January 2012 Grocery Challenge

raphanius

can i join in the January challenge please. my goal is £200 for 2 adults and 1 child. shouldn't be too difficult due to the vast amounts of xmas leftovers to work through plus my cupboards are overfull with dry goods and i have two full freezers that desperately need defrosting.

Spiggle

Happy New Year everyone - I hope your hangover (if you have one ) isn't like mine!!!

I was just doing a bit of quiet reading and wasn't going to post but ...

Please ignore me if this is over stepping the mark and these are only my thoughts from the last couple of years. I've noticed a lot of challengers including many newbies have decided to set themselves annual budgets rather than monthly ones. And I have to say that to set any budget is better than setting none.:cool:

Now an annual budget at this time of year seems a very good idea. It seems to allow 'flexibility' for c*stc*/AF/B*gBr*nds4L*ss/etc bulk purchases. But that budget will only stretch so far.

IMHO it is better to set yourself a budget for each month add/multiply those up to give you an annual figure and then add on what you estimate you may spend on bulk/stock up purchases.

This will give you short targets through the year and leave room for bulk or even whoopsie shopping (if you don't include those in your monthly expenditure).

I only say this because at the start of last year quite a few challengers on here switched to annual budgets. After some months (only a couple in some cases) the 'flexibility' was all used up, the annual budget was difficult to impossible to achieve and many gave up totally disheartened because in the early months of the year they were in effect 'bust'.

Having said all that there are some challengers who have been on here far longer than me who have had annual budgets for a long long time and manage them very effectively. So it is horses for courses and if you truly feel you'll be able to manage that way then as always you have my full support.

But for newbies it is probably better to start month by month (you can still have an overall annual budget and indeed that is where Martin's Budget Planner works so effectively). I suppose what I'm saying is that we look to baby steps to reduce our grocery spending and budgeting should be the same, baby steps month by month.

Finally, I'll refer back to baby steps again, some of you are seeking to drop your monthly budgets by huge amounts (£100-150) in one go. It may be necessity that is driving that drop but please don't be too drastic as we wouldn't want to lose any of you.

OK, going back to my quiet hangover.

Take care,
Spigs

LavenderBees

123budget wrote: »

Right..........Leg of Lamb in slow cooker, going to have roast pots, need to use up a bag of sprouts - going to fry half in butter with an odd slice of bacon chopped and some chopped up left over walnuts. The other half of the sprouts I'm going to have a go at making some sort of soup with also using up some left over soft blue cheese.(never done this before so will have to see how it turns out and fingers crossed it is edible) Also in fridge a carton of buttermilk just gone off date so am going to make some muffins to go in freezer ready for packed lunches if kids don't get to them first! Everyone else in house tired and hungover so am happily pottering about the kitchen. Have a good day everyone

I used blue cheese with sprouts and carrots for soup last week (also added an onion and vege stock cube). It was actually delish! So hopefully yours will be too. :T

LavenderBees

Spiggle wrote: »

Happy New Year everyone - I hope your hangover (if you have one ) isn't like mine!!!

I was just doing a bit of quiet reading and wasn't going to post but ...

Please ignore me if this is over stepping the mark and these are only my thoughts from the last couple of years. I've noticed a lot of challengers including many newbies have decided to set themselves annual budgets rather than monthly ones. And I have to say that to set any budget is better than setting none.:cool:

Now an annual budget at this time of year seems a very good idea. It seems to allow 'flexibility' for c*stc*/AF/B*gBr*nds4L*ss/etc bulk purchases. But that budget will only stretch so far.

IMHO it is better to set yourself a budget for each month add/multiply those up to give you an annual figure and then add on what you estimate you may spend on bulk/stock up purchases.

This will give you short targets through the year and leave room for bulk or even whoopsie shopping (if you don't include those in your monthly expenditure).

I only say this because at the start of last year quite a few challengers on here switched to annual budgets. After some months (only a couple in some cases) the 'flexibility' was all used up, the annual budget was difficult to impossible to achieve and many gave up totally disheartened because in the early months of the year they were in effect 'bust'.

Having said all that there are some challengers who have been on here far longer than me who have had annual budgets for a long long time and manage them very effectively. So it is horses for courses and if you truly feel you'll be able to manage that way then as always you have my full support.

But for newbies it is probably better to start month by month (you can still have an overall annual budget and indeed that is where Martin's Budget Planner works so effectively). I suppose what I'm saying is that we look to baby steps to reduce our grocery spending and budgeting should be the same, baby steps month by month.

Finally, I'll refer back to baby steps again, some of you are seeking to drop your monthly budgets by huge amounts (£100-150) in one go. It may be necessity that is driving that drop but please don't be too drastic as we wouldn't want to lose any of you.

OK, going back to my quiet hangover.

