April 2007 Grocery Challenge

Mrs_Wossinge

Are you allowed to use someone else's card?

I like the system we use (as suggested in The Marriage Book) where both salaries go into a joint account for bills, groceries, etc and we each have an allowance in individual accounts for fun things. We don't have to be accountable to the other for what we do with our allowances, and can use them for birthday presents and other nice surprises! (My husband spends most of his on train trips on 'rare' track...)

Wouldn't work for those who are keeping their finances separate for credit score purposes, of course, but works brilliantly for us.

Firehorse

poohbear59 wrote: »

Just have to hope my 'gannets' don't eat anything that I need for planned meals.

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well with your challenge. I'm not a participant, although often read with interest everybody's progress.

This quote reminded me of my friend, who has through reconsituted family 8 kids + 2 adults. Her rule is: if it's on a certain shelf "it is NOT to be touched". Therefore, allocated meals are accounted for and (in theory) safe!

It is something I've put into practice and so far the kids have respected it.

WelshWoofer

OOOPS!!
Popped to Tesco for tights and managed to spend £11.00!
So that's now a total of £36.88.
At least we're nearly two thirds of the way through the month!

Must try harder........

angelatgraceland

Avoid "big weekend spending". Take the list of what you need, not want, and the money you are truly happy to spend. Top up again Monday or whatever.
Have a couple of no spending days each week.
am I the only loony who has 2 fridges(one with a padlock)for the stuff for "later in the week" and all sorts hidden in the boot???

thewestfive

Hi everyone

An update on my monthly spend. This is my very first grocery challenge so here goes:

I've only £18.63 left until the very last day of April. This is scary I can go to supermarket for milk and spend that.

I found a local farm shop and went this week. I ended up spending a fortune. The meat looked alot better than the supermarket stuff i usually buy and was mostly cheaper however i got carried away and bought loads. Mays grocery challenge will benefit from all this extra meat.

My left over budget works out at £1.55 a day (not that I'm aiming to spend every day).

I reckon it'll be tight but I'm determined to do it

belfastgirl23

thewestfive wrote: »

Hi everyone

This is my very first grocery challenge

If it's your first grocery challenge, a lot of it is about learning. I went a bit over on the first one since I didn't exactly know how to *do* it. I'm getting better now. I found the tip of aiming for between two amounts very useful -mine is £150 to £200. I know it's quite a difference but £150 would be very tight for us, a worthy aim but I didn't always want to fail. Might be worth considering? I know it works for me psychologically anyway.

And remember, baby steps! You're doing very well!

Shortie

Hi all :wave:

My new grocery month starts this month. Again the target is £100 for myself, DH, DS and 2 cats. Oh... I've just realised it's also FIL all next week too :eek:

Well... I'm still budgeting £100 as I really want to prove I can do it.

Lessons learn last week (my first week at the challenge):

1. Don't start mid way through your own month and expect to be able to guess what you've spent and what you need. Start on a fresh month and PLAN
2. Take the cash out of your account to spend so you can see what you've got left

Okay so far I've had a Tesco Online delivery. It came to £48.16 and then £3.99 on top for delivery. I'm going to take the £3.99 out of my own account as it was me that was too lazy to spend ll Saturday out shopping! :rotfl: I have £51.85 left for the rest of the month

I'm not too worried about it right now as the shop contained larger items like the month's catfood, bacon, minced meat, squash and 3 or more months supply of loo roll. So some of the more expensive things are bought already.

I definately still need milk, I expect some chicken and definately fresh fruit. I still have tonnes of lamb shoulder and leg from the 2 whole lambs we bought a little bit back. I have tonnes of frozen veg in too.

Oh, and any unplanned reductions still to buy :rotfl:

lil_me

Angel I had hidden thing things in the boot in my last car as the boot was covered, now I use a Jeep and the boot is uncovered so I bring it all in, but I do hide it. Like now the biscuit barrel is empty, they think there isn't any. I'd estimate there is about 60

I don't have a fridge with a padlock, but I have ordered a new taller one so I can hide things at the top, not much help with DP as he's over a foot taller than me but stops the little ones.

I did have to buy milk today to top up delivery milk as DP left one on the bench and it went off, I did end up spending £2 inc some on something else but much less than I would have before the challenge. Just knowing I have to add to my signature is enough to stop me sometimes.

Mrs_Wossinge

Shortie wrote: »

Okay so far I've had a Tesco Online delivery. It came to £48.16 and then £3.99 on top for delivery.

Just making sure you know about this site - Tesco Voucher Codes - which could save you a few quid.

Don't forget that the £50 you need to spend to qualify to use the voucher is calculated before any promotional discounts are taken off. So by buying BOGOFs/3 for 2s/etc you can often get a delivery which totals around £40 including delivery.

Hope that helps!

Shortie

Thanks Mrs Wossinge

I did actually try out the codes but didn't have as much luck as I'd hoped for... I managed to get 500 points extra for over £50 spend butcouldn't use it in conjustion with £5 off £50 pound spend.. Ifigured the points were better though as it's £20 in deals

Ta about the £50 before Bogof too.. I read your post before about that and went on there with exactly that in mind :T But my shop came to more than that anyway as I had some of my Mum and Dad's stuff on there too