May 2012 Grocery Challenge

Soworried

Hi
Could I join your challenge please? I have a budget of £400 a month for 4 of us for food, toiletries and alcohol.
I am 7 days in and spent £89.13 so far which is good for us but I need to reduce it even further, hopefully to £300 by next month. The £400 needs to last until the 1st June and I also have my sons birthday in this month.
I am enjoying reading all your tips and advice.

quintwins

Morning all, hubby spent £14 in MRT's last night on pepsi, ice cream and milk cause we're all sick

Gonna make chicken casarole tonight with yorkshire puddings, mash and mixrd veg.

Soworried

meg72 wrote: »

Yah my heel pain has gone and I can walk properly again. Will be shopping later, dont need much so hoping to only spend 10 pound or so (my new, to me computer does not have a pound sign, strange)

Try holding down Alt then typing 0163 then release Alt. That should give you a £ sign.

russetred

Hi all just popping on to update my total. Freezing up here reminds me of the saying never throw out a clout till may is out, ie keep your winter woolies handy.

Bonglecat

Hi there everyone. I'd like to join in if I may.

My usual budget is £300 so I'd like to try for £250

I've recently been experimenting with couponing but I haven't yet figured out if it's saving me money or costing me. E.g. last night I spent £18 at Mr Ts without in store discounts and coupons this would have been £34 so £16 saving but would I have bought branded washing powder and air fresheners if I hadn't had the coupons. If I'd have got for discount brands would it have cost less?

I also have a couple of questions on the thread firstly what does YS stand for and why does everyone use alternative names or * in place of letters for the names of the supermarkets?

Thanks everyone.

meg72

Soworried wrote: »

Try holding down Alt then typing 0163 then release Alt. That should give you a £ sign.

Trying . No didnt work, thanks anyway

quintwins

Bonglecat wrote: »

I also have a couple of questions on the thread firstly what does YS stand for and why does everyone use alternative names or * in place of letters for the names of the supermarkets?

Thanks everyone.

YS means yellow stickered or reduced items, there also called whoospies.

People star the names out or call them MR T/MR S/MR A as they beleive it ranks those stores higher in google and makes them seem more talked about and popular (after all ther mentioned loads on here) really it prob doesn't make that much difference.


It's also worth factorying in if your branded washing powder and air freshener ect will last long even tho it may have cost slightly more than a value or own brand alternative.

quintwins

meg72 wrote: »

Trying . No didnt work, thanks anyway

i'd press shift and all the random buttons, if your keyboard is set to the uk one will be it, we had an americian one for years and our @ key was acually a £

Suffolk_lass

Soworried wrote: »

Hi
Could I join your challenge please? I have a budget of £400 a month for 4 of us for food, toiletries and alcohol.
I am 7 days in and spent £89.13 so far which is good for us but I need to reduce it even further, hopefully to £300 by next month. The £400 needs to last until the 1st June and I also have my sons birthday in this month.
I am enjoying reading all your tips and advice.

Soworried and Bonglecat - Welcome to the thread. Lots of tips come out in the thread each month, as you have seen, but it is well worth reading page 1 - there's excellent insight in zippychick's first post, including my favourite from Spiggle.

Rosieben has posted loads of recipes and a description of Mothership's legendary second purse system which now has it's own thread.

And Helenjelly maintains the list - if you want to be on that list you need to post your target big and red so it is spotted (some keep to their signature).

Best of luck.
SL

Suffolk_lass

meg72 wrote: »

Yah my heel pain has gone and I can walk properly again. Will be shopping later, dont need much so hoping to only spend 10 pound or so (my new, to me computer does not have a pound sign, strange)

While you are looking, don't forget you can copy and paste
£ This one I used my word porcessor to insert symbol and then copy pasted it into my post.

Not as straightforward as a key. You can also configure your keyboard and the computer maker's forums will explain how, depending on the make and model, version of the operating system, it is actually quite straightforward once you know what kit you are working with.

HTH
SL