September 2012 Grocery Challenge

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending

NickJW - have a great holiday!


I did my main weekly shop yesterday and spent £80 but there were lots of bargains (half price lamb mince and sausages for eg) so it was worth it as I've probably got nearly all the meals for next week too. Still hopeful of sticking to my monthly budget .

jumblejack

Cheap whoopsied tea:




We are having Bramley apple and elderberry crumble with custard for afters
(apples whoopsied, elderberries foraged and custard is smart price filler;))

Popperwell

I have not eaten today but your meal looks lovely Jumble Jack.
Sometimes you are hungry but getting motivated to do it and feed yourself can take some doing. I love food that's the problem.

And I have everything in the house to do really tasty meals...Must make the effort. I am starting to lose weight(not a bad thing but...)I don't consider myself to be overweight.

May have to invest in a belt to keep my trousers up...:p

I've said many times we don't seem get the Whoopsies others seem to find...

Bluegreen143

OK damage assessed - OH spent £5.70 on OJ, olives, bread and coke. Had a very long argument/discussion about things and I think he feels a bit 'controlled' by me doing all the meal planning/quizzing him about everything he buys. He used to do a lot of the cooking but he spends a lot more than me so I'd taken over, his argument is that I'm the one that wants to save money, not him (fair enough).

So I'm going to set aside a bit that he can spend on snacks and work hard on not nagging and also get him more involved in cooking/meal planning again. When we get back from hols he's going to do it for a whole week(!) but with my budget, to see if he manages, he can go over if he wants but pay for it himself, which we both think is fair as long as the initial budget is reasonable to start with. I set some ground rules, e.g. I don't want meat more than twice (he can have it as much as he wants) and it has to be free range if I'm eating it and he needs to make sure I have lunches provided and fresh fruit for snacks. Should be interesting!

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

OK damage assessed - OH spent £5.70 on OJ, olives, bread and coke. Had a very long argument/discussion about things and I think he feels a bit 'controlled' by me doing all the meal planning/quizzing him about everything he buys. He used to do a lot of the cooking but he spends a lot more than me so I'd taken over, his argument is that I'm the one that wants to save money, not him (fair enough).

I know where you're coming from and where he's coming from too. I gave OH 'a look' yesterday when he offered to so the next supermarket trip. He swiftly added "if you trust me" which made me feel really bad!

We did the fruit, veg and eggs shop at the local market this morning - £12. Bringing total spend to September to £62.73 out of £250 budget (doing well so far but a big supermarket shop is needed soon and I have a few items on a C0stco shopping list too!).

mossy

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

OK damage assessed - OH spent £5.70 on OJ, olives, bread and coke. Had a very long argument/discussion about things and I think he feels a bit 'controlled' by me doing all the meal planning/quizzing him about everything he buys. He used to do a lot of the cooking but he spends a lot more than me so I'd taken over, his argument is that I'm the one that wants to save money, not him (fair enough).

So I'm going to set aside a bit that he can spend on snacks and work hard on not nagging and also get him more involved in cooking/meal planning again. When we get back from hols he's going to do it for a whole week(!) but with my budget, to see if he manages, he can go over if he wants but pay for it himself, which we both think is fair as long as the initial budget is reasonable to start with. I set some ground rules, e.g. I don't want meat more than twice (he can have it as much as he wants) and it has to be free range if I'm eating it and he needs to make sure I have lunches provided and fresh fruit for snacks. Should be interesting!

I think you've come up with a really good idea!! Well done for trying to work through it together.

DH moaned at me the other day when I made the meal planner for the month and he kept wanting to change it!! He said I'd left him out of the meal planning! Which is a little ironic because most of the time he's completely uninterested!! :rotfl: I know DH works really really hard and I'm always saying there's no money so I can see why he feels frustrated at times. I try to have a little bit of cash spare so that when they want chips or an ice cream when we walk along the river I don't always have to say no.

I'm really impressed with the solution you've come up with, it should make it a fun challenge too. :T

lollyfin

Another nsd for me yesterday, again cause I didnt go out! I have to go to the shops today tho no milk or fruit and very little veg left. I have a list and I will stick to it

biscuitmad

liz-paul wrote: »

Just wondering if everyone knows that Tesco accept vouchers for other shops such as spend £60 and get £6 0ff in Sainsbury's? I think they have doen this for a while but they now have big posters outside advertising it and leaflets by the tills. HTH

I think the are now trialling this in NI only.

liz-paul

I didn't realise it was NI only! We strike lucky for once - normally we miss out on the deals! Sorry folks if I raised anyones hope.... Although I do think I MAY have read on here that if you ask then they will take vouchers for other shops......

Tiglath

I'm in for this. I actually don't know how much we usually spend in a month, so for September I'm just going to keep a log of totals; we've eaten more ready meals and prepared stuff than usual the past few weeks because of my operation and recovery time, but we've bought less meat because the freezers are pretty full. 2 adults, 9 cats. Catfood is a static £75-80/month. We usually do Costco and a supermarket around payday, then top-up as needed. DH is under orders to pass me receipts so I can put everything on the spreadsheet. £228.95 so far for September. Anticipate anything up to £100 more as I have some non-food household items to replace, so may be able to come down to something approaching £275-300 for October.