April 2007 Grocery Challenge

Penny-Pincher!!

I had a pretty good March considering we bought mainly local and didnt use the supermarket much at all. I budget £300 every 4 weeks but this includes diesel for the car...amounts to £75pw. During March we used £49pw including diesel, so had over £100 left over.

Instead of moving it to the savings account which we normally do, we went away for the week and used the dosh for some lovely indulgent food and ate out 2 times in nice pubs and had numerous cream teas:o

Im sticking to the same busget in April, but this month any surplus will be used for bits around the house. Im hoping for £80 so I can get my new radiator cover:D

PP
xx

isabelle304

Arrrgh! Some friends of mine (2 adults + 6-year old child) decided at short notice to come and stay with me over the Easter weekend. This has meant me having to do an unplanned shopping trip to stock up on "normal" foods (ie non-vegan stuff) which I would not normally have at home. Came to £14.18. Leaves me just under £20 for the remainder of the month :eek:. However I cooked a lot last week - lots of stews and soups, which I have now bunged in the freezer, there's probably enough in there to last me about 10 days, so all is not lost...

Still not giving up :rolleyes:

Little_Miss_Saver

Hello everyone :hello:

I've just calculated my weekly spend and its come to £48.16 which is just slightly over my budget.

But, in my defence I've just been into somerfields and they had just "yellow stickered" the meat, I got 4 chicken breasts for £1.50 instead of £6, a large joint of beef for £2, a half shoulder of lamb for £1.70 and some stewing beef for £1!!! so they've all gone in the freezer to make some meals from over the coming weeks.

I also went into Aldi's and found that thier bread is much cheaper than Mr T's so I will be buying it from there from now on.

I am really optimistic that I will come in either on or just under target (but it is still early days I suppose!!)

Anyway keep up the good work everyone.

LMS xx

shell2001

I never find stickered meat!!! Even the stuff marked down in Somerfield only has 20p or so off its original price.

Just done meal plan for next week and just need fruit, veg, eggs, spuds and milk. All of which (expect the milk) I can get from the local greengrocers. Got plenty of bread flour so ok on the bread front. Still quiet a lot of stuff in the freezer for meals the following week too so should be ok.

Have to admit I think next month I will drop my budget more, I know there is room for improvement. I am a bit of a squirrel in that I like my cupboard fulls but need to empty them, it is just "dead" money unless it is used up!

ShirleyPark_2

We've now done most of the freezer and cupboard shopping for this month, and have spent £46.76 of our £85.80 target. We'll just need to top up on fresh stuff, bread and probably some cheese before the end of the month.

Am hoping that we come in with some to spare this month as we're getting low on both washing powder and dishwasher tablets so it would be good to be able to get alteast one of those this month, rather than getting both next month.

lil_me

Shell know what you mean, none of the supermarkets near me have anything on offer. Yellow sticker usually means up to 50p off when it's over say £3-4 usually, 20/30p otherwise. Lucky to get 10p off bread. That is one reason why I never judge what I spend against someone elses. Same with coupons, no stores near me inc Asda, Waitrose and Tescos will just knock any coupons off etc. Hence I buy meat from the farm shop, if I'm going to pay a lot may aswell get the nicest I can.

Done some shopping today, will add them up in a bit (several shops) but there is still money left in my groceries purse so that's ok. Going to put milkmoney for the month seperate as she's not coming this week to collect being BH weekend.

kiwi88_2

Ok haven't actually been for a "proper" shop but 3 top-up shops and total already £104.68 :eek: Totally due to not meal planning properly and getting a few non essential treats

Still, am going on hol mon to fri (self catering) and have £50 cash and £45 vouchers which doesn't come out of the grocery budget so I should still be on track :rotfl:

Total £104.68

Doom_and_Gloom

I've spent £16.63 so far.
From the local grocers - 4 carrots, 4 parsnips, broccoli, cauliflower, 2 red onions and 10 bananas = £4.50 (just over a weeks worth of veg and fruit)
Sainsburys - 2 bottles basic vodka and a pack of crackers = £7.10 (BF has 15% discount at the moment and he owed me money for some reason and wouldn't let it go. That and he said he'd pay for half of one of the vodkas )
Various - 2 pitta packs (wholemeal), bag of mini pretzels (for orange wednesday cinema), Cinema food for BF, tortilla chips & a pack of crackers (In Gillingham with friends hadn't eaten since night before and was hungry. Not the healthiest of breakfasts lol), portion of chips (went to Lenham from Chatham and it took 8 hours to get there and back to do what we needed to do. Took alot longer than we thought it would take so didn't take food. We were really hungery so went into nearest chip shop that the chips were cooked in veg oil ) - £5.03

So £23.37 left. I'm sure I can do this as my drink has been bought now and that will last me more than just this month (I hope :rolleyes: hehe ). Oh well I can't see it doing that much damage as my veg and fruit is all I really do need now and if I manage around £5 at the grocers a week then I'll be fine :cool: .

WelshWoofer

Spent £5 in Wilkos today on loo roll and cleaning stuff - grand total of £12 so far this month.
Starting diet again tomorrow so may have to top up on the "good for you stuff" .
Doing OK so far but a long way to go yet this month!:rolleyes:

helping_hubby

I would like to join in even though it's a little late.

I spent a lunch hour last month creating a spreadsheet of all the things we buy and how much they cost so I can plan what I need to buy week after week.

My biggest aim here is to do enough shopping to last an entire 7 days without having to buy _anything_ extra. I make bread in my breadmaker and milk easily lasts a week. If things run out then tough. I'll have to learn from it.

My budget is £23 a week (so it works out approx £100 a month). This is for 2 people and includes all toiletries. However I am cheating a little as I have a stash of toothpaste and shampoo from when I claimed a £10 boots voucher from pigsback.

I will need to update with more accurate figures on Tuesday as they are at work. But so far I have spent approximately:

Week 1: £23 (this included £3 worth of easter eggs)
Week 2: £21
Week 3: I aim to spend £16 as I have lots of left overs from making multiple meals in the last 2 weeks.
Week 4: I aim to stick to £23.