January 2012 Grocery Challenge

quintwins

hi all happy new year for when it comes round and thanks for everyone who runs this thread

can i have £150 on jan please

lizzyb1812

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

mmmm and the first month is a 5 weeker - that'll put my annual budget in a negative right at the start!:eek:

A quick question for anyone on annual budgets - how you do keep track?

Rising - split your budget a different way to keep track. For instance, there are 5 Mondays in January, so count 5/52 of your budget as January's budget. Change the day to suit your "big shop" day - so if it's Thursday there's only 4 in January. Then check cumulatively - eg by the end of March 2012 you would have a target of 13/52 of annual budget to measure actual spend against.

If you shop in dribs and drabs then use a spreadsheet to work out percentages/numbers for each day. Yes I know it's a bit anal but it works for some. And remember that most budgets go over at some point - it's the longer term you are looking at by setting it annually. So, in my case, going over because of a bulk internet order of cat/dog food is OK as I know I'll be stocked up for months afterwards. An annual budget allows for bulk purchases without sending one given month way over the top - the bulk purchase is planned and will fit over the year.

Sorry, waffling at bit, but getting the hang of budgetting is a very empowering thing once you've grasped it.

aberdeensaver

Hi, Never joined this challenge before, can I please set my budget to £250 from 1st - 31st January.

Thank you to all that run this board.

rising_from_the_ashes

Thanks Lizzy - funnily enough, one of the reasons I thought I'd try an annual budget is that I've been bulk buying the cat food for the past few months (big 10kg bags, BOGOFs on 4kg ones etc) and it's making a huge difference to costs .. although I may be forking out a largish sum in one go, I can have several months with no spend at all:)

I do already bulk buy a lot of household stuff as well, as many stores (Home Bar*gains etc) are a fair distance so go every 3 months or so & stock up on things like loo & kitchen rolls, rice etc etc ... which totally blows that month's budget:(.

It does therefore seem (for my situation) to make sense to run the budget the same way as the pets one - just worried I'll lose track!:o

I do like the dividing it out option you've mentioned so will have a think / play around with that tomorrow .. mmm maybe a % used at the end of each month - :jloads of ideas formulating now! :T

Ches

Hello all and thanks for the new thread. I am going to do a weekly budget as was suggested to me on the last thread and which I think will work better for me than monthly. So its £50 a week for the 2 of us and I will keep a running total in my signature. My year starts on 30th December. Good luck to everyone.

ModestyB

Hi all, I'd like to join in this challenge please. I want to try to keep to £200 a month if possible, starting January 1st 2012.
That is for me, DH and 2 (voracious) pups! :rotfl:
Thank you to everyone who run this thread.
Good luck everybody for Jan 2012.

Jenbie

I have resolved to start using MSE regularly rather than hardly ever, and one of the main areas we have identified where we might be able to cut back is on food, so am hoping this challenge will help me. I have been trying to meal-plan and use MySupermarket, but it has been a bit half-hearted tbh, so really need to tighten up. I have cut the amount we're spending a bit, but not enough - it doesnt help that prices seem to rise in line with my cutbacks! Currently i am spending around £400pm on food for me, DH, DD1 (2yrs 2 months) and now DD2 (6 months). This seems obscene when I read of others spending £40pw in food for four inc. teenagers, so I need to find out where I am going wrong! I have a few questions, though am not sure if this is the right place for them, being new:

1) Does "groceries" include toiletries, cleaning products and nappies (x2 here!)? Currently we count anything from SMs as part of the food budget. Is this wrong?

2) I am increasingly thinking i need greater control, so rather than knowing how much we spent at SMs each month, I need to know what we bought, what each item cost etc, so I can work out where it all goes and compare prices week on week and not get swindled by "deals" that are actually more expensive this week. I was thinking an Excel spreadsheet, but DH says it would take ages to set up and input the data, and ages to alter if I wanted to change it. What do you use? Is there any personal accounting software that is cheap and easy to use?

