March 2012 Grocery Challenge

helen_jelly

Hi everyone and a huge welcome to our new joiners

Could someone post Spiggles excellent post for the new starters and I'll note it on the budget list - I'd do it but I'm starving and posting whilst doing my tea lol

If you want to be included in the list please post your budget in red if you are happy to update your siggy please post your target in black and then I don't get confused [easily done]

Thank you everyone and Good Luck - happy no shopping

Helen x

JIL

Hope i have done this ok as per last post. This is by Spiggles and is an excellent read.



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[/QUOTE]

superraven

Hello all. I have been lurking since the beginning of February (which is when I totted up our grocery spend for January and it was over £1000. EEEK!!)

I have been keeping receipts and I am going to aim for £600 for the month. (Sorry, I can't work out how to increase size) I am keeping it nice and high to ease me in gently!!

This is for me, my partner, our son (just turned 3) and daughter (20 months) oh, and a cat.

I am sadly very excited and can't wait to get started! I will be starting from tomorrow.

Could anyone tell me how to do the signature updates?

Many thanks. Any tips or advice would be very welcome!

rising_from_the_ashes

superraven wrote: »

Could anyone tell me how to do the signature updates?

Welcome superraven - best tip from me is to try to keep up with the posts (there can be a lot!) as I've learnt so much more since picking up tips from everyone, rather than coming on a couple of times just to update my spends.

Re the signature - go to "User CP" in the green bar at the top and then into "Control Panel" where you'll see an "Edit Signature" option.:)

helen_jelly

JIL - thank you so much hun

Helen x

lisakay_2

First spend of the month to report of 45.88 which leaves me with 104.12 to last until 25th. I have bread, milk, meat in the freezer. stocked up on dog and catfood in ald* today and used the fiver off 30 spend voucher from the mirror.

hoping to meal plan from the freezer and cupboards now and go for as long as I can without shopping. after hubby's big spend at the end of febs budget i would really really like to come in under budget this month x

with thanks to the girls that run the thread, you keep me close to the tracks

scotmumof3

Evening everyone
Thanks for the lovely shiny new thread:T
A couple of spends to declare £3.90 for milk and cold ham and £2.75 for bread rice and curry powder. Tonights dinner was butternut squash and chickpea curry with vegetable rice Very nice:)

lula_moneybaggins

blackandwhitebunny wrote: »

I'm also going to give the cats their own part in my sig so I can track cat food spends, they've spent £24 so far on two 2kg bags of Roya*l C*inin but they're not allowed to start them until Thurs as they have two small bags from Feb budget left still.

*LOVE* that you've given the cats their own budget, and that 'they've' spent £24 so far!

Well my employer has randomly changed our payday. Instead of being paid on the last working day of the month, it's now the last Friday of the month - which means my grocery budget has to adapt! So I'm into March already and am aiming for £110 this month as I do have a freezer and cupboard primed for a nuclear attack... Plus I completely blew my budget last month with a number of disappointing takeaways and an expensive meal out.

So far I have spent £8.45 on half price chicken breast fillets in M*rris*ns, some reduced fish and a couple of sandwiches. Plus, the weather has been so mild that I'm starting to eat salads again.

Good luck for March everyone, don't let the SM get all your money!

Souk08

Hi all, I'll update myself but my target is £60 for the month again for just me and for just food. Thanks.

PennyGrabber

Hi everyone!

I usually hold on til the bitter end of the month, but I've started March early this year. I'm on an annual budget, so it's not too much of a prob. I'm allowing myself £120 this month. I've already spent £22.29, on Friday's shop, and I haven't shopped since. Go me! Esp good, as I did the reccy in farmf00ds.

I have dd's birthday this month, but that all comes from the ents budget, won't be able to do much else this month now! Bless her, she's organised everything, from guest list, to games, prizes, activities, cake (obviously!!) and food! She even went onto the a$da website and did the online shopping for the party food and drink! Oh, at this point I feel I should mention that she's going to be 7!!!!!! pmsl!!

Dinner tonight for me was lush, easy and cheap. Result!! It was mushrooms, peas, onions, and mussaman curry sauce, with mushroom rice. Left it bubbling away while I made some fridge cake for tom lunchboxes. Check me out!! There's enough left for about 4 more meals, maybe more, so I'll be having it for tues and weds dinner (was planned as that anyway). Any left may have to go into the freezer, but not sure where, as party stuff has to go in there too, and there's already no space!

Will have an emptier freezer after the party on sat though, as I already have some bits in there, which I haven't bought again!! Sorry, quite proud of myself! My mission this year is using up the mountains, and I am slowly but surely doing it!

Night all,
PG x