Take care,
Spigs

Wise words again, Methinks, Spiggle, and very impressed this was with a hangover, too. You could run the world without one...I'll vote for you :rotfl:

PennyGrabber

You make a very good point Spiggle. I am one of those who has switched to an annual budget this year. I have taken my monthly budget (£140), and multiplied that by 12 (£1680). I then decided what of that will be my month's budget. So, for example, this month, I don't need to do any stocking up, and I don't need loo rolls, washing powder, etc, so I have a £90 budget for this month. That means that I effectively have £50 to allocate to another month when the stores are low or I need to buy expensive things. In addition, if I now see a bargain when I am shopping, on something that I will need soon, I know I have that leeway. I'm thinking about the big things, like washing powder and loo roll. If they are on a ridiculous offer, I can buy now, knowing that it can be absorbed easily into the annual budget IYSWIM.

I'm kind of taking the best of both worlds - annual and monthly!!

Feel better - hangovers, although self-inflicted, are rubbish. I had a 36 hour one in the summer. Needless to say I didn't get drunk last night for fear of a repeat!!

PG x

Spiggle

Thanks for your vote LavenderBees (lovely name by the way). That did make me smile!

Now that is a very sensible way to allocate an annual budget PennyGrabber. And if I was more compos mentis I possibly could have worked out an example. Thankfully you have kindly obliged. :A

I think what happened with the challengers last year was they had a large budget felt they had the money for stocking up and so did a lot but then all the everyday groceries still had to be bought for the rest of the year and not enough was left in the pot.

I hate to see any of us talking about 'failing' on here becasue none of us ever do that. When you're new though it can seem truly daunting and going over can seem insurmountable. Thankfully we are all here to support each other and help with getting through those difficult times. :T

See you later,
Spigs

welshlovebiscuit

i'm going to pass for January - i need to get back on an even keel with the finances - there's still Christmas savings money in my groceries account which needs to stay there for now as I don't get paid for 4 weeks and received January's pay on 18th December ...:-( I just have a general aim to spend as little as possible and to cobble together meals out of everything that's left in the cupboards/freezer.

aberdeensaver

Happy New Year to you all,

Just thought I would update my figures so they are all up to date for the new year. Not overly pleased with OH as he went out to get fags yesterday, and he appears to have come back with a bag of stuff but no receipt so I am having to guess what he spent but needless to say he will not be doing that again!!!

So total spent so far is £62.60 of the £250 budget.

Slept in massively today so had bacon roll for lunch, and will be having a nice roast beef with home made yorkshire puds tonight for dinner. Beef is far to big so will get it cut and hidden from OH before he starts picking at it.

Wishing you all a lovely day.

E x

jintyb

Spiggle wrote: »

Please ignore me if this is over stepping the mark and these are only my thoughts from the last couple of years. I've noticed a lot of challengers including many newbies have decided to set themselves annual budgets rather than monthly ones. And I have to say that to set any budget is better than setting none.:cool:

Now an annual budget at this time of year seems a very good idea. It seems to allow 'flexibility' for c*stc*/AF/B*gBr*nds4L*ss/etc bulk purchases. But that budget will only stretch so far.

IMHO it is better to set yourself a budget for each month add/multiply those up to give you an annual figure and then add on what you estimate you may spend on bulk/stock up purchases.

This will give you short targets through the year and leave room for bulk or even whoopsie shopping (if you don't include those in your monthly expenditure).

I only say this because at the start of last year quite a few challengers on here switched to annual budgets. After some months (only a couple in some cases) the 'flexibility' was all used up, the annual budget was difficult to impossible to achieve and many gave up totally disheartened because in the early months of the year they were in effect 'bust'.

Having said all that there are some challengers who have been on here far longer than me who have had annual budgets for a long long time and manage them very effectively. So it is horses for courses and if you truly feel you'll be able to manage that way then as always you have my full support.

But for newbies it is probably better to start month by month (you can still have an overall annual budget and indeed that is where Martin's Budget Planner works so effectively). I suppose what I'm saying is that we look to baby steps to reduce our grocery spending and budgeting should be the same, baby steps month by month.

Finally, I'll refer back to baby steps again, some of you are seeking to drop your monthly budgets by huge amounts (£100-150) in one go. It may be necessity that is driving that drop but please don't be too drastic as we wouldn't want to lose any of you.

OK, going back to my quiet hangover.

Take care,
Spigs

Hi Spigs - and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

Yes. I totally agree with you. I do both - I set an annual target but this is not as important to me as sticking to my monthly budget. In fact I actually break it down further and have a weekly budget. I still accomodate "stock-ups" from the budget and over the year I seem to manage.
The annual budget is mainly so I can see at the end of the year how much I've spent overall.

The fact I've been doing this for @ 18 month has been a real eye-opener, and I've realised how much I used to waste both in money terms and in food.
Setting a budget really makes me focus and if I come in under by even a few pence I always feel rather chuffed.
I agree totally with you re the baby steps approach though - small, steady challenges add up to big differences in the end.
Hope this makes sense and thanks to everyone on here for your support and encouragement.:)

cheekychipmunk

Hello. New to this forum. I always set myself a monthly budget for food, but always seem to come unstuck ! Thought I would try doing this to give myself more of an incentive! I will aim for a monthly budget of £300 for 2 adults and two hungry under 10's. Will need to stop dh impulse purchasing though...

Fingers crossed!

And Happy New Year too!