January 2012 Grocery Challenge

coldcazzie

I'd like to join please, been a bit complacent in 2011 with regards to groceries, so want to start 2012 by giving myself a virtual slap and sorting myself out.

Please can you put me down for £500, which will be for 2 adults, 3 children and 2 raw fed cats, and will run from 9th January to 9th February (cuz that's our credit card month).

Want to reduce it further by the end of the year but going to start with a target that should be fairly easy.

TylersMummy

Hi all!

Well we needed lots of essentials so on Monday, we spent £9.42 in C0-op on essentials like vegetable oil, spread, bread and ham/chicken for packed lunches. It would have been cheaper but I got OH to pick it up and he bought a multi pack of Dr Pepper too. He's a sucker for picking up non-list items

Then yesterday we ran out of loo roll, milk and bin liners so I popped into Mr T and got some fab reduced bread and rolls as they had reduced their bakery bits an hour before closing. Spent £6.09 in total but got 5 bread items for 40p! Bought two packs of Sub rolls which will do for OH's lunches which were reduced to 10p each but BOGOF! I also got two 6 packs of burger buns for 10p each and a Hovis loaf for yep, 10p. They had tonnes of Hovis loaves reduced to 10p that were out of date the next day and I would have grabbed many more if I'd had the room in the freezer!

So takes our January spend to £15.51 - we now have all the essentials in and plenty of food so we should have a few NSDs now!

janiepopps

Totally unrelated, but how do you all know where you last read up to on this post as it moves so fast?! I seem to be spending ages finding where I last got to!

Got all my fridge veggies to use up today and some leftover puff pastry so looks like we'll be having pie for tea... nom nom nom... Have a good day all and stay safe if you're venturing out x

TylersMummy

I click on my user name, view my posts, and view my last post here and read on from there. I'm sure there's an easier way though!

cw18

janiepopps wrote: »

Totally unrelated, but how do you all know where you last read up to on this post as it moves so fast?! I seem to be spending ages finding where I last got to!

When I view the 'subscribed threads' page, there's a little arrow to the left of the thread title. If I click on that it takes me to the first post I've not read - well, almost always. If I've not been on for 12 hours+ it can mess up and mean I miss some - but it's reliable enough for me

cw18

Not yet spent a penny on groceries this year (or indeed anything, apart from a couple of D/Debits that went out this morning), but I still need to declare a whopping £28.20 of my budget gone :eek:

I have that much food in stock that I decided the only way to get an accurate picture of my annual grocery budget is to also count anything that I open as a spend - as if I'm shopping from my stores. As I fell by the wayside with these challenges last year it's not like I've already accounted for it as a spend anyway If I'm not sure what I paid for said items I'm doing a quick trawl of the Mr T and Mr A websites to find a 'nearest equivalent' and using the cost of that as the replacement value.

The main "spends" were on things I'd bought it for New Years Day when I was catering for my fella - a corn fed chicken (would never buy these unless reduced, but he and I both love them so decided to treat us for once), a £3.50 dessert I got in (again as a special treat for him, and had to be done for then as it's only stocked around the holiday season), and large bags of veg I'd bought in for this month (but not previously opened). Yesterday I opened salad items and a few 'munchies'.

janiepopps

cw18 wrote: »

When I view the 'subscribed threads' page, there's a little arrow to the left of the thread title. If I click on that it takes me to the first post I've not read - well, almost always. If I've not been on for 12 hours+ it can mess up and mean I miss some - but it's reliable enough for me

Ah, 'subscribed threads' what a great invention Thank you cw x

SAVVYMUMMY_2

I have an unopened pack of out of date cream crackers, that I found lurking in the back of the cupboard:o, any ideas, what to do with these. Shame to bin them, when there`s no need to.

Spiggle

janiepopps wrote: »

Totally unrelated, but how do you all know where you last read up to on this post as it moves so fast?! I seem to be spending ages finding where I last got to! ...

I always thank a poster once I've read and so usually can see clearly where I haven't read from. I also have 'instant email notification' when a new message is posted so I click on the email and it takes me (almost) always to the new post.

To select this function use the Advanced screen to post and below the Submit Reply buttons there is a section called Additional Options. Under Notification Type use the drop down to select Instant email notification.

HTH,
Spigs

rising_from_the_ashes

Spiggle wrote: »

I always thank a poster once I've read and so usually can see clearly where I haven't read from.

Yup, that's how I keep track too .....:)