3) Does MySupermarket actually help or just make you feel like you are saving?

4) Is it better to see what deals are on and meal-plan accordingly or meal-plan then buy what you need?

Argh - I really wish I was better at this! Hubs is hopeless, bless him, but doesn't spend and does what he's told, thankfully!

x Jen x

cw18

Jenbie - welcome aboard

In (partial) answer to your questions....

1) down to the individual. for me this challenge is only for food and drinks. cleaning items, toiletries etc come out of a separate budget.
2) I use a spreadsheet. If you want a look at it drop me a private message and I'll get you sorted with a copy - but it's actually geared up to cope with ALL expenditure and not just groceries. Now I'm used to entering everything it doen't take long..... but I do need to do it ASAP after every shop and not once a month else I give up!!
3) Only tried it once - found it too 'clunky'. I don't/shouldn't buy heaps as I'm only shopping for me, so I tend to keep my eye on special offer flyers and just check the websites for Mr T and Mr A if I'm off out for a bigger shop. A lot of my shopping comes from clearance at Mr M anyway, so MySupermarket can't account for that
4) I meal plan around what I have in and what I've managed to pick up from clearance

LucyLou1981

#115 Well. 2012 is bringing an even more OS and MS me! I started watching my monthly grocery bill in NOv - it was 350, Dec was 282 (including boxing day nibbles and wine) so i'm really pleased. My freezer has got a few bits and bobs in and i am successfully managing to pad out mince with lentils so i'm hoping to go for 240 in Jan. This will include all cleaning stuff and dog food. i'm going from 26th Dec to 26th Jan as I started doing this on 26th Oct (saw the thread and couldn't wait til 1st Nov!!)

rising_from_the_ashes

Jenbie wrote: »

1) Does "groceries" include toiletries, cleaning products and nappies (x2 here!)? Currently we count anything from SMs as part of the food budget. Is this wrong? Up to you to decide .... mine incl groceries, toiletries, household cleaning stuff, alcohol etc - but does excl the pets as I've a separate budget for them (and they cost a fair bit:o) whereas others incl pet costs too

2) I am increasingly thinking i need greater control, so rather than knowing how much we spent at SMs each month, I need to know what we bought, what each item cost etc, so I can work out where it all goes and compare prices week on week and not get swindled by "deals" that are actually more expensive this week. I was thinking an Excel spreadsheet, but DH says it would take ages to set up and input the data, and ages to alter if I wanted to change it. What do you use? Is there any personal accounting software that is cheap and easy to use? I was going to suggest Cheryl's spreadsheet - but can see she's beaten me to it!:D It's made a huge difference to my being able to keep track of costs & is fantastic:).

Once you get into the habit of putting everything in, it does only take a short time - it keeps track of "whoopsies" and I've also started marking the "real value" of things that have been reduced in store (eg washing gel reduced from £8 to £5 - which doesn't show up on your receipt as a reduction) to get a "truer" picture of the real costs.

3) Does MySupermarket actually help or just make you feel like you are saving? I'd say good to check prices but for me it doesn't work as I'm not near all the supermarkets so fuel costs mean getting to the cheapest deal would often wipe out the savings!

4) Is it better to see what deals are on and meal-plan accordingly or meal-plan then buy what you need? Having a look at what you've got in and meal plannning & just getting what you need can be the way to go - I'm not the best to advise on this as I don't meal plan:o (down to a medical condition which can affect what I can eat on a daily basis so it's just not possible to stick to one).

I'd also say reduce your budget gradually each month as you can - trying to suddenly knock say £100 off will be a big hit and can make you "fall of the wagon" as you've tried to do too much too soon!

The recipes on the front page are great and easy and pop in when you can for a chat about cutting down / different products - a moan (if needed) - update on how it's going.

I've found reading how others manage really inspiring and have learnt loads (but still a ways to go;)).

Good luck