Grocery Challenge - February 2012

camNolliesMUMMY

right well ive done an online shop today so that brings my total up to £151.30 but i have everything i need to get us through till the end of the month.

Its milk we get through so ive ordered x4 4 pints of milk
Went to makro last week and bought 5kg of chicken breast for around £20, a 7.5kg bag of spuds for £2.99 and a bag of onions 10kg for £2.50 which i went halves with my mother.
im hoping ive got enough in my last shop to get us through till the 28th........heres hoping???

hamish222

Updated my signature. Will be no shopping for next 3 days as nightshift. So no spends till Friday. Have lots in and freezer full so planning only top ups at weekend until Thurs 23rd when Dh paid. So start of new month. Hoping to manage to keep it under £275 until then.

Long_tall_sally

Had another spend today on bread, milk, sugar and marg. Getting very close to the budget again.

tigerfeet2006

Dinner tonight was Chicken and Chorizo Gumbo from the recipe collection. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. We had the rest of the chocolate cake for pudding.

Have a small App0ved Foods order coming tomorrow so will update my sig when it comes.

elizabunny

Had to have a small spend today, we had run out of Potatoes, so Dh fetched some from a farm shop for me.
25Kg of Ma#is pi#er for £7.00p which is pretty good as they are lovely Potatoes

To#d in the h#le day today for dinner DHs favourite:)

I am still abit ahead of myself on the challenge at the moment, but can't really cut back this week as we have family coming to stay at the weekend. Think I will have to be extra creative:)

Keep going everyone:A

bunbun2

We had the chicken chorizo and butter bean stew for tea this evening. It was yummy. The chorizo was very hot though! We bought two packs from ald* and i am sure thefirst one wasnt as spicy.. made enough for four meals for the freezer:j


Went to hb ald* and mr t and only bought what was on my list:T

Lovethenight

Tried to be good today and took soup and bread into work for lunch, but forgot it was a colleagues birthday and we'd all booked a birthday pub lunch :doh: That's yet another £7 spent on food. (awful london prices!)

Just wondering - when I officially start the GC - does anything spent on food count? Or do peeps have a separate budget/purse for spends like this? Would be interested to know - any advice appreciated!

Still - I have the soup in the fridge in work for tomorrow so should be no need to spend more!:A

tigerfeet2006

Every ones budgets etc. are different and they include different things in that budget to suit their families.

My groceries budget includes food, toiletries, cleaning products and the odd small household item ie: I need a new bin for the bathroom and that will come out of that.

I have another budget for take aways and entertainment.

tigerfeet2006

Another bump for this excellent post

Spiggle wrote: »

OOOh, lovely new thread! :T

Thanks Zippy, rosieben and helen jelly for their sterling work keeping us all on the right track. :A:T:A:T:A

I'm posting the following now so it is near the front of the thread for newbies joining this month. Helen, please would you change the post number in your list post to match this one please?

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

DundeeDoll

Lovethenight wrote: »

Just wondering - when I officially start the GC - does anything spent on food count? Or do peeps have a separate budget/purse for spends like this? Would be interested to know - any advice appreciated!

:A

I think it's what suits you. When we decided just after Crimbo we had to reign things in, we decided OH's salary would go on car and bike loans and children's uni stuff. Anything left rolls over (as next year is going to be even more expensive than this!)

My salary has to cover everything else so we 'pay' ourselves pocket money first (which we then manage ourselves). GC covers consumables apart from diesel, and household treats (e.g. the toaster and underblankets I bought yesterday). Going out for a meal is GC if we're both there, PM if just one of us (it works for us lol). Everything else is 'bills', and anything left of my salary goes into holiday fund :beer: