October 2012 Grocery Challenge

meg72

Make-it-3 wrote: »

So this is my fourth month GC and as I have failed to come in on budget for two of the previous three months, there doesn't seem to be any point in reducing it and making myself depressed at continuing to fail at this so making it £200 for me again.

I just don't know how you guys are managing to reduce, I rarely by brands, stick to my list (mostly), I rarely see anything YS that is a bargain and something I actually need. I'm not sure where I go from here ...

We are two adults, one baby, one cat household.

Just wanted to offer some encouragement here.I really think you are being to hard on yourself.

If you look at it another way, 200.00 breaks down to just over 6.00
a day for 2 adults a baby and a cat. Thats pretty good going in my book, especially since you do not find many bargains to help out.

So I think you should be congratulating yourself on managing so well and forget about trying to reduce it .Hoping some bargains come your way soon.

liz-paul

Woah 13 pages! Well 1st of the month and poor old DS1 is going to school with a jam sandwich for lunch 'cos there's nothing else Need to go to shops to buy something for everyone elses lunch.....

Got a massive stock up shop coming from Tesco tomorrow & this week I'm going to buy a meat pack from the butchers to see if its as good value as it seems. Also going to make a trip to iceland to see what they have and if they are worth a regular visit....

Reckon I will have spent at least half my budget by the end of the week :eek: Oh well, I came in just under budget last month so hopefully even lower this month....

brokemedic

Godiva500 wrote: »

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

Thank-you but I am a little put off by getting a breadmaker.. managed to get one from freecycle a few years ago.. had a couple of disasters with breadmaking which put me off doing it again.. :eek:

But then everyone else raves about them lol:p

Any hints/tips that you could offer please? I will see if there is an existing thread on it as well..

bm

Flat_Eric

Took a ready meal out the freezer for lunch today instead of buying my favourite salad in M&% (£4 saved). also avoided Mr T as no list and would bimble round buying stuff I don't need.....

Would be interested to know if any of you use a spend app on your ipod touch to keep track of grocery spends? I have a weekly budget app - might use that for now - but if you can recommend a specific (monthly) grocery one - would be interested if you could share details.
Thanks
and have a good day all :j

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

Hello and welcome to the newbies :wave: you will not believe how lovely and helpful the people on this thread are and how much you can cut your grocery bill by if you stick at it. My target is high compared to some others but is more than £80 a month less than I used to spend

Don't officially start until tomorrow but OH has been out and done September's last shopping and most of that will be eaten in October so I feel like we're there now.

I won't have any spends until next Sunday as OH is 'taking over' the grocery shopping/cooking/meal planning this week and was given £55 to spend, with the agreement that any spends over this amount would be out of his own pocket. He has already gone over and is in charge until the 7th of October so any food we buy until then won't be out of my GC pot.

He also said he had enough food for at least 8 dinners and is cooking up for the freezer today :T so my week next week ought to be super cheap, especially because there are two dinners for the two of us already in the freezer that for some reason he hasn't taken advantage of (I did tell him about them to be fair). I might not have to buy anything but fruit and milk my week :rotfl: This sounds mean but he didn't make a meal plan and I think he might just learn the value of doing so before hitting the shops :rotfl:

Lol - looks like you might have a cheap week next week then . Maybe you can convince him to do one of these weeks every month :rotfl:.

brokemedic wrote: »

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??

brokemedic wrote: »

Thank-you but I am a little put off by getting a breadmaker.. managed to get one from freecycle a few years ago.. had a couple of disasters with breadmaking which put me off doing it again.. :eek:

But then everyone else raves about them lol:p

Any hints/tips that you could offer please? I will see if there is an existing thread on it as well..

bm

I'm sure some people on this thread have said they make rolls without a breadmaker and they're quite easy - you could make them without wheat. There may be a recipe at the front of this thread.

I can't eat normal bread either so I must admit I've just adjusted to not eating it, mainly because GF/wheat free bread isn't always very tasty. I tend to have salads or soup for lunch instead and have fruit with natural yoghurt in the morning. I also have GF/wheat free crispbreads and crackers if I want some carbs! Since I've been eating this way, I find I eat much more healthily. I haven't lost weight either which is good as I didn't need to.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

A new month and £51.36 spent at the supermarket already!

rosieben

Make-it-3 - ditto to what meg said. Also think of how much you'd have spent before you started the GC

annem38

Hi there, well creeps back on to the boards after going a bit off piste as regards saving money, anyway, am trying to get back on track, so can you put me down for £200, that is for 2 of us and just the one cat now (sob!) but that will be all our food as well as our laundry and cleaning materials etc

should be doable as just loaded up the freezer with meat and am determined to keep out of the shops (unless its waitrose as i just love their reductions) and am keen to try out some new recipes so lots of home cooking, mind you i don't like ready meals anyway ( and i don't like their portion size either!!) so that being said, need to buy eggs!

good luck everyone, look forward to getting to know you all again and hearing all about your money saving ways

anne x

Possession

I've had a difficult couple of weeks and lost track of my spending. I'm not going to beat myself up over it but my October total will be inaccurate, i'll just try to spend as little as possible over the month. I have a £5 off voucher for Aldi I need to spend before Thursday so there will definitely be another £30 spend this week.

quintwins

Morning all, i'm determined to keep up to date and one track of my budget this month so i'll make apoint of posting here every day.

Today is a NSD i'm hoping for atleast 20 this month.

Dinner is pulled pork with gravy mash and veg, i might even make a few roasties.

Going to cook a batch of pasta cause and freezer it as i have some tomatoes that need used.