April 2007 Grocery Challenge

poohbear59

Lil_me we tend to go to darlington to pick people up from train as DS1 and DD go to uni near east main line but I will get a map and find out where Farm foods is. DD is coming home end of May so will try then. We always fit shopping in when travelling for another purpose to save on fuel costs.

Hope you are feeling better soon.

Little_Miss_Saver

Hello Everybody :hello:

Just done my weekly shop at Mr T's & Aldi's and I have spent £40.34 this week. I cannot remember the last time I spent less than £50 per week so I am really pleased with myself!!.

Fingers crossed I can keep to my target over the next couple of weeks.

Well done everybody so far. Have a good week.

LMS xx

EagerLearner

happyathome_withmyboys wrote: »

I know that that smug feeling is BAD and I know that it is going to come and bite me in the knickers 10fold, but it was SO good....

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

tracyg

Oh god! How do you manage to cope with the weekends? I dread to think of I've spent, haven't added it all up yet but think I've about £10 for the weeks shopping. To be fair have stocked up on bulk tea, coffee and wash powder but took DH with me today and ended spending more than I needed - can't say no! Also brought a takeaway and wine which was stupid but having such a bad time we both needed a treat.

To top it off my poor poor mum has broken her ankle so I'll be helping with her and my grans shopping, running about, etc and that means using diesel I can't afford (feel so so bad thinking like this and of course I'll help in anyway I can but its extra cost I can ill afford). We have to pay our reserve fee on our new house tomorrow - another cost I haven't facted in. Plus a MASSIVE electric and gas bill came today which I can't pay and I set fire to my hand held blender so need to replace that (£20) - a must as weaning DS. We will come into some money the end of May so everything will be fine then but just now the cost of living is crippling us, haven't confessed all this to DH so he doesn't even know how strapped we are. I'm really sorry, I've just whinged and moaned, please excuse me. I'll just embrace the challange and will spend as little of possible but will have to go overdrawn on the house fee, diesel on credit card, etc. but will still try with the shopping budget!

lil_me

tracy sorry to hear things are not going too well. I try not to shop on weekends, ever. I hate it. As for stick blender, Argos do one for £4.49 which may be a worthwhile saving for you at the mo. Braun one is under £10 in the sale aswell. Worth a look. Gas and elec would direct debit make it easier ? Hope your Mam is better soon and May comes quicker for you. As for your partner, decision is yours but problem shared is a problem halved they say.

happyathome_withmyboys

tracy - stick in there - it will get better. And even if a problem shared might not seem halved - at least it gets rid of the worry of the other half finding out or making the situation worse because he didn't know how bad things were....

lambanana

tracy, whinging and moaning is very much allowed...I hope you manage to sort things out.

I'm feeling OK about budget, spent just over half and am half way through month (do shops on Mondays) going to be a bit more tight this week...glad to hear I'm not the only one who adds it up on my mobile phone calculator as I go round the shop! Used to have a mini calculator somewhere but no idea what happened to it.
My only problem is I do seem to always have to go get more milk and bread, just can't seem to make it last the week (greedy bf having 3 sandwich rolls is the problem and he's very fussy with bread) but that's ok as long as I'm not over the monthly budget...would like to cut it by £5 or £10 for May though.
Am greatly helped by generous donations from my mother who thinks (rightly) that we're "hard up" and buys us dishwasher tablets, toilet rolls, kitchen roll, fizzy drinks, ketchup and cereal from macro as gifts these have really helped us through this month.

Elfinwings

Thankyou all for the inspiration. I've got to the end of week two, and have spent £6.99 this week, leaving me £8.00 for the rest of the month. that only has to stretch from 20th - 30th though, as I'm leaving for a few days holiday today and have budgeted elsewhere for food whilst I'm away.

Btw - being new here I've recently discovered the OS recipe index - wow! I'll never need to buy another cookbook again!

angelatgraceland

Tracy-do let OH be aware of your money problems or they will just grow due to his lack of knowledge of them. Buying a house is always a difficult time for anyone. Hang in there and do your shopping alone.

jcr16

i've gone over budget. i spent £60 yesterday so £50 over budget. but needed squash, ham , chicken , fruit , veg , loo rolls etc etc. i pleased with the amount of shoppng i got for that. also cereal and milk. sounds like alot of money but i did get loads for it and i pleased.