Anyone got a nice spaghetti and meatballs recipe?

Kimberley

mrs-moneypenny wrote: »

it depends what you have budgeted the money for if it is your 'grocery money' just include that but if you have also allowed for other spends then they go in.

for example i have a grocery budget of £100 but i draw more than that out each week the other goes on stamps, phone top ups, kids pocket money, milkman, DH's allowance;) etc. i have a set amount i spend on those each money so i know exactly what they all are and keep those seperate to my 'grocery' money

does that answer your question or even make sense?

Yes, i'll put another challenge in my sig for the other stuff as well then, ta :beer:

rosieben

Kimberley wrote: »

Oh right ok, well er i sort of geddit

Do i include everything i buy or just the supermarket stuff?

As Mrs MP says, its up to you what you include. I include all food, toiletries, cleaning. I also include a weekly fish and chip lunch but I dont include the occasional chinese take out (once every 3 or 4 months) as one of those would wreck my tiddly budget )

Some people have separate budgets for eating out, entertaining/celebrations, booze, pet food etc. You do what works best for you. To get benefit from this challenge you just need to be consistent.

earthmother

Well, I've just done the first shop of the month - £6.86 in Tesco for bread, milk, spuds and £1.29 worth of reduced Value Pizzas, which with a bit more cheese and some ham/mushroom etc on top will convert to two snack meals (which we tend to do once a week).

And I remembered to use a couple of points vouchers that were in my wallet, and remind the cashier about my green points (that equates to £2 in deals for the summer holiday), and talked myself out of the cream cakes that were next to the pizzas on the reduced shelf

meanmarie

Did my first shop of February this morning and spent about €66...can't find the go&&&m receipt that I had 15 mins ago. With four weeks to month I reckon that allows me €9 for odds and ends later in the week, but I have flour for most of the month and butter and milk too...will try to keep as low as possible as want to do a few things to house this year and OZ visit will be expensive too.

Good luck to all

Marie

kittynortheast

My month sort of starts from the 28th when I get paid, then it's the nearest Wed or Thurs to that. My week 1 of Feb started yesterday, so I suspect others are the same. That is a considerable achievement for me cos my new month used to start 2 or more weeks BEFORE I got paid!! LOL But I'm very strict now and divvy up my money into how many weeks until next payday (OH pay goes on all the bills etc.. and we live off my pay).

nd2budget

Hi Everyone,
I want to try this out, have looked at it before, but only just got organised to start, my first month is a big guess, we usually easily spend £100 per week for 2 adults and 2 kids, my hubby is working away so I shall aim for £300 for the whole month, which I would love to achieve and get a handle on my shopping bill, I shall include razors, toothpaste, nappies etc in this too.

Fingers crossed, havent spent anything today so thats a great start!

Jacks_xxx

Kimberley wrote: »

Even Sunnyday has week 1 in Feb filled in so far, how comes? I thought the Feb challenge starts on the 1st of each month Please don't tell me i'm starting at the wrong day

Hi Kimberley,

It's just as well you weren't here for January's's challenge honey. I would have thoroughly confused you by having 6 weeks in one month!

As with most challenges we've all got our own individual "goal posts"

We differ in our household sizes, the cost of living in the area where we live, the amount we aim to spend, what kind of things we buy, what's included in our G.C. budget and the start and finish dates that work best for us - but we are all the same in our wish to spend less on our grocery shopping! (which is what matters)

Welcome to the gang hon, Everyone's lovely here and it's my favourite challenge cos there's plenty of banter.

MikeD's a bit of a handful, but he's knocking on a bit so we make allowances.

(I am SO dead when he reads that!)

Love Jacks xxx

nd2budget

totally forgot about school dinner money, I am paid up till next thursday, so then I have £1.90 x 11 as half term is in the middle too.. yikes forgot my sister is coming to stay, will stick to the £300 and try very very hard.

purplevamp

bebee wrote: »

Wow!! thats high, are school dinners are £8 pw and i think you get a disount if thier is more than one child from one family.

They're £1.75 without a drink, £2.05 with a drink or £2.50 with a milkshake. My two had the £2.05 one (I added up wrong :rolleyes: ). Their school doesn't give a discount for more than one child. When it was just me and my oldest son I was on Income Support and therefore entitled to free school meals, but no such luxury now :rotfl: . They only have dinners at school about once a week, normally on a Friday. TBH they probably wouldn't eat some of the cack served up anyway.

Chezza71

[Im trying to work out if i should buy a bread maker - the children and DH can demolish a loaf very quickly. Wd it help in cost cutting as they seem quite expensive i need to be sure it would be worth my while to buy it.[/quote]

I'm thinking of buying a breadmaker too - there is a huge thread about the pros and cons of this elswhere on the forum. I'm thinking about getting one from Lidl on Monday for £24.99!

PS I'd like to join the Grocery Challenge for the first time, please. Just me and my 8-year-old son with a huge appetite!