The £400 till xmas food shopping challenge!

[Deleted User]

Mornin all!
I have set myself a little challenge of £400 for all food shopping till xmas!! :j
I plan to make the best of offers/yellow stickers/coupons and using up the freezer/storecupboards in order to do this but thought a thread dedicated to the cause might help me actually stick to it for once!!
Anyone wanna join in? ...

recovering_spendaholic

I'm in! I think that's a really good idea. I just got a new notebook so I am going to use it as an acccount book and note down all my spends. If I could get to Christmas week only spending £400 I would be delighted! I am going to include cleaning stuff and dog food in the challenge too!!

Are you going to include your Christmas food shop in the £400? I think that might be a step too far for me!

MrsShawToBe

i read this as you were wanting to save £400 to spend on food at xmas! was going to say... how much food are you planning on buying?!

haha

flubberyzing

MrsShawToBe wrote: »

i read this as you were wanting to save £400 to spend on food at xmas! was going to say... how much food are you planning on buying?!

haha

That's not what she said. She said £400 to spend on food UNTIL Christmas.

NOT £400 AT Christmas.

ammonite

Good luck the YoungOne, I have about that much left from my 6 month food budget. Hope it works out for you, will follow the thread and join in where I can. My only main bonus is that I am eating out for Christmas day and not entertaining at all this year so will save some pennies

maman

MrsShawToBe wrote: »

i read this as you were wanting to save £400 to spend on food at xmas! was going to say... how much food are you planning on buying?!

haha

Me too:o

How many are you feeding for that £400, OP?

sweetilemon

Sounds do-able...not sure if id manage it mind you. How many are in your family? Are take-aways a seperate budget or included? Do you buy breakfast, lunch and dinner or just dinner? Petfood? Sorry, don't mean to bombard you with questions! We usually spend £40-50 per week with cat but that includes cleaning products, wine and cling film/foil, toilet/kitchen roll and things although this week i had no coupons what so ever and needed loads of main things like cat litter, cat food, clothes wash, shampoo etc and my total came to £115!!!! Argh! This is not the norm although have plenty to last us!

[Deleted User]

Ooo glad others are up for this!!
In answer to the question it is to feed 2 of us (but will include if we have people over for dinner etc..)
Takeaways out of seperate budget but this will include all main meals and snacks plus loo roll/cleaning (which we probably dont need before then as using up stocks of that!)
MrsShawtobe - haha! nope not planning on going that mad on food spends!
Ammonite- good luck - you always seem to do very well on using things up/bargains!
sweetilemon - its so easy to spend lots on food isnt it! This is one of the biggest areas I think we've tried to cut down on but easily creeps up if not careful!! Ive found shopping for reduced stuff and freezing, using coupons and trying value products (most are edible and cant tell the difference between them and branded- some are not! namely meat, teabags and breakfast cereals! go one brand up to supermarket own!)

Total (including scheduled shop for end of oct) is £226.6 so £173.40 left to do shopping to last rest of november (mostly oct shop will cover) and the 24 days up to xmas (we dont have to cook/provide xmas dinner but will take some bits n bobs!)

Doable? I hope so!

beachie

This should totally be doable as £400 for two people sounds like a massive amount to me!

I get to the supermarket and around 8pm and can often get £30 worth of shopping for less than £2 including meat, vegetables and salads (potatoes keep really well).

I reckon that 2 should be able to each reasonable well with salads, stews, pies and bakes for around £10 a week.

Therefore I am going to challenge myself to £5 a week which is £65 until then.

Sounds crazy but it is all about shopping at the right time. I literally save hundreds and eat healthy as never get tempted by some of the rather fattening aisles!

[Deleted User]

I budget for myself at £100.00 per month and eat very well on that amount I have a freezer full of food at the moment and have no need to shop for more for at least a week if that ,then its only possibly milk that I need.
Beachie I make you right its possible if you know when the shops are discounting stuff to live fairly well
I bought a stash of fruit and veg and bits from M&S of all places during the week and have loads of stuff to keep me going It came to around a fiver and if I had paid full price it would have been £17.00
I'd love to try Adas or Morrisons but I'm not keen on going out at night on my own, even in a car,where my local stores are they are not very well lit in the car park s

LadyCoupon

beachie wrote: »

This should totally be doable as £400 for two people sounds like a massive amount to me!

I get to the supermarket and around 8pm and can often get £30 worth of shopping for less than £2 including meat, vegetables and salads (potatoes keep really well).

I reckon that 2 should be able to each reasonable well with salads, stews, pies and bakes for around £10 a week.

Therefore I am going to challenge myself to £5 a week which is £65 until then.

Sounds crazy but it is all about shopping at the right time. I literally save hundreds and eat healthy as never get tempted by some of the rather fattening aisles!

£65 to spend on food for 3 months, I think this is very unrealistic. I know you can get a bargain when you hit the shops at the right time when they are marking things down, but what if you don't hit at the right time. Hats off to you if you can do it, but I find it an unrealistic target.