw food away challenge as it has made me be really inventive with using up things that I would previously have thrown away.
    I am playing all of the right notes just not necessarily in the right order :D.
  • Herbyme
    Herbyme Posts: 720
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    edited 25 January 2012 at 10:38PM
    Elizabunny, do complain, I got a £6.50 voucher from He1nz last week for a tin that smelt and tasted odd and they were really nice about it.

    Added yesterday and today's shops in, yesterday was top ups of milk plus a few whoopsies, and health food shop for porridge, wheatgerm and glucosamine tablets, trying to stave off the family arthritis. Then did a £40 Co-*p shop today to get the £4 off but it meant there wasn't time to go elsewhere as well and had to buy some things there that were dearer, probably ate up about half the £4... but all useful long term stuff and mostly at good prices to begin with so don't feel to bad about it. Until DH said, when I pointed out we were on target to hit our budget, that it was all pretty pointless as we have no income and hence everything we spend is out of our savings - ie he thinks its just rearranging the deckchairs - great!

    Thinking about whoopsies, I never seem to get such good ones as some people mention, and I wondered whether people might be willing to mention the time they shopped when they post about getting good whoopsies? It might help those of us who are unsure when to go, or whether we're going at the right time. I find if I'm too early, the discounts aren't very big, but if I'm too late, everything's gone, it would really help me to suss out when's best and get my timing right. Just a thought, don't know if others would think it useful?
  • mummyyof5
    mummyyof5 Posts: 1,839
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    edited 25 January 2012 at 10:40PM
    Back from MrMs...shopping came in at £54.24:T

    Managed to get 4 loaves of 50/50 bread for 29p a loaf...was so pleased as kids love this and cant normally afford it.

    Did have reduced sandwiches and cake in cafe but OHs treat.

    Hoping for a NS day tomorrow as going to a friends for a playdate..taking lunch with us to save some money:T:T
    Feeding 6 Adults 1 Teen a 8 year old with hollow legs and a very fussy 5 year old. Also 3 cats and 3 fishies
    To include all Food,Toiletries and Petfood.
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