Grocery Challenge - February 2012

cattysmum

Hello not been on for a while as been recouperating from an eye operation so this month have stayed well within my budget and am declaring £239 for FEB thanks

Greying_Pilgrim

Well, finished off February with about £1 to spare. But for the 'shortest' month, it sure seems to of been a long haul!

Thanks for everyone who runs the thread, and to everyone that contributes comments to it. It really is an inspiration.

Right, off to discover 'March'.

Greying

Herbyme

Re the Kindle, even the cheaper one does allow you to download books direct, we also downloaded lots (not all cheap...) on holiday in the Canaries - lurking outside the cafe with the wifi - along with The Archers podcasts, lol!

My DSs also really like it, I find it encourages boys to read. A local school has bought 30+ for its library, partly for this reason. Also it turns out you can lend people books you've bought, havent tried it yet but seems a good idea, and you can also read them on your iphone should you have such a thing, and pick up where you left off on your kindle. Sooo handy!

DundeeDoll

mumwithamission wrote: »

Updated signature and ......well I've more than 'tipped over the edge', as predicted - I've spectacularly blown it! As Ninno820 suggested I perhaps aimed too high (or low?) Somehow managed to spend even more than in January - need to try and analyse where I went wrong. Disheartened but not deterred - March here I come!

If you are spending less than you used you are a winner :-) setting initial limits i difficult. I think they give really good advice on the starter page. We are all different on this site, different lifestyles, different incomes, different things we include. Only knowing each month last year we dug into savings i set jan's budget to £750 and only just made it :eek: feb i went for £580 (20 a day) and am still hoping to make it, but will be only just. Mar will be 620 (may make it a straight 600 a month). To some this will sound a huge amount and mse stalwarts will be wondering why i struggle. But we do eat out a fair bit and this really hacks into the budget. Eg a trip to edinburgh usually includes a meal with DD1 and DD2 and sometimes DD2's BF so meal for 5 in edinburgh not cheap (though investigating pizza express tesco points offer) good luck with your trimming, see you on the march board :beer:

freyasmum

£18.16 to add to the total.

Went to Tesco and got loads of veg, fruit and other little bits for lunches. Also got four bottles of coke for £6 (I blame Rising from the ashes :A). I never buy fizzy juices - will have a small glass here and there cos it fills me up and gives me a sore stomach but I just fancied some. Worked out around half the price per litre than buying the small one.


Mushrooms, btw, bought loose rather than prepacked - 2.89/kg vs 5.96 :eek: I know that generally loose is cheaper (though not so much in the case of morrisons - two loose apples were £1.13 vs a pack of six for £1.85. I nearly dropped at the checkout :rotfl:) but that is quite a shocking difference in my opinion!


Total for Feb is £119.53

tracey12_2

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

Went to bung some rubbish out in the bins earlier and the rubbish lorry had been and on the handle of the bin was a hanger with the the information that this would be the last weekly collection and that we were now going two weekly. My neighbours came out at the same time and were having a natter about it and were wondering how they were going cope as they have overflowing bins every week. I didn't like to say that they should be recycling a bit more just made a comment about black boxes.

Our bins are also fortnightly, I think most councils will be going down that route to save money.

One week we have brown bin (food waste, grass cuttings), blue bags (newspapers, magazines, cardboard etc) and white bags (plastic milk bottles, food tins, foil etc) and the next week we have grey bin (everything else for landfill).

Tracey

FrugalLina

We will be getting 4 bins soon and have just received a rather complicated collection schedule! The council will now be recycling our food waste and our general landfil waste bin is now going to be smaller (already collected fortnightly). I am not so worried about that as I already recycle a lot and have noticed a massive reduction in my waste recently since doing the Grocery Challenge. Everything gets used and I buy less pre-packaged items.

Heh, I can remember the days when we were a family of five and only had a small bin - ah, those were the days when they took the bins out of your garden too...

tigerfeet2006

I started cleaning out the fridge today as I had run it down but my MrT delivery came so I had to give it a lick and a promise instead, still it looks a lot better

Delivery came to £60 with one substitution the Free From sausages that were on 3for£5. My heart plummeted when he said they were subbed as I was expecting ordinary sausages but they sent Debbie and Andrew's which are GF. BUUUUUT..... the D&A sausages are only 6 sausages and 400g and the Free From is 8 sausages at 454g so essentially I am losing one pack of sausages. I am going from 3 meals to 2 meals :mad:. So I have just rung them and they have refunded me one pack of sausages

So I am declaring at £370 for February :T

tigerfeet2006

tracey12 wrote: »

Our bins are also fortnightly, I think most councils will be going down that route to save money.

One week we have brown bin (food waste, grass cuttings), blue bags (newspapers, magazines, cardboard etc) and white bags (plastic milk bottles, food tins, foil etc) and the next week we have grey bin (everything else for landfill).

Tracey

FrugalLina wrote: »

We will be getting 4 bins soon and have just received a rather complicated collection schedule! The council will now be recycling our food waste and our general landfil waste bin is now going to be smaller (already collected fortnightly). I am not so worried about that as I already recycle a lot and have noticed a massive reduction in my waste recently since doing the Grocery Challenge. Everything gets used and I buy less pre-packaged items.

Heh, I can remember the days when we were a family of five and only had a small bin - ah, those were the days when they took the bins out of your garden too...

We have a landfill bin, a cardboard and plastics bin, a brown food waste bin (which we don't use as we compost everything) and a black box for paper, tins and glass ( we have 2 of these as I recycle as much as I can.) I only half fill my landfill bin in the week so a two weekly collection doesn't bother me. It will be interesting to see how they cope as their bins are always overflowing and we have known about this for a couple of months and they do not seem to have tried to adjust at all.

elsiepac

trulymadlyhannah wrote: »

Elsiepac, I tried your Honeyed Carrot Soup, and it was lovley, will be a regular in our house, Thank you

Glad you enjoyed it hannah, I was pleased with it too!

LC