October 2012 Grocery Challenge

brokemedic

Can I join please as I think I am spending a fortune on food/drink and shouldn't be..:eek: I have spent about £50-55 on food last week and think that is too much for one person.. So I think for October, I would like to give myself a budget of £150 and see how that goes..

I am going to keep hold of my receipts for the month and see whether there are further savings to be made. I am sure there will be as 150 seems a lot just for the one person.. Think my downfall is going to be the wheat-free products I purchase.. e.g a small wheat-free brown loaf cost me £2.68 which is a lot of money.. Does anyone have any cheaper suggestions please... that are wheat free??

Taranaman

Hi! Just joined this site and love the idea of competitive saving:j
Aiming for £350 this month - a bit high for just two empty nesters, but does include shopping for a big family dinner to celebrate a significant birthday and stashing for Christmas.

Wish me luck!

Suffolk_lass

Christi wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'd love to join please.

It's just me and my OH and I think we spend about £250 if I am honest and add up everything including lunch for work (only occasional but it adds up) and top up shops in the week.

So....think that can be trimmed drastically with some focus and am setting my target at £150 for the month. This won't include any spends from tomorrow to Wednesday as I'm going to be away in Edinburgh so will be cheeky and count that as holiday.

Good luck all!

That's quite ambitious for your first month - if you read the first two posts of the thread they contain some really good advice.

Good luck
SL

Nicky_Noo_Na

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi All

Can i sign up again for £150 for September? Came in at £120 for August but want to keep the £150 budget just for now.

Am aiming to try and be a bit more adventurous as I feel we are eating the same things all the time. Going to pop back to the recipie index and have a look.

I feel the same too - the new ASDA magazine (the free one) is out now and has some good looking recipes that don't seem too difficult or expensive, thought it was worth sharing and will likely try some of them myself!

Forgot I was going to IKEA today so instead of the planned NSD I spent £4.30 on meatballs (and a very silly amount on lightbulbs :eek:).

Flat_Eric

I don't know when I last posted on the grocery challenge thread. Certainly although I have been keeping my receipts, I haven't been setting budgets or adding up my spends. The money keeps disappearing from the bank account however!

anyhow time to get organised and start keeping proper track including planning meals. Too much food has ended up in the bin recently and it simply can't continue.

I was going to have a shop on saturday (delivered) but was too tired to do it properly so didn't check it out and I've not missed or can think of anything that I really needed (apart from the galaxy cookie crumble chocolate!) :rotfl:

So new month, time to start afresh. OH made cottage pie today and we have a spare pie so looks like it will be a week of eating cottage pie :T intend to meal plan and write shopping lists (and stick to them!)

budget for this month £372

Godiva500

Brokemedic - GF bread is very expensive - my OH is ceoliac. You could try investing in a small breadmaker, make your own and freeze it?

MrsCD

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Sorry if this has been mentioned (as mentioned earlier have been missing fora while) but has anyone else noticed the shrinking washing gel bottles?

Used to be 28 washes & now down to 24 or 25 (depending on brand) and the price has gone up :mad:- did look at A*riel ones (getting low now!) which were on offer but still not worth it IMHO

Couple of offers at Mr A:

Persil Small & Mighty - 54 wash for £6 (also A*riel gel for £4 but only 24 wash)
Whiskas 48 pouches for £10
Cleaning stuff - various things like Det*tol sprays etc for £1
Big tins of Cele*brations, Her*oes, R*oses etc for £5

Still to add up as a few bits were non-grocery & have now started the C shopping (didn't want to say the word:eek:) thanks to the tinned sweets!:T

Hi risingfrom... Did you see BBC's Watchdog the other night? They've been on about all the different products which have shrunk recently. More than you think! The 'excuse' from the suppliers is that they wanted to keep the price the same but the cost of making the products has gone up. Will someone tell the SMs that please? They are putting the prices up as well :mad:
Anyway, off the soap box and calm down

My GC starts tomorrow - at last! September seemed to take ever so long to finish! I will be doing weekly targets again, so we'll see what happens.

We've been selling Christmas cards and calendars at work since July, so I'm already in a sort of festive frame of mind Must write lists (and check them twice)

Bowski_1011

Hi, I'm looking to start a few challenges to get me back on track. Please can I join the grocery challenge and I'll go for £150 for October, thankyou

PennyGrabber

I'm going for £80 for October. I have a freezer and store cupboard full, so it's just bread, milk, fruit and veg really. My mini challenge is to end the month with less food in the house than I started the month with!! (20kg of pasta, anyone?!)

We're having cauliflower cheese tomorrow, as caulis are 50p in the green one at the moment. We'll have it with mash, peas and carrots, and some BBQ ribs on the side, as a treat for dd (they were reasonably priced in morries yest).

I'm out at a friend's for dinner on tues eve. Three of us take it turns to host on the first tues of the month; a good way of making sure we actually see each other! Pie (hm) weds, freezer roulette on thurs, then out for dinner with different friends on Friday. I have the ch this weekend, so I'll let them each choose a dinner (from stock) for then. That takes us to the 8th, hopefully without me needing to buy anything, except a new toilet brush which I shall get Tom or tues.

Good luck for October everyone!!

PG x

[Deleted User]

foraging from my freezer and cupboards this month so doing my best not to go anywhere near the supermarkets if I can.Too many birthdays between now and Christmas so economy is the watchword this month definitely
Tonight its beef casserole left over from last week and portioned up into two portions ,one of which will be eaten for my meal tonight it was gorgeous when I cooked it last week and I'm looking forward to enjoying it .Pudding will probably be some fresh fruit
Good luck everyone whith sticking to the budgets .Lots of warming HM soups as its October to fill up the gaps :)