Grocery Challenge - February 2012

skilly

Morning all, this week has just gone so fast .3 spends so far totol £91.19 out of £200 going to have to stay away from the shops ! To come in on budget .

meg72

I found Wilkos to be very reasonable, I needed a bulb for my coal effect fire and was expecting to have to pay £2odd but got a pack of 4 for £1.68.

cw18

JARUS wrote: »

Never ordered cat food online before let's hope it arrives.

I've not ordered cat food online, but I have ordered dog food from PAH (special diet, cheapest with them even when it wasn't on one of their regular offers, not available in stores) and never had any problems with delivery

Suffolk_lass

tired_of_debt wrote: »

Hi everyone *waves shyly*.

Nervous newbie here, just found this thread and want to join. One thing really hit me today - the cost of lightbulbs seems to have gone up by 100s of percent in a few weeks!!!! Anyone got any tips of the cheapest place to buy them? They seemed to be over £2 each at Mr T's gaff!

Lightbulbs As others have recommended, poundstores, Wilkos and Wilkinsons, Amazon and can be good in DIY Sheds too.
Top Tips In post 6 there is a section on Motherships' 2nd purse system that is worth reading if you can afford to store a little - and as of last month there is a separate 2nd purse thread which Linz started. Brilliant for getting the best savings when it's best for you. :T Actually the whole of the first page is excellent and someone more experienced than me will repost Spiggle's top tips, I'm sure. Many people on here seem to make their meals out of nothing and it's just a case of doing as much or as little as works for you. I remain in awe of many on here. :A

PeanutButterJellyTime wrote: »

Hey,
So was told to come here. Did my tesco's shop today with the yummy ps3 man. We had to stock up on alot of things as we don't go shopping untill the store cupboard and freezer is nigh on empty.
So I'm thinking maby set a budget of £300 for this month. Got a voucher for £5 off the next £40 shop, and waiting for Mr T club card vouchers to come through so that'll be easier for me and mr ps3 man.
I am loving the frugal living thing, and I don't go without at all.... cept for chocolate, it's not kind on my waist....

Welcome to both of you and good luck. :T:TOff to shop now...

rosieben

hazzie123 wrote: »

We got told never to apologise as if you do you are accepting liability.This is from when I worked for Mr.S.

That's awful. Years ago I did a dip. in tourism management and we were taught that an unconditional apology is priority, you can say something like 'I'm really sorry this has happened' and that doesn't admit any sort of responsibility. I suspect its the dreadful 'I'll sue you' culture that spread from US that's made companies so nervous. I found that an apology always calmed things down, even the most irate people stopped shouting

tigerfeet2006

Welcome to the newbies. This is a fantastic thread and the folks on here are very supportive.

This is Spiggles excellent post that is recommended reading.

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

sistercas

angelatgraceland wrote: »

Apples-I found exactly that in Coop but they do have a scale on the fruit and veg section for customer use-do hunt for one! My packaged apples were slightly over the kilo and 5p less at £1.50 I think
I did my shopping today in case of bad weather and I did put some thought into it. I stocked up on Kngsmill 50/50 in Iceleand which is £1.70 and used Kingsmill vouchers(just google it-its the 30p ones)so the bread worked out at 55p per loaf!
McCain oven chips in Coop are 2 packs for £2.50-its the small bag of STRAIGHT chips. I had 2 50p vouchers towards them so they worked out at 75p per bag. Bought my milk in Iceland at £1 for 4 pints-I get the full cream version and add a pint of water to it so 5 pints for £1.(tip some in your previous nearly empty bottle to make space)
Coop I bought the 3 for £10 meat-2 chickens and a pack of minced beef-they are now in my second fridge. No room for bread in the freezer as its chocoblock again!
Topped up generally on fruit and veg-no junk foods apart from the chips and spent just under £50. I did treat us to some Muller corners which were on offer in Coop.DH thought it was good as I had loads of stuff and he had guessed at £70. I made a veggy curry today in the SC with lentils chickpeas kidney beans and split peas. I was good and soaked these last night. Approx 5 very good portions for about £2 total:j:j:j. Last night I made pasta salad with just boiled and cooled pasta with mayo stirred in, some grated cheese stirred in and some chopped salad as well-onion,cucumber,tomato,red pepper. allow 100g per portion maximum on the pasta. Another cheap alternative to sandwiches. I made enough for 3 servings. DS had one for tea yesterday, One for lunch today and I will prob have the other for lunch at work tomorrow. Costs pence to make(about 50p per portion) compared to the price you would pay in the shops for the tubbed up version!:D

:T:T some fantastic ideas :T:T

bought some bacon this morning, checked the price in c00p £2.09 for 250g nipped into the butcher next door and his was £2.54 for 500g almost half the price of the SM :T so i am going to do a price comparison on other stuff next time i go .

budget now stands at £157.34 39.3% of the total for feb

kj*daisy

Another £25.99 as had a large fruit and veg box delivered on Thursday. Am just off to make a huge vat of soup for next week lunches now

FrugalLina

I don't know if this is a help or not, but up here in East Central Scotland, we have rain, not snow as predicted - I hope that is all you get down there!

123budget wrote: »

Nothing to do with grocery challenge:o
Just sitting here worried that we will get snow tonight - DS is due to fly from Heathrow Mon morn for trip of a lifetime - PLEASE DONT SNOW and disrupt flights he will be gutted - has got to pick up a connection in the USA:(

raphanius

£14.65 to add for todays veg box